Katie McKellar, Utah News Dispatch

During his visit to the University of Utah on Monday, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, told a room full of students his ideas to address what he described as a “steady march toward consolidation of power,” something he considers to be one of Washington, D.C.’s biggest problems.

To Lee, too much power has shifted away from Congress and toward “unaccountable, unelected, nameless, faceless bureaucrats” running agencies in the executive branch.

While framing the issue for students, Lee painted a picture he has shared before — of two stacks of papers in his office. One that’s relatively short, or about 1,000 pages, of laws passed by Congress each year. And one he said is over 13 feet tall, of the federal regulations added to the Federal Register, typically totaling in excess of 100,000 pages each year.

To shift more power away from those federal agencies and back to Congress, Lee is supporting the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act (also known as the REINS Act), being sponsored by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky. If passed, the REINS Act would require Congress to approve any new federal rule with an impact to the economy of more than an estimated $100 million. Lee said it would “temper what comes out of agencies and give you, as a voter, much more say in what laws you’re subject to.”

Lee’s remarks came during a forum hosted by the Sutherland Institute — as part of the conservative think tank’s 2024 Congressional Series — at the University of Utah’s Hinckley Institute of Politics in Salt Lake City.

Katie McKellar, Utah News Dispatch

Many of Lee’s comments Monday making the case for a deconsolidation of power relate to a list of proposals Lee included in a letter sent to Senate Republicans last week. In the letter, obtained by Politico, Lee wrote Senate Republicans have an opportunity to “strengthen the Senate” by picking a new Senate Republican Leader who will prioritize such reforms after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell steps down from the role in November.

“For the first time in 18 years, our conference will choose a new Republican floor leader,” Lee wrote in the letter. “This decision is about more than electing someone to fill that position — it is about setting the course for the Senate’s role in our nation’s future. Together, we have the chance to strengthen the Senate, empower individual members, and ensure that the voices of the American people are heard once more.”

Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas; John Thune, R-South Dakota; and Rick Scott, R-Florida, are in the running to succeed McConnell, and amid the race, Lee’s letter will “clearly be seen as a roadmap for winning the support of the roughly dozen conservative senators whom Lee is believed to be speaking for,” Politico reported.

The proposals included in Lee’s letter mostly have to do Senate and GOP conference procedures, and not necessarily policy ideas. “In that respect, they are similar to the demands that the hard-right House Freedom Caucus made last year ahead of Kevin McCarthy’s election as House speaker,” Politico reported.

Lee didn’t specifically discuss the letter with U. students Monday, but he did point to McConnell stepping down as a “leadership vacancy, a vacuum that’s about to occur,” and he mentioned many of his ideas included in the letter.

While Lee said consolidation of powers is something Republicans complain about more these days, he argued it’s a bipartisan issue that “gores everyone’s ox at some point or another.”

Lee’s letter included the following proposals:

• Limit the majority leader’s ability to “fill the tree” by requiring three-fourths of the conference to agree before the amendment tree can be filled. “Filling the tree” is an increasingly popular procedural maneuver that majority leaders can use to block potential amendments on legislation.

“This would give individual members more say and restore the Senate as a place of genuine debate and negotiation,” Lee wrote. “Likewise, in circumstances where it is prudent to fill the tree, instead of bearing that burden alone, the Republican floor leader can do so with the support of the conference.”

• Allow more time for debate and deliberation, with a majority leader who would propose a structured process and floor schedule for considering appropriations legislation, as well as require at least four weeks to debate and amend omnibus spending bills.

“Providing this time will allow us to craft better laws and give the American people a real opportunity to engage in the legislative process,” Lee wrote.

• Strategically advance Republican policies by asking the new floor leader to propose policy goals at the start of each year to be ratified by the conference; present specific strategies for achieving Republican victories in connection with must-pass legislation; whip for or against a bill or nominee only with the support of the majority of the conference.

“Above all, this would protect Republican leadership from ever being in the position of having to whip for legislation advancing Democrat priorities, as happens from time to time when must pass legislation is up against a critical deadline,” Lee wrote.

Lee, in his letter, said “this is not an exhaustive list of all reforms needed,” but “enacting these reasonable changes to how we conduct business, we can have a united strategy that would allow us to negotiate from a position of strength.”

Lee also told his fellow Republicans “this isn’t just a theoretical exercise. The health of the Republican Party and the future of the republic itself are at stake.”

“I am confident that with the right leadership and a commitment to these reforms,” Lee wrote, “we can create a stronger, more accountable Senate that truly serves the people.”

Utah News Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.