Rouzer represents Wayne in Congress
By Melinda Harrell
Published in News on August 21, 2016 1:45 AM
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U.S. Rep. David Rouzer
Republican District 7 U.S. Rep. David Rouzer is campaigning on the platform that the current legislative system is not a truly representative government, and for the voters in Wayne County, he would be right because no voter in the county ever cast a congressional ballot for him.
When a federal three-judge panel ruled that the North Carolina congressional districts were illegally gerrymandered in July, the districts that Wayne County was in -- District 1 and District 12 -- were changed in total to District 7.
The ruling makes Rouzer the county's representative in the U.S. House without a single vote being cast for him in the county.
Rouzer made a campaign stop in Wayne County last week to push the Republican platform "A Better Way" and allow constituents in the county to familiarize themselves with him as he runs against his Democratic opponent, J. Wesley Casteen.
"Wayne County is now in the new 7th Congressional District, and I wanted to get over here and give folks the opportunity to meet me personally," Rouzer said in an interview at the News-Argus.
"I have a history in Wayne County, particularly the western portion. I used to represent that sector in the state Senate from 2009 to 2012. I have a number of friends and supporters this way already, but now I have all of Wayne County -- the entire county -- as part of the congressional district, which I might add, flows well with the other counties that I have. I have all of Sampson and Duplin."
Rouzer said "people are probably unaware that the districts have changed," and his visit and subsequent meet and greet at Lane Tree Golf Club offered Wayne County voters the opportunity to ask questions about his background and what he thinks needs to be done to "get the country back on track."
Throwing his support behind Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Rouzer said he hopes this year's election keeps the Republican majority in the House and Senate.
"I hope that we can get Donald Trump elected president and keep our majority in the House and keep our majority in the Senate, we will probably lose a couple of seats in the Senate, but if we can keep our majority, things like Obamacare we have a chance of repealing," he said.
Rouzer cited "A Better Way," which is a document outlining GOP ideas that address various topics including the economy, an alternative to Obamacare and "how to get our constitutional authority back as the legislative branch."
"'A Better Way' is a result of six different task forces under the leadership of Paul Ryan," Rouzer said.
Rouzer currently serves on the House Committee on Agriculture Committee and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which colors his view of what top priority in the nation is.
"My committee assignments are agriculture and transportation and infrastructure, and if you take a look at what is critically important for the future of the country, its agriculture, infrastructure and energy because if you can feed yourself and clothe yourself and the rest of the world you're really in a predominant position," Rouzer said.
"If you can provide energy for yourself and the rest of the world, you're in a very predominant position and if you have the infrastructure to get products from point A to point B, land, air and water, you're in an exceptional position as well. If you get your policy right in those three areas you really enable America to become very prosperous here at home and enable us to be strong abroad."
He said the only way to make the nation strong in these areas is through implementation of the right policies to ensure that agricultural communities can thrive.
"All sectors of the economy, including agriculture, are bogged down with new rules and regulations coming out of this administration right now, that quite frankly need to be repealed," he said.
Rouzer cited the Waters of the United States rule, which is a document defining which rivers, streams, lakes and marshes fall under the protection of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers.
The Waters of the United States rule was handed down by the Obama administration in May of 2015 and fell under a firestorm of opposition from the agriculture and construction industries as well as gleaning staunch opposition from Republicans and some Democrats.
Waters of the United States is currently in mired in the courts, said Rouzer, but should the mandates of the rule be implemented he predicts it would be "a rude awakening for a lot of people in this country."
Rouzer says the rule will only hurt farmers and construction businesses, saying the rule is unreasonable and would cause problems in the agriculture industry and bring construction to a "complete halt."
"The way this rule could be interpreted by a bureaucrat, it gives them wide latitude, the type of rains that we have in eastern North Carolina, the water just sitting in the field," Rouzer said. "That right there would classify as wetland. All the standing water in the ditchlines would be classified as navigable waters, but their logic is, that water flows somewhere, it eventually flows to a ditch to the river. Their interpretation of navigable in defining that. It would trigger a permitting process for everyone."
He also cited the Department of Labor's mandate that came down earlier this year regarding salaried workers' compensation. The overtime rule stipulates that a salaried worker must be paid $47,476 yearly or be paid for the overtime hours in which they work.
"The overtime rule coming out of the Department of Labor has a huge effect on your restaurant chains," he said.
"As a result they are having to take salaried workers and make them part-time now, pay them hourly, because of the overtime rule. A lot of these rules are well-intentioned to provide benefits for the employees, but the practicality of the matter is that it really makes that much more difficult for employers to keep those employees on the payroll. I predict you will see a huge move toward automation to replace these employees because of all of these rules and regulations.
"That is one example, but the broader point is, rules and regulations have a huge impact on the economy across all these sectors, agriculture included, yet we as Congress have not voted on it." Rouzer's concern with what he deems the increased right of bureaucracies like the EPA and the Department of Labor to hand down mandates without the vote of the legislature makes the way federal rules are enacted "not truly representative."
"That is not true representative government, and it is one of the examples of how the executive branch has really gotten a lot more power over the last two or three or four decades at the expense of the legislative branch," he said.
Rouzer said the GOP's "A Better Way" platform outlines ways to get power back in the legislature to make decisions that affect the various industries and people.
"Those kind of heavy decisions, that affect huge industries, whole industries, the voice of the people should be heard through representatives in Congress," he said.
"It shouldn't be from a handful of bureaucrats and a whole industry is gone. That is not true representative government, and that is part of the political upheaval because people feel like their vote doesn't count any more and part of it is because the federal government has gotten so big and so large and bureaucrats have attained so much power, that we, as members of Congress, don't have the leverage that we used to have.
"We believe we have to get back and reinstate Article 1 of the Constitution. We believe Article 1 is Article 1 for a reason, because our Founding Fathers wanted the legislative branch to be the most powerful branch of the three. They wanted three equal branches of government, but if there was one branch they wanted to have, the centerpiece, it would be Congress because that is directly accountable to the public because they are elected representatives."