The Fauci Revelations Prove That Congress Must Take Back Its Power

For too long, Congress has allowed unelected bureaucrats to wield far too much power over the lives and liberties of the American people. It is time for Congress to take that power back.

The COVID-19 pandemic showed us the consequences of failing to do so. “Two weeks to slow the spread” became years of sweeping government mandates. Americans watched loved ones die behind windows and plastic tarps. Children were locked out of classrooms, contributing to devastating learning loss.

By 2022, eighth-grade math scores plummeted eight points from their pre-pandemic levels—the largest decline ever recorded on the assessment. Businesses and churches were shuttered, all while Americans who challenged government mandates were treated as dangerous.

And now, years later, we are learning of yet another betrayal. Newly released text messages reveal that Dr. Anthony Fauci privately raised concerns in January 2021 about the potential risk of miscarriage from vaccinating pregnant women–all while publicly assuring expectant mothers there was “no indication whatsoever” of increased adverse effects.

That contradiction is not a minor footnote. It is further evidence that Fauci and other officials withheld critical information from the American people, all while demanding our trust, exercising sweeping authority, censoring dissent, and eroding basic liberties.

In an exchange released by Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., Fauci privately told Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy that “many people have a cytokine storm and fever after the second dose,” which “theoretically could be associated with miscarriage in the 1st trimester.”

Yet Fauci publicly assured expectant mothers that “there’s no indication whatsoever that there’s any increase of any adverse issues in a pregnant woman who was vaccinated compared to a pregnant woman who wasn’t vaccinated.”

Pregnant women deserved to know about any uncertainty surrounding risks to themselves and their unborn children.

Instead, millions of Americans were told to trust the experts, take the shot, and stop asking questions. This was not informed consent. It was coercion.

And it did not stop there.

The First Amendment became another casualty of Fauci’s COVID-19 regime. Debate over vaccine safety became “misinformation,” while government officials worked with Big Tech to suppress Americans who expressed those same doubts.

These abuses should have produced a national reckoning – not only for Fauci, but for the institutions that empowered him.

But while the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has voted to hold Fauci in contempt, and Paul has referred the matter to the Justice Department, these actions do not guarantee accountability, nor are they a substitute for fixing the system that gave an unelected bureaucrat such extraordinary power in the first place. Congress must reclaim its constitutional authority.

This failure extends far beyond Anthony Fauci or COVID-19. In 2019 and again in 2025, President Donald Trump declared national emergencies at the southern border after lawmakers repeatedly failed to adequately address the growing border crisis. I agreed that the situation constituted an emergency and demanded action. But Congress should have acted to secure the border rather than forcing the President to rely on extraordinary emergency authorities.

Every administration faces emergencies and has an incentive to preserve authority once it has been granted. Congress has too often refused to make difficult decisions, allowing presidents and unelected officials to fill the vacuum. Even when the policy objective is one I support, Congress cannot continue outsourcing consequential decisions to officials whom the American people cannot vote out of office.

That is why I first introduced the ARTICLE ONE Act in the 118th Congress. The bill would restore the proper constitutional balance by allowing the president to respond immediately to a genuine emergency while requiring Congress to affirmatively approve the continuation of that emergency after 30 days. If Congress refuses to act, the emergency ends.

Had the ARTICLE ONE Act been law during COVID-19, Congress could not have stood on the sidelines while emergency authority continued indefinitely and Americans suffered the consequences – many of which we are still uncovering today. Likewise, Members opposing Trump’s border emergency would be forced to vote against its continuation, leaving Americans vulnerable to the invasion at our southern border. In both cases, the American people deserve to know exactly whom to hold accountable.

Our fundamental liberties do not disappear when Washington declares an emergency. The Constitution does not have a pandemic exception. No president or unelected bureaucrat should be able to wield sweeping emergency powers indefinitely without the consent of the American people’s elected representatives.

There will be another emergency. And there will undoubtedly be another group of bureaucrats insisting that, once again, our rights end where their fear begins.

Congress should pass the ARTICLE ONE Act now and reclaim its constitutional responsibility before that day comes.

Our liberty demands nothing less.

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