It’s a new year, a new Congress and, soon, a new presidential administration. The new year may be arbitrary in an astronomical sense, but for us humans, it keeps us sane to have a chance each new year to start again and try to do a few things better.
You know who could do a few things better? Congress.
I know you’re not surprised to hear that Congress needs improvement. After all, according to Gallup, Congress has a miserable 17% job-approval rating from the American people.
But for self-government to work, Congress must work.
The American system of self-government makes Congress, not the other two branches, most important. Congress is the Article I branch in the Constitution, and Congress can remove officers of the executive and judicial branches. Because judges are appointed and the president is chosen by the states, it is in Congress, and specifically the House, where the American people are specifically represented.
So, it’s a problem if the branch of government most critical to self-government isn’t working.
Oh, they manage to name post offices and bridges after themselves, but when it comes to the core job of Congress — determining the federal government’s priorities, setting appropriate budgets and then funding those programs — Congress has a dismal track record.
The most basic duty of Congress is to pass 12 appropriations bills. These bills fund the government’s discretionary spending (entitlements such as Social Security are on autopilot).
The way this is supposed to work is something called “regular order.” It’s a bottom-up process. Subcommittees hold hearings, consult with experts, discuss, debate, negotiate and otherwise engage in horse trading, set budgets and determine priorities. These panels pass along their suggested appropriations to the full committee, which repeats the process, and sends its recommendations to the full body
Regular order is the way Congress is supposed to work. Regular order is how Ronald Reagan got his agenda to beat inflation, grow the economy, and defeat the Soviet Union through a Democratic-controlled Congress. Regular order is how Bill Clinton achieved welfare reform.
But for the past couple of decades, regular order has been ignored, even by respected leaders such as former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and former House Speaker Paul Ryan. They didn’t follow regular order, either.
Why is regular order important to self-government, and why has it been ignored?
Regular order is important because it recognizes that everyone deserves representation. It involves making tradeoffs and coming to agreement. It forces the majority party to work with the minority party.
In other words, self-government.
Sadly, American voters (and thus their representatives) don’t seem very interested in self-government these days. Many think fellow Americans who disagree with them are evil and must be defeated. They want to force their agenda on those with whom they disagree, rather than finding ways to live peaceably with them.
They want to rule, not compromise.
Here’s the thing: Self-government is the opposite of being ruled. The Founders intentionally designed a system to prevent the American people from being ruled not only by a king, but also by each other. That’s why we have separation of powers, the Bill of Rights, the Electoral College and other details of our political system.
So when the majority in Congress refuses to engage in regular order and instead forces an end-of-year omnibus continuing resolution on the minority under the threat of government shutting down, self-government becomes impaired.
The most important thing the Republican majority in Congress can do to restore confidence in government is return to regular order. Subcommittees and committees should do their work. Appropriations bills should be the product of regular order, not a decree from House Speaker Mike Johnson’s Examine spending, make the necessary deals and tradeoffs, and produce legislation that reflects the representation of all Americans.
That’s self-government.