Is Congress Working?

When congress convenes again tomorrow, they will begin to address a number of important issues weighing on the American political conscience. Among these are digital privacy, immigration and issues of trade, however due to a number of factors they are unlikely to pass legislation or reach resolution on these issues. Because of two year term limits on Congressmen in the House of Representatives, politicians in the lower branch are more worried about re-election than passing laws. In November all 435 seats in the House will be contested and one third of senate positions. This means that representatives are nearly always campaigning and trying to gain a voter base during their term. While one might think midterm elections would push them to be more productive in passing legislation, they can have the effect of stalling consensus and shifting attention away from the actual issues.

After a near shutdown last month, Congress finally approved a controversial spending bill that “is probably the last significant legislation to pass Congress before voters go to polls in November,” (Washington Post). Due to an emphasis on re-election, a lack of bipartisan cooperation, and Senate preoccupation with confirming Trump nominees, lawmakers are unlikely to make progress on the aforementioned important issues. On the docket this week is Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony before the House and Senate about privacy issues. This will likely attract lots of media attention and public viewership, but prompt little if any regulatory changes. This evokes the concept of infotainment that was discussed in class. Mark Zuckerberg is a household name who has become more of a celebrity than a CEO, and media coverage will likely focus on his infamy and the scandal of Facebook’s privacy breaches rather than policy suggestions.

If we are to evaluate whether government is working in this scenario, as Congress struggles to reach consensus on important issues, there are several metrics one could use. First, considering the fact that the Founding Fathers designed the Constitution to inhibit change in government, not propel it, it could be said that government is succeeding at this goal. The Founders did not want to make it easy for a faction to override consensus and enact hasty change in government, but instead favored dialogue and disagreement on the issues until it was resolved. However, while our government may be slow, it lacks dialogue. The parties use disparaging, isolating language towards each other and engage in very little cooperation. The following graph demonstrates the decline in bipartisan cooperation and increased polarization over time, reflected in the number of times that Congressmen from opposing parties vote the same way.

Source: https://www.realclearscience.com/journal_club/2015/04/24/political_partisanship_in_three_stunning_charts_109196.html

Another metric to consider is the more modern notion of government which says that our representatives should address issues as they arise and reflect the desires of the American people in real time. In this respect, Congress is failing. The government has had a near shut down several times due to an inability to agree on a spending bill, issues of DACA and trading with significant implications for individuals and industries have remained unresolved, and the spending bill that did get passed has been unpopular among representatives from both sides. Overall, it seems government is working in the respect that it is slow as the Framers intended, but failing to serve the interests of the people in a timely manner and to have meaningful bipartisan dialogue.

Sources:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/congress-is-back-at-work-without-much-legislating-on-the-agenda/2018/04/07/f4f252e6-39b1-11e8-acd5-35eac230e514_story.html?utm_term=.6c9b0a05f7cb

https://www.usa.gov/midterm-state-and-local-elections

https://www.cnn.com/2011/09/27/opinion/bennett-government-stalled/index.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/21/us/politics/congress-spending-deal-government-shutdown.html

4 Responses to "Is Congress Working?"

Gwynna Ryan says:

April 9, 2018 at 3:21 pm

Sara,

This post is really interesting especially in regards to your conclusion that government is working as the Framers intended it to work, that is very slowly. Looking at Congress currently, it is very easy to see how its construction and set up lends itself towards inaction. Even with a Republican controlled House and Senate as well as a Republican president, very little significant legislation has passed, with the exception of tax cuts. Beyond this, since becoming president Trump has not yet fulfilled many of his campaign promises. Frustration has been growing regarding gridlock in Congress especially when the United States is compared to countries with other systems of government. For example, Great Britain’s parliamentary system allows the majority to rule much more easily while at the same time allowing for a vote of no confidence when the population grows dissatisfied with the government. This amount of flexibility is certainly absent from the United States.
Chloe Blond says:

April 9, 2018 at 3:24 pm

Hi Sara,

Thank you for your blog post. I was really excited to see that you decided to write about whether or not Congress and the government are working because I found myself asking this same question the entire time I was reading the textbook chapter. You make two arguments in your blog post. First, you say that we can argue Congress is working because the Founding Fathers designed the Constitution to inhibit change in the government and we can see that happening now. Then you argue that Congress is not working because the representatives are not addressing the issues as they arise or reflecting the desires of the American people in real time. I thought of two more metrics that would have been interesting to look at in deciding whether or not Congress is working: 1. Do the representatives reflect the demographic makeup of their constituents? 2. The notion of reapportionment.

As the book explains, when representatives reflect the demographic makeup of their constituents, it is called descriptive representation. The US Congress, however, is highly unrepresentative. In the United States, women and minorities have typically been significantly underrepresented in Congress, particularly in the Senate. Furthermore, most members of Congress are far more educated and wealthier than their constituents. The demographic disparity between the American population and the makeup of Congress suggest a violation of political equality, a pivotal element of democracy.

In addition to an unrepresentative Congress, reapportionment also impacts political representation and suggest breaks in the fundamental idea of political equality. Reapportionment is the redistribution of House Representatives among the states. Reapportionment occurs every 10 years in order to ensure that each state gets the number of House seats to which it is entitled to based on its population. The states that lose representatives as a consequence of reapportionment have less influence in Congress on certain issues. Again, less influence in congress suggests that not everyone truly is receiving the same political equality because not everyone’s voice is being heard equally (or as loudly).

Notes taken from the textbook.
Madeleine Stone says:

April 10, 2018 at 9:45 am

Hi Sara,

Thank you for your blog post! I appreciate your point about midterm elections and the term limit that exists in Congress. This is something I did not factor into my initial thought when I reacted to the title of your blog post “Is Congress working?” The term limit, which is written into our Constitution, definitely plays a major part in the productiveness of passing legislation. If Congressmen are constantly focusing on gaining a voter base to get re-elected, this may hinder their biases when looking at issues presented on the floor. It is interesting to note what the Washington Post said about the recent tax bill being passed, that it will probably be the last significant legislation passed until the election polls in November are over. I think that this will be a good thing because then Congressmen will not be pushing to pass legislation they think will just get them more voters.

I fully agree with your point that Congress is working in line with the goals of the Founding Fathers, but that Congress lacks dialogue. I think this is really important to note. As we saw in class, the party division across the nation is divided now more than ever. I believe the increasing polarization starts with the public and then integrates itself into Congress that is causing this lack of dialogue. When the public starts to divide deeper into their parties, the opposing views of the parties get magnified. I also think that our modern day society is one that nobody ever expected. Social issues play such an important role in our everyday lives, that hasn’t really been seen before.
Abigail Belcher says:

April 10, 2018 at 10:32 pm

Sara,
I am really interested in the amount of time that members of the House are basically not working for the people because they are so focused on getting reelected. In a way, it makes me angry to know that for months leading up to the elections, members are not trying to get laws passed because they are too concerned with upsetting people based on what they are trying to do so close to election time or they are not paying attention to the changes that are needing to be made because their heads are with election voting numbers and not with pressing issues in the United States. I wish there was some sort of way that members of the house would spend more time actually working for their citizens than they do trolling for new party voters. Perhaps longer terms for House members would work, but I am not sure if that is a reasonable idea, given that a House member’s time in office of two years before trying to get reelected has never changed.

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