John Whitehead's Commentary
The Failure of Congress to Do Its Job
Do you ever wonder why, year after year, Congress continues to pass laws that add billions of dollars to our national debt and threaten to bankrupt the country? Or why our representatives fund pork barrel projects such as a $50 million indoor rain forest in Iowa? Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that our representatives rarely read much of the legislation they vote on.
Indeed, the most startling allegation in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 may not be the Bush family's intimate connection to the Saudi government or that multi-national corporations are in the business of war to make money, among other things. Possibly the biggest bombshell was dropped by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) when he admitted onscreen that our congressional representatives do not read most of the legislation they vote on. Conyers added that this would slow down the legislative process--and then noted, "but maybe that's a good idea."
For some Americans, the fact that their representatives have either become so distracted or grown so lazy that they are willing to vote on laws without even reading them came to light with the passage of the USA Patriot Act--one of the most egregious violations of constitutional and civil liberties ever passed by Congress. One would think that with legislation of that magnitude, our representatives would have broken with tradition and at least read a portion of the law. But most did not before passing it overwhelmingly.
The Patriot Act fiasco, however, cannot be blamed entirely on Congress. The Bush administration, obviously knowing the haphazard habits of many members of Congress, played games. "It's my understanding," Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) has said, "the bill wasn't printed before the vote--at least I couldn't get it. They played all kinds of games, kept the House in session all night, and it was a very complicated bill. Maybe a handful of staffers actually read it, but the bill definitely was not available to members before the vote."
Another startling fact is that members of Congress are hardly ever on the floor of the House or Senate except when they have a vested interested in an issue. As a result, they rarely know what is happening on the floor of Congress until a vote is called.
The bureaucratic mess that is Congress can be attributed in part to the schedules that most congressmen adhere to. For example, as Charles Peters writes in his book How Washington Works, "The most striking feature of a congressman's life is its hectic jumble of votes, meetings, appointments, and visits from folks back home who just drop by. From an 8 a.m. breakfast conference with a group of union leaders, a typical morning will take him to his office around 9, where the waiting room is filled with people who want to see him."
And: "From 9 until 10:30 or so, he will try to give the impression that he is devoting his entire attention to a businessman from his state with a tax problem; to a delegation protesting their town's loss of air or rail service; to a constituent and his three children, who are in town for the day and want to say hello; and to a couple of staff members whose morale will collapse if they don't have five minutes alone to go over essential business with him. As he strives to project one-on-one sincerity to all these people, he is fielding phone calls at the rate of one every five minutes and checking a press release that has to get out in time to make the afternoon papers in his district."
Then: "He leaves this madhouse to go to a committee meeting, accompanied by his legislative aid, who tries to brief him on the business before the committee along the way. The meeting started at 10, so he struggles to catch the thread of questioning, while a committee staff member whispers in his ear. And so the day continues."
It should come as little surprise, then, that legislation either takes years to make its way through Congress because no one has the time or inclination to review it or it gets railroaded through with little to no oversight and review.
But what about the reason we elected these people and sacrifice hard-earned dollars to pay them salaries upwards of $150,000? We hired these men and women to represent us, and in so doing, expect them to fashion just laws that will regulate and limit the reach of government. This means reading and reviewing the legislation they vote on. And it is no answer that, in the words of Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) recently, "My staffer read the law and briefed me on it." Why? We didn't elect the staffer. We elected you, Mr. Kennedy.
The duties of Congress are detailed in Section 8 of the Constitution. These include dealing with taxes, regulating commerce, providing for post offices, establishing courts and so on. And Section 8 concludes with this sentence: "To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers." Clearly, the purpose for which we elect our representatives has now been lost in the mumbo-jumbo foolishness that is our modern Congress.
The tragic fact is that we, the American people, have lost touch with our government. In the process, government agents and bureaucrats often believe they can ignore their responsibilities, run roughshod over us and, in the process, completely forsake the vision of those who founded this country. Indeed, the founders gave us a way to check runaway bureaucracy. It is called representative government -- the power to vote our leaders in and out of office. However, if we allow Congress to remain asleep on the job, then the long-dreaded prophecy by many that American democracy will fade into authoritarian government is inevitable.
Indeed, the most startling allegation in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 may not be the Bush family's intimate connection to the Saudi government or that multi-national corporations are in the business of war to make money, among other things. Possibly the biggest bombshell was dropped by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) when he admitted onscreen that our congressional representatives do not read most of the legislation they vote on. Conyers added that this would slow down the legislative process--and then noted, "but maybe that's a good idea."
For some Americans, the fact that their representatives have either become so distracted or grown so lazy that they are willing to vote on laws without even reading them came to light with the passage of the USA Patriot Act--one of the most egregious violations of constitutional and civil liberties ever passed by Congress. One would think that with legislation of that magnitude, our representatives would have broken with tradition and at least read a portion of the law. But most did not before passing it overwhelmingly.
The Patriot Act fiasco, however, cannot be blamed entirely on Congress. The Bush administration, obviously knowing the haphazard habits of many members of Congress, played games. "It's my understanding," Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) has said, "the bill wasn't printed before the vote--at least I couldn't get it. They played all kinds of games, kept the House in session all night, and it was a very complicated bill. Maybe a handful of staffers actually read it, but the bill definitely was not available to members before the vote."
Another startling fact is that members of Congress are hardly ever on the floor of the House or Senate except when they have a vested interested in an issue. As a result, they rarely know what is happening on the floor of Congress until a vote is called.
The bureaucratic mess that is Congress can be attributed in part to the schedules that most congressmen adhere to. For example, as Charles Peters writes in his book How Washington Works, "The most striking feature of a congressman's life is its hectic jumble of votes, meetings, appointments, and visits from folks back home who just drop by. From an 8 a.m. breakfast conference with a group of union leaders, a typical morning will take him to his office around 9, where the waiting room is filled with people who want to see him."
And: "From 9 until 10:30 or so, he will try to give the impression that he is devoting his entire attention to a businessman from his state with a tax problem; to a delegation protesting their town's loss of air or rail service; to a constituent and his three children, who are in town for the day and want to say hello; and to a couple of staff members whose morale will collapse if they don't have five minutes alone to go over essential business with him. As he strives to project one-on-one sincerity to all these people, he is fielding phone calls at the rate of one every five minutes and checking a press release that has to get out in time to make the afternoon papers in his district."
Then: "He leaves this madhouse to go to a committee meeting, accompanied by his legislative aid, who tries to brief him on the business before the committee along the way. The meeting started at 10, so he struggles to catch the thread of questioning, while a committee staff member whispers in his ear. And so the day continues."
It should come as little surprise, then, that legislation either takes years to make its way through Congress because no one has the time or inclination to review it or it gets railroaded through with little to no oversight and review.
But what about the reason we elected these people and sacrifice hard-earned dollars to pay them salaries upwards of $150,000? We hired these men and women to represent us, and in so doing, expect them to fashion just laws that will regulate and limit the reach of government. This means reading and reviewing the legislation they vote on. And it is no answer that, in the words of Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) recently, "My staffer read the law and briefed me on it." Why? We didn't elect the staffer. We elected you, Mr. Kennedy.
The duties of Congress are detailed in Section 8 of the Constitution. These include dealing with taxes, regulating commerce, providing for post offices, establishing courts and so on. And Section 8 concludes with this sentence: "To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers." Clearly, the purpose for which we elect our representatives has now been lost in the mumbo-jumbo foolishness that is our modern Congress.
The tragic fact is that we, the American people, have lost touch with our government. In the process, government agents and bureaucrats often believe they can ignore their responsibilities, run roughshod over us and, in the process, completely forsake the vision of those who founded this country. Indeed, the founders gave us a way to check runaway bureaucracy. It is called representative government -- the power to vote our leaders in and out of office. However, if we allow Congress to remain asleep on the job, then the long-dreaded prophecy by many that American democracy will fade into authoritarian government is inevitable.
ABOUT JOHN W. WHITEHEAD
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at staff@rutherford.org. Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.
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