Congress: Neither Productive Nor Deliberative

A number of posts have discussed congressional capacity, legislative productivity, and deliberation.

Moira Warburton and  Ally J. Levine at Reuters:

The U.S. Congress is navigating yet another government funding deadline — the eighth in less than six months — and are at an impasse over sending aid to key allies in Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel. Divisions among Republicans in the House and Senate killed a major bipartisan border policy bill. Reforms to bedrock programs like Medicare and Social Security are desperately needed but no closer to getting passed. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives spent close to a month without a speaker last year due to infighting between moderate and hard right factions of the Republican party.

When U.S. Representative Chip Roy, a Republican from Texas, begged his colleagues in November to “give me one thing I can campaign on and say we did,” he was articulating what many lawmakers and observers were feeling: Congress isn’t working.

 

Since the Reagan Era Congressional legislation has fallen by 2/3rds -- not to mention its failure to pass a full, on-time budget.
MORE pic.twitter.com/XbkFmuTPsu

— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) March 14, 2024

And it's not just about laws and measures -- Congress is simply spending less time doing its job. And a lot more time raising $$$ and engaging in shouting hearings and name-calling speechifying.
Who is running the United States of America?
What will this look like by 2030? pic.twitter.com/7xlfeOGTML

— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) March 14, 2024