No silver bullet to make Congress more popular than zombies, witches • Kansas Reflector

TOPEKA — Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, Democratic U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids and their Kansas colleagues work in a federal government institution less popular than colonoscopies, traffic jams, cockroaches, the Internal Revenue Service, Brussels sprouts, zombies and witches.

Michael Thorning, director of structural democracy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, and JD Rackey, senior policy analyst for the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, visited the Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas to explore solutions to partisan issues. dysfunction and political gridlock in Congress that has fueled public discontent for decades.

“I’m just afraid it’s gotten worse for Congress, not better,” Thorning said, referring to the policy poll results. “It is an unfortunate thing. The truth is, I think people feel pretty simple and cynical about Congress.”

Marshall and Davids, as well as the other four members of the state’s congressional delegation, hold front-row seats for recycling budget conflicts, government shutdowns, intra-party and partisan bickering, violent political rhetoric, petty displays of contempt and knife-point leadership.

The dominant culture has derailed important reform legislation, even proposals that won bipartisan sponsors. Look no further than the dismissal of the compromise immigration bill earlier this year, which was boosted by several phone calls from former President Donald Trump to Republican lawmakers. Undercutting solutions to issues of concern to voters reflected congressional behavior that would have irritated the late U.S. Senator Robert Dole of Kansas. He was a Republican known for working to move the needle in Washington through bipartisan negotiations and compromises.

“Senator Dole was really a strong institutionalist who believed in a Congress that worked, that represented the people and that got things done,” Thorning said.

Thorning said the political core of Capitol Hill has been damaged, and many of the 435 representatives and 100 senators have recognized that reality.

“In general, members are not happy with the way Congress is being run,” Thorning said. “It’s a bipartisan deal on the left and the right.”

Rackey said fixing the problems in Congress would require a step-by-step overhaul of personal attitudes about the duties of the job.

“Our main point is that there are always no silver bullets,” he said. “It’s going to take lots and lots of change from many different directions.”

Rackey served on the staff of the US House Select Committee on Modernization, which was formed in 2019 and unusually had an equal number of Republicans and Democrats as members. Approval of the reform proposals required a two-thirds majority vote of the commission. After four years and 49 meetings, the committee adopted 202 recommendations. To date, 71 have been implemented and 50 were in the process of being adopted.

Much of the committee’s focus has been on improving the basic operational capability of members of Congress and their staffs. The committee advanced ideas for retaining and hiring experienced congressional staff, given the typical tenure of three and five years. Ideas for mitigating partisanship have been invented that form the basis of orientation sessions for new members.

The restoration of budgetary allowances for members helped reduce the divide. Congress only recently implemented a calendar portal that included all meetings relevant to members.

Rackey said obstacles to change include the politically popular notion of casting Congress as the go-to guy for party or individual failures.

That narrative has made it difficult to justify spending tax dollars to deepen Congress’ staffing and operational capacity, he said.

“The other is that institutional incentives are often outweighed by partisan incentives. The Founders intended for Congress to check the executive branch. Ambition counteracts ambition, but…when your party controls a chamber of Congress and the White House, that creates a different kind of incentive for action to move your partisan agenda, rather than thinking about your role in Congress vis-à-vis president,” he said.

Substantive reforms, including term limits for federal members of the House and Senate, have failed to gain traction due to fears of an increase in rookie lawmakers mingling with heavy-handed lobbyists and party leaders.

“If you’re an inexperienced legislator, it’s a lot easier for your party leadership to take advantage of you and get you to vote on an issue the way they want,” Thorning said.

He said members of Congress’ interest in substantive reform could depend on who holds the White House.

“We worked on what I thought were really bipartisan efforts, for example, during the Trump administration, to shift some of the executive powers around national emergencies,” Thorning said. “It probably won’t surprise you, but the Democrats have been very smart about this during the Trump administration. When Joe Biden got into office, basically none of them were interested in talking about it anymore. So you have this… carousel effect.”