Lee Drutman has a review of James M. Curry’s new book Legislating in the Dark: Information and Power in the House of Representatives in the January/February issue of our magazine. Drutman’s main thesis is that “while many of the [Freedom] caucus’s demands are ridiculous, the idea that the House should become a more deliberative place isn’t.”
Perhaps, more to the point, there are costs associated with the way Speakers have consolidated power. It allows them to get things done, but it may actually contribute to the dysfunction of the institution.
The drift away began in the late 1980s, when Democrat Jim Wright began to consolidate power in the speakership. In 1995, when Newt Gingrich was elected speaker, he affirmatively changed the model, eliminating subcommittees, weakening committees, and centralizing power in ways that had not been seen since the early twentieth century, when Republican Speakers Thomas Reed and Joseph Cannon operated effectively as czars.
Over time, resources have been shifted away from members and committees and towards leadership, and the result is that rank-and-file members have less influence and even less knowledge about the legislation they have to support or oppose.
Between 1998 and 2010, funds to majority leadership offices grew twice as fast (up 50 percent) as funds to personal offices (up 27 percent) and funds to committee offices (up just 22 percent). Moreover, legislation has become more and more complex, and complexity is a key tool of rank-and-file compliance (the longer the bill, the harder it is to read). Like members of the House Freedom Caucus, Curry laments these developments. “In shutting most lawmakers out of the legislative process, stifling their voices, and keeping them in the dark,” he writes, “leaders undermine the quality of legislative deliberations and dyadic representation in the House of Representatives.”
Drutman makes the case that House members would take more responsibility if they were given more responsibility. The job might become attractive enough to again inspire a better class of people to run for office. But it all begins with letting members have more information about legislation. More responsibility, more information, bigger and better staff, and we might find a way out of our current gridlock. And, in any case, it would take some power and influence away from lobbyists who have come in to fill the information void.
Make sure to read the whole thing.
The general point is true and I know as a New Yorker what such an evolution can lead to (“three men in a room” in Albany, two of whom need to be jailed), but I don’t like to think about the clowns in the Freedom Caucus participating in real legislative work, grandstanding every meeting with displays of their ignorance and cries of treason. We need a better Congress.
Yes, but if they actually participated in legislative work, it might become easier for voters to recognize that they are empty suits and/or clowns and boot them out of there.
The Freedom Caucus has no interest in the world beyond going to Israel and taking a photo with Bibi. They don’t even have to fund raise…the PAC’s do that for them. Which reduces their responsibility to a small group of large donors and not the people who voted them into office.
And like Marco Rubio they collect a paycheck for not showing up to work at the jobs they hate.
“And what do you charge for not rehearsing?”
I think we need to at least double the size of the House. That will also help
Be a pleasant change if we had a lege that could actually draft a bill and did not depend on lobbyists or ALEC to do it for them. They probably would not want to work that hard, though.
You want them to give up their schmooze fests with lobbyists? That’s the only part of the job they enjoy.
They have plenty of responsibility in the house of representatives. The issue is how serious they are in their responsibility.
Iowa DEM candidates town hall:
Agree with Billmon’s paraphrase and interpretation:
Still working on wooing white SC voters because that worked so well in ’08 and everybody knows that Clintons always have the black voters nailed down and in their corner.
wow.