More than halfway through the current two-year Congress, lawmakers there are recalling the old schoolyard quip about lazy students: They're really good at recess.
This week before Easter is the first of two weeks in which the House and Senate are in session, although it seems like only yesterday that they were off for two weeks to celebrate Presidents' Day. Lucky for them, members of Congress get breaks no matter how well they perform, just like kids in elementary school. They did not do well at all, which explains the quotation marks above: “legislators” do not do much lawmaking.
Opinion columnist
Jackie Calmes
Jackie Calmes takes a critical look at the national political landscape. She has decades of experience covering the White House and Congress.
This Congress appears to be the least productive since the Great Depression. Even the low number of laws enacted is a bit of an exaggeration given that the House and Senate, which for months have been unable to agree on funding the government, have repeatedly passed stopgap spending bills to avoid shutdowns.
Members finally wrapped up budget proceedings before they walked out their doors last weekend to begin their spring break — nearly six months into the fiscal year, when they should already be at work on spending for fiscal year 2025, which begins Oct. 1. Expect more brinksmanship then.
However, do not wish to catch smallpox in both homes and parties. The blame lies with the House and the GOP MAGA Party that took over there a little over a year ago.
House Republicans cannot govern because many of them are anti-government. They don't want Washington to act when they can make partisan straws out of any disruption. They cannot pass the necessary laws because they will not concede, which is an essential act at any time but especially when the other party controls the Senate and the White House.
Recall last month's rejection by House Republicans of a conservative, bipartisan immigration bill of the kind they called for. Some said the quiet part out loud. “I'm not willing to do a lot right now to help a Democrat and to help increase Joe Biden's popularity,” Texas Rep. Troy Nehls said. The House of Representatives was unable to approve the government budget – its most important task – except thanks to the votes of the Democrats. The majority of the Republican majority voted against it.
The legislation is simply not a priority for House Republicans. This was an impeachment for President Biden, along with his Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, but they are also obstructing these efforts. Republicans have already impeached Mayorkas on their second attempt, not for true high crimes or misdemeanors, but for policy: He oversees border security, and blaming a Democrat for the crush of migrants at the southern border is a good issue for Republicans. But this is a terrible precedent, and more than a month later, they still haven't sent the papers to the Senate.
As for Biden's impeachment, Republicans Javert announced their resignation. Their impeachment hearings failed spectacularly to uncover wrongdoing by the president, leaving them without enough Republican votes to proceed. This week, the chief investigator, Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, told donors in a fundraising letter that instead of impeaching Biden, he would send a criminal referral to the Justice Department — for action once Donald Trump is elected.
Forty years ago, last month I began covering Congress, and in all that time I have never witnessed a more self-defeating, unconstructive, and pathetic performance by the majority party. I nodded knowingly when former Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado explained to CNN why he resigned last Friday: “It's the worst year in 40 or 50 years in Congress.”
Surprisingly, Buck is not the first House Republican to simply abandon the two-year job that voters back home elected him to do, nor will he be the last. Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California departed at the end of 2023, three months after extreme House Republicans made him the first impeached president in US history. Ohio Rep. Bill Johnson exited in January. Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, once considered an up-and-coming Republican, is leaving next month.
When he leaves, House Republicans will only have a one-vote margin left. This requires party unity for successful legislation, as House Democrats demonstrated with their narrow majority in a productive 2021-2022 Congress. Yet Republicans are as divided as any other party in memory, and the humiliation they have endured over the past fifteen months has only made them less like each other.
The division among Republicans is so great that McCarthy's unlucky replacement as president, Mike Johnson, has resorted to using the so-called suspension calendar to pass the necessary bills. The practice, long reserved for non-controversial legislation, speeds up the House's work but requires the support of two-thirds of members rather than a majority vote. With the approval of Democrats and some Republicans, Johnson can reach this threshold, as he did recently regarding the budget.
This reliance on Democrats for bills to pass is what led to the rebellion against McCarthy and the gridlock of both chambers of Congress for most of October, while House Republicans fought among themselves to replace him. Indeed, divisive Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Mar-a-Lago, Georgia, introduced a motion after the budget vote to remove Johnson, just as McCarthy was removed from office, if he continued to work for Democrats. Which is what Johnson will do, because Republicans like her leave him no choice.
The big test ahead is aid to Ukraine, which Greene and many far-right Republicans in the House of Representatives oppose. In February, Johnson announced that the Senate's bipartisan aid package for Ukraine (and Israel, Gaza, and Taiwan) was an authorization in the House. However, under pressure, he pledged on Friday that the House of Representatives would take action to help the US ally against Russian invaders. With votes from Democrats. When members return from vacation.
And speaking of recesses: Voters could give the do-nothing Republican majority a permanent majority if they put Democrats back in charge of the House next November. The bell can't ring soon enough.
@jackiekcalmes
