Part One: Congressional Reform Blog Series
When we meet with stakeholders, potential partners, and potential funders, we get lots of nods as we talk about our plans to “measure what matters” and reform federal hiring, firing, technology development, and procurement.
But when we get to the aspects of our platform that require Congressional action — biennial budgeting and appropriations, an end to government shutdowns, the creation of a feedback loop between civil servants and Congress, and big structural reforms to address the root causes of executive branch dysfunction — the nodding stops. Brows furrow.
“You’re wasting your time,” says the person on the other side of the table. “You’re tilting at windmills. Congress will never act. Why don’t you just focus on reforms that can be accomplished through executive action only?”
These comments reflect the conventional wisdom in government reform circles: think small to avoid the quagmire of legislative branch politics.
In some ways, it might be sound advice.
But we believe that approach has a ceiling — and that tackling congressional reform is integral to any serious attempt to make the federal government function again.
Why?
Because Congress defines the operating system for federal agencies, and that system is currently programmed to produce the costly, ineffective, risk-averse and compliance-obsessed federal agency culture that exists today. Even if an agency modernizes, Congress will still demand reports and compliance documentation tied to the old way of doing things, dole out partial-year budgets between Continuing Resolutions (CRs) and government shutdowns that prevent agencies from investing in modernization initiatives, and pass laws without taking into account potential trade-offs, hidden costs, unintended consequences, and capacity constraints.
An executive-only approach ignores the reality that only Congress has the power to adopt two-year budgeting and appropriations; allow agencies to retain unexpended, expired funds for modernization; end disruptive government shutdowns; and improve the quality of legislating and oversight by creating a mechanism to receive unvarnished, uncensored feedback from the civil servants (the “doers”) who must actually implement the laws Congress passes. Even where the executive branch could act alone – for example, creating rigorous, standardized outcome metrics that the average American cares about – creating a bipartisan, statutory basis for such metrics would ensure the long-term sustainability of this initiative.
An executive-only approach also fails to meet the moment. Public confidence in Congress has reached an all-time nadir of 10 percent, and even Members of Congress are so frustrated that 57 U.S. Representatives have announced they will not seek re-election, and this does not include the 13 who have resigned or died before the end of this term.
Many of those remaining in Congress are desperately seeking relevance and fresh approaches to get the Article One branch of government out of its rut.
And We the Doers is only too happy to help.
Note: This is Part One of our four-part blog series on reforming Congress. Part Two will delve into the reforms to the federal government that Congress should enact. In Parts Three and Four, We the Doers’ Congressional procedure expert Max Spitzer will tackle why Congress doesn’t work, why it hasn’t been able to pass these common-sense reforms, and what it will take for Congress to reform and renew itself.
One Response
There are choices: The two sides have decided differently. Congress is the place to develop middle ground. Speaker Hastert (may he receive what he so richly deserves) and others instituted a majority of the majority plan for the House while Senator McConnell went with “can’t do nothin’ without 60 votes and you ain’t gettin’ mine.”