{"id":2219059,"date":"2024-04-12T00:15:05","date_gmt":"2024-04-12T04:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fixing-a-broken-congress-a-pair-of-capitol-hill-veterans-offer-unconventional-recommendations-on-how-to-improve-2\/"},"modified":"2024-04-12T00:19:48","modified_gmt":"2024-04-12T04:19:48","slug":"fixing-a-broken-congress-a-pair-of-capitol-hill-veterans-offer-unconventional-recommendations-on-how-to-improve-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fixing-a-broken-congress-a-pair-of-capitol-hill-veterans-offer-unconventional-recommendations-on-how-to-improve-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Revamping Congress: Capitol Hill experts propose unique solutions for improvement"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffixing-a-broken-congress-a-pair-of-capitol-hill-veterans-offer-unconventional-recommendations-on-how-to-improve-2%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2219059&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The 118th Congress is facing bipartisan \u2063criticism for its lack of\u200b legislative achievements. House Democrats express frustration over Republicans&#8217; failure to pass key bills. The \u200cpartisan divide in Congress results in a gridlock, leading\u200b to a messy legislative environment. Capitol Hill veterans propose solutions in\u2062 their book, &#8220;Fixing Congress: Restoring Power to the People&#8221;, highlighting issues like \u200cgerrymandering and partisan challenges.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The 118th Congress is drawing bipartisan jeers for its lack of legislative accomplishments. <\/p>\n<p>House <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/democrats\/?utm_source=google&#038;utm_medium=cpc&#038;utm_campaign=WE_Pmax_website-audience_tCPA(0.25)&#038;gad_source=1&#038;gclid=Cj0KCQjwq86wBhDiARIsAJhuphlZkMSG6v1oDcooT0xyORBvqGAETQNLnbgImu5OMXXkrzCPfmIDiDgaArigEALw_wcB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Democrats<\/a>, in the minority by a slim margin, routinely pan Republicans for their inability to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fixing-a-broken-congress-a-pair-of-capitol-hill-veterans-offer-unconventional-recommendations-on-how-to-improve\/\" title=\"Mending Congress: Capitol Hill experts share unique ideas for enhancement\">pass routine government spending bills<\/a>, aid to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/ukraine\/?utm_source=google&#038;utm_medium=cpc&#038;utm_campaign=WE_Pmax_website-audience_tCPA(0.25)&#038;gad_source=1&#038;gclid=Cj0KCQjwq86wBhDiARIsAJhuphm442j8fmT-BmH23BafH6OGRAgiXO9bfMXIZI1pOjFD4_2d0Ll-NKgaAiDtEALw_wcB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Ukraine<\/a> in its defensive war against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/russia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Russia<\/a>, and a range of other proposals. That\u2019s not particularly surprising since it\u2019s the minority party\u2019s job to complain about the majority\u2019s performance and argue how it would do better if voters gave it power.<\/p>\n<p>But Democrats are frequently joined in outrage by high-profile GOP colleagues who, for starkly different reasons, are upset with Republican leadership.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>(Illustration by Tatiana Lozano \/ Washington Examiner; AP and Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cOur Republican majority is a complete failure,\u201d Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RepMTG\/status\/1770949344994181252\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>wrote on X<\/a> on March 21, blasting House Republican leaders for not confronting aggressively enough <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/u-s-in-a-recession-after-second-straight-quarter-of-negative-growth\/\" title=\"U.S. In A Recession After Second Straight Quarter Of Negative Growth\">profligate federal spending<\/a> and illegal immigration.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s all led to the messiest Congress in recent memory. The national legislature\u2019s shambolic performance, of course, didn\u2019t happen overnight. Decadeslong roots to the problems span congressional majorities. At the end of this Congress, in early January 2025, Democrats and Republicans will have held power in the Senate nearly equally for the prior 44 years. Across the Capitol in the House, starting with the 1980 elections, the parties will have held the majority for exactly 22 years each, with the majority changing five times from the 1994 elections on \u2014 three in Republicans\u2019 favor, twice for the Democrats, and with the 2024 fight for House control now effectively an electoral jump ball that could go either way.<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>A pair of Capitol Hill veterans, Michael S. Johnson and Jerome F. Climer, offer a penetrating diagnosis of what\u2019s gone wrong, and how to fix it, in their new book <em>Fixing Congress: Restoring Power to the People<\/em> (Morgan James Publishing). Johnson worked on President Gerald Ford\u2019s White House staff and was press secretary and eventually chief of staff to House Minority Leader Bob Michel, an Illinois Republican, followed by a Washington, D.C., private sector career. Climer\u00a0was a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/analysis-sheldon-whitehouse-senior-staff-as-white-as-his-private-beach-club\/\" title=\"ANALYSIS: Sheldon Whitehouse Senior Staff as White as His Private Beach Club\">congressional staff member<\/a> for 20 years before creating the Congressional Institute, where he served as president for two decades before retiring in 2007.<\/p>\n<p>Their book is particularly timely six months after the ouster of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy \u2014 with \u201cformer\u201d being the key word in describing the 17-year House Republican from California. McCarthy was pushed out after nine months in the chamber\u2019s top job, second in line of presidential succession behind the vice president, by a renegade group of House Republicans dissatisfied with his leadership style, along with a united House Democratic Caucus that refused to throw McCarthy a political lifeline.<\/p>\n<p>However, McCarthy\u2019s successor, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) \u2014 no relation to the similarly named <em>Fixing Congress<\/em> co-author \u2014 has not had much better luck herding legislative cats. Greene, the firebrand, north Georgia Republican first elected in 2020, has already threatened to try and oust Johnson as speaker if he moves ahead with Ukraine aid, which has strong support in President Joe Biden\u2019s White House and the Democratic-majority Senate. <\/p>\n<h2>The scourge of gerrymandering<\/h2>\n<p>The authors point to gerrymandering, effectively rigging House districts to favor one party or another, as a key part of the Capitol Hill breakdown. They\u2019re hardly the first to cite this problem, but their long experiences working in Congress provided a front-row seat to its politically toxic effects. Heading into November, out of 435 House districts, only 18 in the 2020 election would have voted for Biden over former President Donald Trump but are held by Republican lawmakers, while a scant five Democrats hold House districts where Trump would have won. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cGerrymandering is one of three legislative inhibitors that evoke some of the most blatant hypocrisy from both parties. The other two are raising money for campaigns and the Senate filibuster,\u201d Johnson and Climer wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs the country\u2019s population tripled over the past one hundred years, census data became more detailed and research about voter behavior more precise,\u201d the co-authors added. \u201cAs a result, politicians and political parties became more adept at drawing congressional district boundaries to favor one political party and point of view. The practice has become so sophisticated that cities, towns, even neighborhoods and city blocks are carved up and separated into different districts, making it easier for a representative to represent a compatible constituency without having to navigate contrary points of view among the general population.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Republicans have generally been more aggressive at gerrymandering, carving up seats for their party member with great efficiency in Florida, North Carolina, Texas, and elsewhere. But Democrats have hardly lived up to their own rhetorical standards on gerrymandering. They could have tried, but didn\u2019t, to enact stand-alone legislation mandating independent commissions to draw House seats when they held unified control of government in the first two years of President Barack Obama\u2019s tenure (2009-11) and Biden\u2019s (2021-23).<\/p>\n<h2>Suggested reforms<\/h2>\n<p>Curtailing gerrymandering is a top proposed reform by the authors, but that\u2019s hardly the only one. They call for imposing term limits on lawmakers, an idea polls consistently show has broad support from the voting public.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson and Climer also suggest voters choose the speaker of the House, rather than lawmakers. It\u2019s an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/a-look-at-international-law-and-the-invasion-of-ukraine\/\" title=\"A Look at International Law and the Invasion of Ukraine\">intriguing idea<\/a> because, constitutionally, the speaker need not come from among sitting lawmakers. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Like other congressional reform proposals pitched in their book, that\u2019s one to take at least a look at. Along with changes to the federal budget process, plus internal Capitol Hill reforms such as streamlining and delineating jurisdiction between committees and subcommittees. <\/p>\n<p>These ideas will have their supporters and detractors. But considering the sad state of Congress now, they\u2019re at least worth debate and consideration. The proposals come in good faith in an important book that should be required reading on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 118th Congress faces criticism for its limited legislative achievements. House Democrats often blame Republicans for the stalled passing of crucial bills like government spending and aid to Ukraine. This lack of progress is unsurprising given the partisan divide in Congress<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2695,"featured_media":2219060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/congress-fixing-broken-capitol-hill-david-mark-041024BR-1024x591.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2219059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/congress-fixing-broken-capitol-hill-david-mark-041024BR-1024x591.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2219059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2695"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2219059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2219059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2219060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2219059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2219059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2219059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}