Congress

October 3, 2018|Congress, Elections, lame duck

Lame Ducks and Congressional Accountability

by James Wallner|2 Comments

The U.S. Capital at night (Anujak Jaimook / Shutterstock.com)

Instead of returning to the Capitol Hill after the people vote, members should complete their work before the election.

September 12, 2018|Administrative State, Ben Sasse, Congress, judicial confirmation

What Ben Sasse Got Right and Wrong at the Kavanaugh Hearings

by James R. Rogers|10 Comments

Senators Amy Klobachar (D-M.N.) and Ben Sasse (R-N.E.) speak during the confirmation hearing of Judge Brett Kavanaugh before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee, September 4, 2018 (Credit: Alex Edelman / ZUMA Wire / Alamy Live News).

It is a good thing a U.S. Senator raised the delegation issue in a high-visibility venue, but it should have a hearing of its own.

May 14, 2018|Congress, Filibuster, Senate

An Impotent Congress

by James Wallner|8 Comments

Capitol Hill, Washington DC

Instead of a deliberative process in which Senate members put forward competing ideas, party leaders stage-manage a rigged debate.

April 3, 2018|Abraham Lincoln, American National Character, Civil Religion, Congress, George Washington, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission

Cultivating Virtuous Citizenship?: A Law and Liberty Symposium on American National Character

by Rogers Smith, Rick Santorum, W. B. Allen, Philip A. Wallach, Colleen Sheehan, Steven McGuire|1 Comment

Cheryl Casey/Adobe Stock Images

Politics requires fit characters, but can virtue be restored as a basis for liberty? Four contributors address this problem.

April 3, 2018|American National Character Project, Congress, energy, expertise, republican liberty, Self-Government

Self-Government Cannot Live while Congress is Moribund

by Philip A. Wallach|2 Comments

U.S. Capitol (zimmytws/shutterstock.com)

Until Congress restores itself to its proper place as a body worth of a free people, it will never rein in executive and judicial abuse.

March 29, 2018|Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, budgeting, Congress

Congressional Budgeting is a Matter of Will, Not Procedure

by James Wallner|7 Comments

Katherine Welles / Shutterstock.com

Changing procedure won't fix our budget woes: Congress has to make hard choices.

February 23, 2018|Andrew Johnson, Congress, high crimes and misdemeanors, Impeachment

The Constitutional Propriety of Impeaching the President

by Michael Stokes Paulsen|16 Comments

The Senate as a court of impeachment for the trial of Andrew Johnson. (Library of Congress LC-USZ62-1732)

On the 150th anniversary of Andrew Johnson's trial in the Senate, we should remember that impeaching the president isn't only about specific crimes.

January 22, 2018|budgeting, Congress, congressional majority, DACA, government shutdown, legislature, National Park Service

How to End Hostage Taking Through Government Shutdowns

by John O. McGinnis|6 Comments

The National Museum of the American Indian is closed due to the government shutdown on October 4, 2013 in New York. Adam Gregor/Shutterstock.com

Government shutdowns are a kind of hostage-taking, and they'll only stop when we deprive legislators of the ability to shut government down.

January 8, 2018|Administrative State, Congress, Deference, Federalist 51, George Lovell, legislature, Madison

Why Congress Cedes Power to the Administrative State

by James R. Rogers|4 Comments

Our bureaucracy seems to move further and further from legislative accountability, but what explains this?

October 26, 2017|Congress, Gridlock, imperial presidency, Limited Government, Separation of Powers

Situational Constitutionalism and the Congress of Collective Inaction

by Joseph Postell|4 Comments

President Trump’s executive order on healthcare received a great deal of attention, but almost all of it emphasized the order’s short-term policy implications. Commentary from the Left ignored the constitutional implications of unilateral executive action, so if anyone was going to speak up about those constitutional issues, conservatives would have to do so. Their record thus far has been mixed. The editors of National Review, like their liberal counterparts, addressed the policy angle, not the constitutional one. Yuval Levin, on the other hand, wrote in that same publication that officials in the administration in which he served (Bush II) doubted whether…