Send a Message

If you use the metric of legislation proposed, the current 118th Congress is slightly behind, though more or less on track with its most recent predecessors. While the 117th lists over 17,00 bills on the Congressional website, and the 116th over 16,000, the current body posts just 13,220. However it's just June and they have several months to make up the slack. And these guys and girls are nothing if not prolific in trying to push a point of view.

On the other hand, posting a bill and giving it a name doesn't count as actual legislating, it's more performative theatre. During President Obama's second term, the 113th and 114th Congresses passed 196 and 329 bills respectively, while the 115th and 116th which took place during President Trump's term passed 442 and 344 bills. Even the 117th which took place during President Biden's first term pushed 362 bills out the door. The current 118th? As of this writing, just 64 bills became law.

Included in that measly number are bills that hardly distinguish themselves as standout policy benchmarks, with nary a Civil Rights Act of 1964 or Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 among them. There's HR 3947, "To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 859 North State Road 21 in Melrose, Florida, as the ‘Pamela Jane Rock Post Office Building,'" and HR 1096, the "250th Anniversary of the United States Marine Corps Commemorative Coin Act." True, there were the tortured votes that kept the government open or avoided a default, but those were hardly high-minded statements of principle. Taken as a whole, it is apparent to legislators of both parties that this was not their finest hour. "This is the most ineffective congress that we have seen," Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) told reporters. Or as Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) put it with tongue firmly in cheek, "Those post offices aren't going to name themselves."

No, they aren't. However, if you view the exercise not in actual rule making but in messaging, these folks are aces. Most of their efforts never stand a chance of actually being enacted, but that's an antiquated way of looking at it. In fact, the driver for much of the proposed legislation is not to actually pass anything (and that might not be desirable at all in any case), but rather to make noise about a position, give it a catchy name that makes for a good tweet, watch it go down in flames and then yell about it as loud as possible. Blame the hyper-partisan atmosphere, whichever political party you don't belong to, the presidential election cycle, the solar eclipse and/or Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce... all of them may have something to do with it... but no matter, that's the state of play.

Which brings us such gems as HR 7673, the "Liberty in Laundry Act" which places limits on the authority of the Department of Energy (DOE) to prescribe or enforce energy conservation standards for clothes washers. There's also HR 1640, the "Save Our Gas Stove Act" which places limits on energy conservation standards for kitchen ranges or ovens under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act. And there's HR 4003, the "Let Freedom Sing Act" which prohibits any regulations on the singing of the National Anthem on any Federal property. While these were all sponsored by Republicans, the Democrats practice the same type of "gotcha" legislating, even if the names such as HR 5048, "Protecting Our Democracy Act" and H.R.9497, "International Violence Against Women Act" sound reasonable while hiding provisions that make them unpalatable to a wide swath of voters. 

Just like gerrymandering, each side draws the contours of the bill to be as favorable to their constituency as they can, while excluding the points of view of those in opposition. And the names reflect that, eschewing the gray of every issue in favor of its black and white essence. Only bills that both sides can agree on in some limited way can garner the bipartisan coalition that passes for a majority these days. Even bills that seem to be slam dunks such as S4029, "Ban Chinese Communist Party Access to U.S. Military Students Act of 2024" or HR5925, "Make Putin Pay Act" have enough wiggle room in them to make passage difficult. 

Bold messaging is in, and bold action is out. If you want something to pass you need to take baby steps and be very sure that it will rile up no one on either side. It's only a matter of time before the only way to get something through is to bow to reality and call legislation what it really is, i.e. the "We Think China Is Bad, But Voters Love their iPhones, Tik Tok and Cheap Deck Lights So Let's Be Very Careful What We Do Act."

-END-

Marc Wollin of Bedford has no legislation he has sponsored pending. His column appears weekly via email and online http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/ and https://marcwollin.substack.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.