OPINION: For Congress, Now Comes the Hard Part

The early days of a new presidential administration attract a lot of attention from the media and ordinary Americans. The months of speculation since the election about what lies ahead are over; now it’s reality. But equally riveting is what’s going on in Congress, which must react to presidential initiatives, vet nominees, and put its own stamp on public policy. This year, more than any I can remember, will test Congress. Let’s lay out the basics. In Donald Trump, we have a president who has made it clear since long before last November’s election that he intends to upend the federal government and overturn not just longstanding policies, but the longstanding norms and procedures that developed over the decades to keep our representative government healthy. Meanwhile, in Congress, we have a GOP-led Senate that — despite the occasional suggestion of an independent mindset — appears ready to give Trump the benefit of the doubt, and a GOP-led House that is so closely divided (much like the electorate as a whole) that one or two absences due to illness could have a profound effect on the course of legislation. All of which makes the future of policy-making this year — let alone of the federal government — highly uncertain. Before we get into the details, I want to say that I believe our representative democracy is one of the greatest concepts humans have developed for the pursuit of governance, the creation of public policy, and the ideal of self-government. It’s hard to make it work: It’s messy, time-consuming, often frustrating, and prone to the political winds of a given moment. This presents us with a unique challenge: to safeguard it, improve it, and run an effective government. There’s no alternative to fall back upon. This is the only system we’ve got to help us solve the problems that confront us. So we may be in for a time of great turmoil, as we get a government leadership that has, at various times, called into question the purpose and legitimacy of the federal government. At the very least, some of the presidential nominees coming before Congress have suggested an impatience with process and procedure as they pursue a series of highly controversial goals. Trump’s pick to run the Office of Management and Budget, [the now confirmed Russell Vought], proposes what amounts to an unfettered presidency when it comes to the budget — even if it means essentially countermanding spending passed by Congress. Meanwhile, the billionaire in charge of President Trump’s cost-cutting commission, Elon Musk has little taste for Congressional guardrails as he contemplates deep cuts to federal programs and the federal workforce. Trump himself, never known for relishing the details of governance, has signaled that he’d like Congress to pass big portions of his agenda — everything from border security to energy deregulation to tax cuts for the wealthy to “reimagining” the Affordable Care Act, to possible huge cuts to entitlements like Medicaid — in a single bill or, at most, two. None of these will be easy to enact. Democrats, still unsettled by the elections, haven’t yet coalesced around an approach to the new administration — especially on issues like border security — but on matters where they’re able to stick together in opposition over the next few months, House Speaker Mike Johnson will at best be able to lose a couple of GOP votes. And although the Trump administration will undoubtedly pull out all the stops to keep Republicans in line, the GOP caucus — especially in the House — hasn’t exactly been notable for its unity, though Johnson has made clear through committee appointments that he expects loyalty. Which is fine. It’s not as fashionable as it used to be on Capitol Hill to value the constitutional prerogatives of Congress — especially when party loyalty or the politics of the moment get in the way. But our system of checks and balances was set up for a reason, and it’s been a bulwark protecting our representative democracy from overreach. The new administration will test Congress’s belief in its own power; here’s hoping members of both the House and the Senate understand what’s at stake for themselves and the American people.       

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Lee Hamilton, 93, is a senior advisor for the Indiana University (IU) Center on Representative Government, distinguished scholar at the IU Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, and professor of practice at the IU O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Hamilton, a Democrat, was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years (1965-1999), representing a district in south-central Indiana.