There may not be much Americans agree on this political season — or any other — but a general disdain for Congress is near the top of the list.
Understanding why is easy: constant gridlock, delayed action on issues, personal conflict between members, crucial matters remaining unaddressed, the lowest number of bills passed and signed into law in decades.
Fixing it seems harder, but two Illinois lawmakers are asking colleagues to adopt a relatively simple process that worked before to improve how Congress functions.
U.S. Reps. Darin LaHood, R-Peoria, and Dan Lipinski, D-Western Springs, introduced a measure this week to set up a joint House-Senate panel, equally divided between Republicans and Democrats, to recommend reforms to make the legislative bodies, in LaHood’s words, "more efficient, effective and accountable."
Doing so mirrors a process that successfully led to reforms in 1946, 1970 and 1995.
"It’s the one way Congress has always successfully made major changes," said Mark Strand, the president of the nonpartisan Congressional Institute that is supporting the proposal. "Every 20 years or so, the system starts to break down. … The way Congress has always (worked on fixing that) was through this joint committee."
Some of the reasoning for such a committee is evident.
"Americans understand that the legislative process is not working when they see Congress continually waiting until the last minute to address major issues, and sometimes not acting at all as we saw with the government shutdown a couple of years ago," Lipinski said. "Just this week, we pushed to the brink of a government shutdown and then put off action on spending for (the new fiscal year) until the lame duck session after the election."
Though the Congressional Institute has suggestions for places to look for fixes — as do plenty of other groups — what is particularly important to the backers is that there is no set agenda.
"There’s no mandate on what (members) have to do," LaHood said. "It’s just an opportunity for people to give ideas."
Those ideas, if they attract bipartisan support, would later be forwarded to leaders for a vote.
While the measure was introduced in the waning days of this congressional session — members are home on recess to campaign into November and will return for a brief, lame-duck session after the election — it’s expected to be re-introduced in January.
The whole initiative has gathered support from members of leadership in each party — Strand said having Paul Ryan, a policy wonk, as speaker, is an instance of having "the right speaker at the right time" for the proposal to move forward — but frustration from rank-and-file lawmakers also is at a high.
"There’s no one happy," Strand said. "The conditions are such that it’s broken down to the point that no one enjoys being here."
Past members of both chambers are supportive, including former Senate leaders Tom Daschle and Trent Lott, who recently co-authored a book on fixing American government, and former House Minority Leader and longtime Peoria Congressman Bob Michel.
Citizen frustration being at a peak — with a corresponding chasm in public approval for Congress — helps as well, with Lipinski, a former American government professor, noting that "it doesn’t take a student of Congress to understand that the legislative body is not working effectively for the American people."
LaHood says he hears similar messages, and this offers an opportunity to respond credibly and with concrete results.
"When people say 'What are you doing to change things, what are you doing to fix things?' … this is a way that internally we can address this problem," he said.
Ultimately, proposed solutions are likely to run the gamut.
"There’s some simple ones, there’s some low-hanging fruit, there’s some others that are a lot more complicated," Strand said.
But the message from all three is similar: Congress needs to start legislating again.
Chris Kaergard covers politics and government. He can be reached at 686-3255 and ckaergard@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisKaergard.
