Where Is Congress?

Congress is at a crossroads. For decades, it has gradually been ceding its power to the executive branch. Stymied by gridlock and partisan antics, the people’s branch has struggled to fulfill even its basic duty of passing legislation. What it has done is open the door for the executive to maneuver policy changes through unilateral action.

Now, Congress is faced with an administration that is working to expand executive power at an unprecedented speed.

In the weeks since President Donald Trump’s inauguration, he and his administration have implemented an extraordinary number of actions and policies that have further consolidated power in the presidency. The administration has made significant cuts to federal agencies created and funded by Congress, gutted the federal watchdog system, and exploited emergency powers to consolidate power in the presidency. And Congress has let this happen.

This is an enormous mistake, one that imperils our system of government. 

Congress is tasked with creating the laws that govern our nation and setting the budget that steers government functions. Yet it is surrendering that ground to the executive branch.

Congress is supposed to be a check on executive power, conducting oversight, vetting and voting on nominees, and holding executive branch officials accountable for corruption and misconduct. Yet this Congress has shown little interest in fulfilling these obligations.

It is also the branch closest to the people, and members of Congress are elected to be our fiercest advocates in Washington, D.C. But they might as well stay home if they won’t do the work entrusted to them.

It seems Congress does not care just how far the Trump administration is overreaching.

But it’s clear this stunning effort to dramatically expand presidential power will have ramifications far beyond any individual president’s time in office. Unless it immediately wakes up and takes action, Congress will see its power radically diminished in the long run, ceding even further the Constitution’s checks and balances to let the weight of power fall disproportionately to the president. 

This chronic inaction weakens our democracy. 

If our representatives value their commitment to their constituents, surely they will do more to protect the power of Congress and its members’ ability to serve the people they were elected to represent. If the 119th Congress continues to refuse to do its job, the damage it inflicts will endure long after individual members leave the Capitol.

Congress Keeps Conceding

A few recent examples show how little this Congress has actually done to protect checks and balances — and how much harm an unchecked presidential administration can do.

The Constitution grants Congress the power of the purse — the power to dictate how tax dollars are spent across the federal government. Yet Trump has trampled all over this authority, slashing agencies created by Congress and freezing grants and contracts funded by Congress’s budget. Congress’s reaction to these overreaches so far has been weak. And if they are serious about protecting their power of the purse, members of Congress should enact reforms that will make it harder for the executive branch to illegally ignore Congress’s spending decisions without consequences. 

Congress has also chosen to stand by as the Trump administration has found another way to circumvent it, though this strategy is nothing new. Congress has given the executive an array of authorities to address emergencies that previous presidents on both sides of the aisle have exploited to carry out some of the worst abuses in the nation’s history. But Congress seems determined not to learn from the past. Its failure to restrict when a president can declare an emergency enabled Trump to abuse his authority to skate past congressional approval and fuel his immigration agenda, deploying battle-ready troops to our border with Mexico. Trump is also utilizing the draconian Alien Enemies Act to speed up deportations, demonstrating why Congress should have repealed this unconstitutional law a long time ago. It’s abundantly clear that Congress needs to push back and pass reforms to ensure this can never happen again. 

Congress should also more aggressively push back on Trump’s move to fire a slew of inspectors general, which flouted laws designed to ensure the watchdogs remain independent. The news cycle has moved on, but the impact of this attack on oversight will continue for years to come, and it’s not too late for Congress to act. Congress created an independent inspector general system to help it hold the executive branch accountable. It then passed two additional laws meant to ensure that these watchdogs can investigate corruption and abuse of power and report it to Congress without fear of losing their jobs. Yet members of Congress barely made a peep when Trump trampled all over these legally required protections, and they have barely spoken up in any meaningful way since.

This is not how our system of checks and balances is supposed to work. 

If members of Congress care about their duty to represent their constituents in the federal government, they need to fight back against these egregious abuses of power. If Congress sits idly by, it will render itself obsolete.  

The recognition of this problem has been sparse. One senator put a hold on State Department nominees. And some senators have asked the Trump administration and Elon Musk to send proposed cuts to Congress so members can vote to make those cuts permanent, through what’s called the rescissions process. 

But rubber stamping the administration's proposals is not enough. Members of Congress must band together to protect the power of the legislative branch.

The Senate should hold up additional nominees to compel the administration to comply with the law and the Constitution. Members should fulfill their duty to conduct oversight of the executive branch by holding hearings that tackle real issues of corruption and abuse of power. They should refuse to write blank checks for the executive branch to carry out its agenda without further input from Congress. And Congress should pass legislation to close loopholes in the law that have emboldened this administration to amass power in the executive branch. 

The status quo — Congress yielding its power to the executive branch — is untenable. The people’s representatives in Washington must claw back their power from the executive branch if they want Congress to survive.