Democracy on Hold

The U.S. Senate recessed last week without concluding a lot of the legislative business on its plate.  Among the items on hold include the reauthorization of several Cabinet departments through annually required bills, as well as the vote on the extension of the Bush tax cuts.  On the other side of the Capitol Building, House Democratic leaders, including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, had to fight off a bipartisan effort against a procedural resolution.
This last minute crunch is nothing new to political observers.  What happens if we look at the long-term effects of such political procrastination, though?  If we draw these seemingly insignificant, commonplace congressional actions to their ends, it is strikingly apparent that procrastination in the U.S. Congress necessitates political compromise – it’s a convoluted form of democracy in action.
The failure of the Democratic Congress to vote on the extension of the tax cuts and the desperate passage of a procedural resolution that would enable the government to keep running through the midterm elections were both efforts with significant political implications.  House minority leader John Boehner threatened to use the adjournment vote against Democratic candidates in November’s elections; without addressing the tax cut issue, he contended, Democratic leaders were insulating themselves from possible Republican criticism on the campaign trail.  This last minute business wasn’t just on the House side, though – the U.S. Senate quickly passed a continuing spending bill that would keep the federal government functioning through October 1, when the new fiscal year begins.
The political ramifications of such last-minute procrastination are easily demonstrated in midterm election years such as this, especially on the campaign trail.  Allegations are flying back and forth between the parties, with each candidate in this year’s elections trying to spin the situation in their own way.  With Senators and Representatives not coming back to the Capitol until mid-November, the federal government’s problems are only being put on hold for the next two months.
The question nobody ever asks about this, though, is what happens when Congress comes back?  In the post-election euphoria or depression (depending on what party one affiliates with), the end resolution of these fiscal challenges is often overlooked.  What’s happened historically?  These pieces of legislation (such as the reauthorization bill) have been passed by the (sometimes new) majority party, despite potential minority disagreement.  Also, with a plethora of amendments remaining on the floor of the House and Senate undebated, these bills are often passed with simply the sake of passing legislation to appeal to the public mandate as a primary motivating factor.  Procrastination in the House and Senate necessitates political compromise, and not necessarily with all of the positive connotations that “compromise” usually carries.  Our democratic process is being put on hold – the public policy agenda is being sidelined for the sake of political gamesmanship; quite literally, so that our representatives and senators can go back home and run to keep their jobs.  In the meantime, executive departments are grossly inefficient, presidential campaign promises are being broken without Congressional response, and the future of America lies unaddressed.
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