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Congress has been deadlocked for 12½ years (i.e. since January 2011) due to the Senate filibuster. Don't expect any meaningful¹ non-budgetary law to be passed u

Congress has been deadlocked for 12½ years (i.e. since January 2011) due to the Senate filibuster. Don't expect any meaningful¹ non-budgetary law to be passed until the filibuster² is gone. Since Congress is in a comatose state, executive branch agencies have come to rely on Chevron deference and related doctrines, and the people on the courts to expand executive branch authority. ¹ Congress manages to pass a few non-budgetary laws that have broad³ bipartisan appeal, but this has the effect of excluding most meaningful legislation ² the repeal of which Sinema and Manchin blocked; so its repeal is contingent on Democrats winning a few more Senate seats ³ broad, due to the Senate filibuster, and the Hastert rule in the House: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hastert_Rule https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hastert_Rule

nostromo 3y ago
This is false. Congress continues to pass a record number of bills, and often does so with broad bipartisan support. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acts_of_the_117th_United_States_Congress https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acts_of_the_117th_Unit... The current situation is not at all special or ahistorical. Every president since the founding has probably felt tempted to become a dictator and work around congress out of frustration -- thankfully we have the court system to (usually) shut them down.
- winter_blue 3y ago
  Many of the significant bills in the Wikipedia article are budgetary bills, which are not subject to the Senate filibuster. I suspect the current Congress has not passed any meaningful non-budgetary legislation. Some of the most important pending bills include restoring the Voting Rights Act (which was crippled by the conservative wing of the Supreme Court in the Shelby County v. Holder decision). That bill is still being blocked by the Republican party. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lewis_Voting_Rights_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lewis_Voting_Rights_Act The Voting Rights Act used to be a bill that was renewed with bipartisan support, but once the Republican party realized that the invalidation of this bill made it easier to suppress minority votes in red states, they've been opposed to its renewal.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]

nostromo 3y ago

This is false. Congress continues to pass a record number of bills, and often does so with broad bipartisan support. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acts_of_the_117th_United_States_Congress https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acts_of_the_117th_Unit... The current situation is not at all special or ahistorical. Every president since the founding has probably felt tempted to become a dictator and work around congress out of frustration -- thankfully we have the court system to (usually) shut them down.

winter_blue 3y ago
Many of the significant bills in the Wikipedia article are budgetary bills, which are not subject to the Senate filibuster. I suspect the current Congress has not passed any meaningful non-budgetary legislation. Some of the most important pending bills include restoring the Voting Rights Act (which was crippled by the conservative wing of the Supreme Court in the Shelby County v. Holder decision). That bill is still being blocked by the Republican party. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lewis_Voting_Rights_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lewis_Voting_Rights_Act The Voting Rights Act used to be a bill that was renewed with bipartisan support, but once the Republican party realized that the invalidation of this bill made it easier to suppress minority votes in red states, they've been opposed to its renewal.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]