This is extremely dangerous to our democracy

Saw this compilation of Sinclair media news stations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWLjYJ4BzvI

Thought it was relevant to the course.

Reid

Simulation: Day 4 and After

Good work!  Tonight's floor session starts promptly at 6:30 PM in Davidson Lecture Hall, on the first floor of Adams.  Because of family obligations, we need to finish absolutely no later than 9 PM (and a little earlier would be even better).

For Monday, please read Davidson, ch. 12.

Peer evaluation: On Monday, April 2 (the Monday after simulation) please bring in a short memo in which you identify three or four Gov 101 participants who did a particularly good job. Give a couple of sentences to each person you name, explaining why she or he stood out. Give special attention to those who did their work behind the scenes. Please take some care with these memos. In addition to using them for evaluating the assignment, I save them so that I may quote them in future letters of recommendation. Peer evaluations are anonymous: please bring in hardcopy and do not put your own name on the sheet.

Writeup: In analyzing your role in the simulation, please cover these points:

• How well did your positions and goals match those of your real-life counterpart?
• What methods did you use? In the circumstance that you dealt with, would your counterpart have done the same?
• What obstacles did you face?
• What did you achieve?
• How did the simulation both resemble and differ from the real world?
• Overall, what did you learn?

You may include relevant supporting materials, such as: memoranda, bill drafts, or strategy notes. (Better yet, just refer to material that is already online, and provide the URLs.) Please be selective here: do not include everything, just the key items.

• Essays should be double-spaced, and between 5 and 6 pages long. I will not read past the 6th page. (Supporting materials do not count against the page limit.) 
• Submit the writeups as Word documents, not pdfs.
• Cite outside sources with Turabian endnotes.
• Watch your spelling, grammar, diction, and punctuation. Errors will count against you.
• Return essays to the class Sakai dropbox by 11:59 PM, Friday April 13. Your grade for the simulation will drop one gradepoint for one day's lateness, a full grade after that.

The 2018 Simulation on Social Media!

Press coverage at THE CUBE @thecubeCMC ‏ AND http://theclaremontcube.blogspot.com/
Armed Services
Democrats

• Jack Reed, RI, chair @ClaremontReed ‏ 
• Kirsten Gillibrand, NY  @GillibrandCMC ‏ 
• Tim Kaine, VA  @thefaketimkaine ‏
• Elizabeth Warren, MA  @LizzyWarrenCMC ‏ 

Republicans

• John McCain, AZ, RMM  @jmccain_CMC ‏ 
• Tom Cotton, AR  @ComTotton_Sim ‏
• Joni Ernst, IA  @JoniErnstCMC ‏ 

Finance Committee

Democrats

• Ron Wyden OR, chair  @ClaremontWyden ‏ 
• Charles Schumer NY, majority leader*  @ClaremontChuck ‏
• Debbie Stabenow MI  @SenStagenow ‏ 
• Maria Cantwell WA  @CMCCANTWELL ‏ 
• Claire McCaskill MO  @rascalMcCaskill ‏

Republicans

• Orrin Hatch UT, RMM  @NotOrrinHatch ‏
• Mitch McConnell, KY, minority leader*  @MinorityMitch
• John Cornyn, TX  @FakeCornyn
• Tim Scott, SC  @NotTimScott ‏

Judiciary Committee

Democrats

• Dianne Feinstein, CA, chair  @dfeinsteincmc ‏ 
• Dick Durbin, IL @ClaremontDurbin ‏
• Cory Booker, NJ  @ClaremontCoryB ‏ 
• Kamala Harris, CA @klaremontkamala 

Republicans

• Chuck Grassley IA, RMM J @NotSenGrassley ‏ 
• Ted Cruz, TX @SimulationTed ‏ 
• Lindsey Graham, SC @FakeSenGraham

Simulation Day One

I hope everyone is preparing for their State of the Union aerobics tonight! Here is a link to a New York Times analysis of the applause during Trump's State of the Union earlier this year.

See Page 297 of Davidson and the 3/7 Blog Post

At The Washington Post, Aaron Blake reports that the Secretary of the Treasury does not know much about the item veto.

[I]n discussing the topic with Chris Wallace, Mnuchin appeared unfamiliar with even the basics of the line-item veto, which was struck down by the Supreme Court in the 1990s.
Here's the exchange:

MNUCHIN: As you heard him say, he's not planning on [signing an omnibus] again. I think they should give the president a line-item veto. These things should be looked at —
WALLACE: But that's been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, sir.
MNUCHIN: Well, again, Congress could pass a rule, okay, that allows them to do it. But —
WALLACE: No, no, sir, it would be a constitutional amendment.
MNUCHIN: Chris, we don't — we don't need to get into a debate in terms of — there's different ways of doing this. My comment is, it's clear what happened.

Two things.

First, Mnuchin's comment that Congress could simply pass a rule is wrong. Even if you consider proposing a constitutional amendment to be “passing a rule,” it would require two-thirds majorities of both chambers and ratification by 38 out of 50 states. In other words, Congress can't do this on its own.

The second thing is that Mnuchin seems to suggest there is a “debate” to be had about the “different ways of doing this.” But there isn't — not really.

“Mnuchin probably doesn’t know that there was a real-life experiment in the 1990s that answered this question,” said Robert Spitzer, an expert on presidential vetoes who has written about President Bill Clinton's failed effort to use a line-term veto. Spitzer said Clinton used the line-item veto on 10 bills and about 80 different provisions in 1997 before the Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional in the 1998 case Clinton v. City of New York.

Montana Governor Steve Bullock on Vlogbrothers and Trump Asks Congress to Restore Line-Item Veto

Steve Bullock appeared in an interview on the vlogbrothers Youtube channel. He emphasized his focus on practical politics, but also the numerous progressive policies he helped implement in a red state. Does pursuing this national platform specifically geared towards younger viewers indicate future plans for this term-limited governor?

https://www.npr.org/2018/03/23/596401989/trump-threatens-veto-of-spending-deal

The same day, President Trump asked Congress to restore the line-item veto, which we discussed in class and that the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in 1998.

Congress and the Executive II

Nominations and Removals

• PAS and non-PAS
• The Decision of 1789 -- president does not need approval for firings
• Could Trump order the firing of Mueller? (Yep) Precedent: The Saturday Night Massacre
• A key exception: Independent regulatory commissions: Humphrey's Executor v. US
• Remember: INDEPENDENT AGENCIES AND INDEPENDENT REGULATORY COMMISSIONS ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS. 

Legislative Controls

• Inspectors General (POTUS WAS DISPLEASED!)
• Congress "organizes" the executive:
• "Drug Czar"
• The "organization" of DHS.
• DNI and the intelligence community

Regulation

• Federal Register and Code of Federal Regulations
• Net Neutrality, for example
• The process (shorter form in Davidson 334):

Federal Register pages by decade:

Congressional Review Act (Thurber, pp. 106-16)

• Bypasses lengthy APA, disapproval resolutions not subject to filibuster
• Relatively ineffective ... until 2017
• Turnabout: Dems want to use it to overturn the net neutrality rule

Sim Stuff

Spring 2018 Simulation 

Additional information here

Schedule  

PLEASE USE ONLY THE RESERVED ROOMS.

Monday, March 26

6:30-7:00 State of the Union and Democratic Response   Roberts North 15
7:00-9:00  Committee meetings Kravis 166, 167, 168

Tuesday, March 276:30-9:00   Committee hearings Kravis 166, 167, 168

Wednesday,  March 28 6:30-9:00   Committee markups Kravis 166, 167, 168

Thursday, March 296:30-9:00   Floor session  Adams Hall, Davidson Lecture

SET UP TWITTER ACCOUNTS -- FOLLOW THESE GUIDELINES

Roles

Armed Services Committee

Democrats

• Jack Reed, RI, chair  Kai O'Neill
• Kirsten Gillibrand, NY Sarah Malott
• Tim Kaine, VA Talha Jilani
• Elizabeth Warren, MA Ellie Wainstein

Republicans

• John McCain, AZ, RMM Chloe Amarilla
• Tom Cotton, AR Mickey McFall
• Joni Ernst, IA Matthew May

Finance Committee

Democrats

• Ron Wyden OR, chair Alec Lopata
• Charles Schumer NY, majority leader* Julia McCarthy
• Debbie Stabenow MI Skyler Addison [from the parties class]
• Maria Cantwell WA Jacob Brady
• Claire McCaskill MO Nick Sage

Republicans

• Orrin Hatch UT, RMM Reid Dickerson
• Mitch McConnell, KY, minority leader* Charlie Harris
• John Cornyn, TX Mica Laber
• Tim Scott, SC Kyleigh Mann

Judiciary Committee

Democrats

• Dianne Feinstein, CA, chair Anna Green
• Dick Durbin, IL Betzy Perez
• Cory Booker, NJ McKenzie Deutsch
• Kamala Harris, CA Becky Shane

Republicans

• Chuck Grassley IA, RMM Jenna Lewinstein
• Ted Cruz, TX Nicole Larson
• Lindsey Graham, SC Gretta Richardson

I NAIL: Checking the Executive

I NAIL:  Impeachment, Nominations, Appropriations, Investigations, Legislation

Impeachment

• The Constitution
• Gerald R. Ford: "An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history."
• House role
• Senate role
• Clinton

Nominations 

• Extent of confirmation power
• Nominations: Senate data
• Cabinet nominations rejected or withdrawn
• Hearings:  Whitehouse and White; DeVos

Appropriations

• Limitation riders

Investigation and Oversight

• GAO -- video
• CBO
• CRS
• Diminished institutional capacity

Legislation:  Executive Branch Organization and Laws on Reporting 

• Inspectors General  (POTUS WAS DISPLEASED!)
• Reporting requirements
• Congress "organizes" the executive:
  -- "Drug Czar"
-- The "organization" of DHS.
-- DNI and the intelligence community

Democratic inter-Party conflict over Dodd-Frank roll back bill

Elizabeth Warren is leading the campaign against a bipartisan bill (S.2155 Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act) that will roll back key parts of the 2010 Dodd Frank financial regulation reforms. There is no evidence that mid to small sized banks have struggled to recover in recent years; when this bill was introduced community banks recorded a 9% increase in profits and larger banks recorded record-setting revenues in 2016. Nonetheless, it is worth noting that the financial sector spent a record-setting $2 billion on lobbying in the 2015-2016 election cycle. With several red-state Democrats facing election this fall (Heitkamp, Manchin, McCaskill, Tester, Donnelly, etc.), and a lull in the banking regulation issue cycle, the bill stands to challenge the Democratic Party's unification on economic policy in light of Trump-era economic populism.

This brings us to where we are today; this week Warren sent out a fundraising email decrying Democrats who support S.2155, followed by a caucus meeting where the Party's disagreements were laid bare. Senator Schumer, who publicly opposes the bill, but also received the most financial sector lobbying donations of any Congressman in the 2015-2016 cycle, has recently urged Warren to focus her attack on the bills policies rather than fellow Democratic senators. Schumer is facing the biggest rift in the Democratic caucus since his tenure as minority leader. His solution thus far has been to allow moderate Democratic backers to "do what they got to do." Critics are split over whether Schumer should have done more to shut down the inter-party conflict, while others question the Democratic message bend towards pro-corporations in the eyes of liberal activists.

The bill will likely pass the Senate (currently 16 Dem supporters). The Democrats will undoubtedly push the message that the bill is intended to help small to mid-sized banks in rural areas in spite of news exposing big corporation benefits such as expanding restrictions barring consumer lawsuits against companies like Equifax. Economic policy will be a big topic this midterm season, and especially come 2020, it will be interesting to see how the Democratic Party aligns progressive ideology with the need to appease big donors and incorporate an agenda to re-invigorate working class Trump voters. 

Congress and the Executive II

More on Vetoes.  See Newt Gingrich, Lessons Learned the Hard Way (1998):

We had not only failed to take into account the ability of the Senate to delay us and obstruct us, but we had much too cavalierly underrated the power of the President, even a President who had lost his legislative majority and was in a certain amount of trouble for other reasons. I am speaking of the power of the veto. Even if you pass something through both the House and the Senate, there is that presidential pen. How could we have forgotten that? For me especially it was inexcusable, because when I was Republican whip during the Bush Administration one of my duties had been precisely to help sustain presidential vetoes.

1.  Item Veto (Davidson 297)




2.  Legislative veto and the Congressional Review Act (more after the break)

Unilateral Power:  Executive Actions

Forms of executive action

• Executive orders
• Presidential proclamations
• Presidential memoranda
• Agency memoranda (DACA)

But what one administration does unilaterally, another administration can undo unilaterally

• Reversal of DACA

Courts can also undo actions.  The case of DAPA:US v. Texas\

They can also undo the  undoing: The case of DACA.

Signing statements

Congress and the Executive I

LBJ orders some pants.

The simulation manual

Make use of institutional memory:

• Fall 2016 Simulation
• Spring 2016 Simulation
• "House of Claremont" -- the 2014 simulation
• Blog posts and video of 2009 simulation
• Video of 2008 simulation

Article I and Article II

Hamilton in Federalist 8: "It is of the nature of war to increase the executive at the expense of the legislative authority."

LBJ and negotiation

Trump

Statements of Administration Policy

1— Strongly Support Passage
2— Support Passage
3— Do not Object to Passage
4— No Position on Passage
5— Oppose
6— Strongly Oppose
7— Secretary’s veto Threat (single and multiple agency)
8— Senior Advisor’s Veto Threat
9— Presidential Veto Threat

CQ on presidential success (see Thurber, pp. 14-15)

From CQ:

Of all Senate votes (117), 36 percent were taken with knowledge of where the president stood on the issue. For the Senate, that is the highest score for a president’s first year since Ronald Reagan’s 128 in 1981.

When nominations are weeded out, the Senate voted 23 times knowing Trump’s position (10 percent). But only 19.7 percent of Senate votes cast with the president’s stance known were not nomination votes, the second-lowest total in three decades.

Senate Republicans opened the floodgates for nominations, giving Trump 94 confirmation floor votes last year, compared to 44 for Obama in the last two years of his presidency while the chamber was under GOP control.