Congress and Administration

Limitation riders in the news today:  "If you don't like what's being said, change the conversation." -- Don Draper

Very useful resources from Brookings:

• Turnover Tracker
• Deregulation Tracker
• House Oversight Tracker (more in the week after sim)

More on Nominations and Removals

• PAS and non-PAS
• The Decision of 1789 -- president does not need approval for firings
• Could Trump have ordered 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. 

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):

One measure:  pages in the Federal Register

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

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

Congress and the Bureaucracy: NAIL

The Barr Memo

NAIL:   Nominations, Appropriations, Investigations, Legislation

Nominations 

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• Cabinet nominations rejected or withdrawn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

Appropriations

• Limitation riders and the case of ACA

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

Calls for Adam Schiff to resign

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and White House counselor Kellyanne Conway call for Rep. Adam Schiff to resign because of his comments throughout the Mueller investigation stating that plenty of evidence existed proving that the President colluded with Russia.

McCarthy:

"[Schiff] owes the American public an apology...Schiff has met the standard that he has imposed on other members of Congress of when they should step back from their positions. He has exceeded that standard, and there is no question he should step down from the Intel chairmanship."

Conway:

"Adam Schiff should resign...He has no right as somebody who has been peddling a lie day after day after day unchallenged. Unchallenged and not under oath. Somebody should have put him under oath and said you have evidence, where is it?... He’s been on every TV show 50 times a day for practically the last two years, promising Americans that this president would either be impeached or indicted."

This morning, Trump retweeted a Fox news clip that called for Schiff's resignation.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/25/kellyanne-conway-adam-schiff-resign-1234370

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/435578-conway-calls-on-schiff-to-resign-over-past-collusion-comments

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1110200331328208897

"Welcome to the Minority"

Melanie Zanona and Sarah Ferris at Politico:

During the last two sessions of Congress, Democrat Bobby Rush and Republican Richard Hudson introduced legislation together to improve workforce-training programs.
But this year, Rush altered the language to the bill and stripped out a previous key element: Hudson.

“He reintroduced it, and he’s added all this money to it, and didn’t consult me,” the North Carolina Republican said.

Hudson is among several frustrated Republicans who have lashed out at their Democratic colleagues in recent days, arguing that Democrats have shut them out of the legislative process by refusing to work cooperatively on bills — including some they once co-authored.

Republicans claim Democrats, at the direction of their leadership, are determined to deny GOP incumbents any big victories heading into 2020 on a host of issues — from prescription drugs to immigration reform — and are dropping the bipartisan approach they seemed to promise during the last election.

Democrats have one response: Welcome to the minority.

Battle over Mueller's probe moves to Capitol Hill

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/24/mueller-report-congress-impeachment-1233879The partisan battle over the results of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation broke out within seconds of the Justice Department’s letter on “topline” findings reaching Capitol Hill on Sunday afternoon.


Two things were quickly clear: first, the end of Mueller’s exhaustive two-year probe means the political war over whether to impeach President Donald Trump - a battle that has already begun to consume Congress since Democrats took control of the House in November - is only just beginning; and secondly, Mueller gave both sides enough to keep pounding their own message for weeks and months to come.


For Republicans, the message from the Mueller report was clear and insistent - “The country needs to move on.” Meanwhile, Democrats immediately countered with “Release the whole Mueller report.” The struggle is now over which side wins that messaging war with the American public.

Sim Schedule

Spring 2019 Simulation 

Additional information here

Schedule  

PLEASE USE ONLY THE RESERVED ROOMS.

Monday, April 1

6:30-7:00 State of the Union and Democratic Response  Adams Hall, Davidson Lecture
7:00-9:00  Committee meetings Kravis 101, 103

Tuesday, April 2

6:30-9:00   Committee hearings Kravis 161, 166

Wednesday,  April 3

6:30-9:00   Committee markups Kravis 161, 166

Thursday, April 4

6:30-9:00   Floor session  Roberts North 15

SET UP TWITTER ACCOUNTS -- FOLLOW THESE GUIDELINES

House votes unanimously for public release of the Mueller report

Today (Thursday, 3/14), the House voted 420-0 in support of a resolution "Expressing the sense of Congress that the report of Special Counsel Mueller should be made available to the public and to Congress." The resolution is non-binding and the Senate is under no obligation to consider it, but it could create extra political pressure on the Attorney General to release Mueller's findings publicly. While there were zero "no" votes, seven members were absent and four members voted "present": libertarian-leaning Republican Reps. Thomas Massie and Justin Amash, Trumpkin Rep. Matt Gaetz, and family-man Rep. Paul Gosar.

How to Ask Questions in a Hearing

How to shred an unprepared witness:




 How to elicit useful information:

Congress and the Executive II: Unilateral Power

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 -- CURRENT ISSUE OF EMERGENCY

Republican Senators are overthinking tomorrow’s vote on National Emergency. It is very simply Border Security/No Crime - Should not be thought of any other way. We have a MAJOR NATIONAL EMERGENCY at our Border and the People of our Country know it very well!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2019

Forms of executive action

• National security (Thurber 84-91)
• Executive orders
• Presidential proclamations  
• National Emergencies Act: special powers (Thurber, pp. 83-84)
• National emergency
• Signing statements -- Trump examples
• Presidential memoranda  and Trump examples
• Agency memoranda (DACA)

But what one administration does unilaterally, another administration can try to undo unilaterally:

• Reversal of DACA

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

Courts can also undo the undoing: The case of DACA and the APA. (more on APA after spring break)

Nancy Pelosi Interview with the Washington Post

In an interview with the Washington Post yesterday, Nancy Pelosi revealed a lot of her thoughts of the current political climate, including Trump's fit for office, the border wall and her time as minority (and now majority) leader. 

Pelosi said that she does not support impeachment because it would be "so divisive to the country." She'd only go down that road if something turned up that's "compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan." We have discussed impeachment in class with Gingrich and Clinton; the impeachment trials backfired heavily for Republicans, and it is worth considering if Pelosi has this history in mind. 

Pelosi often does not speak at length about Trump, but this interview was much different. Pelosi certainly had political motivations to speak at-length and personally about the President's poor conduct in office, especially as the 2020 election approaches. 

Link to interview

Congress and the Executive I

The simulation manual

Make use of institutional memory:

• Spring 2018 simulation review
• 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 this morning:

Republican Senators have a very easy vote this week. It is about Border Security and the Wall (stopping Crime, Drugs etc.), not Constitutionality and Precedent. It is an 80% positive issue. The Dems are 100% United, as usual, on a 20% issue, Open Borders and Crime. Get tough R’s!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 11, 2019

Statements of Administration Policy (Trump examples)

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)

Presidential approval and the "decay curve"


Also note:

Polarization

The way it used to be:

The Senate GOP and the Green New Deal

McConnell is asked the why Green New Deal is getting a vote, but HR-1 isn't, although he is opposed to both measures.

"Because, I get to decide what we vote on," McConnell said.

— Jess Bidgood (@jessbidgood) March 6, 2019

Joni Ernst is awarding this month’s “Squeal Award” to the Green New Deal! pic.twitter.com/3Z1cSivkxz

— Erica Werner (@ericawerner) March 6, 2019

T-2 Weeks to Tax Return Fight

The House Judiciary Committee on Monday requested documents from more than 80 people and organizations to launch a broad probe into abuses of power by President Trump.

Oversight efforts won't stop there, though, as Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) said yesterday that the House Ways and Means Committee will demand Trump's tax returns in two weeks. The request will be based on 26 U.S. Code § 6103 (f) (1), which reads, in part:

"Upon written request from the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives, the chairman of the Committee on Finance of the Senate, or the chairman of the Joint Committee on Taxation, the [Treasury] Secretary shall furnish such committee with any return or return information specified in such request"

One remaining ambiguity is whether the committee chairman, Richard Neal (D-MA), will request only the President's personal returns or his business filings as well, which would be more complicated but also potentially more revealing. POLITICO reports, "a Treasury Department spokesperson said that Secretary Steven Mnuchin will review the legality of any request for Trump’s returns with Treasury attorneys." They will almost certainly challenge the legality of the requests.

McConnell "Nuclear Option," also Bloomberg (!)

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/06/trump-mcconnell-judges-1205722

"The Senate is on track to confirm the 34th Circuit Court judge of Trump’s presidency in the next week and the GOP has three more ready for floor action; that would give Trump roughly 20 percent of the Circuit Court seats in the country after just two years in office. At this rate, McConnell and Trump could leave few, if any, vacancies there for a potential Democratic president in 2021."

The Republicans only need a simple majority to change the Senate rules. Apparently, McConnell is prepared to move to change the rules if the Democrats resist during the next nomination.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-03-05/our-highest-office-my-deepest-obligation

"Now, I will take the next big steps. First, I will expand my support for the Beyond Coal campaign so that we can retire every single coal-fired power plant over the next 11 years. That’s not a pipe dream. We can do it. And second, I will launch a new, even more ambitious phase of the campaign — Beyond Carbon: a grassroots effort to begin moving America as quickly as possible away from oil and gas and toward a 100 percent clean energy economy."

I wonder how this will affect Democrats in Trump areas if Bloomberg's actively trying to close coal power plants.

The Art of the Political Deal

Second-gen simulation

Talk to alums of the simulation (A couple of folks from the 2016 sim are still on campus)

A reprise of our class anthem:



And to repeat:  Conditions for Deliberative Negotiation (Lawrence, p. 14)

• Acceptable sources of information. 
• Repeated interactions 
• Penalty defaults
• Privacy

Integrative Negotiation:  It takes a logjam to logroll.

Budget sequestration

Murray-Ryan:  A summary

Coda:  They pretty much gave up on deficit control

Crisis and Scandal as a Prod to Action

Sanders and McCain find a deal

Bernie Sanders and John McCain

Policy Windows and  The Issue-Attention Cycle




Public Lands Case Study

Most public lands are in the West:

 

Public Lands 2019

A couple of quotations about Congress and life in general:

• "At some point somebody has to decide, let's do it the old-fashioned way, which is `one thing I hate for one thing I love.'" (Lawrence, p. 39)
• "Here's a list of what we have to have. Here's a list of the ones we really, really hate. Here's a list of `if you put this language on page 4 we could swallow it.' And then you work that list." (Lawrence, pp. 40-41).

The vehicle

The writeup  -- summary of provisions (and an illustration of Archive.org)

The 2014 farm bill and the "dairy cliff"

Senator Jim Risch (R-ID)

Jim Risch, Wisconsin born but a Junior Senator from Idaho, entered politics at age 27 when he was elected to the post of prosecuting attorney in Ada County, Idaho. His law degree pushed him forward in his political career. He went on to serve in many statewide elected positions— State Senator, Lieutenant Governor, and for a short time Governor of Idaho. In 2008 he ran a successful campaign to the US Senate where he has served since. 

Risch is a staunch conservative who serves as the Chairman on the Foreign Relations Committee. You can nearly always expect him to vote with the Republican Party. He is a Trump supporter and tends to side with the President on most of his big and controversial decisions. He serves as a mediator between congressional Republicans and the President, urging his congressional counterparts to support Trump’s policy goals and ambitions. His tactics for bridging this divide are not always the most orthodox; he has been known to twist the truth in order to achieve peace. 

So far as policy goes, he was one of 22 senators who signed a letter requesting that the President pull out of the Paris trade agreement. He backed President Trumps aggressive tactic in dealing with North Korea. He helped to introduce legislation that would put sanctions on Syria in the wake of the Bashar al-Assad scandal, legislation that would also bolster US relations with Israel and Jordan. This came after he was criticized for his initial reaction to the crisis, in which he was basically quoted by saying that the President wasn’t wrong to not question al-Assad’s version of events. 

Per my research, there exist many heavily written op ed’s which cite him as being a chairman who understands foreign relations well but repeatedly ignores good policy options in favor of worse ones. 

Actions in the Public Sphere: The Case of Antivax Documentaries

Caitlin Owens at Axios Vitals:

Amazon is the latest tech company to crack down on content spreading false information about vaccines from its platform.

• Buzzfeed News reported on Friday that anti-vax documentaries were available on Amazon Prime Video on Friday morning, but appeared to have been removed by the afternoon.

• Around noon, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) — chairman of the House Intelligence Committee — sent a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos expressing concern that the company was "surfacing and recommending products and content that discourage parents from vaccinating their children, a direct threat to public health."

The big picture: Amazon's actions follow similar ones taken by other tech companies like Google and Facebook, which have also taken steps to reduce the availability of anti-vaccine content on their platforms in response to increased public pressure.

• Recent measles outbreaks have been attributed, in part, to reduced vaccination levels in some areas.

• While tech companies have tried to avoid becoming content arbiters, "the issue is harder to duck when the spread of false information can lead to real-world harm," my colleagues Sara Fischer and Kia Kokalitcheva wrote last month.

Decisionmaking in Congress

CQ writers explain

From CQ/ Roll Call (update of data on op. 272-274 of Davidson)

From CQ/Roll Call (update of data on p. 284 of Davidson):



Interest group ratings

• WHY IS THE NRA POWERFUL? IT IS NOT THE MONEY
• The "Daschle Loophole" -- his ill-fated HHS nomination
• Lobby numbers
• A graphic
• Deregistration 
• Think tanks
• Consultants
• Recognition and awards
• Philanthropy
• Politicians' charities (see the rule, pp. 347-349)
• Rent-a-friend as deep lobbying
• Lobbyist cites letter that he ghost-wrote!
• A summary

Conditions for Deliberative Negotiation

• First, participants must agree to acceptable sources of information. In some cases, the various sides rely on their own partisan facts; however, in other cases, the negotiation setting builds in an explicit role for nonpartisan third parties or technical expertise.
• Second, a bargaining situation includes implicit decisions about patterns of interaction among participants; in particular, the decision to incorporate repeated interactions among parties may help to overcome myopia-inducing short-term and zero-sum calculations. The fear of each party that others will not cooperate (e.g., in the prisoner’s-dilemma game) creates incentives for short-term, self-interested choices. Bringing participants together in repeated engagements  facilitates future punishments for uncooperative behavior and, consequently, fosters trust and commitment.
• Adam Smith was clear on the concept: "A dealer is afraid of losing his character and is scrupulous in observing every engagement. When a person makes perhaps twenty contracts in a day, he cannot gain so much by endeavouring to impose on his neighbour, as the very appearance of a cheat would make him lose. When people seldom deal with one another, we find that they are somewhat disposed to cheat, because they can gain more by a smart trick than they can lose by the injury which it does their character.
• Third, decisions must be made about the consequences for nonaction in a negotiation process. Setting penalty defaults may move negotiators toward action, overcome blocking coalitions, and improve the chances for agreement 
• Finally, decisions must be made about the degree of autonomy and privacy accorded to negotiators. In general, privacy boosts negotiators’ capacities to bargain effectively by producing some autonomy from influences that try to shift the focus away from the core objects of negotiation or that insist on hard-line positions opposed to compromise

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX)

Rafael Edward or "Ted" Cruz represents Texas as a newly elected second-term Republican Senator. Cruz is a rather alienating figure on the Hill, as he has earned the spurn of both rank-and-file members and party leaders, both Republican and Democrat. Known for his extreme conservatism and nothing is sacred attitude, Cruz often employs show-y tricks to earn the ire of party members and to gain the media's attention, like when he read Green Eggs and Ham on the Senate floor for a 21 hour filibuster that did not actually change the timing of a vote on Obamacare.  

When he's not outrightly obstructing legislation, Cruz is usually playing politics, whether that be forcing colleagues to vote a germane abortion amendment at 2:30 am when trying to close the budget, or attacking Mitch McConnell to the press. Cruz's self-proclaimed "maverick" tendencies have left him with little to no allies in the Senate. Cruz has had  difficulty calling for roll-call votes in the past, with not one member of his party helping him as a sufficient second.

Cruz often puts publicity over substance when it comes to advertising himself. The Senator has been known to skip committee meetings debating his own bills, like his bill that sought to grant the president power to strip people who associate with terrorist groups of their citizenship. Instead of coming to the Judiciary Committee, he was giving a speech on the contents of his bill to a conservative policy group. 

His rhetoric also lacks nuance. As conservative NY Times columnist David Brooks wrote, "But Cruz’s speeches are marked by what you might call pagan brutalism. There is not a hint of compassion, gentleness and mercy. Instead, his speeches are marked by a long list of enemies, and vows to crush, shred, destroy, bomb them." Much of his role as a Senator has been to draw criticism against his enemies (Democrats) and to paint anything not intrinsically conservative as an existential threat to society; in fact, the worst epithet that Cruz can hurl at a colleague is publicly calling them a Democrat.

U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY)

My name is U.S. Senator Rand Paul, M.D. and I am a champion of constitutional liberties and fiscal responsibility. Since 2011, I have fought against constitutional overreach in Congress. My mission is to return government to its limited, constitutional scope. I pride myself in serving the great state of Kentucky, the Republican Party, and the American people.

I see myself as a political outsider as I am not a career politician. In 1988, I graduated from Duke Medical School and began my ophthalmology practice in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Shortly after, I founded the Southern Kentucky Lions Eye Clinic, an organization that provides eye exams and surgery to needy families and individuals and I have personally performed several pro-bono surgeries over the last eight years. In 2002, the Twilight Wish Foundation recognized me for outstanding service and commitment to senior citizens. In 2010, I was elected by the people of Kentucky to represent them in the U.S. Senate.

Although my time in the Senate has been comparatively short, I have advocated for a balanced budget amendment, term limits, and privacy reform. In the 113th Congress, I was added to the Foreign Relations committee and retained my spot on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Homeland Security and Government Affairs, and Small Business committees. On May 20, 2015, I spoke for over ten hours in opposition of the reauthorization of Section 215 of the Patriot Act and several sections of the Patriot Act were prevented from being reauthorized. In March 2017, I introduced the Stop Arming Terrorists Act that would have prohibited the use of United States Government funds to provide assistance to Al Qaeda, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and to countries supporting those organizations. It has been my main objective to keep Americans safe.

My entrance into politics is indicative of my life’s work as a surgeon: a desire to diagnose problems and provide practical solutions, whether it be in Bowling Green, Ky., or Washington, D.C.

Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA)

Kamala Harris is a first-term Senator from Oakland. Her background is in prosecution, serving as the District Attorney of San Francisco (2004-2011) as well as the Attorney General of California (2011-2017). She announced her campaign for the 2020 Democratic nomination for President in January of this year. Harris is a Democrat and leans to the left. She will likely try to help her candidacy through passing progressive legislation but will have to distinguish herself from two fellow Democratic senators in the Judiciary committee that are also running for the 2020 bid (Booker and Klobuchar). 

Harris’ stance has been focused on groups of citizens that are disenfranchised, but is shifting her language to focus on lowering taxes for the middle class. She supports a range of progressive objectives, including the legalization of marijuana, Medicare for All, and the preservation of sanctuary cities. Harris is not considered to be a moderate Democrat, and has/will be attempting to navigate a presidential race that is unlikely to reward a candidate that is unable to achieve the undecided and more moderate vote.

Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL)

Marco Rubio was born in Miami to Cuban immigrants. His grandfather, Pedro Victor Garcia, fled Cuba in 1962. Despite lacking the credentials to legally immigrate to the United States, Garcia was eventually granted permission to stay as a parolee. Rubio considered his grandfather his “closest boyhood friend” whose respect he “craves” to this day. Rubio’s advocacy for a stricter refugee vetting process, which will prevent people like his grandfather and aunts from entering the United States, probably does not help him in this regard.

In 1999, Rubio was elected to the Florida House of Representatives and became Speaker of the House seven years later. In 2010, Rubio won Mel Martinez’s seat in the US Senate. His unexpected victory is largely credited to the support that he received from the Tea Party. In 2015, Rubio announced his presidential run. He suspended his presidential campaign in 2016, after losing the Florida primary to Donald Trump. He was re-elected to the US Senate later that year. 

Senator Rubio primarily sponsors bills regarding International Affairs, and plays an active role on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. He advocates for interventionist policy, believing that the United States should increase its involvement in the fight against totalitarianism. A firm opponent of the Iran nuclear deal, Rubio has suggested the possibility military intervention to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. He considers President Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from Syria to be a catastrophic mistake. In 2019, Rubio introduced anti-BDS legislation to prevent American corporations that boycotted Israel or Israel-owned corporations from obtaining government licenses. The bill was criticized for violating the First Amendment, and did not pass.