DC Statehood is Back

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/548118-house-committee-expected-to-pass-dc-statehood-bill-on-wednesday

H.R. 51, the bill giving DC statehood is likely to pass the House at the end of the month. DC statehood has been on Congress' agenda for many terms now as the battle to give them statehood continues. The bill will probably be stalled in the Senate as it was during the 116th Congress. Republicans are against statehood for DC because of its Democratic leaning population and they believe it is a power grab from Democrats to receive more votes and power in the government. The battle for statehood seems to be a losing battle but one many legislatures are not willing to give up on. 

When I was in DC license plates in DC actually have "no taxation without representation" which I think is interesting. Although DC does not have statehood residents of the area have found ways to vote by registering in Virginia and Maryland, but understandably a place that runs government would like the power of the vote and the effect on the government. 

Congress and the Courts

For Monday: Davidson, ch. 14, Straus, ch. 5.

For Wed:  what domestic topics do you want to discuss?

ALSO:  FINAL WEEK -- WHAT TOPICS DO YOU WANT TO REVISIT OR ADD?

Court-packing  (Davidson 349-350).

A check on the court:  jurisdiction-stripping, or court-stripping (Davidson 357-358 -- still in the news

Constitutional Amendments

Response to statutory (vs. constitutional) interpretation (Davidson p. 355)  Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

Supreme Court Nominations

Clarence Thomas:



In hearings, senators try to get judicial nominees on the record.  NOTE WHAT ALITO SAYS (START AT 18:45) ABOUT STARE DECISIS.





Merrick Garland and "the Biden Rule" 

Gorsuch and the nuclear option 

Blue Slips and Senatorial Courtesy (Davidson, 369)

The Trump record on the courts

Simulation Meets Real Life

 In the simulation, I, as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), advocated legislation that would monitor China's growing presence in the Americas out of concern/care for Rubio's upcoming 2022 reelection in which Latin American exile groups (particularly those from socialist countries) will play a significant role. 

His most likely opponent, as of today, is Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL), a co-chair of the moderate Blue Dog Coalition. Today, Murphy introduced a bill "to Assess China’s Efforts to Expand Presence and Influence in Latin America and the Caribbean," which would require the "U.S. government to develop a plan of action to counter China’s malign activities in the region." 

Good thing I got in front of her on this issue.

Capacity and Oversight

 For Wed, Davidson, ch. 12 

REVIEW FROM LAST TIME: NAIL:   Nominations, Appropriations, Investigations, Legislation

Nominations 

• Extent of confirmation power
• Nominations: Senate data
• Cabinet nominations rejected or withdrawn
• Hearings:  Whitehouse and White; DeVos
• Recess appointments, "acting" officials, and the Vacancies Act (Of course, there is a CMC connection)
  

Appropriations

• Limitation riders and the case of ACA

Investigation, Oversight, and Capacity

•  RTFM
• Oversight hearings and letters.  
• Katie Porter to witnesses: be afraid, be very afraid
• Annual Percentage Rate
• Postcards
• GAO 
• CBO
• CRS
• Diminished institutional capacity

Legislation:  Executive Branch Organization and Laws on Reporting 

• Inspectors General  (POTUS WAS DISPLEASED!)
• Reporting requirements
• The old legislative veto and the Congressional Review Act.  (Not much action so far this year)
• Congress "organizes" the executive:
  --  The "organization" of DHS.
-- DNI and the intelligence community

26 USC 6103

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 Secretary shall furnish such committee with any return or return information specified in such request, except that any return or return information which can be associated with, or otherwise identify, directly or indirectly, a particular taxpayer shall be furnished to such committee only when sitting in closed executive session unless such taxpayer otherwise consents in writing to such disclosure.

Subpoenas and Contempt of Congress

• The definitive encyclopedia article!
• Inherent contempt
• Civil contempt 
• Criminal contempt

Congress and the Executive Branch

For next Monday, read:

Casey Burgat, “Congressional Undersight,” R Street Institute, November 2019, https://www.rstreet.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/188-2.pdf

For Wed, Davidson, ch. 12 

Presidents and Persuasion

• LBJ and negotiation
• Interview with the Bush leg affairs shop
• The Biden legislative affairs shop
• CQ on presidential success (review from a few weeks ago)

Presidential approval and the "decay curve"

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 (more on Monday about congressional capacity)

• GAO -
• CBO
• CRS
• Diminished institutional capacity

Legislation:  Executive Branch Organization and Laws on Reporting 

• Inspectors General  (POTUS WAS DISPLEASED!)
• Reporting requirements
• The old legislative veto and the Congressional Review Act.  Democrats do not like it now, but will like it more if they get unified control.
• Congress "organizes" the executive:
  --  The "organization" of DHS.
-- DNI and the intelligence community

26 USC 6103

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 Secretary shall furnish such committee with any return or return information specified in such request, except that any return or return information which can be associated with, or otherwise identify, directly or indirectly, a particular taxpayer shall be furnished to such committee only when sitting in closed executive session unless such taxpayer otherwise consents in writing to such disclosure.

Subpoenas and Contempt of Congress

• The definitive encyclopedia article!
• Inherent contempt
• Civil contempt 
• Criminal contempt

Parliamentarian on Reconciliation and the Death of Rep. Alcee Hastings

 Monday night the Senate Parliamentarian ruled that budget reconciliation could be used multiple times in the same year, which will change Democrats' calculations on how they can get legislation through the narrowly-divided chamber. This article from The Hill lists and explains 5 ways this changes things:

1. Biden can potentially get a lot more done without GOP support

2. It further erodes the power of the filibuster

3. It gives even more power to Joe Manchin. 

4. It decouples the legislative schedule from budgeting

5. It takes pressure off the debt ceiling

Also, Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL), the co-chair of the Florida congressional delegation, passed away at 84. We talked about him earlier in the course, because he was impeached and removed from the federal bench in 1989. He then failed in a run for Florida Secretary of State in 1990, but won election to the House representing Florida's 20th congressional district in 1992. 2013 redistricting moved him to the 23rd district. He never faced serious challengers in his congressional career given the strong Democratic lean of his majority-Black district.

Congress and the President

 The Struggle Over Presidential Authority: Article I and Article II

Vetoes (Davidson 296-299).

Statements of Administration Policy (Biden 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

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.

Item Veto:Supreme Court struck it down in Clinton v. City of New York.

Guess who was primarily responsible..

Signing statements 

• A de facto item veto?
• As a candidate, Obama opposed signing statements  -- but as president, he issued them
• Trump examples

Other forms of executive action

• National security Hamilton in Federalist 8: "It is of the nature of war to increase the executive at the expense of the legislative authority." (more in two weeks)
• Executive orders
• Presidential proclamations  
• National Emergencies Act: special powers 
• National emergency
• 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

Power to Persuade

LBJ and negotiation

Interview with the Bush leg affairs shop

The Biden legislative affairs shop

CQ on presidential success (review from a few weeks ago)

Presidential approval and the "decay curve"