Federal Update: Congressional Gridlock?

We have all watched, to varying degrees, the post mid-term election events in Congress. Not withstanding one’s personal politics, we are all led to the questions: will there be legislative gridlock in Congress?  And, what will it mean to me and my business?

Representative Kevin McCarthy made many concessions in his bid to become Speaker of the House. Many political commentators, on all sides of the political spectrum, have expressed concerns regarding the rules changes and committee assignment deals that led to his election as Speaker. To most of us, rules regarding whether one House Member can call for the equivalent of a “vote of no-confidence”, or a 72 hour rule that permits time for House Members to actually read and understand the bills before a floor vote, may seem inconsequential.

For some, allowing the House Freedom Caucus to select three of the nine Republicans on the powerful House Committee on Rules (four Democrats will also serve), might create distress.  Every bill must go through the Rules Committee before making its way to the House floor.  Do the math. That means that the “mainstream” Republicans must find one vote from either the Freedom Caucus or the Democrats to move a bill to a final vote on the floor.  When you put that in the context of the Democrats controlling the Senate and the Presidency, and the 15 votes that it took for Mr. McCarthy to become Speaker, you may become anxious about whether anything will ever pass Congress.

Some are of the opinion that complete gridlock is good. Others may be concerned that Congress may not be able to pass critical legislation, like the annual farm bill in a few months, or raising the debt ceiling to avoid defaulting on government treasuries this summer, or passing a budget or an appropriations bill later this year.  Either way, the gridlock question is still on the table.

So, what does this all mean?

Probably, that we will all be learning more about the arcane House rules. Like the “discharge permit” process that allows for a majority of the House Members to bring a bill out of committee to the House floor for a vote without a report by Committee. This process, although rarely used, has provided a pressure valve release for significant pieces of legislation like the Balance Budget Amendment Acts of the 90’s and the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (aka McCain-Feingold).

If these kinds of issues are important to you and/or your business, let us know. Our Business Advocacy Committee, chaired by Matt Brewer of Choate Construction, will be preparing our talking points for the DC Fly-In on May 10-12. I encourage you to help us create the messages we will be taking to our Senate and House delegation.

Our Federal delegation needs to hear the voice of business during these difficult times, more than ever.