Washington's Entrenched Power

One of the major issues with Washington is the entrenched power of multi-term representatives in both the house and the senate. Representatives who are re-elected term after term often end up in seats of power such as “Chairman of the House Ways and Means” committee, the “House Budget” committee, the senate “Defense” committee or the “Health Care” committee. These powerful positions are key targets for lobbyist seeking to gain legislation or changes in legislation that are more favorable to their vested interest. The members of these committees, and not just the Chairman, are often the ones that end up in scandals revolving “working” trips to resorts in the Caribbean or some other luxurious place where they are wined and dined by the aforementioned lobbyist in order to gain that favor.

These positions also give power to their members over the rest of the congress. If someone wants their bill to make it out of the committee that it was assigned to then they will often have to give favors to one or more committee members, often in the form of their vote on some other issue, in order to ensure that their bill is not dead on arrival to the committee. This is why these committee positions are so coveted by members of congress. A position on a powerful committee almost instantly imbues you with its power.

This entrenched power is bad for our country.  It ensures “politics as usual” and prevents true compromise on the important issues of the day. The only “fix” for this to be bantered about is term limits for the congressional members. The idea being to limit how many consecutive terms a congressional member can serve before being forced out. After all, we have a term limit on the office of the president so why not the congress as well? The problem with this is that it would require a constitutional amendment to achieve and this would be almost impossible with the entrenched power that is already there. It is human nature to want to hold onto power once you have it.

I would suggest something a little simpler. It would still be difficult to achieve but if the will of the people was strong enough it could be done. This suggestion is to place term limits on the membership of committees. Force a rotation of membership on the committees to break these strangle holds on power. This would only require a “congressional rule” to implement rather than a constitutional amendment.

When our forefathers wrote the Constitution they wrote it from the point of view of those that had no power, no say in the government. They greatly desired to limit the effects of entrenched power on the governmental body. Unfortunately, once they themselves had power they immediately began to fall under its spell. We have been slowly correcting this ever since; the abolition of slavery, a woman’s right to vote, etc. Now it is time to correct it within the very halls of congress.