Americans have lost confidence in their government. One reason is the perception that Congress is broken.
One cannot fix Congress merely through term limits or a balanced budget amendment. But a few changes could make it better. A handful of rules and two constitutional changes can address the alienation many voters feel when they look at Washington, D.C. with anger.
The evidence of voter frustration is clear. According to Real Clear Politics, only 25 percent think our nation is going in the right direction. Sixty-five percent say the opposite.
One can list political leaders of the day, including President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris, and others, and see that they all have a negative approval rating. It is not healthy for the republic for our leaders to be so unpopular.
To restore faith in government, let’s try a few changes to how we do business.
First, we need to stop rewarding career politicians. We have term limits for presidents. Biden now wants term limits for members of the Supreme Court. But what we really need is term limits for members of Congress. I advocate a radical version that would limit House members and senators to one term to restore the rule of citizen legislators in Congress.
If radical “one and done” term limits are a bridge too far for many, a more palatable version is being pushed by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and 19 other Republican senators. Their proposal would limit representatives to three two-year terms and senators to two six-year terms.
In the House, Rep. Ralph Norman’s (R-S.C.) H.J. Res 11, with 105 cosponsors, was blocked by a handful of career politicians in October. Despite such resistance, term limits would restore the idea of citizens participating in government by giving them a chance to serve.
Second, we must address the difficulties surrounding the legislative process.
Single-issue bills are a good idea. In the House, we don’t see votes on individual bills anymore. A good example is how the annual National Defense Authorization Act and the final appropriations bill passed by Congress this fall will likely end up combined for a Christmas tree bill, loaded with measures that could not pass on their own.
The House and Senate need to put in the rules points of order that prevent bills from being packed with issues unrelated to the original bill. The current rules prohibiting non-germane items from being attached to legislation are not enough. Tough legislation banning omnibus bills would give the citizens a better chance to weigh in before their federal representatives vote.
Another change would slow the process and allow more deliberation when considering legislation. This would be for the Senate and House to restore the right to offer amendments to bills.
Currently, the leader of the Senate uses a procedure to block out amendments called “filling the tree” in order to prevent tough votes. In the House, the Rules Committee sets down the guidelines for consideration on a bill, but they need to allow open rules more often, allowing a free-for-all amendment process on more bills.
Furthermore, the Senate needs to make it easier, not harder, to filibuster legislation and nominations. Dragging out the consideration of legislation through extended debate is a feature, not a flaw, of the U.S. Senate.
Finally, Congress needs to stop spending trillions more than it takes in. It is time for a constitutional Balanced Budget Amendment that makes a supermajority vote necessary to raise taxes to prevent Congress from taking the easy way out of deficit spending.
Our federal government is too big. The spending gap between revenues and expenditures for fiscal 2024, expected to be $1.9 trillion, is a perfect example. American families can’t spend a few hundred thousand dollars more per year with no plan to pay off debt. Our government should not be doing so either.
The bottom line is that the American people want Congress to change. They want to participate more and have more of a say, and they want Congress to treat the federal budget like families treat their own annual budget.
It is time for these three changes to become our start at fixing what is broken in the federal government.
This op-ed is part of The Hill’s “How to Fix America” series exploring solutions to some of the country’s most pressing problems.
Brian Darling is former counsel for Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).