GOP agrees on need to agree
WASHINGTON — Most people do not become U.S. senators to pass a resolution declaring National Lobster Day. But Congress has had to settle largely for small-bore victories since President Donald Trump was sworn into office, ostentatiously failing to pass a bill to repeal his predecessor’s health care law and achieving little substantive policy legislation.
The floundering Republican agenda — particularly remarkable in a period when new presidents tend to be most productive with a Congress controlled by their own party — has attracted bipartisan scorn from lawmakers. It has also engendered some pity from those who see Congress as hamstrung by a dysfunctional White House.
But within the misery monsoon that has befallen Congress this year lies some potential silver linings.
After years of partisan fighting over the health care law that was President Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement, Democrats and Republicans now admit they will probably have to work together to make many of its much-needed fixes. “We’ve realized our limitations,” said Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. “I think we will work together to get more bipartisan legislation. We’ve just got to.”
Republicans are deeply motivated to get a major tax bill passed and signed by the president and have returned to committee chambers — rather than the private back rooms of leaders’ offices — to get the process rolling.
Perhaps most important, Senate Republicans have begun to stiffen their spines against Trump, who has spent the better part of his presidency alternatively ignoring, undermining or outright denouncing the efforts of Congress to legislate. On Thursday, before leaving on a monthlong recess, the Senate set up a system to prevent the president from appointing senior administration officials to posts that require confirmation in the senators’ absence.
Among its more notable successes this year, and against Trump’s objections, Congress passed a tough Russia sanctions bill with a veto-proof majority, which the president begrudgingly signed this week. Congress also approved a law to help veterans get health care — a bipartisan, bicameral, messy but ultimately successful effort that came together with zero involvement from the administration.
A complicated debt ceiling fight may be averted now that Trump’s budget director, Mick Mulvaney, said Thursday that Congress could lift the ceiling on the nation’s debts without having to make spending cuts in exchange.
“There is more good happening here than people know about,” said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn.