Here’swhat the new Congress should do

Earlier this month, voters pressed the “reset” button on their government in Washington. Trust in our government to do the right thing is stunningly low.

How will we restore America’s trust in our Democratic process? By returning to regular order.

While this may sound like inside the beltway, process gibberish, it’s actually the foundation of how our Founding Fathers envisioned the greatest institution of democracy working.

Regular order ensures the minority party’s rights to be heard and participate, while allowing the majority party to set the agenda and bring matters to a vote and conclusion. The new Senate Republican leader has committed to an open process for all senators.

If the process works as we believe it will, here’s the type of legislation the new Congress might be sending to the president.

The flood of literally hundreds of thousands of pages of new regulations in the last six years has dampened the growth of our economy. While the prospects of a presidential veto will stop the repeal of much of the underlying legislation in this area, some cleanup of the laws will be enacted. Common-sense reforms of some of the excesses in banking and corporate micromanagement will be repealed and the administration’s efforts to make a public utility of the Internet will be stopped by the Republicans.

Progress here will be difficult to achieve. Unions will need to moderate their opposition to a guest worker program, Republicans will need to moderate their opposition to having a truly effective method of identification of individuals and the administration must be willing to protect the borders in conformity with the law.

A path toward amnesty for those who have entered the country illegally may be considered, but its passage is dependent on achieving effective control of our borders. In the past few years, the Senate, for partisan purposes, has largely avoided its responsibilities for oversight of legislation and investigation of scandals in the administration. This will end in January with the new Congress.

In the past six years, welfare rolls have increased and the “workforce participation rate” is at the lowest point in 36 years. Look for Re- publicans to seek to change the focus of our 126 federal welfare programs to helping Americans out of poverty rather than keeping them dependent. Republicans will seek to give states more flexibility and control over the programs.

The refusal of the U.S. Senate to pass a budget will end with Republican control. The reinstatement of the budget process will assist in meeting budget spending targets and should provide more flexibility in maintaining high-priority programs and the ability to target reduction in the least effective areas.

Republicans will vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but the Democrats in the Senate are likely to filibuster the repeal. If repeal is blocked by a filibuster or presidential veto, Republicans will work to drop the more onerous provisions of the ACA and a number of those changes should be successful.

Democratic solidarity in the Senate and a change in the Senate rules have given the president the ability to make a significant impact on the makeup of the federal judiciary. Republicans will provide greater scrutiny of judicial appointments.

Republicans will act to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline in both the House and the Senate. The new Senate should have the votes to overcome a Democratic filibuster, but overriding a presidential veto will be difficult.