U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
It seems like both mainstream and social news media are obsessed with Donald Trump and his latest Outrage of the Day. But under our Constitution, we have three co-equal branches of the federal government, and half of one of those branches — Congress — is in Democratic hands. The Democrats, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, just marked their first 100 days back in control of the House of Representatives, with some fanfare, including the Twitter hashtag #100DaysForThePeople. Pelosi also appeared on CBS‘ 60 Minutes program last Sunday to talk about what the Democrats have accomplished thus far this year, and what further actions they plan to take. Given that the House majority is the Democrats’ only foothold in the federal government at this time, they have done quite a lot:
1. Ended the Trump Shutdown — The Democrats, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, helped pressure Donald Trump into ending the federal government shutdown earlier this year, without agreeing to fund Trump’s desired border wall, which was the stated reason for his shutdown.
2. Passed important legislation — In just 100 days, the Democratic-majority House has passed a number of bills that never would have seen the light of day under Republican control. These bills address subjects such as political corruption and voting rights, gun violence, Net Neutrality, paycheck fairness, and more. Now of course, no one expects the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate simply to pass these House bills and Donald Trump to sign them into law as is. Nevertheless, passing such bills in the House serves two important functions. First, the bills provide a roadmap to voters of the Democratic Party’s values and priorities, i.e., what voters would get with a solid Democratic Senate majority and a Democrat in the White House to go along with their House majority. Second, passing such legislation and having the Republicans block progress on matters such as gun violence gives Democrats important campaign issues on which to run in 2020. As we have stated previously, “you get the legislation or you get the issue.”
3. Blocked Republican legislation — While Senate Republicans and Donald Trump may be able to block the Democrats’ good legislation from becoming law, the flip side is also true. The Democratic-run House is preventing many horrible Republican legislative priorities, from destroying the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, to repealing laws that regulate the environment and the financial industry, to seeking approval and funding for unnecessary wars and Trump’s Medieval border wall. Of course, Trump and the Republicans are trying to get around this obstacle with court challenges (while busily packing the federal courts with right wing judges) and executive actions, not all of them legal. This is all the more reason why we need to vote for a Democratic president and a Democratic-majority U.S. Senate in 2020 to go with the Democratic House.
4. Held hearings — Along with the Speaker’s gavel comes the Committee Chairs’ gavels, and the ability to set the agenda for the House of Representatives. This agenda includes holding hearings, and this is especially important when the Executive Branch is controlled by Republicans and they surely won’t investigate themselves, or other important matters, in a meaningful way. In the first 100 days, House Democrats have tried to hold the Trump administration accountable with a multitude of oversight hearings and investigations, on subjects such as Russian interference in our elections, climate change, and Trump’s family separation policy. Some of these fact-finding missions could even provide a record on which to impeach Donald Trump and/or other Trump administration officials. At minimum, we now have a government watchdog overseeing the Trump administration, instead of just the Republican fox guarding the hen house.
Change in America doesn’t happen overnight, but the Democratic-majority House of Representatives, led by Speaker Pelosi, is showing Americans what a more normal and stable United States might look like.
Photo by FolsomNatural, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/eJ1mOv
