Does Congress Want to Govern?

Lee Drutman wrote for Real Clear Policy about the demise of legislative power:

Over the past year, leading members of Congress have delivered some stirring mea culpas about the demise of the First Branch of Government.

Speaker Ryan’s “A Better Way” agenda declares: “The people granted Congress the power to write laws, raise revenues, and spend and borrow money on behalf of the United States. There is no power more consequential …Yet for decades, Congress has let this power atrophy — thereby depriving the people of their voice.” Similarly, Senator Mike Lee last year launched the Article I Project on the premise that, “the federal government is broken, and congressional weakness is to blame … Congress has handed many of its constitutional responsibilities to the Executive Branch.”

Congressional Republicans who sounded these alarms about executive overreach may well have had Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton in mind. But as Donald Trump prepares to assume office, these calls for congressional re-assertion have become increasingly bipartisan.