The government shutdown and the other Daniel Webster
When most Americans hear the name Daniel Webster, they think of the 19th-century statesman who defended the Constitution and sought to preserve the Union. But Florida U.S. Rep. Daniel Webster challenged John Boehner for Speaker over 10 years ago and put forward his own lesson about preserving Congress from so much of the chaos we see today: return to regular order.
When Webster challenged Boehner, with the support of much of the Freedom Caucus (Webster was not a member of that caucus) his entire point drew from his days as Speaker of the House of the Florida Legislature: Congress should return power to individual members rather than concentrate it in the hands of a small cabal of leadership. The House should start the budgeting process much earlier and members should be able to offer amendments and receive up-or-down votes on them. He argued changing the process would end the reign of continuing resolutions and omnibus bills that foment so much dysfunction in the House and would likely nix government shutdowns altogether.
Back when Webster ran for Speaker, he warned that Congress had abandoned those rules and habits, which is why the entire tag for his campaign was basically, “Return the House to regular order.” From many accounts in Florida, Webster had a reputation for being fair and running the budget process on time, as this 2010 piece from Politico points out. That experience highlights an important contrast: while Washington seems mired in dysfunction, state legislatures often manage to run far more smoothly. After all, no one is reading headlines about government shutdowns in Tennessee or other states.
I remember Webster pointing out that shutdowns aren’t inevitable. They’re symptoms of a broken process. He tried to reform it but we don’t hear much from Webster anymore.
One last thought is that the Constitution grants Congress specific, enumerated powers, but over time Washington has extended itself far beyond that framework. If Washington actually kept to its enumerated powers, this whole shutdown boondoggle would likely never exist in the first place.
—Ray Nothstine
— The Federalism Beat