How Congress functions, and it does function
Surprise! It's bipartisan!
Conventional wisdom says that the bitter partisanship in Congress equates to not getting anything done. And it is true that partisan battles can undercut efforts for reform, as seen in the recent immigration debacle. But it’s never been easy to do big things — previous immigration efforts have always been heavy lifts, and even during the supposed heyday of congressional functionality (1950s-1980s) major reforms in health care, civil rights, and defense sometimes would take decades to come to fruition.
The reality of the contemporary Congress, as argued by political scientists Jim Curry (University of Utah) and Frances Lee (Princeton University) in a 2020 NYTimes article, is that parties in the majority rarely get their way in Congress, and that legislation does pass and almost always in a bipartisan fashion.
ESSENTIAL LEGISLATION
To some degree what constitutes “major” legislation is in the eye of the beholder. But there are some things Congress needs to do to pursuant to their basic Article I responsibilities. These include:
Funding the government and raising the debt ceiling;
updating national security policy (annual National Defense Authorization Act); and
basic infrastructure improvements facilitating commerce (mainly the Water Resources Development Act and Surface Transportation legislation).
Other “optional” initiatives most would consider major legislation come along intermittently — we’ll consider a few of those below as well.
A DISTINCTIVE PATTERN EMERGES
Just looking at the last four Congresses we see a clear pattern in what the institution does to get its essential work done. But the story is best started by looking a little further back — to the 2008 Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) meant to stabilize banking institutions.
Going with the best advice from his Treasury Secretary and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, President Bush proposed to bail out financial institutions to avert a potential collapse of the financial system. As he noted: “I didn’t want to be a president overseeing a depression.”
But bailing out what many in both parties regarded as bad actors in the financial system was far from popular (one leadership floor staffer described it to me at the time as a “shit sandwich”), even if it was needed. After many fits and starts and a plummeting stock market, Congress passed TARP with large bipartisan majorities — a majority of Democrats and a significant minority of Republicans in the House and majorities of both parties in the Senate. The final tallies: 74-25 in the Senate, 263-171 in the House.
ESSENTIAL LEGISLATION SINCE 2017
Something similar has occurred in virtually all votes on essential legislation in the last four Congresses — regardless of party in power in Congress, divided or unified government.
In this period, Congress has resorted to Consolidated Appropriations acts instead of the traditional 12 separate appropriations bills to keep the government functioning every year. After extended negotiations (often well into the new fiscal year), these bills pass with large bipartisan majorities, with some members of both parties in opposition. The majorities in the Senate surpass the 60 vote threshold (often by a long shot), and typically 70% or more of the House members vote in favor. Usually, but not always, more Republicans vote no than Democrats.
When it came to crunch time in raising the debt limit in 2023, again, large bipartisan majorities, with more Democrats in favor than Republicans. The Senate vote was 63-36, with the GOP voting 17 yes and 31 no. The House vote was 314-117 with both sides providing large numbers.
The story with the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) establishing national security policy and funding levels is pretty much the same — bipartisan support and large majorities. Unlike with the appropriations bills, though, Democratic opposition has been greater some years.
The last surface transportation bill to pass was in 2021; it wasn’t quite as bipartisan as some measures, as the House margin was only 228-205. While only 8 Republicans supported the bill in the chamber, arguably they provided a margin that enabled the Democrats to move forward. The Senate passed it 69-30 (all 30 senators in opposition were Republican).
The Water Resources bill passed in 2018 by voice vote in the House and with only one opponent in the Senate. The last water resources bill was in 2022; it was uncontroversial enough to be wrapped into the NDAA, which passed that year with large bipartisan majorities in both chambers.
OTHER MAJOR BILLS THE LAST FOUR CONGRESSES
Other major bills typically follow the same pattern.
Farm bill 2018 (GOP president and Congress): 87-13 Senate with GOP providing all opposition; 369-47 House, with GOP votes constituting 44 of the no’s.
FISA reauthorization 2024: While just hitting the Senate threshold, the 60-34 vote was bipartisan, 30D and 30R in favor; 273-147 House (88D and 59 R opposed).
CHIPS act (investments in semiconductor manufacturing, R&D) 2022: 64-33 in the Senate, with 32Rs voting no; 243-187 in the House, all opponents GOP.
Federal Aviation Administration authorizations, 2018 and 2024: (2018) only 13 no votes in the House, 6 in the Senate; (2024) 26 no votes in the House, 4 in the Senate (all D).
Supplemental security assistance for Israel, Ukraine, and for other purposes in 2024: Senate vote was 79-18, with 15R and 3D in opposition; the House vote was disaggregated, with Ukraine getting unanimous Democratic support and GOP voting 101-112, and the Israel vote was 173-37 in favor on the D side and 193-21 for the R side.
CARES Act (coronavirus response) in 2020: No opposition in either chamber.
The exceptions that prove the rule include:
Signature Trump legislation, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, passed in 2017 with only Republicans voting in favor.
The American Rescue Plan in 2021 providing benefits meant to pump up the economy during the pandemic, which passed on an only-Democrat party line vote.
The Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, which similarly passed party line (all D).
These three bills were all facilitated by reconciliation procedures, which require only a simple majority instead of the normal 60 votes in the Senate. Only certain budget and tax legislation, but not appropriations bills, may be passed with this procedure. It’s important to note that reconciliation has been deployed as a partisan tool for decades now — so its use doesn’t necessarily signify an uptick in partisanship.
CONGRESS ISN’T QUITE AS PARTISAN AS IT SEEMS
What’s interesting is that it’s not normally “just enough votes” from the party in the minority that enables essential legislation to pass. Large numbers, often majorities of both parties, come around to voting for those bills.
So what’s going on? Why does Congress seem so partisan?
The political scientists Curry and Lee (cited above; also see their 2020 book) suggest that confrontation on hot button issues —“Another food fight breaks out over immigration” — is what gets more attention and coverage. Public perceptions of the institution follow from that.
The “essential” measures — consolidated appropriations, the NDAA, and the infrastracture bills — are big and complex, thus difficult or impossible to distill into a talking point or a snappy news story. News organizations aren’t going to get a lot of clicks with the headline: “For the 50th straight year Congress updates national security policy.”
And as for the debt ceiling — is anyone even really interested in why we of all countries have one in the first place?
The message is that the true story of Congress is more complicated than it seems at first blush. That story says something important about contemporary congressional parties and the party system — the topic of next week’s post.