I see 3 fundamental problems with Congress
- Congressmen have no boss. Supposedly the congress answers to voters, but in fact, something like 95% of incumbents get reelected when they run. This is not because they do such a great job. People have no way to measure their performance or to compare their voting records.
- Congress writes bills that are too complicated and have too many amendments and provisions buried within. A bill about education might include spending for defense. Congressmen don’t even read most of the legislation they pass. How can they? They are thousands of pages long.
- Congressmen are focused on their serving their own district and their own reelection. They add pork to bills to the detriment of the country because it serves their self interest. Often, Congress is not a team of intellectuals crafting smart policy to benefit the entire country. Instead, they are a bunch of individuals looking out for themselves.
I propose one simple change to help improve Congress.
Require all major provisions of a bill to receive “line item votes”. A bill would continue to pass or fail in exactly the same way. Votes of yes, no or abstain would determine if a bill passed. Every major provision of a bill could be optionally voted on. Line item votes record the support or opposition of the congressman to a specific provision, but they DO NOT affect the passage of the omnibus bill that contains it.
Since this procedural change is largely symbolic and does not affect how bills are introduced, debated, negotiated, or voted, this change is simple to implement. All the political mechanisms to barter for amendments, use committees, and other procedures remain intact.
If a Congressman does not understand a provision, he might choose to “abstain” from voting for that provision. Suppose a provision to provide aid to the spotted owl is included in a family planning bill. A Senator might vote “yes” for the bill, but “no” for the provision to aid to the spotted owl. Or, failing to understand the provision, he might simply "abstain" on that provsion.
Voting today is recorded as yes, no, or abstain. As part of “line item voting”, the public record would also capture the line-item votes: yes, no, abstain. Looking up the voting record of a congressman or a bill would provide both the top-level votes and the line-item votes.
What is the benefit of such a subtle change? If it does not change the way bills are passed, how does it help?
Line-item voting creates transparency and accountability in Congress. Instead of hiding amendments in a bill, all the provisions will have someone’s name on them. If an omnibus bill has some unpopular provisions, it will be apparent to all of America who supported those provisions. Congressmen would no longer be able to hide their selfish agenda in a crowd. Even if only 3 senators voted “yes” for a provision in an omnibus bill, the provision passes along with the rest of the bill, but now America has a record of who put it there, who supported it, and who was informed (or misinformed) about it.
I suspect that with the specter of transparency hanging over Congress some of the tricks used today to decorate bills with pork spending might be limited. If not, at least the American voter will have a clearer record of it and can use the line-item voting ledger to inform their own ballot at the general election.
A refinement of line-item voting would also require all provisions of a bill to include a plain English summary. It should also include a simple explanation of the “for” and “against” positions.
Example: Spotted owl provision
- Provision: Fund the Owl Love Corporation to supply Owl food for 10 years
- For position: this will help preserve owls for a decade with minimal environmental impact.
- Con position: this is a govt subsidy that does not help the root problem: too many cats eating owl food.