Beyond impeachment, is Congress getting anything else done?
| WASHINGTON
As the House impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump launches into high-profile public hearings, Congress is facing another key test: whether it can accomplish anything else in the current environment.听
Funding for the government is currently set to expire in a little over a week. And while lawmakers appear poised to pass a temporary stopgap measure, they鈥檙e far from resolving the thorny details needed to avert a shutdown before year鈥檚 end.
So far, none of the 12 must-pass appropriations bills for 2020 have made it through both the House and Senate. The biggest sticking point: money for President Trump鈥檚 wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, the same issue that last year led to聽the longest government shutdown聽in United States history.听
Why We Wrote This
Lawmakers are struggling to make progress on spending, trade, and other priorities. The impasses would likely have existed even without an impeachment inquiry 鈥� but it isn鈥檛 making compromise any easier.
Yet what鈥檚 likely to dominate news cycles and lawmakers鈥� attention this week are the testimonies of three State Department officials, whose appearances on Wednesday and Friday will be the first to be televised in the House鈥檚 month-and-a-half-long impeachment probe.
The hearings could intensify the deep partisan divide already aggravated by the impeachment inquiry. Congressional Republicans have mostly stood behind the president, either asserting that Mr. Trump did not engage in a problematic 鈥渜uid pro quo鈥� with the Ukrainian government or insisting that such an action wouldn鈥檛 be impeachable anyway. Democrats say their constitutional oaths demand they hold the president accountable for behavior that, in their view, amounts to leveraging U.S. foreign policy for personal political gain.
It鈥檚 hard to imagine much bipartisan compromise 鈥撀燾rucial to passing a budget 鈥撀爐aking place in this environment.
Neither party has much to gain politically from a shutdown, providing some impetus for lawmakers to try to avoid one.听Still, 鈥渢he incentive for cooperation and dealmaking is very low,鈥� says Bill Schneider, a professor of government at George Mason University.听
Impeachment 鈥渁bsorbs all the attention,鈥� he adds. 鈥淚t escalates the bitterness, anger, anxiety, tension. Unless there鈥檚 a terrible crisis, nothing else happens.鈥澛�
The Clinton example
History shows it鈥檚 possible for Congress to be productive during impeachment hearings.听
By the time the House voted to impeach President Bill Clinton in December 1998, the Republican-held Congress had already passed the next year鈥檚 budget. Between the start of House impeachment proceedings in October 1998 and acquittal by聽by the Senate in February, President Clinton signed nearly 150 bills into law.
In today鈥檚 era of extreme partisanship, however, Congress has become far less productive 鈥� even without impeachment. Just under 70 laws 鈥� including eight that renamed post offices 鈥� have been signed in the 10 months that the 116th Congress has been in session, a figure that reflects years of declining legislative activity. A聽聽by The Washington Post and ProPublica shows that as the political center has shrunk, and as lawmakers increasingly respond to the demands of their base, Congress鈥檚 capacity for deliberative dealmaking has withered.听
鈥淭he Congress we鈥檙e working with is a completely different institution in many ways than the Congress that faced the Clinton impeachment,鈥� says Aubrey Neal, who manages federal government affairs at the R Street Institute, a center-right think tank.听
Mr. Clinton actually made attention to his 鈥渄ay job鈥� a key component of his political strategy. In public appearances, he pointedly ignored the impeachment effort and focused on the business of governance.听
鈥淗e didn鈥檛 use it to rally his party; he didn鈥檛 use it to defend himself,鈥� says Professor Schneider, who at the time was a political analyst for CNN. 鈥淗e made it clear that it wasn鈥檛 distracting him.鈥�
Even after the House voted to impeach him, Mr. Clinton kept to his message, vowing to continue to work on behalf of the American people. 鈥淚t鈥檚 what I鈥檝e tried to do for six years,鈥澛�. 鈥淚t鈥檚 what I intend to do for two more until the last hour of the last day of my term.鈥�
President Trump鈥檚 strategy has been markedly different. Instead of trying to ignore impeachment, he has tended to focus the spotlight directly on it 鈥� counterpunching on Twitter and in public statements, and attacking House Democrats and the witnesses testifying against him as motivated by partisanship.听
The day the House voted to formalize impeachment proceedings, he聽聽the inquiry 鈥淭he Greatest Witch Hunt in American History.鈥� He鈥檚 questioned the credibility of the whistleblower who first drew attention to the now-famous July 25 call between him and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and declared the whole investigation a 鈥渉oax鈥� perpetrated by the 鈥渇ake news media鈥� and Democrats 鈥� especially Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff. 鈥淚t is a Pelosi, Schiff, Scam against the Republican Party and me,鈥� the president聽.听
The effect has been to intensify partisan divisions, with his allies in Congress echoing his language.听
At a Trump rally in his state Wednesday night, Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy criticized Speaker Pelosi for moving forward with the probe. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 mean any disrespect,鈥� Senator Kennedy said, 鈥渂ut it must suck to be that dumb.鈥� (The senator later defended his comments, saying that Speaker Pelosi鈥檚 decision 鈥渢akes American politics to a new low.鈥�)聽
鈥淚mpeachment is the ultimate partisan exercise,鈥� says Mark Strand, president of the Congressional Institute. 鈥淎s a result, it鈥檚 going to shut progress down.鈥澛�
Work behind the scenes
Despite all the vitriol, there鈥檚 at least some bipartisan work going on behind the scenes. The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), Mr. Trump鈥檚 signature trade deal, is in the 鈥渓ast mile鈥� of negotiations, Ms. Pelosi said at the end of October. Lawmakers are reportedly looking to announce a deal by Thanksgiving and could even hold a vote before year鈥檚 end. Across-the-aisle discussions are also underway in both chambers over several measures meant to lower the cost of prescription drugs.
There鈥檚 also been plenty of activity on a one-sided basis: The Democratic-controlled House has, over the past 10 months, passed hundreds of bills that were never taken up by the GOP-held Senate, which in turn has confirmed a record number of federal judges with almost no Democratic support.听
Although a shutdown is still possible 鈥� with border-wall spending just one of many issues lawmakers are stuck on 鈥� neither House Democrats nor Senate Republicans want to be on the hook for such a crisis heading into a big election cycle, notes Steven Smith, political science professor at Washington University in St. Louis, in an email.
Ms. Pelosi has been determined to show that House Democrats can simultaneously conduct an impeachment inquiry and address key legislative issues, while Republicans remain sensitive to having taken much of the blame for past shutdowns. The usual legislative stalemates would have existed whether or not impeachment was a factor, Professor Smith points out.听
鈥淧olitical calculations are proving more important to the legislative agenda than the time taken to consider impeachment,鈥� he writes.听
On the other hand, even if lawmakers do strike a deal in time, the president聽聽of vetoing it.听Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York expressed concerns last week that Mr. Trump might use a shutdown as 鈥渁 diversion away from impeachment.鈥澛�
鈥淚鈥檓 not expecting a shutdown,鈥� says Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution. 鈥淚 would expect that [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell would really try to convince the president that this was just one other problem he doesn鈥檛 need right now.鈥�
鈥淥n the other hand, the president seems to enjoy rejecting the advice of other people in his party,鈥� she adds. 鈥淩epublicans telling him that may cause him to do exactly the opposite.鈥�
