Congress Watch: Keystone Pipeline and the Obstructionist Senate

The purpose, consistency, rules, and roles of the United States Senate and House of Representatives are different for a reason.  When each body works in the ways intended by the Founding Fathers, Congress can get things done.  Last week was a great example of what happens when both bodies attempt to operate under the rules of the House of Representatives.

The House consists of 435 members.  Each is elected every two years by constituents limited to a specific geographic space.  The majority of these constituents share interests and ideology, thus narrowing the diversity of opinion within individual districts.  Members of the House of Representatives are supposed to be closer to the people and more apt to be inflamed by political passions.  Its internal rules reflect this purpose while bending to practicality.  Without a rigid set of rules and a top down power structure, it would be difficult to get anything done.

The Senate, on the other hand, is elected every six years by an entire state – a vastly more diverse constituency.  It is supposed to be a “cooling saucer,” far more deliberative and estranged from political passion.  As frustrating as it is for many Americans, it should take time for legislation to make its way through the Senate.  That’s the way the Founding Fathers set it up.  Reflecting the role that the Founders envisioned, it operates more through custom and gentlemen’s agreements than through rigid rules and leadership fiat.

Under its well-established rules and procedures, last week the House was able to pass an education bill dealing with charter schools, a resolution finding former IRS executive Lois Lerner in Contempt of Congress, and a resolution that established a select committee to investigate the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, among other things.  Meanwhile, the United States Senate prepared to consider an energy efficiency bill that appeared to have the support of approximately four-fifths of all Senators.  Unfortunately, the debate never got started.

Acting more like a House Speaker than Senate Majority Leader, Senator Harry Reid (D-Nevada) used procedural maneuvers to block Senators from offering any amendments to the energy bill.  In exchange for agreeing to forego the opportunity to offer amendments on the first energy bill considered by the Senate in seven years, the Majority Leader proposed allowing a vote to mandate construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline.  Republicans refused, insisting that they be allowed to offer five energy-related amendments to the underlying bill.  Unmoved, Majority Leader Reid has scheduled a cloture vote for this afternoon on the energy efficiency bill.  It is possible, but unlikely, that cloture will be invoked.

For his part, Majority Leader Reid claims that the Senate is paralyzed by Republican obstructionism.  That argument is difficult to understand.  As Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) pointed out, since July of last year, the Senate has voted on just eight Republican amendments.  To put that into perspective, from January 1 until May 3, 2006 (the last time that Republicans held a majority of the Senate), the Senate voted on a total of 57 amendments; 34 of those amendments were offered by Democratic members.  Thirteen of those amendments received votes on one single day!

The House of Representatives and the Senate are not the same.  Until there is a restoration of “regular order” in the Senate, it is doubtful that any meaningful work will get done.