Let’s put an end to lame-duck Congresses

[Valin]

Hot Air:

Ed Morrissey

December 11, 2014

 

Voters elected a new Congress more than five weeks ago. With only a couple of exceptions — one House race and one Senate race — the members of the 114th Session had been certified within a few days. Thanks to the age of mass transit, the new Congress could have arrived in Washington DC within a week to represent the will of the people, and replace those who no longer have the trust of the voters.

 

So why are budgets and laws still getting created and approved by people who have been voted out of office? Better yet, why didn’t those tasks get finished before the election so that voters could hold their elected officials accountable? That’s because the 2oth Amendment didn’t go far enough in preventing mischief from outgoing officeholders. In my column today for The Fiscal Times, I call for a new amendment that provides for a clear end to Congressional sessions, one that will discourage can-kicking and even worse forms of mischief:

 

(Snip)

 

By forcing a session end on Election Day, it would prevent the kind of lame-duck abuses that have become commonplace and disincentivize the impulse for can-kicking. Few majority leaders would take the risk that they would lose control of budgets and agendas, and that would force them to get serious while allowing voters to hold them accountable for their actions. If the need for a Congressional session arose sooner, the Constitution already allows for a newly elected leadership to call a session to order earlier than the first Monday in December, although an amendment could be drafted to make that explicit. At least that would still leave that process in control of those who were just endorsed by the voters, who have a lot more legitimacy to create laws and budgets than those who just got repudiated — as is happening now.

Amending the Constitution is by design an arduous task, but there are plenty of reasons for everyone to hate lame-duck sessions......(Snip)

 

 

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It would also eliminate the opportunity for all manner of mischief .