Center on Representative Government

After weeks of being mostly sidelined by the Trump Administration, Congress made its way back into the public eye as a mid-March funding deadline approached. Among other things, this sparked two headlines that captured in a few words the new political world we live in.

The first, from CNN, read: “Over texts and ‘eyeball to eyeball,’ Republicans succeed in persuading Musk. But Democrats hit dead ends.” The second came from Forbes: “Why the Financial Markets Are the Only Real Check on Trump.”

Over the decades I’ve written this column, I’ve made no secret of my belief that Congress, as the government institution closest to the American people, should be active and forceful in shaping the federal budget, overseeing the executive branch, and helping to craft policy in a way that reflects Americans’ priorities, not merely the beliefs of whoever holds power. Similarly, I’ve also argued that, second only to its duty to represent the American people, Congress needs to put its institutional integrity, effectiveness, and respect for our political differences above other concerns.

As those headlines suggest, however, that’s not where we are now. And I have no illusion that we’re going to get there anytime soon. It’s likely that, for the foreseeable future, Congress as a whole will play not even second fiddle—maybe somewhere back in the third or fourth row—to President Trump, Elon Musk, and the administration.

But let’s imagine for a moment that this wasn’t so—that in the face of this administration’s efforts to rewrite over 230 years of precedent and democratic evolution, Congress behaved the way it should. Or to put it another way, what are we missing because it’s chosen not to do so?

For starters, there’s the power of the purse. Our founders were smart about this: They saw that giving it to Congress—and in particular to the House, the body most representative of ordinary Americans—would give the federal government a fighting chance of addressing those Americans’ concerns. So in a functional Congress—as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cancels spending Congress approved, administration lawyers try to give the White House and Elon Musk power over spending, and the head of the Office of Management and Budget says he can simply rescind congressionally mandated spending he doesn’t like—Congress would be protecting its constitutional turf and the many Americans of both parties whose lives and savings are being upended would have someone with power to turn to for help.

Similarly, Congress should be exercising its constitutional right, through the oversight process, to ask hard questions of administration officials. For instance, the administration has taken control of tariff policy even though Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution gives that power to Congress. The result, it’s fair to say, has been economic uncertainty and damage to our relations with longtime trading partners and allies. In a functional Congress, committee chairs would be pressing cabinet officials and other administration leaders for details on where they’re headed and why, acting on behalf of Americans who are being buffeted by events. I can think of a long list of issues that Congress—on behalf of the American people—should similarly be shedding light on, from the turnaround in US policy toward Russia and Ukraine to the administration’s dismantling of decades of US leadership in research and development to analyzing the impact of cuts made by DOGE on our health, safety, security, and economy.

You may like what this administration is doing, or you may hate it. But either way, our long history as a nation tells us that whichever party is in the ascendant, the other will eventually come to the fore. In other words, regardless of your politics you have an interest in a Congress that always adheres to its guardrails and functions on all cylinders, because that’s how your voice and concerns get heard, regardless of who’s in charge.