Each year, the Gallup organization asks Americans to “rank the honesty and ethical standards of people in different fields.” Members of Congress and car salesmen almost always rank worst. In other national polls, Congressional approval ratings and trust in government are reaching near-record lows. Legislators are not a popular or well-respected bunch.
Act of Congress: How America's Essential Institution Works, and How It Doesn't
Knopf
448 pages
$20.45
Little wonder. Political antics like the partial shutdown of the federal government in October 2013 demonstrate how gamesmanship, inflexibility, and desire for the spotlight too often trump concerns for the public good.
But the shows designed for the cameras bear little resemblance to the hard work happening behind the scenes. A loud and brassy few capture most of the media attention and try to hold Congress captive with their antics, but hundreds of others (with an essential supporting cast of thousands) devote tremendously long hours to policy-related work and meeting constituents’ needs.
Journalists rarely recount the tales of the mundane yet important work of members of Congress and their staff. Conflict, political theater, and zippy one-liners make headlines and skew the average voter’s perceptions of what happens on Capitol Hill. The real work of Congress is slow and methodical; it cannot easily be captured in a sound bite or short news story. Of course some members of Congress give far too little time or energy to their work, but, as a group, federal legislators are dedicated public servants who deserve far more respect than scorn.
About once a decade, a book appears that offers a detailed, behind-the-scenes look at Congress. In the 1970s, former Senate staffer Eric Redman introduced a generation of college students to the legislative process in Dance of Legislation. Journalists Jeffrey Birnbaum and Alan Murray highlighted lobbying excesses in the 1980s in Showdown at Gucci Gulch, and Newsweek‘s Stephen Waldman chronicled the passage of Bill Clinton’s signature National Service Act in The Bill. Robert Kaiser’s latest book, Act of Congress: How America’s Essential Institution Works, and How it Doesn’t, may very well join this short list of essential accounts of Congress at work.
Kaiser, a journalist with a 40-year career at The Washington Post, gained access to legislators and their staff members that is likely unprecedented in recent years. In the best of times, members of Congress rarely grant outsiders unfettered access to their daily business. In today’s hyper-partisan times, elected officials are even more reluctant to disclose their work for fear that their political opponents will discover details they can distort and misuse in the next election campaign. Such a political climate inhibits cooperation with researchers and makes Kaiser’s achievement even more impressive. Congress has undergone fundamental transformations in the past two decades that deserved to be chronicled.
Kaiser traces the path of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (commonly shortened to Dodd-Frank), a behemoth piece of legislation whose final printed version was 849 pages long and included 16 sections. Dodd-Frank expanded and significantly revised the regulatory framework that oversees the financial services industry. Examples of its notable provisions include the creation of new regulatory entities such as the Financial Stability Oversight Council and the Bureau of Financial Protection, in addition to new regulations governing hedge funds, swap markets, securities trading, and mortgage lending.
Textbooks outline the basic steps of how a bill becomes a law, but case studies like this one offer a window into the thousands of hours and scores of people behind every major piece of legislation. At times Kaiser’s account becomes mired in the details, but overall the book offers an insightful look at the art of policy-making. By alternating his vantage points between Representative Barney Frank and Senator Chris Dodd, the bill’s key legislative sponsors, Kaiser also reveals politically relevant differences between the House and the Senate.
To reconstruct the story of this bill, Kaiser interviewed and spent time with dozens of key players, many of whom shared significant details never before reported. Transcripts of his interviews with Dodd and Frank ran more than 110,000 words. Kaiser draws readers into the narrative and helps them picture key events, places, and people. He concludes his account of the marathon final session of the conference committee, for example, with Barney Frank rising to make his final remarks at 5:39 AM.
Kaiser had particularly open access to Democratic lawmakers and their staff members. Although Dodd and Frank made efforts to include Republicans when crafting the bill, the final result reflected the single-party action that has become so commonplace in the post-1994 Congress. In the end, Dodd-Frank was a Democratic bill crafted by a Democratic president and Democratic legislators. A few Republicans left some imprints on the final legislation, but almost all of the relevant action happened on the Democratic side of the aisle. Some Republicans enter the narrative, but the focus of the book is elsewhere.
At times the narrative clearly reveals the author’s sympathies. Such a standpoint has its benefits—Kaiser’s support for his protagonists and their work likely helped him gain the insider access needed to craft such a detailed case study—but the author’s subjectivity occasionally intrudes in the form of personal descriptions and barbs that detract from the story. Some footnotes contain complaints that have a partisan or ideological edge; some descriptions are unnecessarily critical. Democratic-leaning readers will tend to applaud the end result of financial services reform and appreciate the author’s tone; Republicans will be less satisfied. Nevertheless, this case study is valuable.
Kaiser highlights the importance of timing, the need for legislative prowess, and the dominance of the executive branch in American politics.
First, the story of financial reform demonstrates the importance of the “issue-attention cycle,” a model introduced by economist Anthony Downs. According to this theory, public attention to policy issues rises and falls in a cyclical pattern. In the first, pre-problem stage, a wide range of problems exist but receive little attention. In the second stage, often in response to a crisis or other external event, the public finally “discovers” a problem and calls for action. Once an issue captures such attention, however, the public begins to realize the costs and complexities associated with addressing the problem, so interest declines. Soon thereafter the issue moves out of the limelight, into what Downs describes as a “prolonged limbo”—public awareness of the issue has fundamentally changed but the initial fervor is gone. Other policy problems capture public attention. Lawmakers must pay careful attention to this cycle, discern when public attention crystallizes, and act quickly while the political opportunity is maximized.
The financial crisis of 2007-2009 sent the economy into a tailspin, destabilized the housing market, and led to unpopular government bailouts of several key financial institutions. It is no exaggeration to say that by the time legislators convened the 111th Congress (2009-2011), almost everyone in the United States had felt the effects of the financial crisis in some palpable way.
Barack Obama, Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, and other key political figures who wanted to reform the financial services industry could not have asked for a more perfect political moment to seek sweeping changes. Voters were frustrated by the ongoing economic recession and were upset by the bank bailouts. Political activists, particularly those from the ideological left, demanded new laws that they argued would rein in the banks, prevent future abuses, and increase financial stability. Financial regulation was a hot political topic.
Public outcry in the wake of the financial crisis created sufficient fear in the legislative rank and file to warrant action. As Kaiser explains: “A genuine crisis increases the political risks of inaction to the point where they appear greater than the risk of doing something that proves imperfect … . A really scared member can support policy changes that ordinarily would be unthinkable. In a crisis, voters expect action.” The political context in 2010—unified Democratic party control of the presidency and both houses of Congress combined with widespread public outcry over the financial crisis—created an opportunity for bold policy change.
Second, Kaiser shows how political skill can make or break legislative success. Barney Frank and Chris Dodd were veteran legislators who earned the respect of ideological friends and foes for their skill in navigating legislation through Congress. Frank was a master dealmaker who worked creatively to neutralize opposition, and Dodd cultivated relationships to maximize political opportunities. Kaiser contends that such master legislators are rare in today’s Congress, and much evidence supports his view.
The real work of Congress happens behind closed doors, often over many years. Kaiser reveals how congressional staff members are “essentially invisible” but absolutely crucial to making the institution work. Representatives and Senators set the tone and initiate the process, but committee staff develop policy expertise, design creative solutions to problems that arise, and craft most of the legislative language.
Members and their staff have much more room to make deals, change minds, and incorporate new ideas outside public view, weighing options and making changes over time. Once policy ideas are made public, elected officials face intense pressure to take a firm stand and lose the flexibility that is so central to effective lawmaking.
Third, even though Kaiser’s account focuses on the inner workings of Congress, his case study also demonstrates the president’s power to shape domestic policy. Recent political science research concludes that the president usually has the upper hand in the ongoing power struggle between the executive and legislative branches. Kaiser shows how the Obama Administration took charge of the financial reform issue from the beginning, helped craft the initial legislation introduced in the House, and continued to exert influence throughout the legislative process.
It is far too easy to criticize what we don’t understand and can’t see. Those who follow current events think that they are seeing highlights of Congress at work, but most real efforts to craft public policy happen outside of public view over months, years, and even decades. Participants in a representative democracy are well served when they become more aware of the legislative process. As the story of Dodd-Frank illustrates, backstage deals are essential: constituents need to give legislators sufficient political space to make hard decisions and forge difficult compromises.
Like all institutions in our fallen world, Congress has shortcomings, and Kaiser’s case study reveals many of them. Dodd-Frank was far from a perfect bill; its back story highlights moments of triumph even as it reveals significant institutional problems and the messy world behind the scenes. But Act of Congress offers some hope amid despair, for it reminds us that complicated legislation is indeed possible and that, at least in times of crisis, Congress still has the power to act.
Amy E. Black is associate professor of political science at Wheaton College. She is the author most recently of Honoring God in Red or Blue: Approaching Politics with Humility, Grace, and Reason (Moody).
Copyright © 2014 by the author or Christianity Today/Books & Culture magazine.Click here for reprint information on Books & Culture.
