Why Can't Congress Solve Hard Problems?
Ultimately, the U.S. needs stronger institutions if it wants to accomplish difficult things.
This didn’t help.
Photographer: Joshua Roberts/AFP
How much of a problem is the loss of congressional capacity?
That question comes up, as Congress returns from its August recess, in a Monkey Cage item from Craig Volden and Alan E. Wiseman that focuses on the collapse of House committees from 1995 on. It’s a solid piece, but as Josh Huder points out, the rise of congressional leadership was probably critical to the passage of major legislation such as the Affordable Care Act. The House was weaker when committees ruled before the reforms that began after the 1958 election; it’s weaker now, after Newt Gingrich concentrated influence in the speaker’s office at the expense of everything else.