Former members sound alarm on health of the House : NPR

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A record number of lawmakers have called for abandoning it before next year’s midterm elections. More than 40 lawmakers won’t run for reelection in their current seats, but more than a dozen former members of both parties told NPR congressional correspondent Barbara Sprunt that legislative stagnation and low morale are nothing new. They were built over time.

BARBARA SPRUNT, BYLINE: Democrat Jim Cooper of Tennessee has seen Congress go through a lot. He was first elected during the Reagan administration and retired two years ago. And he poses a rather brutal diagnosis to the House.

JIM COOPER: Congress is in a coma. He has a pulse but few brain waves.

SPRUNT: And the proof, he says, is a historic 43-day shutdown in which House members were sent home. But Cooper says it’s about more than just a shutdown.

COOPER: The Constitution intended that Congress be the largest branch of government. But now Congress is so useless. He retired from the game.

SPRUNT: He’s not the only one worried. Former members say Congress is failing to fulfill its core constitutional functions, such as declaring war, exercising financial power and controlling the executive branch. They argue that executive overreach has occurred over time, but that the situation has gotten worse under President Trump, who has gone further than previous presidents in usurping the power of Congress.

DANIEL LIPINSKI: I love Congress and what it has become saddens me.

SPRUNT: That’s Daniel Lipinski, a Democrat from Illinois. He recently met with current members who expressed dissatisfaction that power in Congress is increasingly imposed from above.

LIPINSKI: The president’s office will tell a committee chair that this is what we want to see in this bill. That’s what we don’t want in this bill. And there’s a lot of frustration about that among members because they know that’s where they can make an impact. And if the committees don’t work, they don’t have the opportunity to become legislators.

SPRUNT: Wisconsin Republican Reid Ribble agrees.

REID RIBBLE: Being a member of the House of Representatives today is more of an honorary position with no real authority.

SPRUNT: Because of the Senate’s budget rules, the majority party is increasingly trying to concentrate most of its agenda in big bills. And if a measure is not included, it is difficult to succeed later. And Ribble says that in the meantime, the House is just voting on other bills that it knows have no real future.

RIBBLE: I was tired of voting on a bunch of messaging bills that were never going to pass the Senate, that were all shams.

SPRUNT: Members say the job also takes personal tolls. This is Fred Upton, a Republican from Michigan.

FRED UPTON: If you’re in a district like mine, 650 miles from Washington, DC, you’re out half the time. So, you know, you miss birthdays, school events, you know, reading the newspaper or going for a walk with your spouse.

SPRUNT: Michigan Democrat Dan Kildee says there have always been compromises.

DAN KILDEE: A lot of us were willing to do it because we saw a purpose in it. You know, you can actually feel like at the end of a week or a month, you can look back at what you’ve done and see that you made a difference in someone’s life. And you’re the one who made that happen, whereas now it’s a lot harder to see that.

SPRUNT: Added to that are the growing threats against lawmakers. Capitol Police estimate they have investigated 14,000 threats against members this year alone. This is Democrat Cheri Bustos of Illinois.

CHERI BUSTOS: Look, my husband was sheriff of our county. Every time we went out, he was armed. You know, so I had a level of security, at least when I was with my husband, that I didn’t have to pay for. But these are the realities with which families must live, with which elected officials must live. And you have to make a decision, you know, are you okay with this?

SPRUNT: Democrat Anna Eshoo of California says the rise in threats has been accompanied by the rise of hyper partisanship, which she says makes Congress’s job even more difficult.

ANNA ESHOO: I got to the point where I wanted to have a conversation with a fellow Republican. When I approached them, I want you to know that I don’t consider you my enemy. I mean, isn’t that something I felt like I had to say?

SPRUNT: Members say it’s all of these things combined – the gridlock, the threats, the lack of bipartisanship – that create an environment that pushes people to leave. But Cooper, a longtime Democrat from Tennessee, says that despite all these challenges, he still encourages people to run for Congress.

COOPER: We need more good people to lead, and that takes energy. You have to be careful. It takes good ideas to solve problems. But our country deserves to be fixed.

SPRUNT: Barbara Sprunt, NPR News.

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