Overview

The Center on Congress at Indiana University produces a series of commentaries by Director Lee Hamilton. In these commentaries, Hamilton draws on his 34 years of experience as a United States Representative from the Ninth District, Indiana, and explains the important function of Congress in our system of representative democracy. The commentaries listed below examine some common criticisms of Congress and offer suggestions for reform.

Is This The Congress We Want? faults the first session of the 109th Congress for setting new lows in the abuse of good democratic process. Hamilton asks how much further this trend can go before we can no longer claim to have a functioning representative democracy.

We Can't Wait Much Longer To Fix Congress states that Congress is too often shirking its constitutional obligations and not doing the work the American people depend on it to do. Hamilton urges that citizens get more involved and insist that Congress meet its responsibilities.

Lobbying Murkiness Undermines Our Trust in Congress describes the influence of lobbyists in the legislative process and calls for stronger laws governing the disclosure of who is lobbying for what.

Congress Confuses the Public and Itself faults Congress for its reliance on giant "omnibus" spending bills to fund the government's work. Hamilton says these massive bills represent undemocratic process, because only a few top lawmakers assemble them, and they present them as last-minute, "must-pass" legislation, giving other members no time to understand what they're voting on.

Congressional Bickering explains that heated debate in Congress should be expected because Representatives and Senators feel strongly about issues and want to represent the best interests of their constituents. Hamilton says that dispute is not the same as dysfunction; intense debate doesn't mean that issues cannot be resolved — just that accommodating different views can take lots of time and patience.

Who Lobbies for the Rest of Us? notes the rapid growth in the lobbying industry in Washington, and observes that many Americans suspect that government is more likely to work for those who have money to buy access to lawmakers than for those who don’t. Hamilton suggests that more public disclosure of the ties between legislators and lobbying interests would strengthen public confidence in our representative democracy.

It's Time for the Public to Fund Congressional Travel explains why private sponsorship of congressional travel should be banned. Because House rules allow corporations and trade associations to pay for members’ trips, there’s a public perception that wealthy insiders are gaining an unfair advantage in the legislative process by showering legislators with favors. Hamilton contends that if a congressman’s trip is truly in the public interest, then the government should pay for it, and the specifics of the trip should be disclosed in detail.

Congress Needs to Invigorate Its Ethics System, Not Weaken It describes how Congress has made it more difficult to file an ethics complaint against a member. Hamilton explains why Congress should set high standards for itself, and then enforce them.

Why Congress Must Learn To Look Ahead argues that Congress is often not very good at anticipating issues that, left unattended, might rear up and bite us. Hamilton says that Congress needs to be an equal partner with the executive branch in looking towards the future, exploring the stresses in our country and in the world, and developing policies to defuse problems.

Broken Budget Process asserts that Congress’ work on the federal budget should involve careful deliberation on the difficult issues in each of the 13 appropriations bills. Instead, Hamilton observes, Congress too often resorts to funding the government in last-minute, catch-all "omnibus" spending bills which are so colossal that lawmakers don’t know precisely what’s in them.

Congress and Individual Liberties examines the often-heard complaint that Congress is a massively powerful institution that disrupts and invades lives and undermines individual liberties. Hamilton explains that since our nation’s founding, we have been debating the proper balance between the rights of individuals and the power of Congress and the President to govern the country and make it secure. This is no cut-and-dried issue; members of Congress must continually think about what is right for the country and how to protect individual liberties.

A Balanced View of Congress observes that critics of Congress paint it as aloof from the cares of average Americans, a distant and unapproachable institution. Hamilton says that quite the opposite is true: In fact, Congress is highly responsive to public pressure. He explains that sometimes this responsiveness yields good legislation, but sometimes it produces results that, with hindsight, look unwise.

The Money Chase analyzes how the escalating cost of campaigning requires members of Congress to spend more and more time fund-raising. Hamilton says that members’ quest for campaign cash crowds out other activities such as writing laws, thinking about public policy, or meeting with ordinary voters. He explains why he thinks partial public financing of congressional elections is necessary to shore up public trust in the political system.

Tackling the Tough Issues explains that Congress sometimes fails to work through the biggest, most difficult problems facing our country. Hamilton offers suggestions on how to encourage members to make Congress more responsive to addressing the really big issues.

Is Congress out of Touch? describes some of the ways members of Congress keep in touch with their constituents, in an effort to counter public criticism that Congress is not responsive to the public will.

Congress and the Pork Barrel explains that while there is much criticism of "pork-barrel" spending by Congress, such spending is rarely worthless, and infrastructure spending in particular is especially important to lots of people. Hamilton suggests what Congress can do to better assess the relative merit of spending projects, weighing the needs of one region against another and considering the national interest before deciding how to spend the public’s money.

Clicking on any commentary title will direct you to a screen with the text of that essay. You can hear a shorter version of the commentary, recorded by Hamilton, by clicking on the LISTEN TO THE RADIO VERSION OF THIS ARTICLE link. If you wish to print the commentary without frames, click on PRINTABLE PAGE.