Manhattan of the Initiative Thanks for joining us today as a former house and Senate Staffer thanks to those Congressional Staffers to are with us the recess period is a rare opportunity to be caught a pioneer backlogs schedule get home from work at a reasonable hour am prep from when we are in session next week. We are grateful for you to take the time to be here with us. The article one initiative is committed to important work we went alanon partisan opportunity now more than ever we must focus on the founders intended design of the legislative branch. Our aim is to pursue ideas to restore congress to write full responsibilities that are essential for the Constitutional Order and protection of civil liberties. Today we are happy to be hosting this discussion of the book dc confidential from all 39 David Schoenbrod. It features ford from governor howard dean and senator mike lee. Now our panel is all very distinguished in this is the shortened version. Professor David Schoenbrod is from the York Law School frequently contributing to the editorial pages of the wall street journal the New York Times with an undergraduate degree in mathematics from yale in economics from oxford and yale law school. Also atom white was a Research Fellow with the ad john professor from the law School Published in many places the received his undergraduate at the diversity viola and also from harvard law school. Rounding up the panel congressman frost the Vice President the u. S. Association of former members of congress serving in the house 26 Years Holding many leadership positions from the dallasfort worth area with the partisan divide the undergraduate degree in journalism and history and a law degree from georgetown university. I just want to note following the remarks to of ample time for question and answer some now before it is yours. Thanks to the Federalist Society also representative ross m prof right to participate in this family of four word to the discussion with all of you. When i was a little boy my mother taught me to recite the gettysburg address that they should not have died in vain engine of a new birth of freedom and the government of the people by the people for the people shall not perish from the europe. For those who died in the civil war my grandfather honored another soldier who lay wounded in france. Linkage could claim america already had by the people because most people could not vote because of the qualification of course, at that time africanamerican women could not afford to vote in United States but calling for freedom that ultimately missile that and then having the vote. I was proud to play a small part in the peoples government early in the 1960s and that that time the polls show that 76 percent of the voters trusted the government to do the right thing to delaware it is 19 a fall from the government and in washington or other reasons that began in the 60s. So with the consequences of key decisions. With the benefits of those decisions to align with the interest of legislators and their constituents. In the late 60s legislators of both parties began to legislate in new ways to shift the blame away from them to undermine the government by and of and for the people by the mid 60s we saw the government as working wonders when it ruled for two World War Two with the interstate highway system was built not the strongest economy in the world by far. But things like clean up the environment. We want the government to do so. So members of Congress Wanted to join in that is what they set out to do so congress promised that without a heavy burden to convince themselves of technology forcing with the idea that congress has a definite deadline to produce clean air to invent Affordable Technology to deliver healthy air without costing too much suggests the Previous Year america landed a man on the mound and specifically said if they could land a man on the moon then that is what people believed that both parties signed on overwhelmingly but technology forcing did not work as helped to produce healthier in Southern California but that would not happen so members of congress tumbles sides of the aisle to private lobby the epa not to do that and by and large complied in congress has the tenacity to publicly blame the epa to not clean up the air on time sound familiar . So once congress began there was no going back because to shift blame for consequences to make less than rosy promises. And then to put into the Clean Air Act with a separate commands to the epa administrator and they also wrote those commands to obscure their ability for consequences to of a fabulously complicated system for regulating air pollution they have 17 or 20 rules and to have to be a nurse scientist that is the Clean Air Act today. Beyond that to update or simplified and all planes had shifted and then has not then amended since 1990 there are much better and smarter ways and so we went u. S. Situation if that interest are in conflict to say i m begins the pollution with regulation killing jobs and never got the cases and as a result approximately 50,000 of my clients died and going through that experience fear the Environmental Advocacy to figure out what the heck is going on. And what i discovered comes down to members of congress to use five key tricks now voters know how is it that Congress Gets away with it . It is for the same reason that magician can pull a rabbit out of their hats. A slight of hand my book is about the slight davidian with the trick even though there is no trick going on. So enacting laws and spending programs that is the basic thesis of the book. To explain and then the show how they work. Previously regulation with themselves to be credited for the benefits of regulation that gives a credit in the blame to the agency to take blame for the benefits so to save i gave you this. To the agencys take on the burdens. Said then that by shifting the blame to the agency. So that is some money trick. So in the later sixties previously congress raise the revenue needed to pay for the things said promised like the tax cuts or social programs occasionally there were big deficits like the Great Depression but in the 60s congress began on a course to run deficits and into the sky. And this effectively does allow congress to shift the blame for those burdens with the successors and office. With a slight of and with those benefits are very tangible and concrete with the Social Security what about the cost . The previously biggest they honor the Constitutional Rights to meet those conditions and that makes sense. To raise the money to give the grants to the state. With the governors and mayors. But what events of popping to invite the states out to dinner to pay for the bill. So congress got the credit for the clean air but to impose the burdens with the clean up. As the federal eta dictates to give up the highway grant sea might ask yourself aggression with suicide for members of congress to vote for that provision within the sleight of and is this congress doesnt vote on that. Dozens and dozens of votes on the Clean Air Act not one was on punishing the states. So congress washes his hands. So put the private debt with the fdic and with those deposits up at 2,500. To know that the money was at risk to put your money in the bank to do risky lending. That would tend to keep bin it safe. Congress implicitly began to guarantee all of the debt that left the banks to borrow money on the cheap. Even though with the risky lending operations to borrow more and more money and this exploded upwards of those profits but in bad times led to the financial crisis from misery in 2008. And then they lost their jobs. So they got angry about that. So that continues underdog frank. What is the slight of hand . Congress pretends that they do not guarantee the debt but the interestrate with the bond market and you know, perfectly well they do. So as it comes to war over the 160 years whenever went to war without Congress Taking responsibility to approve by statute but then president truman said it was the one approved peace action. Then we have vietnams and cambodia. But the public got very angry that forced the congress to pass the war powers resolution except there is a loophole and for those to avoid putting on the troops to be in in combat if it is controversial. Members of Congress Said get rid of that but dont make us vote on that. So bien up in wars that we havent looked into in in the as congress pretends to be responsible this means if it is popular members of congress could march in the victory parade but then to have that army and then to take credit and shift blame to say that is the trickster in chief im talking about the president of both parties. Might keep vice dont hate the players but hate the game those individual legislators and then they risk losing to the other side. So to change the rules of the game that welcome to return the people to power so congress and the president could commit themselves of palo this could happen think about the truth then lending act. It makes it a crime for the lender like a bank to lend money exactly how much youll pay every month so lets apply the savings to congress. Under the honest deal at. And then tuesday to make the ends meet in the long run this is how much bin average family has to pay for the tax increase or spending cuts. By the way this is a much of an increase toward decreased if we dont put the expense of the public know this is hell with wouldbe down the road that there will be a terrible future for their children and a questionable retirement with medicare and Social Security. That will shift the blame back not to be upon members of congress and then what we keep demanding. I dont have prescriptions on how they respond close those who could no longer keep their constituents and this says the analogous way is and all of this is laid out in my book dc confidential but the bay there is some online games that will explain exactly how this works but better yet to buy the book. [laughter] so with that optimistic moment a statute not a constitutional amendment. But then keep saying is that to in all honesty members of congress you know deep down in their heart is what Honorable Service for their constituents and what we are talking about today so go back to your office to talk to the numbers and why they should be for the honest deal. And thank you for your attention. [applause] and to enjoy the conversation. And with the substance of the talk but also the videogames so let me start with the movie and this lounge singer comes again is a Frank Sinatra knockoff the producers treat them properly and then jumps above his seat to grab them by the caller and says you cannot like damian. Amy and. But the momentum in the house representatives said go to raise but to file a lawsuit to the president. Davids work remind me of him very much. In his book democracy and distrust he focused on the problem of delegation and how it cut against our democratic values, values of accountability. In a litter book called law and honest and the preface, the professor offered some remarks which i quote a lot. I cant quote them today but ill paraphrase them. We onthink of the shift in power from the legislative branch to the executive branch is a usurpation, but its a distortion. What we see more than anything else is Congress Giving away its power to the executive branch, and he said, the reason i would congress did it is because of accountability. Accountability is very frightening. I admire the prefer for pointing these out and now professor shown bron schoenbrod for doing it here today. The institutional collapse of congress, and chris demuth, himself a former oi must be something the water that get people criticizing congress. They diagnosis the congress has shifted from being the first branch to being a little more than an ombudsman for the Administrative State. This is a crisis. Its a crisis. Not just because of the state were in, but that its hard to see a way out. We have reached a pound where the existence of the Administrative State deforms our politics the fact there are agencies with immense power that can solve or try to solve these problems in lieu of congress, instead of the president has much less incentive to war began with conversation because the know the epa and the tellsry department can save them or the other side of the table, people in the opposite party think why shy bother going through negotiations and fight for this when we know the president s and walk away from the table. This reinforces the problems. We lack a theory of what congress and is should be doing. Theres no shortage of scholarship on the presidency and the courts but i think it is im a big fan of the federal society one project, and senator lees and others on capitol hill who are on the article one project. Its good were having the debates, especially the budget process. This solution has to be the solution of James Madison identified in federalist. Were counting on ambition to counteract ambition and we knee the of b0 a man, whether congressman or president or judge to be attached to the rights of the place. The question becomes how to make congressmen more ambitious as congressman. Not as members of the president s party but a as congressmen if dont have an answer for that. Thats my first question for david. I think his book parts of the book focus on how to Shame Congress to do the right thing. How do we speak to ambition of congressmen as congressmen is the real challenge and thats the solution. Two other brief questions i just leave you with. David identified the turning point being the 1960s. That is when Congress Really did start to shift. Thats an important point. Up to that point so muchm that congress did was either congress encroaching upon the courts or building on he legacy. The congress created the big agencies, interstate commerce commission, congress was trying to push the courts of what they had been doing, common law ratemaking and taking power and investing it in one of their own creatures, an independent commission. They built on that but it shifted and now as Congress Handing a lot of legislative power into the independent commissions and executive agencies and i wonder what it was, either politically or culturally, was the tectonic force underlining that shift. What was it about the 60s and 50s. And i note the end of your remarks you said this is legislative, not constitutional. What about constitutional change . Do you think if the honest doa act doesnt succeed will we need constitutional change and what bile . Those are just questions. I quite like the book just as i quite like dr. Schoenbrods previous book, so thank you very much. [applause] im going to make some fairly brief remarks and give you all a have to turn this fairly brief remarks and give you a chance to ask questions. Wrote a book, almost a parallel book, david to yours, coauthored with tom davis, former Republican Congressman, and i was don was chairman of the Republican Campaign committee for four years and i was chairman of the democratic Campaign Committee for four years, we didnt chair. The the same time so we remained friends. We have traveled around the country, spoken at seven president ial libraries and universities, talking about the some of the problems wet sunny congress right now, and the basic premise is correct is that congress should be the first branch. That was the intention of the Founding Fathers but congress, for a variety of reasons, doesnt function that way most of the time. One thing in the book is the partisan divide cries and we set out a number reasons things happened in the last 20 years or so that have lessened Congress Role in federal government, and one of the chapters we talked about was the big punt, and that was how congress has, by not acting in certain areas, has punted those issues to the president and the president then has stepped in to fill the vacuum. You saw that with obama and now with trump right now, and the lawsuit one lawsuit that adam mentioned involved Immigration Reform and congress positively resolved not to act. That was an earlier expression i think that the professor used in describing one of the president s. Congress decided for its own reasons not to change the immigration law, and so obama sat around and stayed, if these guys arent going to act ill do something by executive order, and that involved the dreamers and thats what we have just seen on tv in the last two day or two with one of the young young people brought to United States by parents and grew up in the United States and now be subject to deportation, obama stayed that. The courts have said, no, that wasnt exactly correct. What he did. And it was a lawsuit brought challenging what the president was doing, but if congress had acted during the six or seven years preceding that, on Immigration Reform, the president would never have had the opportunity to issue that particular order and thats not the only instance in where this occurred. Somehow congress has got to have the courage and the desire to actual