by jpitney | Mar 21, 2025 | Congress, Oversight, Separation of Powers
Don Wolfensberger at The Hill: Restoring trust in Congress will take a concerted effort over time to move overly zealous executive officials back into their proper constitutional boxes. To restore trust in Congress requires that Congress first regain trust in itself....
by jpitney | Feb 27, 2025 | Appropriations, Congress, Constitution, Elections, Separation of Powers, Transparency, Volunteering
Greg Ip at WSJ: Appropriations bills aren’t glamorous. But they are the one chance Congress gets each year to evaluate and direct the executive branch, said Eloise Pasachoff, a law professor at Georgetown University. “That’s why appropriations laws are thousands of...
by jpitney | Feb 16, 2025 | Congress, Presidency, Separation of Powers, Transparency, Volunteering
Don Wolfensberger at The Hill: It is clear from the Trump-Musk blitz that the president wanted to swiftly impose his will through executive orders before the courts and Congress could catch-up and reverse them. Musk’s DOGE team serves as a “heat shield” for the...
by jpitney | Jan 23, 2025 | Congress, Elections, House of Representatives, intelligence, Separation of Powers, Transparency, Volunteering
At The Hill, Don Wolfsenberger writes about Speaker Johnson’s decision to oust Mike Turner (R-OH) from the chair of the House Intelligence Committee: What is disturbing is the rumored source of the Speaker’s decision to drop Turner as chair. Turner told CBS News...
by jpitney | Aug 29, 2024 | Presidency, Separation of Powers
Gary J. Schmitt, “What the White House Says About the American Constitutional Order,” American Enterprise Institute, August 21, 2024. Key Points: The founders’ views about executive power and its place in a system of separated powers changed over...
by jpitney | Aug 26, 2024 | Civic Education, civic virtue, Constitution, Separation of Powers
Frederick M. Hess at AEI: Self-government depends on our accepting electoral outcomes or court decisions even when we disagree vehemently with the result. It depends on presidents and voters understanding that the executive branch isn’t empowered to spend billions of...
