The Importance of Congress:

To understand the importance of the institution, you have to appreciate it. Here’s why American progressives should focus more on building congressional power

Feel free to check the past Biden Era archives and follow the editions to come in the Trump Era on Substack, Medium, and LinkedIn, including those on the 2024 Autopsy, Bench-Building, DOGE News, Project 2025 Authoritarianism, Progressive Populism, and more (First Come, First Serve!).

Via planetary.org

To first recap this week:

For new subscribers, click on my latest posts on Trump voter outreach and Trump’s Rural America agenda here

Want to stop Trump’s authoritarian breakthrough? Study the lessons from the Viktor Orban playbook

Trump’s executive order on elections to centralize more power under his authority

Another crackdown on any law firms that take cases against Trump-Vance

Musk makes billions of more dollars in federal government contracts

DOGE cuts on special education services, financial aid, tax filing, and Social Security enrollment will disproportionately impact women

More rural services are affected by DOGE cuts to the Universal Service Fund, NOAA weather balloon launches, and food banks

Trump is revoking billions in COVID-era funds for addiction treatment and mental health care

Republicans are limiting bank overdraft fees

An executive order signed recently removes collective bargaining rights for federal workers beyond the Project 2025 parameters

Democrats flipped a State Senate seat in Pennsylvania in a Trump +15 district, running on a campaign explicitly against Elon Musk, his government cuts, and how it afflicted suffering on PA veterans, retirees, and students

And of course, the Signal Chat fiasco for Trump’s national security team featuring Michael Waltz, Pete Hegseth, John Ratcliffe, JD Vance, Marco Rubio, Steve Witkoff, and Tulsi Gabbard among others

Also, check out fellow blogger and radio host Ed Fallon’s page here

I hear the common refrain about someone running for Congress: “Nothing gets done.” “It’s a do-nothing job.” “It’s for ambitious politicians with big egos.” “It’s a waste of time.” Stuff like that.

It’s not a wrong perception to have in many cases, but it does not fully encapsulate the best of what Congress has been and can be.

Although this piece may be directed more so to Democrats and so-called progressives, I think it can and should matter to everyone else too.

I get the impression that the Presidency seems much more important to people. Presidents hold a lot of power and influence for sure. But to ignore Congress because of that would be a huge disservice.

My interest in building congressional power for progressives & Democrats comes from a life lesson of the 2020 presidential primaries. The Sanders & Warren campaigns took up a lot of oxygen and energy for the Progressive Democrats. However, once their campaigns ended, little of that momentum shifted to congressional primaries and elections. That is something I want to see a change in, which is why I write about the need for a “Progressive Tea Party,” the DOGE Plan, the Trump Kleptocracy, and numerous articles (3 of them as of last count) on “Building the Bench.”

Congress can be a place of bold policy ambition and personal action, contrary to what people think today.

So here is why Congress is so much more important than people-including progressives-would otherwise think (and why it needs to flex its muscle during the Trump Presidency):

1. Congress is the prime crucial check-and-balance institution on the President, one we desperately need now as the Congressional GOP leadership (and even Senate Democratic leadership) abdicates its own authority to Donald Trump and the executive branch

2. The federal legislative branch also enables some of the greatest opportunities to enact broad, ambitious, sweeping federal government policies that make a material, meaningful difference for everyone which was what took place during the New Deal and Great Society particularly

3. Congress when governed in the right way, has enormous responsibility to do productive legislative oversight not just to contain presidential powers, but to advocate on behalf of the American taxpayer, consumer, and worker

4. Congress (or rather, the House of Representatives) in its full strength wields massive advice-and-consent powers from appropriating federal government budgets the way we should do it multilaterally, and confirm executive office officials and judicial nominees

5. Congress (or more specifically the Senate) has the power to do things that are not usually done on the state or local level, including cornerstone issues such as ratifying or rejecting foreign treaties and trade agreements, constructing new tax policies, regulating bad actors across the economy, enacting entirely new government programs, and investing in working families

6. Congress is able to appropriate grants and other funds into their local communities, especially those that are in need of assistance for various reasons, and offer more funding for state and local governments

7. Congress has a say over federal services that impact lives across the country, and including in home states, such as USAID

8. Congress allows a public forum and debate on pressing issues that matter to working families, which is needed around market consolidation, economic inequality, budget austerity, corporate welfare, the rising cost of living, life expectancy, healthcare, education, climate crisis, affordable housing, infrastructure, transportation, agriculture, manufacturing, immigration, voting rights, technology policies, artificial intelligence, campaign finance, and more

9. Congress has historically offered opportunities to work collaboratively with all kinds of stakeholders, constituency groups, and policy experts on issues that matter to people (something that once existed prior to Citizens United)

10. Congress does offer opportunities for rising stars (like the leaders I’ve mentioned here) to make a name on policy issues of their choice with national implications for the middle class and all Americans beyond their own home states

11. Bipartisanship (“good bipartisanship”) is still possible on a number of issues, as we see in Big Tech regulation, mental health parity, foreign policy, and oversight matters

12. For progressives, and even conservatives, there is a bench that can built for higher offices by investing at this level (including governor, other statewide offices, the Cabinet, or the Presidency)

13. Especially for Senators, but also including House members, congressional lawmakers hold political influence to shape electoral coattails down ballot, particularly for statewide offices, control of state legislatures, mayoralships, and local races

14. Nothing that the President proposes legislatively can pass without the support of the United States Congress

So remember, even when you think Congress does not serve any purpose, or that there is little to do in the minority, it very well is the embodiment of representative government relative to the power of one man. And at least up to this point, the United States has been and is a nation of laws and rules, not a nation of kings or unelected billionaires. All of which makes the institution never more important than now; a test the institution has not lived up to the moment on…yet.