Congress may be out of town, but the institution never really shuts down

Terry Gerton You know, usually you and I talk about things that are on the table of Congress and what they’re working on right now, but since they’re on recess, I thought it might be kind of fun to take a peek behind the curtain and what is going on back there. The first thing that’s come up in some headlines is Senate pro forma sessions. Now, these are kind of normal, but they’re getting a lot of attention right now. What’s going on?

Mitchell Miller Yeah, so while people on the Hill are familiar with pro forma sessions in the House and Senate, many are not. And even when Congress is out, every few days, a House member and a Senate member quickly call their respective chambers into session and there are no votes, no legislative activities, but they basically just do this to stamp the fact that the Congress is still here. And they keep the House in Senate from adjourning for more than three without the other chambers consent. So why is that important? To prevent a president from temporarily making a cabinet pick or filling another vacancy while lawmakers are gone. And this goes back to a 2014 Supreme Court decision that set out restrictions on so-called recess appointments that presidents were using to get around Congress. Now what’s interesting about this summer is people on social media have suddenly discovered this and they have been skewering lawmakers, in particular Republicans, for presiding over these sessions based essentially on bad information, I think. These are trolls that believe that lawmakers are somehow limiting the president’s powers. But the fact of the matter is Senate Republicans have actually approved more of President Trump’s nominees at this time than they had during the first term. And now they’re able to do them what they call on block, which is essentially they can approve more than one or two at a time. In fact, before they went on session, as we talked about previously, more than 70 nominations were actually approved in a single vote, including the head of FEMA. So, this is a really interesting situation, but it does pull the curtain back a little bit that people forget that there are actually individual lawmakers here from week to week during the summer.

Terry Gerton And trolls are not informed or not, that social media pressure is forcing those Republicans to actually respond, right?

Mitchell Miller They are. They are actually responding and they have to try to explain what is going on here, you know, why are you doing this if the president could simply just make an appointment? So many of these Republican lawmakers have had to respond to the people on social media or they’ve done interviews with reporters here on the Hill. It’s interesting, too, related to that because they’ve been asked about that when they come off the floor. Many of them will kind of hold court for a few minutes with just a handful of reporters here to go over whatever’s coming up legislatively later in the summer or something that’s popped up in the news. And they’ve had to answer questions about this. In fact, Jim Jordan (R) of Ohio said, you know, look, I don’t worry about it too much, but it is interesting that people are getting involved in this. Another interesting thing related to the lawmakers when they get off the floor is a few of them do not want to talk to reporters. Not surprisingly, I guess, but they kind of scurry out or they take a back door so that they don’t have to talk to a handful of us in the hallway.

Terry Gerton One of the other things that’s happening while they’re on recess is the Office of Legislative Council still is continuing to consider new draft legislation. And we’re hearing a lot about the impact of AI on draft bills received by that office. What are you seeing there? Who normally drafts bills?

Mitchell Miller Well, this would normally be done by very skilled lawyers and staffers for each of the individual lawmakers, as well as people on the committees. And there’s a lot of getting together to make sure that all the language is very, very specifically written out. Because if you put just one clause or one period or a comma in the wrong place, it literally can change the meaning of the legislation. So with AI involved now, this is becoming a major issue. And I think it’s only likely to get worse. Generally, these legal staffers, as they pour over the legislation, then they go through this office of legislative counsel, which then goes over the legislation to make sure there’s no mistakes or that bill doesn’t say something that wasn’t intended. And even under the best circumstances, some errors do get through and bills have to be re-edited and rewritten. But now it’s becoming a problem because in the House, the number of bills being written is soaring. Ten years ago, there were just under 6,000 bills introduced in the house. In the latest session, it’s been over 10,000. Often they’re drawn up through the lawmaker, even though the law maker knows it may not have a chance of getting passed, but they want to get out in front on various issues. So the bills written with the help of AI are much more likely to have errors in them. And those in the process who have looked at this have told Politico that they’re actually spending more time rewriting the bills than if they were drawn up from scratch. So it’s Less of a problem, by the way, in the Senate because, frankly, the Senate has not been doing as much legislating as it used to do, more often dealing with those nominations that we just spoke about. But the Office of Legislative Council now has a working group to determine how AI might be integrated into this process. Also staffers are using specialized software that allows them to see a bill and how it be changed under the U.S. Code, which is a big deal with legislation. But I think AI is going to be a big issue moving forward, certainly with more and more staffers trying to rely on it in connection with legislation.

Terry Gerton Mitchell Miller is Capitol Hill correspondent for WTOP. Mitchell, one other area that’s really behind the curtain is ethics reform. I mean, the headlines just seem to be getting worse and worse, whether it’s insider trading or Polymarket bets or really improper relationship. There seems to be some legislative movement towards reining in ethics enforcement. What are you hearing there?

Mitchell Miller Well, one of the problems with the House Ethics Committee, for example, is that it has had a reputation for many, many years of saying something’s under investigation and then you don’t hear anything about it for months, even years. And sometimes the lawmaker who’s been accused of something actually leaves Congress before the investigation has been finished. So there’s been a huge push among lawmakers in the midst of all these little scandals to get the Ethics Committee to really move faster and to be more public and transparent about what it’s doing. And on the issue of sexual misconduct, which we’ve heard a lot about, unfortunately, on the Hill, it’s women in Congress who have taken the lead on this issue, saying there has to be more accountability, new guidelines related to lawmakers and staff members. There’s a bipartisan effort being led by Florida Republican Kat Cammack and New Mexico Democrat  Teresa Leger Fernández. They want to improve various processes where staff members can report violations as well as how the House Ethics Committee actually carries out its work. Right now, it’s kind of a convoluted series of processes for people to make complaints in connection, for example, if a lawmaker does something wrong. Now, as I mentioned, the ethics panel has this kind of rough reputation of drawing things out, but they have, the members of that panel, I think, have really tried to accelerate things more recently. They’re putting out releases pretty quickly when there’s a lawmaker who’s been accused of misconduct and they’re trying to wrap up the investigations more quickly so I think there is more of a move to accountability on the hill. Obviously lawmakers policing themselves is somewhat problematic but it seems to be moving in a direction a lot of people agree on

Terry Gerton Certainly the headlines that came out in this primary cycle have impacted some candidates. And the Ethics Committee also has a 60-day moratorium prior to the midterms when it won’t put out any negative information. How is this playing out in terms of the political balance and the candidates as we move into the mid terms?

Mitchell Miller Right. Well, let’s just take one example. California Democrat Jimmy Gomez has been accused of sexual misconduct, and his case is now before the House Ethics Committee. And many lawmakers from both sides of the aisles, women and men, have called for the Ethics Committee to move more quickly so that they don’t get into that 60-day window, because while it’s well-intended, of course, they don’t want to interfere with elections right before they take place. They also don’t want it to drag out. And as some lawmakers have said, you know, the voters really should know what’s in front of these lawmakers in terms of the allegations against them so that the voters can make the decisions that they feel are the right ones. So I think you’re going to see a move in that direction as well.