By STEVE BRAWNER
Members of Arkansas’ congressional delegation have gained influence at a time when Congress itself is losing power.
Their influence has increased because five of the six members are now committee chairs, and the sixth leads what traditionally has been an important subcommittee.
Those committee chairs include Sen. Tom Cotton, who chairs the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Rep. Rick Crawford, who chairs the Intelligence Committee in the House. In those positions, the two oversee the CIA and the various military branches’ intelligence-gathering activities. They are one-fourth of the so-called “Gang of Eight” members of Congress with the most access to American intelligence.
Among the rest of the delegation, Sen. John Boozman chairs the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee. It’s the perfect time, because Congress is past due to write the next Farm Bill. Rep. French Hill chairs the House Financial Services Committee, which oversees banking. Rep. Bruce Westerman recently began his second term chairing the House Natural Resources Committee. It has jurisdiction over fisheries and wildlife, forest reserves, and national parks.
The only member of the state’s delegation who doesn’t chair a committee is Rep. Steve Womack. However, he is a member of the House Appropriations Committee and chairs the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee.
Being one of 12 Appropriations subcommittee chairmen traditionally has been a powerful position. Womack can have a major say in steering federal funds to his district for transportation and housing programs.
The six members achieved these positions because they got elected years ago and then stayed elected. They waited patiently when they lacked seniority and when their party was in the minority. Now that they have both seniority and the majority, this is their time.
But this also is happening when Congress is ceding powers to the executive branch. President Trump with the help of Elon Musk has closed or significantly cut congressionally approved agencies through executive actions. In years past, some members of Congress would not have abided this encroachment into their power of the purse. But congressional Republicans have said little. One wonders what kind of precedents are being set for future administrations, Republican and Democrat.
There are many reasons for this. One is that the GOP is very much an extension of Trump – who is by far the party’s dominant figure. Rank-and-file members don’t feel they can go against him.
Other reasons have deeper historical roots. As the country has become divided and Congress more bitterly partisan, members see their first loyalty as being to their party rather than to their branch.
Furthermore, the president has institutional advantages the legislative and judicial branches lack. There may be three “equal” branches of government, but only one has a military and a vast federal workforce. Only one has a big White House and a band that plays “Hail to the Chief” when the commander-in-chief walks into a room. Only one commands attention on the world stage as the country’s leader.
The three branches of government are supposed to check and balance each other. Congress makes the laws. The president enforces the laws. The courts interpret the laws.
That system depends on the branches zealously guarding their prerogatives and also on each showing restraint and abiding by historical norms. President Trump has shown that he is willing to ignore some of those norms. When he does, Republicans in Congress won’t oppose him, and Democrats, as the minority, can’t do much but complain.
The 535 bickering members of Congress and the nine robed Supreme Court justices ultimately are not in a great position to oppose a president when he doesn’t care to be equal with them. The courts have no real means of making a president do what he doesn’t want to do. He can just ignore their rulings. Congress could impeach, but that seems unlikely. Republicans won’t support it, and Democrats won’t have the numbers and overplayed that hand in the previous Trump administration.
The upshot of all this is that the state’s members of Congress will be holding hearings and conducting business as committee chairmen, but they will be taking many of their cues from the executive branch.
If history is any guide, Democrats will again control the House or Senate or both after the next election. (Given the party’s unpopularity, they might not.) If that happens, they will try to reassert Congress’ prerogatives.
We’ll see what happens. Whoever is in the majority will be acting as part of a branch that’s been weakened, maybe permanently.
Steve Brawner’s column is syndicated to 17 outlets in Arkansas. Email him at brawnersteve@mac.com.