What Is Congress’ Role in a Contingent Presidential Election? (with John Fortier)

And the legislator as ombudsman and sherpa to the administrative state

In the latest epsidoe of the Understanding Congress podcast, I talk with my American Enterprise Institute colleague, John Fortier, about Congress’ role in a contingent presidential election—that scenario when no presidential or vice-presidential candidate gets 270 electoral votes. In short, it’s a messy situation that imperils the continuity of government. It is especially aggravating is that Congress can fix this situation—but it hasn’t, because other policy and political issues inevitably get more attention than institutional maintenance. (Remember how some of us were hollering that Congress needed to upgrade the Electoral Count Act but nothing was done until after the January 6 craziness?

Listen here or on Spotify, Apple, or whatever your favorite streaming service is.

So this May 5 tweet by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) is interesting.

It exhibits the fact that legislators and their staff have become voters’ ombudsmen and sherpa to the federal government. Why? Simple: Because the federal government has gotten so enormous and complex that the public often needs help naviagting its relationship with it. Voters ask legislators if they qualify for various grants, entitlements, etc., and legislators market themselves to voters as chipper servants eager to help them. It is no accident that the Congressional Research Service, Congress’s think-tank, long has had a report titled “Grants Information for Constituents” and provides Hill staff with training on how to help constituents.

Once upon a time, legislators would introduce private bills to remedy these situations (e.g., ‘This bill directs the Department of Veterans Affairs to pay the widow of Oliver Happerslop $4,273 in veteran’s….’). But, Congress mostly abandoned that practice by the mid-20th century—there was simply not enough calendar time to vote on all these bills, some of which were not above the board).

Manchin’s tweet also is significant because it reminds us that legislators have less time to legislate and conduct oversight BECAUSE they have to play this ombudsman/sherpa role. Indeed, when Tim LaPira, Lee Drutman, and I published Congress Overwhelmed we included data showing that legislators allot more staff to working in their district offices, which handle many of these constituent issues.

Sen. Manchin is not running for reelection—so good on him and his staff for continuing to work for the folks back home.

Thanks for reading. Have a great week!