PART 1
The what? An Executive Order from the Speaker? President Trump signed 118 Executive Orders within houses after taking the oath of office on 20 January aimed at the Departments and Agencies in the Executive Branch. Why can’t the Speaker of the House do the same for his part of the federal government? There is an applicable quote that covers this situation, “When in charge, take charge.”
THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE ADDRESSING THE ASSEMBLED MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
Good morning, thank you for showing up. For those members who decided not to attend, I will speak to them tomorrow evening after work. For your information, as I speak, this Executive Order is being sent electronically to your offices.
SOME BACKGROUND DATA
In 2020 when the pandemic was beating up every aspect of our society the Congress concocted a 5,593-page-Bill monstrosity for Covid-19 relief, The Cares Act. Of course, it passed; nearly everyone could use a little relief from Covid and the taxpayers were stuck with the Bill, all $1.8 trillion dollars.
But here is the pathetic part; under the guise of helping Americans through the pandemic, members of Congress seized on the opportunity to pork-up the Bill with dozens, if not hundreds, of earmarked funding directives that had absolutely nothing to do with Covid or Covid relief. Here is a small sampling:
- $300 million for fisheries,
- $100 million for NASA,
- $300 million to Endowment for the Arts,
- $300 million to Endowment for the Humanities,
- $300 million to Public Broadcasting,
- $500 million for Museums and Libraries,
- $720 million to Social Security Administration,
- $315 million to the State Department,
- $90 million to the Peace Corp,
- $492 million to National Railroad Passenger Corp,
- $526 million grant to Amtrak and
- $4.7 Billion in foreign aid to nine countries (average $522 million each country).
The first takeaway from this example is that under different circumstances, each of these expenditures could have/should have seen the light of day in one or more congressional committees where expert witnesses would have testified to the pros and cons of passing the funding.
The second takeaway is that the Covid Relief Act was not a one-off occurrence. Producing multi-thousand-page Bills has become the norm. No one who votes for them has actually read them and therefore do not know what they are voting for or against. Should we be borrowing money for earmarks that have never been exposed to public scrutiny? If viewed separately by the American taxpayers, would they all pass the smell test? Absolutely not.
The third takeaway is a couple questions to each of you in this assembly; how many of you actually read the 5,593-page bill before you voted on it? How many of you knew you were spending $10 million on gender programs in Pakistan?
Let me remind you of a second spending example: For years politicians have been emphasizing the need for infrastructure spending. So, in 2021 Congress finally passed, in a bipartisan vote, the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act which, by the way, is also funding:
- Universal pre-K,
- Child care,
- Enhanced child tax credit,
- Earned income tax credit,
- Affordable Care Act subsidies,
- Medicaid expansion,
- Medical hearing benefits,
- Affordable housing,
- Pell grants,
- Children’s nutrition,
- Immigration,
- State and local tax deductions,
- Etc. etc. etc.
Only about 25% of the expenditures actually exist for real infrastructure such as roads, bridges and airports. What happened to the remaining $900 Billion?
We finished fiscal year 2024 with $1.8 trillion in deficit spending, up from $1.7 trillion in 2023. Just a reminder that the uncensured add-ons to the two Bills I just outlined for you represent a huge piece of the annual deficit spending we have become too used to.
Those opening remarks are just attention getters. Now to reality. It has become obvious in the short time since the 2024 election that the people we work for, the voters who sent us here, want change, are ready for change and expect change.
How many times do you hear in this body, “the reason we do things this way is because, we have always done it this way.” Well, that doesn’t make it right. That is not a good enough reason to spend $10 million on gender programs in Pakistan.
The downsizing and reorientation of the Executive Branch that is currently underway will undoubtedly cut hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud, waste, abuse and unnecessary spending. But there is a second arena that when turned inside-out and looked at through a microscope can potentially save additional hundreds of billions of dollars annually. That is us in this room; the U.S. House of Representatives.
As your leader, I am presenting to you today in an Executive Order a concept of operations for the House which is currently an undisciplined failure as an operating organization.
How do our constituents think we are doing? The recently released annual Gallup Poll ratings of U.S. professions provide some interesting insights. The top three professions rated “high/very high” are nurses 76%, grade school teachers 61% and military officers 59%. The bottom three rated “low/very low” are TV reporters 55% and tied for last place are lobbyists and Congress 68%. Low to very low; we can do better, we must do better.
For most of the last 49 years Congress has been at or near the bottom in this annual Gallop poll. One would think, out of sheer embarrassment that we would want to clean up our act.
Let’s agree right now that change is absolutely necessary if we are to be all we can/should be.
My proposed concept of operations begins by institutionalizing a set of eight operational standards and then establishes a small oversight organization that will make sure the standards are in place and utilized every day in every way. An organization without standards is a failed organization; that’s where we are today.
THE CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION STANDARDS AUTHORITY, CLSA
A small team of operators will be set up in the office of the Speaker called the Congressional Legislation Standards Authority. The CLSA’s sole purpose will be to enforce these eight standards and to administer the life-cycle of a piece of legislation. The CLSA will NOT be in charge of the Congress. They will NOT make policy. But they will become the administrators of the day-to-day process of creating new legislation and a new budget. The Congress has proven that it is incapable of successfully and efficiently administrating themselves. The CLSA can become something akin to the very valuable oversight we see from the Congressional Budget Office whose work is objective and nonpartisan.
Under the CLSA every Bill will first appear on a Congressional web site operated solely by the CLSA that is totally dedicated to enforcing the standards for every Bill. Every member of Congress will receive an alert each time a new Bill is proposed and posted on a new Congressional Legislation Website.
This website will be managed solely by the CLSA; The sponsors of a Bill may contact the CLSA at any time to update schedules, to notify members of committee hearings, to make changes to the legislation, etc. But the CLSA team are the only ones who can access the site to add, delete or change any piece of information.
The CLSA does not have the authority to recommend changes, additions or deletions to the intent of the legislation. Their function is to determine if the proposed legislation meets certain established standards, with particular emphasis on Standard Number Three, Applicability which I will get to in a moment, and on meeting previously established suspense dates.
STANDARD NUMBER ONE, OUTLAW “EARMARKING”
As you are all aware, an earmark is a provision inserted into a discretionary spending Billthat directs funds to a specific recipient while circumventing the merit-based or competitive funds allocation process. Most earmarks are attached to a “must-pass” Bill so that it is protected from non-passage or presidential veto. My definition of most earmarks is an idea that would not have a snowball’s chance in hell of getting passed if, standing alone, it was exposed to the light of day. This standard alone will cut billions in spending as illustrated in the two Bills I discussed previously.
STANDARD NUMBER TWO, SUNSET LEGISLATION
As you know, sunset legislation is a measure, within a statute or regulation, that provides that the law shall cease to have effect after a specific future date, unless further legislative action is taken to extend the law. Most laws do not have sunset clauses and therefore remain in force indefinitely. Keep in mind that most laws cause some new Executive Department organization to be created. Our government is full of agencies, divisions and branches that require annual funding, while having outlived their requirement to exit.
STANDARD NUMBER THREE, APPLICABILITY
As previously pointed out in 2020 the 5593-page Covid-19 relief Bill there were scores of organizations funded from that Bill that had absolutely zero association with the Covid-19 outbreak or relief thereof.
Hereafter all of the provisions of a particular Bill must clearly identify with the subject, purpose and intent of the Bill which will save additional billions of needless expenditures per year. It will prevent publishing Bills that are too lengthy to read.
STANDARD NUMBER FOUR, STAND-ALONE
Every Bill will be a single-issue piece of legislation. Period.
STANDARD NUMBER FIVE, TIME LIMITS
There are two different situations to consider. One is the federal budget process and the other is all Bills other than those in the budget process.
The non-budget Bills will get processed in one continuous timeframe not to exceed 90-days per Bill. The CLSA will grade the scheduling of all activities to insure it is ready to be voted on within the 90-day timeframe. The exception to this is, at any time the Bill’s sponsor or committee may pull it from consideration. (We will get to the federal budget process in a few minutes.)
STANDARD NUMBER SIX, LEADERS CANNOT HIDE A PENDING BILL
Speakers of the House have too often practiced sitting on Bills, not allowing them to be voted on for protracted periods of time. This will not be allowed. Every Bill will be voted on or before the end of its 90-day life-span.
STANDARD NUMBER SEVEN, WEBSITE FORMAT
Every piece of legislation will be formatted with four specific sections and pages as follows:
SECTION ONE, PAGE ONE of the CLSA standard format is all about accountability and transparency and will consist of continuously updated information.
- Title of the legislation: ___________________________________
- Start date: ________ the date the CLSA initially uploads it onto the website and notifies all legislators that it is there for them to review and act on.
- Not-later-than-date to be presented, debated and voted on the floor of the House of Representatives.
- The member of Congress who is the principal sponsor _________________
and co-sponsors
- Author of the proposed Bill: ______________ (a member of Congress, the White House, a Congressional committee staff, Executive Branch Department, Non-governmental organization, lobbyist, private citizen, etc.)
- Sunset legislation date: ___(a date that must be included inside the Bill)_______
- Schedule for committee hearings: _______________________________________
Before moving on to section 2 of the format, some
COMMENTS ON DRAFTING OF LEGISLATION:
Lobbyists. There are nearly 12,000 registered lobbyists in the U.S. and most of them seem to reside in Washington D.C. They work for businesses, professional associations, cities, states, non-profit organizations, etc. They get paid to make things happen in government and mostly that is in the form of special interest legislation. Lobbyist are a prime source of today’s legislation and especially earmarks. It is not a completely negative concept but the downside is that they can too frequently get politicians to earmark appropriations that are self-serving and not in the best interest of the general public. It’s called waste and abuse of power.
Congressional committee staffers. Staffers write much of the legislation today and therein lies a big problem. Because many issues rarely fit nicely inside the domain of a single committee, there will ultimately be multiple committee staffers, working on behalf of their politicians and bringing their individual thoughts and prejudices to the effort. Too often, having begun in good faith to build a thoroughbred race horse, they end up with a herd of camels. Under today’s system that “camel” ends up earmarked to some “must pass” Bill and eventually in some Executive Branch, department or agency for execution. By then, the original intent for the Bill may be so convoluted that it is potentially a complete waste of time, energy, money and is one of the causes of the gross inefficiency of government.
I believe the Executive Branch of government, to include the president, should author a larger portion of the Bills. Why? Because they know the who, what, when, where, why and how details of their proposals that should not be delegated to lobbyists or congressional staffers. Why not let the experts, those who will be responsible for execution, do the up-front piece? For example, if the Department of Homeland Security needs $400 million for border security, they should write the proposed Bill and seek out some member(s) of Congress to sponsor it.
SECTION TWO, PAGE TWOof the CLSA standard format is all about intent
- Current as of date: __________ each time there is a new or changed data point posted on the website for this piece of legislation, the CLSA will update this “current as of” date.
- Intent is one of the most powerful tools available to a leader. Therefore, it should be used judiciously, be brief, never exceed a short paragraph or two and must begin with the words, “ the purpose of this legislation is to…….”
- The power of intent is that if properly phrased and distributed, it will let everyone into the mind of the author. Intent is one of the least used and most important aspects of any law. Congress and the authors of a Bill should not leave it to the applicable governmental departments to infuse their own intent for what the laws should or should not be about and thereby create unintended consequences.
SECTION THREE, PAGE THREE of the CLSA standard format is the component outline.
- Current as of date: __________ each time there is a new or changed data point posted on the website for this piece of legislation, the CLSA will update this “current as of” date.
- Provide an outline of the major elements. The format will be similar to a Table of Contents but with a sentence or two explaining each entry.
- This is an especially valuable tool. We the people, the media, all of the members of Congress, congressional committee members and staffers want to/need to get a thorough sense of what the Bill is all about without using valuable time reading the entire document.
SECTION FOUR, BEGINNING ON PAGE FOUR of the CLSA standard format is the entire Bill.
- Current as of date: __________ each time there is a new or changed data point posted on the website for this piece of legislation, the CLSA will update this “current as of” date.
- How many pages should it be? Certainly not 5593. I believe we can provide some leeway but any Bill that exceeds 50 pages should be justified.
WE THE PEOPLE QUESTIONS ABOUT THE PRODUCTION OF LEGISLATION
How do the people who sent us here, find out what we are doing?
How do they know what is in the Bills that are under consideration?
How do they know when important issues are going to be in Committee, which Committees, when will it be voted on the floor?
How do they know the intent of each proposed piece of legislation?
How do they find out how many important issues are in a Bill?
How do they find out how many pages long the Bill is?
The answer today is generally speaking they don’t know any of this. That is unacceptable. We are, but should not be a secret operation. The answer to every one of the above questions can become common knowledge that is available 24/7 and current all of the time. No secrets, no ambiguity. That is all within the art of the possible without building a massive bureaucracy to run it.
BACK TO THE EIGHT STANDARDS, (1 no earmarks, 2 sunset legislation, 3 applicability, 4 stand-alone bills, 5 time-lines, 6 hiding bills, 7 standard format)
STANDARD NUMBER EIGHT, MILESTONES
One of the most important parts of every plan is the end-date and end-state. Without them indiscipline will flourish and the organization will perform ineffectively and inefficiently. That is where we are today. That has to change.
A note to committee Chairpersons. Establish, enforce and achieve milestones or, you are hereby informed, you will be replaced. Believe me, there are a lot of Representatives who would like to have your job.
CONCLUSIONS about having Congressional Legislation Standards Authority oversight of day-to-day stand-alone legislation.
- “$10 million for gender programs in Pakistan”. After the fact, that’s when we found out about this and dozens more ridiculous “Covid-19 relief” packages. Who knew about them before they became law? None of us. Why? Because the Congress can waste our tax dollars almost at will while hiding behind a wall of anonymity. What happened to accountability? Without standards there is no accountability.
- Under the above proposed CLSA program, we would have known on day-one who sponsored this insane earmark. We would have known when a committee was going to discuss it. We would have known weeks in advance when it was going to be voted on. We would have known all this because it would have been a stand-alone Bill, not hidden inside a 5593-page unread Bill. Accountability and transparency would have been front and center. The fact is, “$10 million for gender programs in Pakistan.” would never have made it to the floor for a vote because visibility by the press and by we-the-people would have caused it to go away. Furthermore, one of the great advantages of a standards-based legislative process is that in all likelihood, the Bill would never have been written because anonymity is non-existent.
- Journalists will use the CLSA website as a source for up-to-the-minute reporting on pending legislation. Citizens can read it, learn what the legislation is all about, understand the positives and negatives of the intent and weigh in with their elected legislators before, not after, it becomes the law of the land.
- After about a year, this simple process will guide all new-legislation activities in the Congress and will be accepted as the new normal. This process has the potential to save hundreds of Billions of dollars per year. It will have the effect of spending our tax dollars first in support of we-the-people.
- Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, this more disciplined approach to legislation could have the long-term impact of moving toward greater fiscal responsibility building towards a future balanced budget mindset.
- Successful, admired organizations operate this way every day. It is as simple as one-two-three. One, thoroughly define a single TASK at hand. Two, define the CONDITIONS, in this case stand-alone Bills. Three, set and enforce the operating STANDARDS without exceptions. Task, conditions, standards; this new approach to doing the peoples’ business in Washington is within the art of the possible and it will not cost a dime to adopt and institutionalize operational change. We must do this.
As I previously stated in STANDARD NUMBER FIVE, TIME LIMITS, there are two different situations to consider; the non-budget related Bill with website sections one through four and now a look at the federal budget process legislation.
THE FEDERAL BUDGET PROCESS LEGISLATION
To develop and pass a new budget with twelve separate appropriations Bills is supposed to be a standardized eight-month process from early February through the end of the fiscal year on 30 September.
THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH RESPONSIBILITIES
Each October federal agencies begin compiling their budgets for the following fiscal year and submit their proposals to the President via the Office of Management and Budget. OMB edits, calculates, and coordinates the budget for final review and approval by the President. The President then forwards the approved proposal to the House and Senate, hopefully, by the first Monday in February.
CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE ACTIONS:
The Budget Act of 1974 lays out the required congressional actions, February through September of each year, in order to have a completed, agreed upon and signed budget by 30 September. Upon receipt of the president’s budget, various Committees begin reviewing their respective sections of the budget; the process is spear-headed by the Budget Committee.
BUDGET RESOLUTION:
Upon receipt of the President’s Budget, the Budget Resolution document is then worked in the House and Senate. The budget resolution process allows Congress to establish a framework within which the House and Senate will consider budget-related legislation and set revenue and spending levels. The Budget Act set a target date of 15 April for adoption of a budget resolution by both chambers. The CLSA will closely monitor the resolution process looking for violations of the standards on earmarking and applicability.
BUDGET RECONCILIATION
The Budget Act further sets a target date of 15 June for completing action on reconciliation legislation if required in able to complete the resolution. Without resolution between the House and Senate there are no rules, no timelines, no standards and no discipline. All of that leads directly to the chaos and disasters of completing a budget for all twelve separate appropriations Bills by 30 September.
Following budget resolution and reconciliation, April through June, the 90-day CLSA standard window will begin for passage of the twelve budget appropriations.
The Budget Act of 1974 lays out the timelines for Congress in the passage of an annual budget by 30 September each year. So, how are we doing?
The Congressional process, according to the Pew Research Center, has been a monumental failure for decades. “Congress has had to pass continuing resolutions to keep government agencies running between budgets in all but four of the last 40 years. The last time Congress completed all Bills on time was in 1996.”
Additionally, Congress has only adopted a budget resolution prior to the April 15 target date on four occasions since fiscal year 1985, with the most recent being fiscal year 2004.
Because Congress usually doesn’t pass its 12 appropriations Bills on time, it then uses continuing resolutions and omnibus Bills, which cover several appropriations. The consequences are a less effective, more expensive government that wastes taxpayer dollars and burdens current and future generations with massive debt.
The 12th and final appropriations Bill for FY 2024 was finally passed 23 March 2024; six months late.
Before adjourning for the summer recess last August 2024, Congress had passed only one of the 12 appropriations Bills for FY 2025. By the time we all got back to work, we had only 11 days to pass the remaining 11 appropriations. It didn’t happen. September, 2024 the House and Senate approved a stopgap measure to keep the government funded for three months. This is unacceptable.
One of the most basic Constitutional tasks for Congress is to pass a fiscal year budget and do it on time. However, Congressional indiscipline continues to place the day-to-day functioning of the federal government in jeopardy and thereby negatively affecting nearly all Americans in some way.
My position is that this is unacceptable institutionalized irresponsibility and ineptitude. The system is seriously broken because of the failure of the senior leaders, House Speaker, Senate Majority Leader and Committee Chairpersons.
STANDARDS FOR THE ANNUAL BUDGET PROCESS, FEBRUARY THROUGH SEPTEMBER.
STANDARD NUMBER ONE: Leaders publish detailed plans, well in advance, for action with hard suspense dates for accomplishing all assigned tasks. That includes all Committee chairpersons.
STANDARD NUMBER TWO: Leader’s schedule and take frequent IPRs, In-progress reviews. If committee work is behind schedule, the senior leaders will direct night and weekend work to ensure on-time results.
STANDARD NUMBER THREE: Runing out of time is not a valid excuse. Work hard, work long, work weekends if necessary but get it done.
STANDARD NUMBER FOUR: Election year schedule. When 435 Representatives and 1/3 of the Senators are home campaigning every other year, that needs to be taken into consideration and not become a valid excuse for not accomplishing budget tasks on time.
The Congressional Legislation Standards Authority needs to come into play again as follows beginning with these website pages:
CLSA and THE ANNUAL BUDGET PROCESS
The Speaker of the House and the Budget Committee chairperson will prepare and publish a Concept of Operations for the next fiscal year budget preparation process published on the CLSA website not later than 15 January. Their narratives will cover the who/what/when/where/why and how of the process in great detail.
What I have presented to you today is a picture of institutionalized failure by an operational organization. We were not sent here by the American people to fail. We must change. We can do better. We must do better.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE CULTURE
I want to close with comments about our culture. We must first recognize that culture is a powerful and pervasive force and there is an existing culture in every organization no matter how small or large. Culture can be recognized by an organization’s leaders, continuously worked to keep it on track and benefit from its positive power. Or, culture can just be left to evolve on its own to be a positive or negative force.
The culture of an organization can usually be categorized in a word or phrase. For example, “compassionate, ugly, benevolent, self-serving, innovative, industrious, incompetent”, whatever. You get the picture. If you were asked to define the personality of your friends and family, you could do that easily. A good way to think about culture is that culture is simply the personality of an organization.
When sitting back and looking at one’s organizational culture there are four relevant questions.
- Can you describe your organization’s culture? The answer is yes you can. But to do so, one has to be completely honest, introspective, willing to do so and willing to change if necessary.
- Second question, having defined the culture, is it what you want it to be? The answer is usually no. We do not live in a perfect world and there is almost always room for improvement.
- Third question, can you define exactly what you want the culture to be? Yes, you can and you must do so.
- And finally, the most difficult task, how are you going to go about institutionalizing the culture you have chosen?
I want you all to be thinking about those four questions because today I am selecting a team of four of your colleagues to provide to me their collective answer in about ten days and they may be seeking your thoughts as part of their research.
My personal view is that the culture of the House or Representatives has been moving in a negative direction over the past two or three decades to the point that we have become dysfunctional and not respected.
I believe we have become so ideologically opinionated that if one party suggests a path forward the other party seems duty-bound to immediately oppose it irrespective of the greater good for, we the people. But we do not politely oppose the other party’s proposal with a logical counter position, we too often oppose it publicly with vile language and an attitude bordering on hatred.
The most recent demonstration of ugly behavior occurred during the confirmation hearings for President Trump’s senior leaders in the Executive Branch. While I understand those nominees would not have been the choices many of you would have made, those ladies and gentlemen are all intelligent patriots who love our country and want to serve in positions of great responsibility. But too many of you attended the hearings prepared not to ask important questions but to engage in loud, ugly character assassinations that were unbecoming of your position in government and our organization.
And then there is the seemingly daily dose of blame, blame, blame. Everything that fails to be positive in your opinion is declared a failure and blamed on the other party. I believe our overarching culture can be characterized as one of hate and blame. The American people are sick and tired of it and think less of us for it.
A thought from an unknown author, “The only thing that happens when you throw dirt is that you lose ground.” Hate and blame do not inspire, it breeds malcontent, discord, disarray, frustration and ultimately, in this case, failure for the entire nation.
The larger problem is that what goes on here in our House is constantly visible to the entire nation. The culture of hate and blame has spread across the country and is broadcast daily by too much of our media.
On 5 November 2024 the American people sent a powerful message to us; they want change and they want it now. Change should become our near-term mission.
If I was called upon today to choose a culture for the House of Representatives, my choice would be a collection of three simple, powerful, meaningful words that fit together nicely, complement and reinforce each other. They are an operational culture of accountability, respect and trust. It will fix a broken organization and it will make us better Representatives. Think about it.
Thank you for your time and attention.
End of the Speaker’s presentation to the House of Representatives.
PART TWO
THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND MAJORITY LEADER OF THE SENATE EXECUTIVE ORDER
“Kill two birds with one stone.” Ditto all of the above; substitute “Senate” for “House of Representatives” and present this to the assembled Senate by the President of the Senate J.D. Vance and the Majority Leader of the Senate, John Thune.
A FINAL THOUGHT: the last attempt to bring some budgeting discipline to the Congress was the Budget Act, 51 years age and it failed miserably. This concept of operations is simple, 21st Century technology and doesn’t cost anything. Why not try something new especially since we are drowning in debt.
Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of two books, Vision to Execution and Fix the Systems, Transform America as well as the author of a blog, WeThePeopleSpeaking.com