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Are megabills bad?
Making bills bigger is a cunning power move for politicians — but bad for representative democracy.
Over recent history, there has been a strong trend in Congress towards passing fewer bills. This is not to say that Congress is doing less; individual bills have gotten much longer, with significant pieces of legislation bundling together more and more things together. Why?
Let’s think about a hypothetical scenario for a moment. If the Speaker of the House insists that any law authorizing a national firearms background check system must also include a provision banning national distribution of asparagus, the Senate and the President cannot simply bypass the House and create a background check system without an asparagus ban.
Larger bills give power to key legislators by letting them bundle unpopular measures (such as banning asparagus) together with more popular measures (such as creating an instant background check system for firearms purchases). Fortunately for everyone, the 1998 Brady Bill didn’t ban asparagus.
The trend towards more megabills is fueled by political leaders seeking to maximize their own power and the power of their political party. It’s well-known that earmarks and log-rolling also lead to waste and support corruption. However, I believe there’s a…