Hoyer: Political Will is the Answer, Not Weakening the Congress of the United States

HOYER: "Let me speak just a little bit about political will. Ronald Reagan - as Jim Lankford just pointed out - was president for eight years. Bush was president for four thereafter. We had twelve years; we essentially had eight days of shutdown - or 12 days. Eight years of Reagan, one-and-a-half-day average shutdown. Why? Because the political will of the president and the political will of the Congress was to reach agreement. That does not now exist.

"The Director of OMB has made it clear: 'We want their funding to be shut down.' That's a quote of Mr. Vought. Mr. Trump said we had two shutdowns - excuse me, this was Mr. Gingrich - two shutdowns in 1995 and became the first reelected GOP majority since 1928. Speaker Gingrich [pointed] out that that was a successful effort. Mr. McCarthy said, 'Nobody wins in a government shutdown. Nobody wins in a government shutdown. I've been here.' He said that on September 14th, 2023. He believes, partially, he was removed for facilitating agreement between the two parties rather than a partisan shutdown and confrontation.

"I believe these proposals do exactly the opposite of what we need to do in the sense that I think they weaken greatly the Congress and strengthen - even more than has happened today - the presidency, making the executive extraordinarily powerful and the Congress much weaker. Essentially, it makes the Appropriations Committee irrelevant and powerless to carry out the founders' intent to give paramount and exclusive authority to the Congress for the spending of taxpayer money. And furthermore, I think that shutting the government down has been a tool of political choice by many Republican leaders, including Newt Gingrich, Donald Trump, and many others, including Vought, and it is a tool which has been employed by Democrats as well. So, no one has clean hands, if you will, on this issue.

"But let me refer to the [former] Director of OMB. Director Young, when Congress provides only broad, outdated funding through CRs, who makes the operational decisions about what is delayed, reduced, or prioritized?"

YOUNG: "That is typically some combination of agencies and the Office of Management and Budget, and probably some insight from the White House if it is consequential enough."

HOYER: "So, in fact, what a shutdown does, by the failure of the political will of which Congressman McClintock talked about, it enhances greatly the authority and ability of the President of the United States and through OMB and through his agencies to set policies for those agencies."

YOUNG: "Yes. During a shutdown, each agency has to tell the American people what is open, what is closed, and as we all know, that is different even within the same administration. One year it could be, 'This is,' and it was politically tough and they changed their shutdown plans to something else. So, there is a lot of latitude for the president to make those decisions."

HOYER: "Let me say to Senator Lankford, I represent approximately 77,000 federal employees. I feel their pain. I know their pain. And obviously, that pain visited not only government employees, but our others as well, is reflected in how many people are looking for a solution. But I really say that as we did under Ronald Reagan - I was here all eight years he was president - and George Bush, we rarely shut down the government. Under Joe Biden with a Republican Congress, we didn't shut down the government at all. Not once, because we reached [an] agreement. And political will, I suggest again, Congressman, is, in fact, the answer, not weakening the Congress of the United States. Not saying somebody else will get the government going.

"The incentive for the administration to undermine agreement is heightened by, I think, these proposals, although I would like to see the Senate - I'm one of those that thinks the Senate needs to reform itself so that it can do its business. Thank you, Mr. Chairman."