Understanding Congress

The topic of this episode is, “Does Congress's power to declare war mean anything?”In June of 2025, President Donald J. Trump directed US aircraft to drop 30,000 pound bombs on nuclear facilities in Iran. Some legislators in Congress and some media complained that this was a violation of the US Constitution. They note that Article I, Section 8 declares, “Congress shall have the power to declare war.” That same article of the Constitution also empowers the legislature to “provide for the common defense.”So, was the President’s action constitutional or not? And does Congress’s power to declare war mean anything?To help us think through these questions I have with me my AEI colleague, Gary Schmitt. He is the author of many books and articles on American government and he has written extensively on legislative and presidential war-making.Click here to read the full transcript.

The topic of this episode is, “Is Congress getting anything done?”The 119th Congress convened in early January. Months have gone by, and there are lots of things happening in Washington, DC.But is it all being done by President Donald J. Trump? Is Congress itself doing anything?Gabe Fleisher is here to help us answer that latter question. He is the creator and editor of the must-read publication, Wake Up to Politics. He started this newsletter in 2011, and you may have seen him being interviewed CNN, MSNBC, NPR, and in various other major media.Click here to read the full transcript.

The topic of this episode is, “What does a member of the House of Representatives do all day?”It is not easy for the average voter to imagine how a member of Congress spends each day. We see images of them standing in the ornate chamber, talking with voters, and there’s no shortage of videos of them delivering speeches or denunciations of presidents or the other party. Some polling data indicates that many voters think legislators have cushy, part-time jobs and have legion staff doting upon them.But is life in Congress really like that?My guest is Derek Kilmer, who has written a chapter on this subject for Casey Burgat’s new edited volume, We Hold These "Truths": How to Spot the Myths that are Holding America Back (Authors Equity, 2025).And who better to talk about this topic than Derek Kilmer. He is a former member of Congress. He represented Washington state’s 6th district from 2013 to 2025. Mr. Kilmer served on the House of Representatives’ Appropriations Committee, which helps decide where federal spending goes. Listeners may also remember that Mr. Kilmer also co-led the House’s Modernization Committee, and he previously was on this podcast to explain the various things that were being done to make Congress work better.Click here to read the full transcript.

The topic of this episode is, “What is the lost history of Congress’s Offices of Legislative Counsel?”My guest is Beau Baumann, a doctoral candidate in law at Yale University. He studies the intersection of administrative law and legislation. He has published articles in a number of law journals and previously worked as an attorney for the US Department of Justice and clerked for a federal district court. He is the author of a really interesting, new article titled, “Resurrecting the Trinity of Legislative Constitutionalism.” In it he describes some of the lost history of Congress’s offices of legislative counsel (OLC).Click here for the full transcript of the episode.

The topic of this episode is a new book on Senator Mitch McConnell, a Republican who served as his party’s chamber leader for the better part of two decades.The book was written by Associated Press reporter Michael Tackett, and its title is The Price of Power: How Mitch McConnell Mastered the Senate, Changed America, and Lost His Party. It was published by Simon & Schuster in November of 2024.It is a fine book, and I certainly enjoyed reading it. I learned a lot about Senator McConnell. For example, who knew that he dated a lot when he was a single guy? Who knew that he had a role in transforming Kentucky from a Democrat-controlled state to one with a vibrant Republican party? And who knew that Senator McConnell recruited a Rep. Tom Cotton of Arkansas to run for the Senate?Capacious as this book is, I could have read one twice its size. Mitch McConnell is fascinating figure, and a historic one.So let’s get to it—the story of Mitch McConnell.Read the full transcript here.

The topic of this episode is, “What does the House Ways and Means Committee do? And how does it do it?”The House Ways and Means Committee is the oldest committee of the United States Congress, first established in 1789 and became a standing committee in 1805. It has jurisdiction over raising revenue for the government to spend---taxes, tariffs, and the like. The term “Ways and Means” comes from English Parliamentary practice, wherein there was a committee with authority for finding the ways and means to pay for government actions and policies.My guest is Tom Reed, a former member of the House of Representatives. He was in Congress from 2010 to 2022 and represented New York’s 29th and 23rd districts. Importantly for this podcast, Mr. Reed served on the House Ways and Means Committee and was deeply involved with its tax reform work.Click here for the full transcript of the episode.

The topic of this episode is, “How does media affect our perceptions of Congress?’As listeners no doubt know, Americans are down on Congress. Public approval of Congress has averaged about 20 percent over the past 20 years, according to Gallup. Certainly, the people on Capitol Hill are partly to blame. We have legislators who behave as if they are on a reality television show and who spend a lot of time starting fights on social media. Congress also has hurt its reputation by failing to address major public policy issues, like immigration and the soaring national debt. And then there are the occasional scandals that disgust the average American.Yet, Americans’ dour opinion of Congress also is fueled by media coverage.To talk more about this I have with me Rob Oldham, who is a Ph.D. candidate in politics at Princeton University. This year he will be an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow, and will be spending a lot of time on Capitol Hill. His published papers investigate the relationship between supermajority rules and bipartisan policymaking. His dissertation considers congressional policymaking in response to crises during the era of polarization.And importantly and especially relevant for this podcast is that Rob is the coauthor (along with James M. Curry and Frances Lee) of a fascinating, recent article titled, “On the Congress Beat: How the Structure of News Shapes Coverage of Congressional Action.” This article was recently published by Political Science Quarterly.

The topic of this episode is, “Does Congress still suffer from Demosclerosis?"My guest is Jonathan Rauch, the author of the classic book, Demosclerosis: The Silent Killer of American Government (Times Books, 1994). Jonathan is a fellow at the Brookings Institution, and the author of numerous books, including The Constitution of Knowledge (Brookings Institution Press, 2021), and Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought (University of Chicago Press, 2014).I first read Demosclerosis nearly 30 years ago, when I was a graduate school student. I was rifling offerings outside the Strand Bookstore in Manhattan, and the book’s title grabbed me. Once I cracked it, the writing got me hook, line, and sinker. Rauch had taken social scientific insights to explain the mounting federal government dysfunctionality. Whereas pundits and politicos blamed Washington’s foibles and corruptions on bad people, Rauch showed that the trouble was caused by people within the Beltway rationally pursuing their own interests.I recently re-read this book and think it is absolutely on to something important about Congress, and I am delighted to have Jonathan here to discuss it.Show Notes:- Demosclerosis (National Journal, 1992)- Mancur Olson- Government's End: Why Washington Stopped Working (Public Affairs, 1999)