The latest vacancy in the U.S. Senate, created by the death of Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, is a reminder of a rather obscure centennial that took place last week: the enactment of the 17th Amendment on May 31, 1913 and the peculiar practice of a state-level executive appointing a federal legislator.

Until 1913, all U.S. Senators were appointed by state legislatures, which was part of the Founders’ plan for differentiating the House and the Senate. So whenever a vacancy arose in the Senate due to death or resignation, the state legislature would simply fill the position at its next session. Gubernatorial appointments to vacant seats took place from time to time, but were usually short-term affairs that lasted only until action by the state legislature.

Since enactment of the 17^th Amendment, gubernatorial appointments can last much longer – in some cases as long as two years. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, thirty-six states allow governors to fill vacancies until the next regular election; most of the other 14 allow governors to make interim appointments until a special election. Continue reading “Lautenberg’s Passing Highlights the Strangeness of Gubernatorial Appointments to the Senate” →

At the end of 2012, the 112th Congress went down in history as the most unproductive ever. During 2011-2012, Congress passed a mere 283 laws – fewer than a third of the more than 900 laws passed by the “do-nothing Congress” derided by President Harry S Truman in 1948.

The current Congress, however, is already on track to shatter the dubious record set by its predecessor.

Sixty-six days into the current session (Congress is again in recess this week), Congress has passed a whopping … 10 laws. Count them.

And the most recent of these – Public Law 113-10 – was enacted to address this pressing priority: “To specify the size of the precious-metal blanks that will be used in the production of the National Baseball Hall of Fame commemorative coins.”

Even to catch up to last Congress’s legislative output, Congress would need to pass roughly one bill every other day (and with no more breaks for recess).

Continue reading “Already, The Most Unproductive Congress Ever” →

If you think that dysfunction and elitism in the U.S. Senate are now at an all-time high, then this is a good time to recall that for the first 12 decades of American history, it was often much worse.

It was on May 31, 1913 — exactly one hundred years ago  — that the 17th Amendment was enacted to shift the election of senators from state legislatures to the voters of each state.  This is a largely forgotten episode of American political history, but its effects still resonate down until today.

The original design of Congress only envisioned U.S. Representatives as directly representing the people. Members of the upper house were seen to represent the states and to give them a powerful influence on national domestic politics, and also on the ratification of international treaties.  After the Civil War, Populists began calling for the Senate to be more directly representative of the people.

By the Progressive Era of the early 20th century, other problems had also crept in. State legislatures with chambers under the control of different parties sometimes could not agree on a Senate choice, leaving the seat vacant. These deadlocks were all too often broken through corruption and backroom dealing by party bosses, some of the same concerns that also led progressives to champion the introduction of primary elections.

Continue reading “A Senatorial Centennial: How Congress Was Reshaped 100 Years Ago This Week” →