Government Affairs
In today ’ s Washington , it is unusual for any substantial legislation to make it across the finish line unless it has become an absolute political necessity . Congress makes dozens of minor tweaks every year – renaming Post Offices and regional airports , mostly – but in the last decade “ major ” legislation is passed , at most , perhaps once each election cycle .
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We saw this with the passage of Obamacare during Obama ’ s first term and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed during the Trump administration . Generally speaking , the rule of the game today seems to be that each President gets one major bite at the apple – and further attempts to pass sweeping reforms are generally not successful . Usually , a president has the first two years of his first term to make law , because midterm elections are usually a referendum on the performance of a given president , and most recent presidents have not maintained a majority in congress during their full terms of office ( George W . Bush ’ s first term is an exception – Republicans maintained the House and Senate in 2002 . Since Bush , every sitting president has lost the House during his first midterm election and never gained it back ). After the midterms , then , the president must make do with tinkering along the margins via the use of federal agencies and the administrative state . This means that major bills usually only get passed in the first few years of a president ’ s first term , and then only because the majority party knows they are not going to get a second chance . This means that nothing major passes Congress anymore unless it is a very
8 customized logistics & delivery Magazine fall 2022