BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  OCT 15

“We came here to get something done. We always lock horns. We always argue. We never agree. I think it is about time, for once in a long time, we find common ground and agree.

“I want to get something done that is achievable. I don’t want to keep talking grand bargains that never happen. I want to see where we can get something done that is achievable and go for that.”

Those are the words of Congressman Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin whiz who is now the sought-after candidate for Speaker of the House.

Ryan said that in 2013, according to Politico writer David Rogers, after he negotiated a compromise budget agreement with Democratic Senator Patty Murray to end a two-week old government shutdown. Ryan won the day, but lost 62 of his own Republicans. The shutdown ended, but not the rallying cries for another and yet another.

Ryan’s words were prescient in a way. They encapsulated the deep frustrations and intense aggravations of honest legislators in Congress who still can’t find common ground, still can’t produce consensus and still can’t get anything done, after decades of trying.

Paul Ryan is highly intelligent, a repository of keen political instincts and insight, and an individual whose personal priorities seem to be in the right alignment. For those reasons, he would be nuts to run for Speaker. He would be placing his career, his health, and his future in jeopardy. Ryan is being asked to govern the ungovernable. It is highly unlikely the election of a new Speaker will extricate the Congress from the hole it has dug for itself. The new Speaker will not/cannot keep the demolition crew from continuing to dig the hole deeper. For them, the hole is not a means to an end, it is all there is.

On the other hand, Ryan also seems to be a genuine, heart and soul patriot, who because of his intelligence, also knows that absent both unifying, and fortifying leadership in Congress, our institutions of government and our political process could be in legitimate, serious peril. The current state of affairs is unsustainable.

The challenges that will face anyone else elected to the job are daunting, but the key word is ‘challenges,’ plural. They are numerous. They are different and distinct and in some cases they are in conflict.

Here are just four of those challenges:

1. The legislative process is broken. Legislators can’t legislate. They get nothing done because they are, or believe they are, denied the tools, denied the access, and denied the opportunity to do their job. And, frankly, a good many of them are new to the job and lack the knowledge they need to be effective. Congressional leadership is ineffective on both sides of the aisle, on both sides of the Capitol, and at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. Self-preservation and partisan advantage seem to be the highest standard of political behavior. Intensive process reform is badly needed.
2. The political process is broken. When you combine the adverse effects of so many divergent influences, such as gerrymandered congressional districts, abuses of campaign finance and media that exploit politics for fun and profit rather than meeting their public trust to inform and explain, it is no wonder the process will not function. Our two-party system, on which so much of our political process depends, is crumbling. Our parties are becoming anachronisms in an age of profound change in attitudes and behavior.
3. Political thought in America is undergoing a decades-long transformation, the reincarnation of 19^th Century populism, in a new container with a new label, suitable to the needs of both the libertarian right as well as the more traditional progressive left. The new populism is splitting and splintering the Democratic and Republican parties, and it is changing public attitudes, maybe to a point where a convoluted form of coalition governance maybe required while change occurs.
4. The American people are angry. Passion is a great asset in politics, as Ringmaster Trump has ably demonstrated, but a liability in governance, yet we are getting governance, or the lack of it, driven by negative, destructive emotions—anger, fear, frustration and disillusionment. Government cannot function in a Democratic-Republic when the citizenry has no trust in its institutions and no faith in those elected to them. It is the greatest of all our challenges.

The first priority ought to be the restoration of government as a functional, respected institution, not because that is the biggest problem, but because it is the most immediate, and it may take years.

Few of our challenges in America can be overcome without functional government. It does not matter what you want from government, you can’t get it without the ability to deliberate, to legislate and to ultimately change law.

Even the anarchic libertarians acknowledge the importance of process. Half of their questionnaire submitted to candidates for Speaker dealt with changes in process, not policy.

Congress must be reformed on several levels. Congress is governed by a hierarchy built on the political parties, Republican and Democratic. Each has their own caucus and each has their own rules governing how members are treated. Those rules need to change. In the House, Republican Conference Chairman Cathy McMorris-Rodgers and Policy Committee Chairman Luke Messer have established a task force to review, and do something about, complaints regarding the ability of members to influence process.

It is not enough, however, to make the caucuses more member-friendly. The rules that govern the operations of the House and Senate need reform as well. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has created a task force to look at over-extensiion of the filibuster and other Senate practices. It’s a good start.

Both bodies together need to look at the broader failures of a Congress, which hasn’t adopted the individual appropriation bills needed to run the government since 1996, has not reauthorized more than $300 billion in federal programs and agencies, including Homeland Security and the Department of Justice; has not passed a budget in six years, and, as we know too well, has failed to address critical national needs, including infrastructure financing, immigration, energy development, health care and, among the most important, the decline in quality education.

And both bodies need to look more deeply into why the American people distrust the institution so much, and why members of Congress, House and Senate, Democratic and Republican, have lost their ability to communicate with each other, work with each other, reach consensus together and govern effectively.

Finally, both bodies need to look seriously at the deteriorated relationship between the Congress and the President. It’s a national embarrassment. Seldom in history has the relationship between the two branches been so bad. Seldom, maybe not since the Presidency of Richard Nixon and before that, Franklin Roosevelt have there been so many questions raised about adherence to the Constitution’s separation of powers and checks and balances. There is blame to be placed at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.

The Congressional Institute and the Bipartisan Policy Center, in league with other individuals and organizations, are working on one solution, the creation of a special joint committee to bring about transformational change in the organization of Congress. It should be a Joint Committee on the Congress of Tomorrow, taking a page from the Institute’s early conferences designed to make members of Congress more effective legislators in a modern world.

The Joint Committee was used four times in the 20^th Century to provide a means of fixing what was broken in Congress. It’s time has come and gone and come again. The Joint Committee would empower members of Congress to assess the worth of literally hundreds of reform ideas and move the Congress to implement those that make sense. It is a platform on which members can quit griping and complaining about problems they face and do something about them. It is a way for members to make good on promises they’ve made to their constituents to fix the place. It is a legislative mechanism to do what Ryan talked about two years ago, actually addressing what is achievable and taking action.

The Joint Committee would be bipartisan and have equal representation from both the House and the Senate. It would have an open field and the authority to address whatever problems it sees fit.

It is an important first step. It is achievable and a path forward.

Editor’s Note: Mike Johnson is a former journalist, who worked on the Ford White House staff and served as press secretary and chief of staff to House Republican Leader Bob Michel, prior to entering the private sector. He is co-author of a book, Surviving Congress, a guide for congressional staff. He is currently a principal with the OB-C Group.