Federal Relations

U.S. Congress – Putting Responsibility Back into Government

I believe in maintaining the accountability of government with her shareholders–We the People. As I reflect on the actions of our Federal Government in the past decade, I grow dissapointed with the abuse of the People’s Trust, abuse perpetuated by congress majorities on both sides of the aisle, in both the House and the Senate. To further my frustration, I feel that the sitting U.S. Senators of the State of Utah have been apart of this moral bankruptcy in Washington. Time and again, they have failed to represent the best interests of our State and our Nation. Now is the time to make our Country strong, not through colossal, dead-end spending programs, not through petty pork-barrel politics, and not through swashbuckling gamesmanship. All of these ultimately compromise the health of the system and betray the trust of the citizen. Our national legislature requires a change in mindset–it is our civic responsiblity to remind and reinforce upon our elected officials a paradigm of accountability. It’s time that they started representing Utah honestly.

ACTION – Starts with Citizens

Several years ago, having approached our representatives to the U.S. Senate on occassion and asking them to answer for actions that were feeding the steady growth of a Leviathan of government unresponsiveness and overreach. Bluntly taking my counsel for rebuke, they both sharply retorted in not disimilar fashion, “You can’t tell me what to do [in this office]. I am not beholden to you.” I am struck by the resemblance of this response to that of a 2-yr. old vernacular phrase “You’re not the boss of me.” Honorable Senators, I beg to differ. As a citizen of the great State of Utah and as a duly elected representative of the people entrusted with the protection of both the State and National Constitution, I feel it my sacred duty to take a stand against such cavalier arrogance. Since when did our national representatives become so bold and so mighty as to spit in the face of the electoral trust and the general welfare, the common interests of the state.

ACCOUNTABILITY – The Long Road Back

At about this time I began work on drafting legislation that would curb this insurrection against Principle. I had come to understand that many of the failings exhibited by our modern Congress had been brought about by unintended consequences from the Seventeenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The Seventeenth Amendment, passed by 3/4 of the states in 1913 mandated the popular, direct election of Federal Senators in the several States. As an interesting note, Utah was the only state to reject it. It was a keystone of the Progressive Movement’s platform, an effort to curb corrupt national senators’ tendency to intervene in local state elections. Though admirable in it’s fervor for popular sovereignty and democratic sentiment, Seventeen has stripped an essential beam from the delicate structure of American checks and balances. Federal Senators were originally intended by the Founders to be a balance between State and National Government, representing the State Governments in Congress.

While Seventeen served many of its immediate purposes, it created new problems. Today we can see that our Federal Senators are hardly any more responsive to constituents or the bona fide needs of the state. The adoption of the direct election watered down the potency of representative accountability. Now that our U.S. Senators are electorally responsible to the entirety of the state instead of the 75 members of Utah’s Congress, they can get away with MORE. The larger the constituency, the less responsive the official is. With the indirect election by State Legislatures, citizens at least had control of their local representatives and their respective input on the selection process at the state level. The current system verges on mass demagoguery and vaguely tuned PR campaigns. Mass direct elections have also led to the expansion of campaign spending (remember those endless mailers from your U.S. Senator just before election season–excessive is the word).

Click on the following link for more information on Amendment XVII.

The Evidence – Setting the Record Straight

(1) Annual Address to the Utah Senate:

You don’t have to take my word for just how out of tune our sitting U.S. Senators are. Navigate to the following pages listed below, to see some of their antics speaking to the Utah Senate. Also take note of the articles from the Tribune detailing their reaction to my bills in 2006 and 2007 (see Point 2).

*Audio and video files can be listened to and viewed with free Realplayer software available at Real.com Please download and install this software before attempt to use media.*

(2) My Bills on Amendment XVII & Utah:

I originally intended to conduct a “soft-repeal” of the Seventeenth Amendment for Utah through Senate Bill 156 in the General Legislative Session of 2006, and, subsequently, Senate Bill 202 in 2007. By “soft-repeal,” I meant a way to direct and counsel our U.S. Senators without countermanding the direct election (a modern point of representative democracy that I humbly acquiesce to). Specifically the bills were drafted in order to “allow the Legislature to give formal direction to United States Senator elected from Utah” and “direct . . . [a] Senator to report to the Legislature on certain issues.”

Unfortunately both of these bills were defeated. No fears though, this is also a lesson in perserverance: this year I ran Senate Bill 250, a revised version, which passed the Legisature successfully. This bill allows political parties to request formal reports from the State Legislature on our elected officials in Washington, giving them a “grade” as it were. It is my belief that this process of dialogue will not only make our U.S. Senators more responsive at the State Conventions and the Polls but also make them more aware of their culpability to duty while in office.

(3) Rethinking Amendment XVII: Explore how the 17th Amendment relates to the 9th and 10th Amendments and your State’s Rights.