Rep. John Rose Explains How Congress Is Supposed to Work

Live from Music Row, Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed  Congressman John Rose (R-TN-06) in the studio to describe how the U.S. House of Representatives is supposed to be conducted, and what it’s like working with Democrats.

Leahy: We have the pleasure of having Congressman John Rose from the 6th Congressional District in the studio all hour. We were talking off the air a little bit, Congressman Rose, about what it’s like to be a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, in the minority, with Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House of Representatives.

She doesn’t, shall we say, follow regular order, as far as I can tell. And why don’t you tell our listeners about regular order, how Congress is supposed to work, subcommittees, review committees.

I don’t think you’ve ever experienced that since you’ve been there, under Pelosi’s leadership as a Speaker. But how is Congress supposed to work?

Rose: I think it’s important to understand this, because only if Congress is functioning under regular order do things really kind of get aired and vetted in the way that they should. The way that it should happen is members introduce bills, and those bills get assigned to committees and subcommittees, and then there are hearings held in those various committees.

And there’s a chance for a kind of a full vetting of those bills and an opportunity for all the members to discuss the various thoughts that they have about the bills, to ask questions, to bring in experts, to testify as to what the impact of the bill might be.

And then it advances to that committee process. In some cases, bills get assigned to multiple committees because jurisdiction often overlaps the various committees, and then eventually it makes its way to the House floor.

It’s important to know that what happens on the House floor is not really debate like we see, that is able to happen in the committees. And so when it comes to the House floor, the U. S. House operates under the auspices of the Rules Committee.

So almost every bill that comes to the House floor is under a rule that limits debate. Debates are not really a fair characterization of what happens. It limits the time that each side can speak about the issue.

But once it’s to the House floor, it’s usually baked in, what’s going to happen. The majority usually knows they’ve got the votes to pass the bill before they bring it to the floor. And so when we’re out of regular order, really, it puts all the power in leadership’s hands.

So the Speaker really controls what happens. She controls the Rules Committee, essentially. And so the Speaker can do whatever they want in terms of putting things in bills that will then kind of breeze through as long as she can hold her majority together.

Leahy: Yes. Take this phony Inflation Reduction Act, which is really the Inflation-Increasing Act. That’s why it passed. It had like, what, 3,000 pages? How many pages were in it?

Rose: I don’t even remember. But it was a ridiculous proposal, obviously. It was just a scaled-back version of Biden’s so-called Build Back Better.

Leahy: Build back worse.

Rose: Another misnomer. So, you know, it really is frustrating to see things like that advance and then the just ridiculous title that they gave it. I think everyone knows that higher taxes and more spending does not reduce inflation at a time that we have runaway government spending induced.

Leahy: This is from the freshman economics classroom.

Rose: It really is. The whole last two years are just like a real-time, real-life illustration of what most people learn in the first few weeks of their first economics class in college. Too many dollars chasing too few goods and services.

Leahy: That’s exactly it. I remember from my freshman economics class, too many dollars chasing too few goods equals inflation.

Rose: That’s right.

Leahy: Now let’s talk about this particular bill that went through. When did you see the final version of the bill and how long did you have to read it? What objections were you able to make to it?

Rose: (Chuckles) On the Inflation Reduction Act we actually had, I think we got it the day we voted on it.

Leahy: You got it like less than 24 hours before the vote.

Rose: That’s right.

Leahy: It’s like 2,000 pages in it.

Rose: It’s been very common in this Congress that that happens. Probably the most extreme example was back here in COVID. We got one of the bills, I think it was like 33 minutes before we had to vote on the floor.

Leahy: All of 33 minutes. Wow.

Rose: No one read that bill, and now leadership and their staff have a chance, because they’re crafting it, so they know.

Leahy: Who really writes the bills? The lobbyists? The leadership?

Rose: It’s a combination but it’s the staff that’s working for leadership that is writing the bills.

Leahy: So when you talk to a Democrat member of Congress and you look them in the eye and you say how do you feel about going through this sham process? How do they respond?

Rose: I think they’re jaded. I think so many of the members of Congress have been there long enough, particularly on the Democratic side, that they think that’s just the way it’s done and so they’re not willing to admit it, particularly to a member like me.

I’ve heard some really interesting discussions on the floor where members on my side are trying to convince somebody on the other side who they think might be reasonable enough to kind of acknowledge or at least give them a wink and a nod about these things. But they’re pretty stone-faced about it.

Leahy: Is anybody on the other side an honest or open-minded person?

Rose: There are, but their ability to really interact is suppressed by the leadership.

Leahy: This is surprising to me because there are 221 Democrats in the House now, 213, 212, something like that. There are always like two or three vacancies in the House. I can’t think of a single one.

I mean, don’t name names because if you name a name then that means all the others are. But to me, I can’t imagine that any of those Democrats, if they have a conscience, feel good about what they’re doing.

Rose: I think they rationalize, and they decide, well, it’s going to go more my way than not. If our side is in the majority or if their side is in the majority, in this case, I think of two that come to mind right away, and I won’t say their names.

One who’s not coming back is retiring, and one who’s in a close re-election bid and probably has a good chance of getting re-elected, though the Republicans may knock them off, who are sober, realistic people.

And this is one of those things that I think really informs us about what Congress should do, because you see those guys operate. Both of these are gentlemen in regular order, and you hear their logic, and you hear their line of questioning when we have experts and witnesses in front of our committees, you kind of gain an understanding of where they’re coming from.

There are at least a couple that I’ve identified. There are more that do think about things in a rational way. But there are many, and here I might name some names.

Leahy: Name some names.

Rose: The so-called Squad. I serve on the Financial Services Committee. I’m very honored to get to be there as a freshman coming in four years ago in the minority.

Leahy: But you have expertise in that area.

Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:

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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “John Rose” by United States Congress. Background Photo “United States Capitol” by David Maiolo. CC BY-SA 3.0.