3 min read

In both Augusta and Washington, D.C., we see a new kind of legislator — or, to be more accurate, a new kind of legislating — emerging: that of simply ignoring the many major problems facing the state and the nation.

In the past, it was common for state and federal legislators to at least pretend to do things, whether with slap-dash non-solutions or commissions promising to study things. These days, we can’t even manage to do that — and it’s not necessarily a simple problem of partisan polarization.

While both the Maine Legislature and the U.S. Congress are closely divided, both are controlled by one party, if not exactly firmly.

In Washington, Republicans run the show, and they haven’t managed to get much done since President Donald Trump returned to office. They’ve managed to pass exactly one major piece of legislation — the Laken Riley Act, enhancing immigration enforcement — since taking office in January. Nearly everything else done since then has been by Trump, using executive action.

By this time in Trump’s first term, Congress had stalled or overrun a whole host of Barack Obama’s executive actions and orders through the Congressional Review Act. It had confirmed Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court. It had attempted and failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act and pass its own version of health care reform. By this time in Joe Biden’s sole term, Congress had passed the American Rescue Plan Act, with those $1,400 stimulus checks. It had also established Juneteenth as a federal holiday.

If those accomplishments sound unimpressive, well, they are — but they’re still more than this Congress has done since Trump took office. Obama, by contrast, had gotten three major pieces of legislation passed by this point: the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the reauthorization of the Children’s Health Insurance Premium and, of course, the stimulus plan. It’s not just in importance, either, but in overall number where this Congress lags far behind. They’re passing fewer bills.

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Now, part of that reason is that they’ve been focused on passing Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” that is supposed to extend the tax cuts and enact all sorts of other policy measures. That bill, even though it barely passed the House, isn’t anywhere near the finish line yet. It still has to go through the Senate, then back again. It only passed committee after leadership negotiated — well, we don’t know exactly what — to appease the hardline conservatives. So, the one piece of legislation that Congress has been focusing on this session still isn’t really near final passage or the president’s desk.

Back here in Augusta, they’ve been busy debating a lot of things, and even passing quite a few of them — or, more than in Congress. That’s not saying much, though: most of the measures they’ve passed are more minor, patchwork bills.

One of the rare exceptions was LD 1, Gov. Janet Mills’ signature achievement of the session to address storm readiness and preparedness. That bill passed early in the session, before the bitter partisan rancor over the baseline budget and the trans athletes issue. It was also a vehicle to distribute funds all over the state, which, in Augusta as much as in Washington, is a surefire way to at least have a hope of getting bipartisan support. It was a classic “Christmas tree” bill, with so much piled on top of it that nobody dared oppose it.

Since then, the Legislature has pretty much been spinning its wheels. Oh, sure, Democrats got their baseline budget through and they’ve managed to pass a whole host of legislation, but nothing transformative. We haven’t seen grand, sweeping attempts to address housing costs or taxes, for instance.

A wide variety of bills have been introduced regarding the participation of trans athletes in sports, but none of those are likely to go anywhere. At some level, this happens every session, but in Augusta — as in Washington — it seems to get worse every year.

In Maine and in D.C., we have legislative bodies that are content to load all their eggs in one basket and hope it works. That may be safe politics, but it’s not good governing.

Rather than addressing our crisis of governance, our elected officials are pushing half-measures to get themselves reelected, creating a crisis of confidence.

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