Congress Skullduggery
The National Defense Authorization Act was passed in December. It was considered a must-pass bill, ran to over 3,000 pages and contained controversial elements. Instead of fostering robust debate, Congress sped its passage with a bizarre legislative sleight-of-hand.
The story: In March 2025, Senate Bill S. 1017 was a simple bill dealing with a serviceman’s remains in Texas. It passed the Senate and was sent to the House where it languished until December 2025. On Dec. 10, the House took up S. 1017 and inserted the 3,000 pages of the NDAA and deleted the earlier text! With lightning speed, the Senate quickly passed the “amended” S. 1017 and within a week President Trump signed the sprawling NDAA into law.
Why the bizarre switcheroo? Well, this procedural tactic served to severely limit debate and limit amendments. Legislators quickly and resoundingly approved the move. They appeared eager to conceal the many controversial inclusions from voter scrutiny.
Restricting debate on this huge, consequential bill was a deliberate choice to subvert the democratic process. Significantly, Senators Shaheen and Hassan and Representatives Goodlander and Pappas voted “yea.”
Entrenched powers in Congress have been enacting rules that distance legislators from their constituents for a long time. It’s why voters increasingly say that Congress doesn’t represent them. With midterms coming up, we need to support grass roots candidates that challenge the entrenched powers with their institutional rot. Be wary of those with big campaign war chests. Our democracy depends on it.