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Frustrated lawmakers are looking to 2026 in the hopes that they can reclaim some of the power many fear they’ve ceded to the White House under Trump.

Over the course of 2025, the Trump administration unilaterally shuttered or drastically weakened federal agencies, implemented widespread tariffs, canceled congressionally approved spending and conducted military operations in the Caribbean.

Democrats repeatedly cried foul, and even some Republicans aired concerns about the White House brushing aside Congress. Scores of lawmakers opted for retirement before the calendar even turned to January.

Now many are wondering whether anything will be different next year, especially with the added political pressure of the approaching midterm elections.

  • LOGIC💣@lemmy.world
    18·
    2 days ago

    I now think that anything Congress does to cede its authority to anything should be inherently unconstitutional.

    Congresspeople on the day they first walk into office have less power than most people probably expect. They don’t sit on committees. It’s difficult to introduce legislation. Many of the important bills they vote on are giant monsters of bills and they have no option except to vote along party lines.

    So individual congresspeople are put into a this conundrum. If they want to benefit their constituents, they have to play along with their party leadership. If the executive branch has too much power over the party, as Trump does, due to his controlling all the money, then essentially, the executive branch controls Congress.

    We need to get rid of all of this ceding of power not just to the executive branch but also to anything else, like political parties, or even to rules of order, like how the filibuster works today. There are all sorts of ways that Congress today has less power than specified in the constitution.