Congressional dysfunction is often treated as a technical problem in search of the right procedural fix. James Wallner argues that this diagnosis gets the problem backward. Congress works when lawmakers confront disagreement through debate, amendments, bargaining, and compromise—not when reforms try to engineer politics out of the legislative process.

Congress cannot produce meaningful compromise by suppressing political conflict. James Wallner argues that open debate, amendments, and genuine legislative fights reveal where compromise is possible and give the resulting decisions legitimacy. To make Congress work again, lawmakers must restore the deliberative process that allows disagreement to play out.

Congress has little time to avoid a government shutdown. The House and Senate have passed competing CRs - and now must resolve their differences before September 30.

Senate Republicans could allow President Trump to use recess appointments to fill vacancies and free up scarce floor time. The procedure is available. Republicans control both chambers. The question is why they prefer not to use it.

The Senate’s marathon session before the August recess demonstrated that senators can overcome obstruction when they decide unfinished business must be completed. Republicans could have approached the SAVE America Act the same way.