Let’s face it – public policy is boring. Like the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it can be historical and morally uplifting. Like the GI Bill of Rights, it can be consequential and useful. It could be released, just as it gave women the right to vote. But in most cases, public policy is a boring but important decision, such as how to define wetlands, the type of pipe that is best suited for a stormwater system, or the number of valid signatures required for a recall petition.
However, recently, Tennessee lawmakers in both Nashville and Washington, D.C. have perfected forms of legislative performance art that have little to do with actual public policy. Take the case studies of state legislators William Lambers and Senators Beau Watson. They sponsor laws that allow school districts and charter schools to refuse to register U.S. students without permanent legal status. Thirteen members of the House co-hosted the bill, as well as six in the Senate.
This is not legislative. At worst, our legislators are “the lack of virtue signals,” indicating who they like (President Donald Trump and his anti-immigrant rhetoric) and who aren’t: children in families who run away to find opportunities and freedom. At best, they are passing lawsuits rather than law. Their efforts were made by the Supreme Court decision of 1982, Pryler v. It directly contradicts Doe and rules that states cannot deny children without permanent legal access to free public schools because it violates the Constitution’s equal protection clause.
Our Senate has already passed the Performance Arts Act, which removes all references from Tennessee’s law to the World Health Organization and designates the Federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention as the only entity to declare the pandemic. Both the WHO and the CDC are competent public health agencies. However, it is likely that he is boldly on Trump’s revenge list to contradict his COVID-19 message and point out the pandemic’s groping.
At the federal level, people in our Congress can seem most likely to rest on competition to do the art of performance. Rep. Diana Hirschberger from the 1st Congressional District has signed an effort to put Trump’s face on the new $250 bill. District 5 Rep. Andy Ogres wants to amend the constitution to allow Trump to seek a third term (but it says not to apply to former President Barack Obama). The Ogles also moved both federal judges who had extreme opposition to Trump’s freeze on the freeze of almost all foreign aid, and another federal judge who controlled Trump in public health cases to be on fire each.
Rep. Tim Barchett, District 2, appeared as a co-sponsor of HR 1180, a resolution that would reduce Congressional power by repealing the post-Nixon Water Storage Control Act. The act makes clear how Congress maintains the power of his wallet, but Burchett wants to eliminate it. The effect is to give a big, sloppy kiss on Trump’s efforts to not spend the money he granted Congress.
Rep. Mark Green, from District 7, co-hosted efforts to abolish freedom of access to clinics. It prohibits the threat of force, interference, and property damage, which is intended to interfere with reproductive health services. Abortion is not the only thing that makes facial behavior. The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division said, “The Act protects all patients, healthcare providers and facilities that provide reproductive health services, including reproductive pregnancy counseling services and other pregnancy support facilities that provide reproductive health care.” Green simply signals loyalty to anti-abortion groups who do not like the way the law restricts the way women scream at clinics. He also effectively supports the Trump administration’s decision to not enforce its decision primarily.
None of these US home measures are likely to pass through strictly divided Congress. Some will face grounded court challenges. The key is not to implement public policy, but to make even misguided choices. This point appears to be currying favors primarily with Trump and plays with the pro-tramp crowd. Our state and federal lawmakers appear to be spared from protests, city halls and other ways of doing things against Trump’s anti-democratic excess. They also seem to be shrugging in polls showing that Trump and many of his actions are extremely unpopular.
Get the morning heading.
