WHY WE SHOULD CARE ABOUT NOVEMBER

LEGISLATIVE RELATIONS COMMITTEE

WHY WE SHOULD CARE ABOUT NOVEMBER…

James Bergeron, President, National Council of Higher Education Resources

Mid-term elections are important because they give us the clearest sense of what the American electorate is thinking and what they care about outside of public polling, which can be unreliable. But it's also about previewing the themes that will be used and players that will be involved in the upcoming presidential race that will start sooner than you think (some say in 61 days). The major political candidates will pour over exit polling and interview data from the night’s election, especially from reliable partisans. What motivated them to vote? Why did they vote? What were the main issues that they cared about? The main talking points, narrative, and list of major candidates can change overnight.

If student loan debt burden, for example, leads to an increase in student turnout in targeted Senate races, we can expect continued emphasis on student loan refinance, additional hearings on the impact of debt on home ownership and retirement, and more policy developments. If the issue is a dud, we could be facing a new landscape. In short, it's the best road map and product testing of the political landscape for the next two years that we have available. It's that important.

The majority party in the House and in the Senate are in charge of setting the legislative agenda for the year.  They have the most votes, after all. But you may not realize what factors into that process and what other advantages they enjoy, process-wise. For starters, the majority party gets the lion-share of the money for operations - two-thirds of all budget and - just as important - staff slots. It takes staff to conduct investigations, write letters and talking points, research certain topics, argue over 100+ issues during consideration of legislation, plan hearings, prepare amendments, etc. The more staff, the more activity. The less staff, the less interest when it's more about "picking your battles.”

The majority also approves the use of all House/Senate rooms, which is a big issue when you're trying to do a mock hearing or a press conference, but you don't want to hold it in the one room allocated to the House minority that is the size of a closet. The majority sets the schedule and topics for hearings, and gets the lion-share of witnesses allowed to testify - in the House, the majority gets 3 witnesses for every one witness allocated to the minority; the Senate usually picks their witnesses together but the majority opinion still carries a lot of weight. During Committee markups and Floor consideration, the majority obviously puts forth the legislative vehicle that will be amended but they also get priority in getting their amendments drafted and considered, allowing them to steal ideas or proactively address problems coming from the minority. The majority gets priority consideration for research and reports conducted by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which is used to push legislative action. They get their bills scored first by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which is a big issue when you're trying to draft legislation that's budget neutral. And, as we learned in 2010, they are able to put together a budget reconciliation bill that's immune from the Senate filibuster. This list could go on and on - the advantages, while not always stark, are extremely important.