Weaponized Transparency - Partisan Messaging in Congress due to 1970 Legislative Reorganization Act

Weaponized transparency is a form of legislative antagonism brought about by increased legislative transparency. It is sometimes known as messaging, bomb-throwing, forcing embarrassing votes or buncombe. This sunshine-based warfare converts the amending process (and other open legislative channels) into proving grounds for ideological purity instead of productive legislation. And it is the principal driver of the surge in closed rules.

In October of 1970, the US Congress was upended by an unheralded bill, signed into law by President Nixon. After nearly 200 years of working behind closed doors, President Nixon signed the 1970 Legislative Reorganization Act. This law pushed virtually all closed congressional meetings into the sunshine. Commenting on the benefits of congresssional SECRECY, two hundred years earlier, Founding Father James Madison noted, that in private meetings, lawmakers seek to find common ground. Behind closed doors they can sidestep the pressures of partisan pandering and finger pointing. And it is for this reason he inserted a right to congressional secrecy in the Constitution. And dozens of scholars agree. With the doors open, exposed to the frenzied public and press, lawmakers go on the attack. This concept is known as ‘weaponized transparency.’ And a simple glance at the data, shows it to be one of the fundamental problems with Congress today. When the doors were thrust open by Nixon’s law, Senators and Representatives turned to the amending process as a battleground for campaigns and reelection. They blasted legislative missiles at their opposition. And once boring legislation floundered under the weight of hot button riders on abortion, crime, gun rights, bussing, gender issues, transparency, fraud, etc. The once reasonable debate has become a slugfest, of fingerpointing and campaigning, driving both parties to the extremes. In the wake of Nixon’s Act, congress has seen a scorching rise of needless amendments, soaring partisanship and crippling gridlock. The weaponization of a transparent process is a central contributer to these problems. This is likely why, the Founding Fathers were staunch advocates for secret committees.