that is, he will veto any omnibus spending bill that's ever put before him again. what that means is the federal fiscal year ends september 30. congress has been derelict in their duty for 22 years. this place has not passed all the spending bills before the current fiscal year ends. they have spending bills in place when the next fiscal year begins. we were six months into this fiscal year before congress put together this omnibus. it there putting all these

you are not signing the big omnibus. trump: we got military taking care of. we had to have it and we all knew it and nobody at this table loved what we did, but we loved the fact that we got more for the military than people thought was possible and we got drug problem and all the problems we are having with drugs at every level. we had $600 billion for that. the opioid epidemic and other things, that was a good thing. then, we had to do things we didn't want to do, but we don't have to do those, but we had to get the military funded and it is now funded and has never been funded as well. >> thank you for having us. on the appropriation bills, we have a couple of parts to the budget and one part goes through the roof, the entitlement part. the part we are working on has gone up over the last 10 years and is about the rate of inflation. these are, for the most part, rings that you have advocated. more than half of this is defense. that is good. the other thing that is good is the national laboratory. competition which i do to see who has the number one superco

omnibus, but i sit next to the key. for republicans, defense is number one. for democrats, labor, health and human services, and education are number one. they will hold you hostage in the senate until we move this. we have to move this. i think that is what we should do. president trump: it would be nice to work at her with demos and would be nice to work better with us. we will see what they can do. this whole campaign is based around the word, "resist." ours is based around, "getting things done -- the proper things." this omnibus was a miracle. when do we need a stronger military than now? hopefully, we will never knew it. but, if you n'have it, you will have to use it. >> 61% of the spending was defense and you throw in the homeland and you are better than 70%. most of the bill was priorities we fall for an we were out of the 1-for-1, dollar for domestic and dollar for defense plan. >> v.a. choice, they thought that would never happen. getting account to be -- there was aty done, long line and we now pay for the do

members of this committee worked very hard on an omnibus bill dedicated to wildfire. many of the people in this room worked very hard on that. this helps the forest service have adequate resources to respond to fires and do their work. we provided significant funding for firefighting for the next 10 years, to get out of the fire borrowing. i hope there is enough funding on the non-fire programs that can benefit communities as ell, especially the increase in funding that will help us do in funding that will help us do prevention and treatment in advance and prevent the loss, of the non-fire accounts of the forest service. what was included in that package that we think next things easier? state agencies like washington dnr are able to partner better with a four service and we hope you take advantage of that. they were called out last time -- with the forest service, dnr as called to the line and that is how bad the season was. we hope the good neighbor projects are implemented. we hope the vegetation management and power lines are implemented, the 20 year contracts to

move them a month and a half to win we dealt with the omnibus -- when we dealt with the omnibus spending bill and instead of increasing defense like we said we would do and holding the line on defense and beginning to save money for the taxpayers and beginning to deal with this debt problem we have, instead of the debate we passed omnibus and increased spending on everything and continued this pattern created r president obama and harry reid, where if you get a for defense, dollar they hold up the defense bill until they get a dollar increase in nondefense as well. we had a chance to win it and engage in that debate. i think we forfeited our opportunity to do e right thing which is unfortunate but that's the kind of thing, that's the place where we have to start if we want to address the big long term spending issues we have. susan: looking ahead to a big week. the 12th is the way with the discharge petition deadline and the president meeting in this historic summit in north -- on north korea. thanks so much for being here to set the stage for all that with us on "newsmakers." rep. jorda

the vegetationt management provisions we incl in the omnibus. me a status report on the implementation of the ?rovisions we had included when thinking about the phal integritywhen thinking about thl integrity of distribution infrastructure, this is key to protect the reliability of the energy grid. give me a quick update. >> certainly, senator. we have moved swiftly and have full analysis of these provisions and we have given really specific direction to the region. as you know, they will give us the plans for -- in this week. vegetation management is more opportunistic. so i have asked everyone of the twoonal forrester's describe how they are prepared to meet response times that those utilities will require so that we can be timely in allowing vegetation management projects to move forward. region toction to the be ready and shows how they are prior -- prioritizing. >> mr. ruppert, are the folks at blm in the far as -- forest services court in the implementation effort? there has been very active ongoing engagement and comingn looking up with c

we need to get our budget done in time no more crs and omar omnibus. they want certainty. they are grateful for the increase in defense spending. my favorite commander is scaring the out of america's enemies since 1962. >> i will be their same. a great place. susan collins. >> mr. president i just want to emphasize how much progress we are making in the senate approved rations committee. by the end of this week we will have approved every single one of the 12 appropriations bills. 10 years since that happened and that's under the leadership of chairman sheldon. that is great progress that does allow us to avoid continuing resolutions buried you end up spending more. the omnibus bills which you rightly have vowed to never signed again and also the threat of the government shut down. i see it as tremendous progress. in the infrastructure area transferring the appropriations bill, working closely with your secretary of transportation we have plus got the money for grants programs that are managed by state funds and the down payment under your infrastructure program. that came

medical care above the advanced appropriations in the omnibus. this includes an additional $750 million for v.a. housing care and $1 million for prieded care through the v.a. community care program. we agree that the v.a. community partners are essential to serving veterans and access especially in rural areas. but privately provided care cannot come at the experience of v.a.'s in-house medical services or other programs core to v.a. and that's where the administration is to recognize to take us. without budgetary relief, there will be a $38 million hole at v.a. and will undermine serving our veterans and their families. i know the vice chairman and chairman are working with the leadership and chairman and ranking member of the authorizing committee so we can fulfill our commitment to veterans. they will have my full support on that. i want to thank senator boosman and my staff for helping to craft this bipartisan bill. i will have more to say, in the meantime i encourage any of our colleagues, if they have amendments to file those as soon as pos

the fy 18 omnibus congress divided significant funding to address wildfires. we also provided some new authorities. not necessarily at the level that i believe is necessary, but what we could characterize as a start. the agencies, wanted the authorities, so we certainly expect to them to put them to good use. so, no excuses there. i want to end by saying that to effectively fight fires and manage the land, you must read your agencies of sexual harassment, bullying, and retaliation. workplace misconduct cannot be tolerated, especially on the fire lines in the field. focus on the mission and be professional about it, and we will be ready to face the consequences. so with that, i would like to welcome the interim chief of forest service, and the director of the office of ireland fire department to the committee. i thank you for being with us today, i look forward to our discussion as we work to reduce wildfires across the country. the department of interior does unbelievable work on the system. i don't want them to waste one minute re-creating something that shou

in the fy 18 omnibus, congress provided significant funding to address wildfires. we also provided some new authorities, not necessarily at the level that i believe are necessary, but what we could characterize as a start. the agencies wanted tse authorities, so we certainly expect them to put them to good use. so, no excuses there. i want to end by saying that to effectively fight fires and manage the lands, you must rid your agencies of sexual harassment, bullying, and retaliation. workplace misconduct canno be tolerated, especially on the firelines in the field. focus on the mission and be professional about it, or be ready to face the consequences. so with that, again, i would like to women the interim chief of the for rest service, vicki christensen and wildfires jeffrey rupert. i look forward to our discussion this morning as we work to reduce wildfires across the country. senator cantwell? >> thank you, madam chair, and thank you for that very strong statement. i wholeheartedly agree with you on the issue of sexual harassment and what the agency needs to do

i will vote no on continuing a resolution omnibus bills. i will vote on -- vote no on bills i do not have a chance even to read. on process alone i cannot stomach the possibility that i don't even know what's in this bill and i'm supposed to vote for it. we need to control our spending. i've done it personally. i've done it in the state legislature where we balance our budget with our good governor every year. it is possible. and i will do that as your u.s. senator as well. moderator: i'd like to ask a followup to both of you on this. given your answers. one is, you both stated the claim you would not vote for omnibus or continuing resolutions in this area. we had a government shutdown. utah senator mike lee was one of the leaders of that. sounds to me like you would favor a shutdown if you can't accomplish what you've said. that's question one. question two, how do you accomplish a reduction in the deficit without reducing spending for entitlements or defense since so much of the federal budget in those two categories, real traction on the

in the latest omnibus spending bill ra ryan didn't a lot a dimo build a wall.'t contempt with that insult to the president he actually cut the number of i.c.e. agents to enforce immigration law internally. president trump is already an historic president. no president has ever done more than he has in a year and a half. mr. trump's accomplishments are a testament to his intellect, talents and also his extraordinary patience. why he tolerates the buffoons of his party's capitol hill leadership is a complete and utter mystery to me. whether the lame duck speaker who is more than willing to kill the republican party's chances of preserving their majority in the midterm elections or leader mcconnell who persists in refusing to kill the 60-vote rule in the senate. mr. president, i would hope you would tell the speaker and the leader you no longer need their approval. you don't need their precious time. that there is no grand bargain to be had with these arrogant fools. besides, you've already made a grand bargain with all of us deplorables, as you called us all last

and that's one portion of this entire large omnibus bill. it deals with border security and the daca suit kids. it deals with agricultural workers. visa lottery system. you name it. all those things are in there. kennedy: this will be a big black eye for republicans if they try and try and fail and fail. it's bad news. it's bad optics for your caucus and your party before the mid-terms. why don't you try and take more narrow elements that have to get done and where you can find some bipartisan support and do those. >> i think that's what's trying to be done. kennedy: it's difficult to have a more narrow version when you are trying to do everything. >> the reason omnibus bills exist, they are used for leverage. they are getting somebody to vote for something they don't love. kennedy: what a horrible way to govern. >> i would love to see us do all these bills and stand on their own merits. i would like to see us deal with the border security issue. we have to deal -- kennedy: we have to deal with the wall and just do that. it does not seem wit

the omnibus included 50 million in dedicated funding for evidence-based s.t.e.m. education programs. i want to certainly workith you and our committee does with the department to continue and support and expand that effort. also interested in working together for post-secondary education more accessible and affordable for all students. two years ago we were able to reinstate in our appropriating bill with the cooperation of our authorizers year around pell grants. st spent som time in missouri at the end of the last college year talking about this being really the fir summer where schools could plan and students could plan for year around pell. we think there are about 20,000 more students on campus this summer in missouri and about a million studentless nationwide because they have the potential to cone to make the pat enthat's working continue to work. you know, if you're paying your way through college, working your way through college, maybe the first person in your family that's either attending or trying to graduate from college, having a pattern that works

and it seems like it was passed outside the traditional way of going through omnibus. i was curious if anyone had any input on the cloud act. the cloud act is two basic things. one, there is a supreme court case, commonly called microsoft the island. microsoft is challenging a probable cause warrant that is seeking records, dated that is -- data that is physically stored overseas. that case, microsoft's argument in that case is effectively that the law that permits email warrant does not apply extraterritoriality. the cloud act answers that question in the affirmative. it says that an email provider must disclose to the government those emails, regardless of where the data is, whether in the united states are overseas. -- or overseas. it also has a second part, which would deal with what are called mutual legal assistance treaties. so if another country wants law enforcement assistance here or if we want law enforcement assistance abroad, there is a system right now where you go through, in many cases, the other country would come here, the department of justice would

as you may recall, when we had the debate on the omnibus bill, it took five, five continuing resolutions for the republicans to finally agree to our investments in the domestic budget, a big junk going to fighting the opioid epidemic. -- chung of that going to fighting the epyoid epidemic. although there are positive steps on the floor, republicans refuse to address the fundamental issue, the need for long-term funding solutions to turn the tide on the epidemic that is claiming the lives of 115 americans every day. again at the same time their relentless war on the affordable health care have especially had cruel consequences for people struggling with the opioid epidemic, especially the cuts proposed in medicare. much of the damage the republicans have inflicted on america's health here flows from the g.o.p. tax scam. it's important for you to know that the tax bill, and this action, are directly related. e predicate for the case was the tax bill. what they did in the tax bill to remove the mandate, individual mandate. that was the basis for the attorneys general to take a case to court

wisely opted to build on the foundation of the family first prevention services act in the march omnibus law by providing states with additional funds to ramp up these services immediately. this will allow states to develop more evidence-based services that will make a real difference in the lives of families affected by substance abuse disorders. the federal government cannot -- and i should say substance use disorde disorders. the federal government cannot solve this cries alone but my hope is that we can work together to ensure that our federal programs such as medicare, medicaid and human services programs are innovative and responsive to the needs of americans can chronic pain or opioid use disorders. my ranking member senator wyden and i have successfully partnered to make numerous recent improvements in healthcare and i really appreciate him for this. he has been a great partner and i've really enjoyed working with him. we worked together to realize a ten-year extension of the children's health insurance program, we pushed through a package of policies known as the chronic care ac

lifecycle cost estimate that was required by the fiscal year 2018 omnibus. congress has a responsibility to authorize and appropriate funding necessary to accomplish the task it directs nasa to carry out. but congress also has a responsibility to not let cost overruns detract from other nasa priorities such as research and small and medium class missions. it is time for nasa contractors to deliver. the 2018 nasa authorization act takes important steps to impose contractor responsibility watch list. this watch list would penalize poor performing the contractors by restricting them from competing for further nasa work. the watch list. contractor watch li should continue to explore additional options to reduce the cost of these large programs such as leveraging stage surpluses, early cost caps, firm fix price contracts, and public-private partnerships that benefit taxpayers. anything short of that will undermine congressional confidence in the contractor's ability to deliver on their promises at a reasonable cost. if space exploration is going to continue to ea

last congress, we passed the comprehensive addiction and $4overy act and we added billion in the omnibus for funding. we are spending this weekend next week passing more than 70 bills dealing with this addiction. this is not the first step and not the last step, it is simply the next step. this is destroying the fiber of this nation and we should ba fod health care professionals on substance abuse. please explain. guest: representative johnson, the public and from ohio in a bipartisan way came forward with a measure that would provide for these centers of excellence that deal with substance use disorder curricula development that will train the next generation of medical professionals with the skill set -- for the skills that they required to respond to this epidemic. i would like to just lay out the facts as to why these bills are necessary and why there is a degree of urgency. we have an epidemic. we have a crisis. in 2016, 60 4000 people succumbed to substance abuse disorder of some sort. that number, they believe will grow in a sense of 70,000 for the 2017 data. that is a startling b

and talking about continuing resolutions and omnibus bills that we are doing our job as well.so please don't think there is any criticism coming from this said we don't realize, some of us don't, there is criticism on the way congress is doing its job. let me in a couple of questions with the cost overruns and then to achieve a contract? is this a part of that? >> we have a pretty rigorous proposal and evaluation process including schedule estimates by the government to ensure what is proposed is executable. >> so you don't see this as a scheme by a corporation to get the contract? >> i do not that helps our understanding of this. and those that didn't have the cost overrun what penalty does that company have that goes through the major cost overrun , what is the punishment? i believe you can take actions but if they did not meet the contract that could be denied down the road because they did not meet their obligation? >> it is possible but also with a contractor watch list it has not been performing well. or for a period of time. that is one option to say do they look at con

the omnibus funding bill for 2018 made important investments in health, education, and job programs. it made critical investments that boost the middle class. it was not easy. we worked hard to come to an overwhelming bipartisan agreement that benefits the people of this country. and now months later, the trump administration and house republicans are violating the spirit of that agreement. it is not a serious way to govern. this is money for our children, not for the president to claw back, to placate federal reservent conservatives who maintain their drumbeat on twitter and tv. what do republicans get for breaking their word, going back on their promises and taking from children? well, according to the congressional budget office, mr. speaker, the actual impact of this recision package would amount to $1 billion over 10 years. that's less than 1% of the republicans' $1.5 trillion tax scam for the rich. .01%.t, it is if the republicans are so worried about spending, why not rescind money from the tax giveaways that corporations are using to buy back stock? they appear to be beholden

behind the omnibus bill, million dollars given to hat block grant program frchlt there, school consist decide to use those for art programs. guest: that is correct. state puts a plan in place based on local needs and ommunities and schools and appropriate those federal funds. host: the money comes from the does l government, where the rest come from to fund the programs, provide instruments and the like? you deal with that on day-to-day basis. that is what save the music care of n does, take funds left over when you provide instruments and -- right. the tax funds go to in most property taxes and local school district funds the teacher in the classroom during day.school what we do is make that up front investment of the instruments, books, the stands, one-time investment. successfulit be very and sustainable way to launch these new arts programs. thet: just to continue what caller is talking about, i'm glad he asked that question there is misconception that arta training only benefit if you want to go into art as a career, like a med school for musicians. the case, it's such an importan

given by so many are twofold -- jimmy carter's campaign promise and the 1978 omnibus judgeship act, which positions.many new , through the work of the american bar association, which was critical in that -- in, and nominating evaluating nominees established new criteria that would help be viewed in a different way. the result of it was that the number of women on the bench went from the abysmal numbers that we see in the second to a far larger number, and in part, that was not just because the omnibus bill created new seats, but there were a sufficient number the senators both and the white house could engage in all sorts of horsetrading, so where a woman was put forward, there was enough space to put forward a man as well, and i was really critical to what happened. the creation of selection committees as an aspect of reform in the carter moment, was also important, and here is one example of how. tulsa lawyer stephanie seymour worked hard, she said, to be considered for a judicial appointment to the 10th circuit court of appeals. she reports learning of the following after she was selec

the omnibus funding bill for 2018 made important investments in health, education, and job programs. it made critical investments that boost the middle class. it was not easy. we worked hard to come to an overwhelming bipartisan agreement that benefits the people of this country. and now months later, the trump administration and house republicans are violating the spirit of that agreement. it is not a serious way to govern. this is money for our children, not for the president to claw back, to placate federal reservent conservatives who maintain their drumbeat on twitter and tv. what do republicans get for breaking their word, going back on their promises and taking from children? well, according to the congressional budget office, mr. speaker, the actual impact of this recision package would amount to $1 billion over 10 years. that's less than 1% of the republicans' $1.5 trillion tax scam for the rich. .01%.t, it is if the republicans are so worried about spending, why not rescind money from the tax giveaways that corporations are using to buy back stock? they appear to be beholden

the omnibus funding bill for 2018 made important investments in health, education, and job programs. it made critical investments that boost the middle class. it was not easy. we worked hard to come to an overwhelming bipartisan agreement that benefits the people of this country. and now months later, the trump administration and house republicans are violating the spirit of that agreement. it is not a serious way to govern. this is money for our children, not for the president to claw back, to placate federal reservent conservatives who maintain their drumbeat on twitter and tv. what do republicans get for breaking their word, going back on their promises and taking from children? well, according to the congressional budget office, mr. speaker, the actual impact of this recision package would amount to $1 billion over 10 years. that's less than 1% of the republicans' $1.5 trillion tax scam for the rich. .01%.t, it is if the republicans are so worried about spending, why not rescind money from the tax giveaways that corporations are using to buy back stock? they appear to be beholden

and so the farm bill in the omnibus that we passed earlier this queer, -- this year, we were able to address categorical conclusions to bat them in certain areas of force. now, the challenge we have in colorado is the -- is the categorical seclusions only apply to fire regime groups one, two, and three. but in colorado we have 24% of our zones of concern in colorado that are in a different category, not in one, two, or three, which means we can't use the categorical exclusion to address insect and disease concerns under that provision. we know a significant area of these forests have insects. this is where a lot of the insect infestation has occurred. when you have insects that results in dead trees and the drought doubles the pressure on that for an historic fire conditions, you end up imperilling the water conditions. we offered an amendment to address that and extend the categorical exclusion to have better opportunities to prevent the next disaster from occurring and to help make sure that we can manage our forests in a more responsible way. i'm excited that we were able to inclu

this budget was prepared prior to the two-year field and the omnibus for that matter. administration submitted an addendum that restores valuable investments in students, including impact aid, basic support payments, trios, school choice, federal work-study, and pal. for programs that funded in the budget request, our intent was to maintain levels appropriated by congress. we made to use the numbers in place at the time and our intent remains the same for newly appropriated funds. this department's budget focuses on improving educational opportunities and outcomes for all students while also returning power to the people closest to students. first, we must promote a safe and healthy culture in our schools. the tragedies at noblesville west middle school and santa fe high school were only the most recent, devastating reminders that our nation must come together to address the underlying issues that create a culture of violence. i directed my department to do everything within the law to encourage districts to take advantage of flexibilities so newly appropriated funds a

beginning to save money for taxpayers and deal with the deficit and debt problem we have, we passed this omnibus and increased spending on everything and continue the pattern. this pattern was created under president obama and harry reid, if you get one dollar for defense, they hold up the defense bill until they get an increase in nondefense. we had a chance to win, i think we forfeited our opportunity, which is unfortunate. that is the kind of place we have to start if we are going to address this many issues we have. >> looking ahead to a very big week, the discharge position deadline, and the historic summit with north korea. thank you so much for being here to set the stage on newsmakers. >> let's go back to immigration and the discharge. both of you are following the mechanics. what should our viewers who are not following closely need to know about this process? of it fromkind pockets of negotiation happening. one of the big questions is whether lawmakers will be able to agree on what happens with the dreamers. these are people in the daca program or may be eligible. whether lawmakers can

we added, as the chairman said, $4 billion in the omnibus for funding. we are spending this week and next week passing more than 70 bills dealing with this addiction. this is not the first step and it's not the last step. it is simply the next step. this is destroying the fiber of this nation. and we should battle it in the seriousness of what it is. that's why you'll find the work that not just one committee but numerous committees of every different element of what we're trying to do. and our commitment to the american public that we will not stop until we're able to deal with every ability of this addiction. america deserves better, and families need to be protected. that's what our goal is. that's what our mission and that's what we'll accomplish. speaker ryan: you heard some stories here today. let me give you a number. 115. 115 lives lost every day in america. addiction can feel all-consuming. it can seem impossible to live out your true purpose. but it does not lower the inherent value of a human life. every life has meaning and no drug can take t

and we added, as the chairman said, $4 billion in the omnibus for funding. we are spending this week and next week passing more than 70 bills dealing with this addiction. this is not the first step and it'sio not the last step, it is simply the next step. finish this is destroying the fiber of this nation. and wes should battle it in the seriousness of what it is. >> host: and one of those bills is the teach act, training, education and community health to combat addiction act. you're one of the cosponsors establishing a competitive process to designate institutions that are educating current and future health care professionals on abuse. can you explain. >> guest: in a bipartisan way, we came forward with a measure that would provide for these sectorsov of excellence that del with substance use disorder curricula development that will then train the next generation of medical professionals with the skill set -- for the skill set that they require to respond to this epidemic. but, steve, if you'll allow me, i would love to just lay out the facts as to why th

this country and some people might wonder why knowing that president trump would've signed recent omnibus billif which significantly increased deficit spending. i think the reason is, and like the president of wish he had not signed it but i think when you're in the white has come when you're in the oval office, when you're behind the desk the world looks a lot different than it does to those of us were economic analysts out here, trying to criticize economic policy and direct economic policy. our military was severely depleted, and as president you want to make sure you can defend this country and that we've got the military strength to bring peace through power, rather than peace throughgh appeasement. i think ronald reagan said there has never been a war fought because america was too strong. it's when america isen too weak. i thinkk i would've done the se thing the president did come if this is what i had to do to get money for military spending. i would've done it. now that is done. this is a president the we need to take on this one. lhe fact they're trying to have backups on the sp

so i think this has been a great example of how that partnership that the omnibus bill talks about between the private sector, universities and national laboratories can really help to have an impact in realtime on these kinds of situations. >> chairman, if i may, may i address congressman tongue coquestion. >> go ahead he needs all the help he can. >> congressman, there are specific items we are working on the labs putting into puerto rico that are cutting edge that we are basically looking to accelerate the commercialization of them and therefore utilization on the mainland by putting them in puerto rico. so things like our dark net, which is the use of the black fiber, the optical ground wire, which is on their transmission system is one idea. using correlation through the high fidelity sensing capability to enable op mags of their grid is another utilized in development of micro grids that have the ability to contract similar to work being done at the electric power board in chattanooga with the national labs. so we think there are things that we think puerto rico is poised integrate.

finally, the legislative branch and related agencies portion of this omnibus includes funding and policy provisions to improve operations and address heightened security requirements for those working in congress and those visiting the u.s. capitol complex. it's important to point out that this is just three of basically 12 appropriation bills. now, this was also approved, this particular portion of this legislation, this three appropriation bill package, it was also approved unanimously by the senate appropriations committee earlier this year. so, madam president, by tackling our appropriation bills in this fashion and by allowing members to offer and to actually vote on amendments to make these bills better, we are taking a monumental step toward getting our appropriations process back on track. staying committed to a regular appropriations process allows the american people through their elected representatives to have a true, meaningful voice in ow their tax dollars are spent. it also presents us -- prevents us -- it also prevents us from having to rely on a series of continuing reso

instead, we pass on the must omnibus bills that scure critical issues and make it difficult to cut the fat. wasteful programs and projects just come right along, sucking up viable taxpayer dollars in providing little value in return. despite all of this, you might still wonder if giving the agencies more leeway is such a bad thing. what is the real harm in a few paddock programs? but government bloat is not a victimless crime. the more we tip the constitutional scale, the less accountable government will be to the people who are sovereign. this gradual surrender of authority to executive piles on to the logistical challenges that congress always faces. as i noted earlier, millions of people work in the executive branch. two of them are elected by the people, and there are often many layers of folks between the elected executives and the unelected bureaucrats making the critical decisions. this means there is a lot of distance between the everyday decision-makers and the ultimate source of authority, again, the american people. by contrast, legislators in congress are directly accountab