PD Editorial: A return to divided government

On Tuesday, divided government returns to Washington.

When the 118th Congress convenes, Democrats will retain a slim majority in the Senate while Republicans assume control in the House with their own narrow majority. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has two years remaining in his term.

You don’t have to dig too far into the history books to find an analogous situation.

During the final two years of Donald Trump’s presidency, his fellow Republicans held the Senate and Democrats controlled the House.

In fact, no president since Lyndon Johnson has served a full four-year term while both houses of Congress were controlled by the president’s party — and the Texas Democrat left office in 1969. Jimmy Carter came close, but Republicans won a Senate majority in the 1980 election, and the new Congress was seated two weeks before his term ended.

Divided government often results in gridlock.

Often, but not always.

President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, worked with a Republican Congress to overhaul welfare programs, for example. And in the most recent Congress, senators from both parties had a hand in passing a $1 trillion infrastructure bill, new gun controls in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting and a year-end budget accord that prevented a partial government shutdown over the holidays and reformed the Electoral Count Act.

Many Americans would welcome more bipartisan cooperation in the new Congress.

However, the post-midterm transition hasn’t been smooth — for Republicans.

In the House, the first order of business on Tuesday will be electing a speaker. As of Monday, GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield was still trying to secure enough votes from fellow Republicans to become speaker. If he falls short, it will be the first time in a century that a majority-party nominee didn’t win on the first ballot.

Once the House GOP manages to organize itself, many of the incoming committee chairs plan to launch investigations of Biden and even fellow House members.

But Americans shouldn’t settle for two years of gridlock and partisan bickering. It may not be easy to find common ground, but there are issues that can’t wait until the 2024 election.

One obvious topic is immigration.

Years of congressional inaction have contributed to a dire situation with thousands of migrants, many of them seeking asylum from repressive governments in Cuba and Venezuela, huddled on both sides of the border and states and aid groups pleading for help.

A comprehensive immigration reform bill may be impossible, but surely Congress can find resources for humanitarian efforts, high-tech border security and functional immigration courts.

“Dreamers,” the young people brought here as children, have received lip service from both parties. A path to permanent legal residence, including citizenship, is long overdue.

We hope Congress will revisit tax relief for wildfire victims, who otherwise face steep income tax bills for PG&E settlements that will further erode their ability to rebuild. This would benefit residents of red and blue counties, making it an opportunity for bipartisan cooperation. Yet it got left out of the year-end spending bill.

Democrats aren’t likely to help McCarthy out of his predicament, and there will be plenty of partisan disagreements during the 118th Congress — it is politics, after all. But if they’re willing, serious-minded Democrats and Republicans working together can make progress on immigration, taxes, the debt ceiling and other unmet needs.

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