Make Functioning Government Sexy Again

(If it ever was.)

Joe Manchin and Mitt Romney during a 2019 joint interview. (CNBC screengrab)

As I noted yesterday, the powerful class of politicians born in the 1940s is preparing to (mostly) step into the sunset.

Joe Biden (b. 1942) is in his final weeks as president. Mitch McConnell (b. 1942) is about to retire from a 17-year-run as the Senate’s top Republican; he’ll join Nancy Pelosi (b. 1940) as an estimable congressional leader fading into the rank-and-file.

The main exception, of course, is Donald Trump (b. 1946), who is preparing to sweep back into power. But, as I detailed, he will be surrounded upon his return by a younger-than-usual group of deputies, most notably heir apparent JD Vance; the 22nd Amendment ensures that this next term will be the last for the ’46ers. (Trump was born one month before George W. Bush and two months before Bill Clinton; by 2029, America will have spent 24 of the previous 36 years governed by presidents born in the summer of 1946. Add in Biden, and that’s 28 of the previous 36 years led by presidents born in the ’40s.)

Two more pols hanging it up in January are Sens. Joe Manchin (I-WV) and Mitt Romney (R-UT), both born in 1947. Manchin and Romney are both longtime fixtures of the Washington scene: political scions (Manchin’s father and grandfather were mayors; Romney’s father was a governor) who went on to serve as governors and then senators themselves (although, in Romney’s case, from different states). Romney was elected to his first political office in 2002, which was more than two decades ago — but makes him seem like practically a neophyte compared to Manchin, who won his first race in the 1980s.

In the Senate, Manchin and Romney have been close allies, playing a central role in many of Congress’ most recent bipartisan successes. Both dealmaking senators delivered their farewell addresses this week; in this period of generational change, the speeches served as a useful reminder of how many of the ’40s-born pols operated — and a warning of what could happen if no one arrives to fill their shoes.

Notably, both of the retirees emphasized the importance of congressional chemistry, another topic I’ve written about previously. Manchin recounted one of his favorite Senate memories: spending time after-hours at his houseboat “Almost Heaven” (get it?) with Sens. Tom Harkin, the former Iowa progressive, and Ted Cruz, the Texas conservative.

Harkin almost left when he saw Cruz, Manchin recounted — but, “before you knew it, they started talking. I don’t know what they were talking about, probably wasn’t politics. But the next day, they were working on some amendments together, doing legislation.”

“That’s just the power of sitting down and listening and getting to know each other, and we don’t do that much here,” Manchin said. “We need more of that in Washington.” (Manchin said that “Almost Heaven” would remain at the ready for any senators who wanted to socialize across the aisle.)

Romney, similarly, said that his “biggest surprise in the Senate has been how much I enjoy the other senators, on both sides of the aisle.” He recalled the moment in the pandemic when Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) invited him to a take-out dinner at her home with five Democrats and five Republicans, “spaced far apart, with windows open despite the winter cold.” That dinner, Romney said, paved the way for the final 2020 Covid relief package, and then the same group’s work on many of the unexpected bipartisan accomplishments of the Biden era, including packages on infrastructure, gun control, electoral reform, and marriage equality.

Both Romney and Manchin urged their colleagues to continue working in that spirit — while sometimes sounding pessimistic notes. “We’ve got to stop demonizing each other,” Manchin said; “There are some today who would tear at our unity,” Romney warned.

They have good reason to be fearful: of the compromise-oriented group of 10 that Romney mentioned, one (Rob Portman) has already left the Senate; three more are retiring in January (Romney, Manchin, and Kyrsten Sinema); and a fifth was just voted out of office (Jon Tester).

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But don’t write a swan song for the era of bipartisanship just yet.

Before retiring, Portman told me that “people will step up, and they have, always, through the years.” And the rising generation of lawmakers has, in some ways, borne that out — although they also show that the future of bipartisanship will not be a carbon copy of its past.

In line with the opinions of younger voters, it is likely to be less internationalist (see this effort by Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA), 48, and Matt Gatez (R-FL), 42, to curtail war powers), more populist (see this bill targeting Big Tech by Sens. Katie Britt (R-AL), 42, and John Fetterman (D-PA), 55), and more skeptical of the establishment (see the push by Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO), 44, and Jon Ossoff (D-GA), 37, to ban congressional stock trading).

As Boomer lawmakers give way to Gen X’ers give way to millennials, congressional dealmaking will not die; it will merely evolve to meet the shifting areas of ideological overlap.

Notably, Vice President-elect JD Vance, 40, has been at the center of several works of bipartisanship himself. Whether he will use his new platform to advance some of his aisle-crossing ideas, such as an expanded child tax credit, remains to be seen. Vance ally Gail Slater, 52, was announced this week as Trump’s pick to lead the Justice Department’s antitrust division, another area with newly found bipartisan buy-in; pro-union Labor Secretary nominee Lori Chavez-DeRemer, 56, will also have opportunities to work across the aisle.

Reformers from both parties have ideas about government efficiency; maybe DOGE will even be bipartisan? (See overtures from Democratic Reps. Khanna and Jared Moskowitz, 43.) Then again, maybe not: Democrats were apparently shut out of a DOGE meeting with Elon Musk on Capitol Hill yesterday, making the effort seem more like a stunt than anything — and offering a reminder of the fresh challenges for bipartisanship.

With the primary bases of both parties prizing ideological rigidity — and districts become more homogenous thanks to gerrymandering and geographic sorting — moderate lawmakers will find it ever harder to survive. It is because of their comfort with compromise that Manchin and Romney will retire as two of the most effective members of the Senate. For the same reason, they also poll as two of the least popular members within their parties.

The media environment also doesn’t help. There were loudmouths in prior generations, but they didn’t have social media to give them a ready bullhorn. (Literally.) Conflict sells. Bipartisanship snoozes. Dealmakers will need to find new ways to grab attention and package themselves in primaries (or, as centrist Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA), 36, and Jared Golden (D-ME), 42, are urging: experiment with changing the primary process itself).

At an event with Punchbowl News this week, two centrist senators-elect who could assume the dealmaking mantle — Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), 48, and Romney’s successor John Curtis (R-UT), 64 — cited shifting media incentives as one factor for why compromise is on the wane.

“Bipartisanship is, like, deeply unsexy to people,” Slotkin said. “It’s boring. It’s not click-y. I can’t tell you how many times, particularly out of the Problem Solvers [Caucus], we would go to the press and be like, ‘We just agreed on this bill’ — even on a sensitive topic like immigration — and they’d be like, ‘Yeah, interesting.’ But if someone throws a bomb at another colleague verbally, then that’s the person who gets [attention].”

“So it’s very difficult to think about how to make actual functioning government sexy again, if it ever was,” Slotkin continued. “And it’s a conundrum of those of us in the middle.”

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Here at Wake Up To Politics, of course, we’re very aware of those incentives — and try to be part of the solution, not the problem.

So, without further ado, here’s your weekly roundup of government dysfunction: the bipartisan pieces of legislation that advanced this week in Washington. (At the end, you can be the judge of whether or not it counts as “sexy.”)

This Week in Government Function

Offering a second chance. Back in 2007, George W. Bush signed the bipartisan Second Chance Act, which funded reentry services for inmates leaving prison. Since then, Second Chance grants have funded more than 1,100 different programs, offering “education, substance use treatment, job placement, vocational training and other services to more than 386,000 people.” 67% of the participants went on to receive GEDs or other forms of education; 61% were able to gain employment. The Senate passed a bill this week to reauthorize the law through 2029, while also enhancing the substance abuse part of the program.

Combatting deepfake porn. The Senate unanimously passed the TAKE IT DOWN Act, which would make it a federal crime to publish AI-generated pornography purporting to show a real person — something that has become a big problem at high schools across the country. (According to one study, 95% of all online deepfake videos are nonconsensual pornography.) The measure would also require that social media platforms have procedures in place to remove such material when it is flagged to them.

Tax relief for disaster survivors. When the federal government offers aid to disaster survivors, the money it gives is generally not considered taxable income — but sometimes newer forms of disasters slip through the cracks. The Senate unanimously passed a bill offering tax relief to anyone who received federal aid after the 2023 East Palestine train derailment or after any wildfire since 2016. The House previously passed the measure 382-7 — after the rare use of a discharge petition — so it now goes to the president’s desk.

Blocking Russian litigation. Russia has been suing American companies that broke contracts to stop doing business in the country in response to U.S. sanctions. Technically, no U.S. statute protects the companies in those cases; the House unanimously passed a bill to close that legal loophole and block Russia’s claims from advancing in federal court.

Made in America. It’s already required that products created by taxpayer-funded research are manufactured in the U.S. But the requirement is often waived — which can lead to situations like this one, where a U.S.-created battery technology ended up being manufactured in China. The Senate unanimously passed the Invent Here, Make Here Act — which Vance co-authored with Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) — to increase scrutiny of these waivers and prohibit them from going to manufacturers in China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran.

Sharing is caring. The House unanimously passed the SHARE IT Act, which would require that federal agencies share their custom-developed source code with each other — saving taxpayer funds by ensuring that multiple agencies aren’t spending money on duplicative contracts to build the same software. (Exceptions would exist for code that is classified or developed for use by national security or intelligence agencies.)

And more. The Senate unanimously passed bills pressuring Amtrak to make its stations ADA-compliant and requiring better body armor for female law enforcement agents. The House unanimously passed a bill to help disabled veterans get housing and voted 381-15 to name a post office for Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter.