Congress and Legislative Activism

Abstract

In a burst of legislative activism that confounded many of its critics, Congress in the late 1980s and early 1990s reasserted its policymaking prerogatives. Taking advantage of a vacuum in presidential policymaking during the last two years of the Reagan Administration, Democratic leaders of the 100th Congress (1987–88) forced through legislation which addressed, among other things, the problems of welfare reform, housing, the homeless, and civil rights. Jim Wright, then the Speaker of the House of Representatives, even began to challenge presidential prerogatives in foreign policy by offering his own solution to the stalemate in Nicaragua. Emboldened by such success, Democratic leaders were unwilling to cede the initiative to President Bush, who they believed had been elected without a clear mandate of his own, and as a result continued to pursue their own agenda in the 101st Congress (1989–90). Before adjourning in the early hours of 28 October 1990, the 101st Congress managed to grind out an impressive stack of laws that redirected U.S. policy in fiscal matters, pollution control and immigration. The 102nd Congress also showed signs of continued legislative activism when the House passed a Civil Rights Bill, which was opposed by President Bush, in June 1991.