The Fallout of Dysfunction

The same questions about how to operate in an age of legislative gridlock arise in the context of surveillance. The Washington Post reported that Robert Litt, the intelligence community's top lawyer, told lawmakers about the National Security Agency's massive sweep of telephone records, "Well you're the ones who passed it" -- the law the administration argues authorizes such collection. "And if you don't like it, you can always repeal it."

Well, technically. It may be that Congress rouses itself to rewrite, or at least reconsider, surveillance rules. President Obama was right, in addressing the issue in Friday's speech, to call for congressional involvement in setting the legal parameters for acceptable surveillance. But again, it is difficult to see Congress successfully navigating this policy minefield. This leaves sensitive policy choices by default to the executive branch, overseen by the courts.

Then there is the matter of states hobbled by Washington dysfunction, with outdated laws caught in congressional limbo, federal spending bills delayed in ways that impede state-level planning, and states suffering the fallout from the mindless shutdown and equally mindless sequester cuts.

"We do not have the luxury of inaction," NGA Chair Mary Fallin, the Republican governor of Oklahoma, noted of her fellow state executives. Yet Congress has dithered on pretty much every item on the gubernatorial to-do list.

To take one example Fallin cited in her State of the States message: 41 states are now operating under waivers from the No Child Left Behind law, which has been awaiting reauthorization since 2007. "That is no way to run a program," Fallin said.

It's hard to argue with her assessment. And it's hard not to worry about the fallout of dysfunction, and not just on Congress alone.

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Ruth Marcus' email address is ruthmarcus@washpost.com.