US Congress’s foreign policy capacity still falling

Significance

The move comes as a high-level Chinese trade delegation is due in Washington and as global markets and the US foreign policy community including Congress have become unsettled over the situation. Although there is bipartisan support in Congress for a tougher trade position with China, legislators were ambushed by President Donald Trump’s move; it has become standard for the US president to make major national security or trade decisions today without consulting Congress.

Impacts

• Congressional efforts to curb the president’s power to put US forces into combat are unlikely to work.
• Reform of Congress’s committee system and partisanship disincentivise lawmakers from developing foreign policy expertise.
• Congress staff constraints make that level poorly equipped to support a larger Congress foreign policy role.
• Several vacant executive branch positions leave Congress members and staff fewer interlocutors with whom to negotiate policy.
• Congress is only likely to seek greater foreign policy oversight powers following something like a serious US security threat.