D.C. needs a sunset commission

Lou Zickar is the editor of the Ripon Forum, a centrist Republican journal of political thought and opinion.

Recently, White House chief of staff Bill Daley admitted something that Americans have long known -- the political process in Washington is broken.

This "dysfunction," as he called it, is standing in the way of a historic budget agreement that would reduce spending and control the national debt. It is also, he claimed, acting as a "wet blanket" on the nation's economy, slowing growth and holding down job creation.

If Daley is right, and if in fact our nation's elected leaders are incapable of making the difficult decisions necessary to address the issue and get our fiscal house in order, then perhaps it's time to put in place a mechanism that would force the issue and take at least some of these decisions out of their hands.

The mechanism is a federal sunset commission. Introduced in the 1970s, it would do two things. First, put a time limit -- usually about 10 to 12 years -- on any new program that was passed by Congress and signed into law. And second, establish a permanent sunset commission that would essentially conduct a performance review on these programs when their time limit is up.

If a program were found to no longer be serving its original purpose, the commission would recommend it be terminated. If instead the program were found to be performing a valuable function and still fulfilling its intended mission, the sunset commission would recommend it be continued and, if needed, make suggestions on how it could be improved. Congress would have to approve or reject the recommendations.

Commission members would be appointed by the leaders of both parties. In the past, some have suggested these members primarily be current members of Congress. A better solution would be for the sunset commission to be made up of retired members of Congress instead. They know where the fiscal bodies are buried, so to speak, and are unencumbered by the political sensitivities of holding office that might otherwise prevent them from speaking their mind.

When the idea of a sunset commission was first proposed, its main proponents were Democrats. Former Democratic Sen. Edmund Muskie of Maine was the chief sponsor in the Senate, while Democratic representatives such as Dick Gephardt of Missouri and Shirley Chisholm of Brooklyn supported the idea in the House. Republicans ranging from Barry Goldwater to Jesse Helms also supported the plan, as did then-President Jimmy Carter and such ideologically diverse interest groups as Common Cause and the Chamber of Commerce.

Perhaps Muskie summed up the reasons for the broad political support best: "Conservatives see this as a way of reducing the responsibilities of government," he explained, while it is viewed by "liberals as a way of getting our house in order to take on new responsibilities." The Senate overwhelmingly approved the Muskie legislation by a vote of 87-1 in October 1978. Unfortunately, the bill was never voted on in the House, and the idea was never seriously considered again.

In recent years, it's mainly been Republicans who've pushed to establish a federal sunset commission; Sen. John Cornyn has introduced a sunset bill in the Senate, while Rep. Kevin Brady has authored companion legislation in the House. It's not surprising that both of these members of Congress are from Texas; the Lone Star State is one of 20 states that have some form of sunset legislation on the books. In fact, then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush made establishing a sunset commission part of his platform when he ran for president in 2000. In the 33 years it has been in existence, the Texas Sunset Commission has abolished 54 agencies and consolidated another 12, saving state taxpayers more than $784 million.

The sunset commission has provided taxpayers with value and results. Given the dysfunction that Daley cited, these are two qualities that are obviously not just lacking in Washington these days, but ones that the American people would readily and enthusiastically embrace.