Journalists and activists talk a lot about how Congress is hopelessly gridlocked and unable to get anything done. And to an extent, it's true. [...]
But it's interesting to note that the sense of gridlock derives in part from the fact that something like the stalled political reform bill has attracted dramatically more media attention than something like the Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act of 2021, which passed in May and appropriated $175 billion over five years to upgrade public water systems across the country. [...]. Do you think it's weird that legislation making Juneteenth into a national holiday passed last week with seemingly no warning?
The Secret Congress hypothesis is that this is not a coincidence. Congress takes bipartisan action not despite a lack of public attention, but because of it.