Restoring the Federal Balance

One healthy result of the Watergate scandal has been a reappraisal of what the proper constitutional balance between the Executive and Legislative branches of Government should be. Part of the Ervin Committee's report, which is due to be released soon, will concern redressing the current balance, which has shifted too far in favor of the presidency. Moving ahead of the committee, New York Republican Senator Jacob K. Javits, in a speech last week before the liberal Republican Ripon Society, recommended seven measures that would permit Congress to "reestablish itself as a truly coordinate branch of the United States Government." Javits' proposals:

1) The President should report annually to the Congress on steps he has taken to implement laws and resolutions passed by Congress during its previous session. The President and his Cabinet officers would then submit to questions put by a joint select committee of both houses of Congress.

2) The Speaker of the House should reply to the President's State of the Union message with a congressional State of the Union message. In an address to a joint session of Congress, he would assess legislative priorities and make recommendations to the President on how he should deal with the proposed congressional agenda.

3) Congress should cast a vote declaring itself "satisfied" or "unsatisfied" with Executive action taken on measures that it had proposed. A vote of "unsatisfied" would be accompanied by a resolution outlining ways to comply with the congressional design.

4) Every congressional committee should set up an Executive liaison office to maintain communication with the Executive department that the committee oversees, and guide the Executive in transforming specific pieces of legislation into action.

5) Congress should require complete disclosure of the financial assets and liabilities of every member and every candidate for the House and Senate. The same disclosure requirement would apply to the President and Vice President and candidates for those offices.

6) Congress should clarify the term national security and make its application more precise. That done, Congress should encourage more disclosure and dissemination of information relating to Government activity that is not circumscribed by the new national security guidelines.

Concluded Javits: "I am fully aware that these proposals are far-reaching and controversial. They go to the very essentials of the way we govern ourselves. [But] I believe that these measures only restore the constitutional process to that state in which they were intended to function, and that if we are to survive and prosper as a Republic, Congress must resume its role as a coequal branch of Government."

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