Causes Of Legislative Gridlocks

produce significant legislation, it’s been shown to produce legislative gridlock (Jones 2001). When the president and congress our in a state of divided government as we are in today, it makes it very hard for either branch to accomplish anything. Congress can use the tools at their disposal to create more gridlock, just as the president can use his. Congress can decide to filibuster a piece of legislation, which means they can delay the piece of legislation until its dead completely. As a result of the filibuster any piece of legislation supported by the president needs a simple majority in the house but also needs a three-fifths support in the senate just to push pass this gridlock. (Jones 2001). When a president is in a state of divided

The piece of legislation proposed would set a cap on the amount greenhouse gas emitted nationally, which would limit the amount of harmful output that companies are allowed to release. The government would then provide credits to companies that would allow them to release a certain amount, as long as it’s under the amount capped. Once the credits are given out to this companies are allowed to trade those credits among themselves, which allows companies that can more easily reduce their emissions to sell to companies that can’t. This gives incentives to companies to reduce their emissions because those who sell are rewarded but those who purchase credits must pay for their harmful effect (Smart, Key Votes: S Amdt 4825- Carbon Emmissons Cap and Trade Plan- Key Vote 2008). The cap and trade system is meant to help lower pollution and promote accountability, but not hurt the country economically. An example of a working cap and trade system is the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) issued by the environmental protection agency (Depledge 2005). This system reduces the harmful emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides by 70 percent. It requiring states to have their power plants comply with administrated interstate cap and trade. We decided we need to model this bill after a system that has been shown to work, in order to get congress on

It would have the same goals with of a 3% reduction from 2005 levels in 2012 and 20 % reduction from 2005 levels in 2020 (Smart, HR 2454 - Energy and Environmental Law Amendments ("Cap and Trade") - Key Vote 2009). But since a problem many republican’s senators seemed to have with the bill is that it will increase significantly the electricity rate and add additional energy costs for consumers (Smart, Letter to Barack Obama, President of the United States - Regarding Cap-and-Trade Rule 2014). Even though there was a report done by the Environmental protection agency made a report that this bill would end up costing the consumer less money, because of the reduction in carbon pollution. We decided to include a section that gave incentives, like tax breaks, to those states that invest in renewable energy. This way more money goes into creating sources of energy and the bigger companies are content because they are receiving more money. I know that getting an environmentally based bill passed through a republican controlled house and senate isn’t likely. But there are examples of environmental bills being passed in a divided government, such as The Energy act of 2007 which was passed by a democratically controlled house and senate. George Bush being a Republican President signed this bill into law. (Smart, Energy Act of 2007 1992).