Congressional Gridlock Argumentative Essay

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Congressional Gridlock A gridlock in politics is defined as, “a situation where there is difficulty in passing laws due to evenly divided votes.” Gridlock has become an increasingly pressing issue in the American government over the last several decades. According to an article written in the Washington Post in May of 2014, the number of gridlocked issues has more than doubled since 1950; and about 75 percent of salient issues today are currently in gridlock (Blake). Therefore, some of today’s most important issues have yet to be resolved or passed through legislation. So, what causes gridlock? How can it be resolved? Congressional gridlock is primarily caused by opposing parties in the House of Representatives and the Senate. The polarizing …show more content…

In July of 2013, Congress reached gridlock when the House of Representatives refused to give its approval to, “a bipartisan Senate bill that would increase border security while also offering a path to US citizenship for the nation’s approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants” (“Immigration reform hits gridlock”). The House of Representatives is largely controlled by the Republican Party, who disagreed with Democrats regarding how to resolve the issue. They see it as giving amnesty to …show more content…

There have been many different proposals for energy reform in the last several years; however the majority of these legislations have yet to be passed due to gridlock. One of the causes of gridlock in these situations regards negotiations. When a proposal is made, a group will often try to attach their own agenda to the given bill if the opposing party wants their vote. The energy reform bill recently brought to the floor in January had hopes of securing a bipartisan vote, however two Michigan senators insisted on attaching the bill with an aid package for Flint, Michigan – which was suffering from a water contamination crisis. The majority of Democrats then rallied around the cause and deterred further discussion regarding the bill if it didn’t include the Flint aid. Even though the Democrats later recanted this, it caused gridlock at the time and kept the legislation from being passed (Cama,

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