Overview
Managing Director of Steptoe's Government Affairs & Public Policy practice Leslie A. Belcher recently published an article in Reuters, titled "Governing by shortcut – Congress is losing ability to function through regular order." In this piece, Leslie discusses how, although Congress still follows formal procedures, it increasingly relies on pre-negotiated, leadership-driven shortcuts shaped by Senate filibuster constraints rather than regular order. She argues that this shift is eroding institutional capacity and transparency, as major legislation is now crafted upstream and bipartisan compromise is built around what can clear procedural hurdles rather than through traditional committee-led processes.
