Ending Mission Creep in the Federal Government

By Frank Howard

On the campaign trail this week I met with U.S. Senator Mike Lee of Utah here in Montgomery County where he talked about the importance of federalism, or the vertical separation of powers among the local, state and federal government. Federalism matters to everyone in our country except most of the politicians and bureaucrats in Washington D.C. who benefit from ignoring it.

Embodied in the 10th amendment to the Constitution, this is more than an abstract concept of governing principles. Federalism addresses a core question: do we want a government that does a lot of things poorly, or one that addresses fewer national priorities effectively?

What we have now is a federal government that handles a lot of things poorly and, worse, bungles even the most basic national priorities. Here are some examples. The Pentagon abruptly ended a $500 million program to train and equip Syrian rebels that resulted in fielding “four or five” soldiers in the battle against terrorist organization ISIS. Federal government employees responsible for $600 million in contracts to develop the Obamacare website failed to identify problems that caused millions of dollars in cost overruns. In the most recent budget deal signed into law, President Obama and then-House Speaker John Boehner lauded structural reforms to Social Security and its disability fund counterpart. Not so, the massive programs are merely tweaked to move funds from one failing program to another as they both head to insolvency.

All of these government failures have this in common: they were uncovered within the last several weeks and were reported on not by right-wing radio talk show hosts or conservative blogs, but by NBC news, Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal among others. If the White House and Congress can’t address these basic responsibilities, then what happens on the local level when an alphabet soup of federal departments and agencies micromanage local priorities?

That is what is going on all across Maryland’s 6th Congressional district which stretches from Cumberland and includes a large part of Montgomery County. For those unaccustomed to how the process works, let me break it down. Federal departments and agencies give members of Congress advanced press releases announcing funding for a certain project. The Congressman then takes the press release, puts their name on it, and schedules photo-ops with local media outlets. The project beneficiaries get their money, the member of Congress appears to have come to the rescue and the federal bureaucracy justifies itself and gets more money from Congress. Everyone wins, except everyone else.

Some of the federal departments and agencies involved in Maryland’s 6th district include the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Departments of Commerce, Homeland Security and Justice, and the National Science Foundation. Former U.S. Senator James Buckley explains what this spending binge means nationally in a recent Wall Street Journal op/ed.

“Those programs...now touch virtually every activity in which state and local governments are engaged. Their direct cost has grown, according to the federal budget, to an estimated $640.8 billion in 2015 from $24.1 billion in 1970.”

The problem former Senator Buckley and current Senator Lee is highlighting involves whether a nation approaching $20 trillion in debt can afford to have its federal government paying for museums, sidewalks and science labs. While some of these programs have merit, I am far more confident in local elected officials making decisions on where to spend tax dollars than politicians and bureaucrats making them on our behalf all across the country.

Every week, I am releasing a ten-point plan to instill positive change on Capitol Hill. Returning to the principles of federalism is point number 4 and will ensure we pass on less debt to our children, help the government focus on national priorities and show that members of Congress giving away money is not a solution, but part of the problem.

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Frank Howard is a small business owner and candidate for Congress in Maryland’s 6th district.