Could Congress Regain Its Long-Lost Power?

In his successful race for the White House, Donald Trump made no secret of the fact that he was not focused on nitty-gritty policy details. When he takes office, he may well expect others to make his expansive platform a reality and cede such busywork to the Republican-dominated Congress. If so, one of the most dramatic results of a Trump presidency may be that Congress will regain some of its long-lost power.

In the 19th century, Congress was very much the center of American policy. For the most part, the president did not draft legislation; Congress did. The president could negotiate, but even there he was handcuffed by the fact that his only real threat was a veto, which could of course be overridden. He did not, moreover, have the same manpower supporting him as Congress.