Congress as board of directors

Here's Senator Tillis yesterday, discussing the frayed Senate-administration relations amid the endless blindsiding Hill Republicans are getting from the White House these days: “At some point, we’ve got to return ourselves to being a board of directors versus like a manufacturing facility that just creates whatever product the White House wants.” I have long thought that this analogy—Congress as a board of directors—is one of the best ways to think about the legislature, writ large, within our separation of powers system. Both for Senators thinking about their job and citizens assessing the government. Start from a simple principle: Congress doesn't do anything. At least not in the sense that a six-year-old would understand. The executive branch? Those people do things. A park ranger at Yellowstone will give you a tour. A scientist at NIH is putting things in test tubes and trying to cure cancer. An FBI agent is cuffing a suspected criminal. Those are all things people do that a…