Its failings and subservience to corporatism are historic in scope.
This is the 50th anniversary of our Congress Project that profiled in detail members of Congress. No citizen group has ever done this before or since.
Our 1972 Congress Project provides a context for measuring the decline of Congress, both in its near abandonment of its constitutional powers vis-à-vis the executive branch and its collective subservience to the many forces of corporatism over the people’s necessities.
Congress was relatively productive in the early 1970s but could have done much more to address people’s needs. While enacting groundbreaking legislation on consumer, environmental and worker safety protections, Congress dragged its feet on full Medicare for All; strengthening the antiquated federal criminal laws; labor law reform to facilitate union organizing; housing and mass transit programs; and, of course, its oversight and constitutional duties regarding the Vietnam War quagmire.
Bills languished that sought to establish a strong federal regulatory presence for pensions, drinking water safety and safer food products, from farms to families.
Strong amendments to the 1966 Freedom of Information law, pioneered by California Democratic Rep. John Moss, were blocked by both federal bureaucrats and corporate lobbyists.
— source nader.org | Ralph Nader | Aug 26, 2022