It’s the Law
With great fanfare, a truly bipartisan bill on housing passed both chambers of Congress in June, and the President had scheduled a formal signing ceremony for it. Then after the date and time for the event had been set…and the stage already prepared…he canceled the event and said he would not sign the bill until the SAVE America Act on voting was passed.
The bill became law without his signature last Friday night; there are provisions for such a thing, and since he took no action—signing it or vetoing it—it automatically became law. So what was the point?
A formal signing ceremony with back-slapping, speech-making, and pomp and circumstance gives members of Congress great optics and visuals to send back to constituents—the “look at what I was able to deliver for you” sort of thing. And it’s true—the measure did have broad support and was necessary.
But it’s a lot harder for those politicians to make the case in a 30-second ad without the visuals of standing at a ceremony and basking in the glory. And Trump did punish them by denying them that.
So it becomes a no harm/no foul thing…the bill became law, so Congress can take credit for that…the President did what little he could to deny them the glory they love…and attention was once again paid to the voting act, which huge numbers of Americans support but which apparently can’t get through a GOP majority in the Senate. No doubt members have been asked about that during their Independence Day break…but whether the President’s action and the hometown pressure is enough to make any difference when Senators return this week is far from certain.
