Maxwell School News and Commentary

"What’s really important right now is getting money out quickly, and Congress can’t even do that," says David Popp, professor of public administration and international affairs. "I worry about tacking on green stimulus, or anything else that slows down the process. We can worry about financing the green transition six months from now."

Professor Emeritus William C. Banks says the changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act process in the bill would increase accountability for abuses of the system and require the FBI to disclose more information to the court.

Professor of Economics Mary Lovely says the rules governing scientists’ ties to Chinese research institutions are murky and sometimes lead prosecutors to charge people who have made innocent mistakes. "People can stumble into things inadvertently. The rules have to be very clear and if someone violates those clear rules, then you throw the book at them," she says.

"One of the things to bear in mind about the procedure in the Senate is that there’s very little in the way of a legal road map. The Constitution says simply that the Senate should have the sole power to trial an impeachment," says William C. Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs.

"Impeachment of a U.S. president is an unusual circumstance," says Tom Keck, Michael O. Sawyer Chair of Constitutional Law and Politics. "(The chief justice) is there to oversee a trial, which is something that should be well within his comfort zone. But it's a trial conducted by elected partisan officials. It's not a court, the U.S. Senate." 

"If any Senate Republicans harbor doubts about [Mitch] McConnell’s position, then, recalling their oath to 'support and defend the Constitution,' they must ask themselves: Did the framers of the Constitution intend senators to be impartial jurors in impeachment trials?," writes Dana Radcliffe, adjunct professor of public administration and international affairs.

"The fact that this in the end became such a strict party line vote, I think it’s going to reinforce the divisions that already exist," says Grant Reeher, professor of political science and director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute.

William C. Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs, says "stonewalling" by administration members is based on the presumption that courts will uphold White House executive privilege. "This ploy buys time and delays the House proceedings, but also may add another charge in the impeachment—obstruction of justice."

"If the public impeachment process builds the Ukraine abuse of office case clearly so that average Americans can see what the president did, it should lead to impeachment and a trial in the Senate," says William C. Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs. "From there on, everything depends on events that have yet to occur."