When I took a job years ago managing a website about Congress, I was shocked to discover that the most-searched bill was an obscure piece of legislation called the Blair Holt Act.
The bill, which would require gun licenses and background checks, was going nowhere. It had two sponsors in the House — one of whom was a nonvoting member representing the Virgin Islands. It didn’t have a companion bill in the Senate. It was what people in Washington call a “messaging bill” designed to signal to voters that the lawmaker takes a particular issue seriously. But every month, it was at the top of our Google Analytics.
In this case, the bill had inadvertently provoked another group of voters — gun owners who believed the Blair Holt Act was the first sign that the government was coming for their firearms. They were sharing the legislation on message boards and in conspiracy theory-minded emails, panicking over a bill that was never going to be signed into law.
As the president has signed executive orders right and left, some lawmakers seem to feel left out.
Now this dynamic is playing out in a novel fashion in President Donald Trump’s chaotic first two weeks in office. Normally members of Congress reserve messaging bills for closer to the next election. But as the president has signed executive orders right and left, some lawmakers seem to feel left out. They’re turning to messaging bills earlier to draw attention and getting more extreme than we’ve seen in the past. The worst of these aren’t so much messaging bills as the legislative equivalent of what people euphemistically call “trashposting” on the internet. And some of the president’s critics are falling for it.
In January, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., filed a bill to direct the interior secretary to “arrange for the carving of the figure of President Donald J. Trump on Mount Rushmore.” The bill, which has no co-sponsors, was dutifully referred to a House committee, where it will die a quiet death. But in the meantime, Trump might hear about it and think nicely of Luna, or she can tout it on social media posts about triggering the libs.
That same month, Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., proposed a constitutional amendment to allow presidents to serve third terms — as long as their other two terms weren’t consecutive, a loophole that appears designed to give Trump a pass while keeping, say, Barack Obama, on the sidelines.
The bill, which also has zero co-sponsors, is about as serious as the Mount Rushmore proposal. If anything, it’s an even heavier lift than carving into the side of a mountain in South Dakota. A constitutional amendment requires approval by two-thirds of both chambers and ratification by three-fourths of states. That’s just not going to happen, much less in time for an 82-year-old Trump to run again in 2028.
In Ogles’ case, he might have another motive for trying to score points with Trump. A week after he filed his bill, federal prosecutors in Nashville withdrew from a criminal investigation into why Ogles misrepresented how much money he lent his campaign on federal forms. That case will now be handled entirely from the Justice Department’s Washington headquarters, which Trump has vowed to exert more control over.
Other lawmakers seem emboldened by Trump’s dramatic proposals to remake the federal government, and, to be honest, it’s understandable if the average voter can’t tell if they are serious or not. Here are a few more examples:
Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona proposed a bill to abolish the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which handles workplace safety (no co-sponsors).
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia proposed two bills to “expunge” Trump’s first-term impeachments (10 co-sponsors each).
And Rep. Earl “Buddy” Carter of Georgia proposed a bill to abolish the IRS and enact a national sales tax (11 co-sponsors).
These bills aren’t going to pass. They’re interesting as a sign of the current thinking among the outer reaches of today’s Republican Party, but you don’t need to ever think about them again.
Amid the uncertainty of Trump’s second term, it’s important to take a breath, check the sources and make sure we’re not getting riled up over a messaging bill going nowhere. First, is it dramatic and easy to explain? Second, does it have almost no co-sponsors? If the answer to both questions is yes, then it’s a trashposting bill.
There are a lot of unnerving things going on in Washington these days. It’s important to save your attention — and your outrage — for the ones that are real.