Sen. Jeff Bingaman

STATE News:

SANTA FE — As most Americans know, the Congress, and especially the Senate, are deeply divided. And even when the majority of Americans support a certain policy change — such as enacting stricter gun control laws or doing more to combat climate change — it is extremely hard to get enough members of Congress to vote against party lines to get laws passed.

However, it hasn’t always been this way. In his new book, Breakdown: Lessons for a Congress in Crisis (University of New Mexico Press, Oct. 15, 2022), former Sen. Jeff Bingaman, who spent 30 years representing the citizens of New Mexico in the U.S. Senate, explains how polarization and political partisanship gradually took hold of the government, especially since the rise of Newt Gingrich in the 1990s, and have caused a fundamental breakdown in the government’s ability to deal with the country’s most pressing issues, including improving the economy, improving health care, fixing education, preserving public lands, avoiding unnecessary wars and more. 

And Bingaman lays out his solutions for how Congress can get past its gridlock to start working again.

Bingaman will be speaking about the book at two upcoming events:

• Oct. 16, 3-4 p.m. MT (In-Person or Live on Zoom)
  Santa Fe Preparatory School, 1101 Camino De Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe
  Hosted by Collected Works Bookstore
  Free (Register here for the online event)
• Nov. 6, 5 p.m. MT (In-Person)
  In Conversation with Dana Millbank of The Washington Post
  Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave., NW, Washington, D.C.
  Free. Seating available on a first-come, first-serve basis.

In the book, Bingaman traces the development of congressional dysfunction over more than three decades and provides eight case studies that examine how the crisis affects our government’s ability to meet major policy challenges.

Bingaman also provides several concrete suggestions for how we can fix our broken system, including ending the use of the filibuster, which is currently being used by Republicans to block any chance for a bill to get voted on; enacting new laws that prevent a government shutdown every time there is a vote on the budget; and a change in the approach to raising the debt ceiling. 

The book has already received praise from many prominent leaders, including from former Vice President Al Gore. “Throughout his career in the Senate, Jeff Bingaman was always someone I and his other colleagues could count on to take a deliberative approach and provide sage counsel to help drive progress on the most pressing issues facing the country. His insightful analysis of the impediments to successful governance and how to overcome them make Breakdown essential reading for anyone entering public service,” Gore said.

Michael Rocca, a professor of political science at the University of New Mexico, says Bingaman’s book is especially important because it provides a solution to get America to overcome its gridlock due to extreme political polarization. “Senator Bingaman’s book could not have come at a better time, as a polarized America continues to face monumental policy challenges. Few members of Congress have been as effective at bridging the divide as Senator Bingaman, and his lessons of policy successes and failures provide a road map (and some hope!) for effective policy making to solve these challenges,” he said.