Getty Images / Stock photo

Congress Needs a Global Competition Caucus

Today’s legislative stovepipes are hobbling America’s ability to compete with China.

If the United States expects to continue to thrive as a global leader, economically and otherwise, committees in Congress must find a way to work better across their strict jurisdictional stovepipes to invigorate a societal-level understanding and approach to great power competition. 

Our era—the Information Age—is dominated by unprecedented global interconnectedness and economic interdependence. A single person can speak to millions of others via social media. A small ripple in one nation’s markets can produce a tsunami elsewhere. And state actors have developed cost-effective means of political and economic manipulation and coercion. America’s institutions are starting to grapple with these new dynamics in global competition, but the response is far from synchronized. 

The last time the United States competed effectively at a societal level, the stakes and players were different. We did not depend on the Soviet Union economically during the Cold War, nor Germany or Japan during World War II, competitions in which the confluence of American-style democracy and free enterprise proved sufficient. But today, we are tightly bound, in a globalized economy, to China, whose government has methodically mobilized its levers of national power to gain advantage. Ensuring our future security and economic vibrancy will require careful coordination of the public square and private enterprise. 

The key is Congress, which alone possesses the power to make law and move money. Yet its archaic organization and institutional processes lack a way to harmonize a societal-level approach to competition. Its jurisdictional parsing of policy complicates its ability to unleash the coordinated best of our free markets and open society. 

Various Congressional committees and groups are developing pertinent pieces of the puzzle. Recent recommendations made by the House Armed Service Committee’s Future of Defense Task Force provide plausible bipartisan opportunities to address societal-level challenges of great power competition. As do the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee’s Endless Frontier Act (recently broadened to the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act) and the bipartisan MADE in the Americas Act referred to several House committees. Yet these and others are disconnected from any concerted strategic approach. There is no joint select committee on great power competition, no internal forum or framework to assess, prioritize, and coordinate on policy holistically, at a societal level, across instruments of national power. 

A “competition roundtable” could fill that void. This would be a forum of chairs and ranking members (or staff directors) of key committees from the House and Senate. Leaders of the intelligence committees need the opportunity to scheme with those overseeing financial services, commerce, science, energy, homeland security, the armed services, and others that guide the levers of national power that underwrite our competitive advantage. Together, they would work to grease policy and political skids toward societal-level approaches to competition while preserving democratic process, values, and adherence to free-market principles. 

This kind of collaborative body might face opposition from the constituencies (and members) who gain most from legislative stovepipes: those who pit issues against each another for political points or nuanced policy wins. Others may view it as a threat to their power base. But those with true policy and political acumen will recognize the body’s greater value. The potential to wheel, deal, and “win” on critical societal-level issues (with a rider or two, perhaps) that enjoy broad support across the political spectrum is arguably more enticing and consequential for rank-and-file members just trying to do their best to represent the American people. 

Ultimately, our core institutions, starting with Congress, must re-learn the nature of great power competition and adapt to deal with it. They must be adjusted for the 21st century, especially if we are to maintain a friendly competitive advantage in the face of credible rising threats. A competition roundtable in Congress is a meaningful, tangible way to start.

Tim Welter is a senior research fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies and holds a doctorate in political science. He has served in the U.S. Air Force, on Capitol Hill, and in the Pentagon. The opinions expressed in this article are solely the author’s and do not reflect the official stance of the U.S. Department of Defense or the Potomac Institute.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.