Congress is clogged with a traffic jam of bills that enjoy broad, bipartisan support but have stalled. Ukraine and American rearmament against China enjoys 70 percent support in the House and Senate, but a small minority have delayed the consideration of a special spending measure in the House. Congressman Gallagher’s bill to force the sale of TikTok cleared the House in a landslide but is held up by a small cadre of senators. It would pass by more than 75 votes if it cleared to the Senate floor. Eighty-nine percent of Americans and most members of Congress want to give legal immigration status to the Afghan allies and translators who were left behind in 2021, but progress has been sparse because of difficulty in committees.
It may be frustrating, but there is something of a method to the madness. When I came to the House of Representatives in 2011, fresh out of the Air Force, a wizened old graybeard told me that “the purpose of this place isn’t to pass good laws. It’s to stop bad laws.” Gridlock, while irritating, is not the dirty word that some claim. It is a function of the Founding Fathers’ design. Good potential laws are often interred with the bones of the bad — a small price to pay for sound governance and for keeping the D.C. idea fairy at bay.
That said, the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) issue for Afghans is unique. There is a legitimate ticking clock, and urgency is warranted. Gridlock, in this instance, is a dirty word and more. The Taliban have abused, hunted, and in some cases murdered those who worked with the hated Americans. Many have fled to Pakistan. There they sit in legal limbo, hoping that one day America will honor its word to not leave them behind. They live their lives on a fuse, praying for Congress to act.
So this was nice to see:
U.S. lawmakers included in the $1.2 trillion package of spending bills an additional 12,000 Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) for Afghans who supported the U.S. mission in Afghanistan and extended the program through the end of 2025.
The measure did not happen on accident. It was U.S. military veterans, many of them grizzled from bloody tours in Afghanistan, who took the lead in this fight. They found the thought of abandoned allies and interpreters, who had fought and bled with their American friends, intolerable.
And so, in that great spirit of this country, they did something about it.
The American Legion, No One Left Behind, and Veterans of Foreign Wars all threw their considerable weight behind their Afghan friends, saturating congressional offices with a tight and disciplined lobbying campaign. With Honor, a bipartisan organization that has shown considerable success in electing veterans to higher office, was an instrumental and driving force that kept the SIV shortage at the top of the congressional agenda.
Laws do not get passed by chance or fate. They must be driven by credible advocates who carry a tight message with broad appeal. The progressive goofballs who obstruct roads, scream in congressional hallways, block airports, stage public meltdowns, occupy academic buildings, and otherwise vomit their unregulated emotional states onto an annoyed public could take a lesson here.
The 2021 Afghanistan debacle represented the worst of American leadership but the best of the American people. Congress still has miles to go on the Special Immigrant Visa issue, but sound work and good bipartisan policy-making made for a noteworthy success.