Friday morning, the House of Representatives easily passed a one-week continuing resolution to avoid a partial government shutdown. The Senate followed suit on the bill, and in so doing proved the utter futility of Republican control of Congress in the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency.

While the media will hang the apparent lack of Trump’s legislative accomplishments on the necks of the administration, ultimately this is not a failure of the executive branch. In this constitutional republic, it is Congress that holds the legislative power; the House of Representatives and Senate make the laws. They are responsible for the legislative policy of the Trump administration, and they’ve blown the first 100 days.

The failed negotiations over the spending bill Congress must now take up next week is the capstone on congressional Republican incompetence and the failed leadership of Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.. The Republican Party has not received a single concession from the Democrats to implement any of President Trump’s agenda … and they will not.

Democrats succeeded in bullying the GOP, threatening a government shutdown over border-wall funding and other “poison pill” riders.

“Our position has been clear, and it’s nothing new: no poison pill riders. The sooner we can resolve this issue, the quicker we can have an agreement on appropriations for 2017, so I object,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor Thursday. Schumer prevented the Senate from automatically approving the short-term continuing resolution on grounds that changes to environmental regulations and Dodd-Frank protections are unacceptable.

While the Democrats fight to protect every inch of the leviathan federal government they explicitly support, the Republicans – who pretend to seek to put up a fight on the campaign trail – roll over once they have to take a tough vote.

Observe what has become of the Republican agenda, as timid or cowardly GOP members refuse to fight for smaller government.

Obamacare repeal? That promise was broken and now seems delayed indefinitely, as liberal Republicans fight to keep the core parts of the law they like, and are otherwise afraid of making major changes to any entitlements.

Tax reform? The big announcement that came from Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and White House adviser Gary Cohn Wednesday left out the important details, as both administration officials had nothing but vague answers for reporters and essentially said Congress is “working on it.”

Build the wall? Republicans capitulated after Democrats’ threats to shut down the government.

Speaking of government spending, where is the budget? Where is the congressional action on President Trump’s skinny budget? Why is a Republican-controlled Congress still using soft continuing resolutions to pass short-term spending in place of hard budgets and a return to separate appropriations bills? That’s another broken promise.

What cuts to government spending are happening? None. Why does Planned Parenthood remain funded? Because Democrats will shut down the government to fight for baby murder. But you won’t hear a single Republican speak in those terms.

And then there are the 127 federal court vacancies that need filling. Where is the Trump administration on nominating conservative judges to fill those vacancies? Where is the Senate on taking those nominations up?

Apologists for Congress’ (lack of) accomplishments in the first 100 will note the regulations that have been repealed under the Congressional Review Act. Trump has signed 13 reversals of Obama administration policies into law.

But were Republicans actually interested in dealing a unifying, single blow to the administrative state, the Senate would take up the REINS Act.

The REINS Act is legislation designed to require regulators to seek congressional approval for their most expensive regulations. It passed the House of Representatives in early January, and since then the Senate hasn’t budged on it. What gives?

President Trump promised to “work hard to get it passed” on the campaign trail.

“I will sign the REINS Act should it reach my desk as President and more importantly I will work hard to get it passed,” Trump previously told American Commitment President Phil Kerpen. “The monstrosity that is the Federal Government with its pages and pages of rules and regulations has been a disaster for the American economy and job growth. The REINS Act is one major step toward getting our government under control.”

Nearly every Republican agrees that regulations need to be scaled back, and to a large degree that has been the focus of the Trump administration’s executive actions. But when it comes to legislation from Congress, Republicans are taking time to repeal several regulations individually instead of pursuing sweeping conservative reforms.

The U.S. Senate has not even been in session for 100 days this year. Including weekends, the Senate has taken 54 days off since the session began in January. What have they done to deserve the vacation time?

Like it or not, voters are going to demand that this Congress make the legislative trains run on time before the 2018 midterm elections. Given the GOP’s failure to keep basic promises so far, with no change on the horizon, what campaign promises can Republicans make in 2018 that voters will believe?

We will soon find out if “at least we’re not Democrats” is enough to get Republicans elected in this country. (For more from the author of “Blame Congress for Trump’s 100-Day Bust” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

In another move to free up domestic energy supplies, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday aimed at lifting the Obama administration’s offshore drilling restrictions.

For decades, bad policies have blocked access to America’s abundance of domestic resources, yet America has still managed to be a global energy leader. Trump’s executive order, “Implementing an America-First Offshore Energy Strategy,” could unleash further success in the energy sector.

The economic potential sitting just off America’s coasts is enormous. The Outer Continental Shelf is awash with natural resources, containing an estimated 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Realizing that potential could create nearly a million American jobs, and the increased energy supplies that would result would put money back into the bank accounts of American families. It would also generate new prospects for investment and job creation, as cheap energy lowers the cost of business operations across all sectors, not just energy.

The federal government has placed various bans on offshore drilling for decades. Last November, the Obama administration’s Department of Interior finalized some of the most restrictive leasing programs to date.

The Interior Department’s final 2017-2022 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program was best known for the areas it placed off limits, rather than what it made available to lease for energy exploration.

It excluded lease sales in the oil-rich Beaufort or Chukchi seas off the coasts of Alaska, as well as areas off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. The Interior Department also restricted opportunities in the Gulf of Mexico and the Cook Inlet off south central Alaska.

Critics of Trump’s decision to free up leasing are making the same arguments they’ve made for years: “Oil prices are too low, so the decision won’t spur more oil exploration. Drilling offshore takes too long, so it’s not going to have any immediate impact.”

But those arguments ignore the biggest drivers of investment. Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis were spot on in writing for The Washington Post, “[L]ocal political considerations and the global energy market are likely to influence future exploration far more than an executive order in Washington.”

While Trump’s executive order will open more doors for exploration, it won’t automatically trigger an energy boom. That’s the way it should be.

Oil prices are long-term and, as history has shown, can increase rather quickly. Industry makes investment decisions looking decades into the future, not simply based on short-term projections.

Although it certainly is possible that low oil prices could prohibit offshore production, that’s a decision for the private sector to consider. Businesses are much better equipped and flexible to deal with changing economic circumstances than shortsighted politicians in Washington.

Another battle cry for of those who oppose offshore drilling is: Do we really want to risk another Deepwater Horizon spill?

The Deepwater Horizon spill of 2010, which caused environmental degradation in the Gulf of Mexico, was a rare and isolated incident, not a result of any systemic problem associated with offshore oil and gas operations.

That’s not to say flaws don’t exist in the current system or that improvements can’t be made.

In fact, after Deepwater Horizon, Congress examined the government-imposed offshore liability cap but never implemented any prudent solution.

Current law states that oil or gas companies do not have to pay more than $75 million in liability costs for accidents they cause—no matter how great the damages.

Additional fees can be paid out of a government-mandated trust fund (the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund), which effectively socializes the risk of offshore oil and gas activities.

Congress should reform the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund and remove the $75 million liability cap, replacing it with a new system that assesses the risks of offshore oil and gas operations and appropriately assigns those risks to industry operators.

A new approach would accurately assign risk to all offshore operations, including exploratory drilling, production, and tanker movements.

Such a system should also hold operators fully liable for their actions and guard against frivolous lawsuits. It should rely on market-based mechanisms and be built around private insurers and professional risk assessors.

Environmental activists aren’t the only ones opposed to Trump’s executive order. Some members of the tourism industry have also voiced concerns about expanded drilling off the Atlantic.

But the energy industry has worked in perfect harmony with other industries. Just look to the Gulf Coast. Every year, residents of the Gulf come to Morgan City, Louisiana, to celebrate the lifeblood of the region’s economy: seafood and oil.

Morgan City’s Shrimp and Petroleum Festival emphasizes “the unique way in which these two seemingly different industries work hand-in-hand culturally and environmentally in this area of the ‘Cajun Coast.’”

While the Deepwater Horizon spill affected all industries in the Gulf Coast, the majority of seafood and tourism companies supported the oil industry throughout the ordeal.

In fact, in many respects, the spill has strengthened the bond between the oil and seafood industry. Shrimpers and fishers were as vocal as anyone in lifting the offshore drilling ban after the spill.

Drilling off the Atlantic coasts could welcome the same symbiotic relationship, which already exists in the Gulf and in the state of Alaska.

Furthermore, states should collect more royalty revenue for offshore production.

Currently, states receive 50 percent of the revenues generated by onshore oil and natural gas production on federal lands, and Congress should apply this allocation offshore as well.

Drilling off states’ coasts and allowing them a larger share of the royalty revenue would encourage more state involvement in drilling decisions.

Offshore drilling would also promote state and local government participation in allocating funds, helping them to close their deficits, enabling coastal restoration and conservation, and shoring up funds for schools.

Trump’s executive order is a welcome step to increasing access to domestic resources, but the back-and-forth of banning resource exploration and then undoing it is a sign that wholesale reform is necessary.

The politicization of the leasing program and the static central planning process that has stifled a dynamic, constantly changing energy market points to the need for legislative action. It is time for a fundamental reconsideration of how the U.S. manages offshore resource development.

Congress should amend the Outer Continental Shelf Leasing Act and get rid of this antiquated, piecemeal leasing approach. (For more from the author of “Trump Opens Doors on Oil Exploration, but Deeper Reforms Still Needed” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

The most absurd example of progressive pathology during Obama’s reign was arguably the legal assault on the Little Sisters of the Poor. “Jumping the shark” called, and it thinks making criminals out of chaste women because they won’t pay for other women to have recreational sex is just begging for some karmic justice.

But sadly, it may be the nuns’ turn to get kicked in the teeth once more. Because elections have consequences, or something.

According to LifeSiteNews, the Trump administration has asked the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals for 60 more days to continue the Obama administration’s bullying of religious institutions. This is after several of them, including the Little Sister of the Poor, had found at least temporary relief in multiple courts from fascism masquerading as feminism.

During the campaign, though, Trump assured such groups that to force them into providing abortifacients is “a hostility to religious liberty you will never see in a Trump administration … I will defend your religious liberties and the right to fully and freely practice your religion, as individuals, business owners and academic institutions.”

That’s the exact moral clarity the oath of office calls for, but it was lacking in federal court this week. Trump could simply have declined to enforce the illegitimate and unethical penalties leveled against acts of Christian conscience, even if it turns out he doesn’t have the energy or conviction to engage in a crusade on behalf of religious liberty. But he didn’t.

And what was the excuse, err, reason given?

Wait for it … Wait for it …

We need more bureaucracy!

Yes, this “returning the government to the people” thing from Trump’s inaugural has taken a very weird turn indeed. The Department of Justice actually said the Trump White House, which is nearing its first 100 days in office, still hasn’t had enough to time to assemble the staff necessary to determine whether or not it’s cool to force nuns to defy God.

Good grief. How many more lawyers do you need to have sufficient confidence that the Founding Fathers weren’t just spitballing when they came up with that whole First Amendment thing? Might I suggest that when the ACLU is currently suing a hospital on behalf of a man who thinks he’s a woman and is upset the hospital won’t perform a hysterectomy on him, the answer might be “zero”?

In response to this, I know some of you will find comfort in telling yourself that all this is better than Hillary, or that Trump has done some good things. Those are two things that are true, but also irrelevant to this discussion.

There are also a lot of parents who do obvious and undeniably good things for their children, like feed, clothe, and shelter them. Yet they are so derelict at providing for their spiritual needs that as soon as they go off to college, subsidized pagan brainwashing is all but assured. Proportionally speaking, providing for your children’s material needs is a necessity. But doing so at the expense of their eternal souls is an existential failure.

That’s what we are dealing with here. Trump has deregulated some things. He has had some foreign policy successes. All of which I appreciate and have noted and complimented. But he hasn’t come close to indicating that he can be, or really even wants to be, transformational in the way that Obama was. And this is what is needed to truly undo the damage Obama did. Anything short of that will be a failure for a culture on the brink, as ours is.

Perhaps no group is more responsible for Trump’s election than the devout. He owes them, well, bigly. Payback shouldn’t take 100 days, let alone another 60. That assumes Planned Parenthood apologist Ivanka, who is all but acting as First Lady, hasn’t been persuading Daddy on this issue. That could be the real reason for the delay.

How much bureaucracy does it take to stop suing nuns? If your workload is too overbearing for an under-staffed Justice Department, why not kick some feckless litigation like this to the curb and lighten the workload? How much more work does it require to file a withdrawal than to file a delay? (For more from the author of “Promise Broken? Trump DOJ Continues Suit Against Religious Groups” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.