Sailing (or Sinking) in Uncharted Waters

By Ray Smock

The Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education, like so many other organizations across the nation, finds itself in truly uncharted waters. We are a not-for-profit, non-partisan, educational entity on the campus of Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, WV. Our mission is to conduct programs and research that engage citizens in understanding Congress, the Constitution, and American democracy. We house the congressional papers of Senator Byrd and other West Virginia members of Congress. This archive is a wealth of information on the past seventy years of West Virginia and national history.

Being “non-partisan” cannot stand in the way of commenting frankly on the current chaos regarding the funding of organizations like ours.

We have lost federal funding from a Citizen Directed Spending program in the amount of $250,000. We learned this week that the West Virginia Humanities Council, which has supported our programs in the past, can no longer make grants. This dire situation applies to all fifty state and six territorial humanities councils, nationwide. We are concerned that other federal entities that support scholarship, research, and public programs related to American government and the U.S. Constitution will be adversely impacted in the weeks and months ahead.

“Uncharted waters” is a cliché. When my dad reached age 90 he would say, “I’m in uncharted waters.” It became a family joke. Life is full of uncertainties. But the phrase is not a joke when applied to the arbitrary firing of federal workers, the helter-skelter dismantling of agencies, and the suspension of funds that were appropriated by law.

The late Senator Robert C. Byrd was a champion of this nation’s constitutional order. He eloquently and often spoke out about the need for stable, effective government. Good government required decorum and respect for political differences. Effective government required regular parliamentary order and the application of checks and balances between three co-equal branches of the federal government. And the bedrock of good government is the rule of law.

None of these essential ingredients were designed to stifle political disagreements. These essential ingredients meant that strong partisan differences had a structure in which the will of the majority could be hammered out, often with compromise, where neither side of an issue got everything they sought.

The uncharted part of our current situation is that the rule of law is being ignored or violated. There is no regular order in Congress. Congress is so divided between the parties that political gridlock has, in effect, neutralized the power of Congress to exercise its most important power—the power of the purse.

Today a hybrid agency of government that was never established by law, called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), is wreaking havoc within the Executive Branch of government. It is
headed by a billionaire who was never elected to any position, or appointed by any Congressional action. He is a temporary appointee of the President, given authority to act like a bull in a china shop with no prior experience in any aspect of government. This is unprecedented.

This brief statement about being in uncharted waters cannot begin to express the impact of arbitrary decisions on all aspects of government. My focus right now is local. My focus is trying to save the Byrd Center. I hope we can survive. I know this specific drama is being played out by many other entities that contribute to our understanding of American government and American history.

My former boss at the House of Representatives, the late Speaker Tip O’Neill, Jr., was famous for saying “All politics is local.” I see that phrase in new light as “local” entities like the Byrd Center, all across the nation, are caught up in the ripple effects of draconian, arbitrary slashing of federal funding, all without Congressional approval.

The uncharted nature of our current situation is its utter lawlessness