9-9-26 Sloan with Patti Foster

0:00The entire draft room groans because you just took the guy they wanted. There's no better feeling than crushing your fantasy football league. I'm JJ Zacharyson, host of the award-winning late-round podcast. Before your draft, our players to target and players to avoid episodes tell you exactly who to circle and who to cross off. Listen to the late-round fantasy football podcast on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Mike Am. And I'm Trevor Sikama, and together we host the NFL Fantasy Football Show. Are you ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Because if you aren't locked in with us on the NFL Fantasy Football Show, you're already playing from behind. Whether you're a first-time player or a grizzled vet chasing another championship, we give you the advantage and the confidence you need to make every move count. Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football Show on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:01I'm Brett Coleman, and I'm Trevor Sikama. If you love football and want to understand what's really happening on the field, check out our show, NFL Pro. Every week, we break down the biggest plays, trends, and matchups using exclusive next-gen stats, insights, and NFL content you will not find anywhere else. Whether you're new to football, a fantasy football fanag, or a die-hard fan, NFL Pro will help you analyze the game like a pro. Listen to NFL Pro on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The new NFL season is here, and you should be listening to NFL Daily as we march along to Super Bowl 61. It is in the name NFL Daily! You'll have fresh content in your feed every day, all season long. That game-winning drive, maybe it's Herbert, maybe it's Gino, maybe it's my homes. We'll have the highlights. If Fernando Mendoza or any of those rookies are ballin' out, we'll break down the tape, join me, Greg Rosenthal, and an all-star cast of co-hosts as we preview and recap every game, listen to NFL Daily on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts,

2:05or wherever you get your podcasts. College football will hijack your weekend, ruin your sleep, and break your heart. And that's why we make the Sullivan-Verbal College football show. I'm Ty Hildenbrand. He's Dan Rubenstein. Every week, we preview the games that matter in the storylines that are gonna ignite your group chat. And you can join us in the aftermath as we react to what happened, why it matters, and how the sport went completely bonkers yet again. Listen to the Solid Verbal College football show on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. To wanna be an American idiot! Hi there, Scott Slombs. I'm 700WRW. Be pairing about congressional midterms. Together midterms. Together midterms. No one's really ever except LLNA, one of those wonky political geeks with the flags and all that, but and bumper stickers all over the place. But most of us, we don't pay attention. And less so today, no one really excited, even a lot of those wonks about the reality that politics not only sucks, but Congress blows.

3:0610% approval rating. I said 10% approval rating. Who in the rule has a 10% approval rating? It still has a job. Congress. Leadership repeatedly sending lawmakers home early, because they can't even come up with enough votes for even the most basic procedural measures. Let me just keep the lights on. Is a chore. As such, more than 40 lawmakers already announced they wouldn't seek re-election ahead of these midterms. That's a record pace. And the main complaint is dysfunction, bitter partisanship, and ability to get anything done, no consensus. And that's why they're out. So we've got a formal constitutional lawyer that says, guess what? I've got a fix for this. We can fix Congress that can't even get their act together to keep the lights on. She's Patty Foster. We can fix Congress. Welcome, Patty. How are you? I'm great. Thank you, Scott. Thanks for having me. Yeah. You are a retired constitutional attorney, and you decided, hey, you know what? Maybe there is a way we can use the Constitution to figure this thing out because the dysfunction,

4:06obviously, as I just pointed out, there's a rampant and probably could go on the entire segment talking about their failings. But what is the way you decide to spend your time rewriting the House rulebook instead of, I don't know, running for office or lobbying for specific bill or simply moving to Spain? I think that's a great question because I would love to do all of those things. But I realize there is an obstruction that would prevent me from being successful at any of those things. And that obstruction is Congress. I came to this project largely because my mom told me to. She was always a fixer. My mom was Stephanie Solar of Blue Ash City Council. She served for 44 years. So she was an activist. We all walked her talk and we all learned her mantra, which is we can fix it. That was just how she raised us. And we would campaign for her and she got re-elected to Blue Ash City Council 20 years when I was alive.

5:06I went to you with a lie. And so anyway, we can fix this with how I was raised. And then towards the end of her life, she looked at me and she said, sincerely, you understand constitutional law, you have to fix it. And I took it seriously. That's cool because my family were just a bunch of complainers. We were like, who the hell? You don't even vote. It's stupid. You're waste of your time. I came to her family. I had a dumb. What are you thinking? And I guess with those two rules meet, though, as a pragmatist, I guess my question be, what makes you think they're going to listen to Patty? That's also a good question because I'm trying to engage people to realize that many of us are mad, many of us are checked out, many of us are angry or just feel disappointed in our Congress. Like you said, 90% disappointed. That seems like a pretty high rate. Look at your job when 90% of the people hate you. Exactly.

6:06And yet we hire them over and over. Point to the election of 2024, the most recent midterm, Congress's rating wasn't quite as bad as 10 back then, 17% approval rating. And then they ran for office, all of them, all 435 members of the house. And 91% of the incumbents who ran got reelected. So we rehired them. And a couple months later, our their approval rating sank down to a left 14% I think. So like we're basically down to friends and family at this point in terms of who agrees with Congress. Well, you were not wrong about them. You mean Sherrod Brown, right? He's running, I can come and fix things. You're part of the whole thing that's screwed it up in the first place. Now you're coming back to fix it. What are we doing here? Well, I'm trying to provide a hero's journey for each individual candidate to say out loud, I can fix this. Because here's why I discovered because I'm a geek and because I'm into constitutional law, the reality that most people don't understand is that the House of Representatives specifically, not all of Congress, because Senate is different.

7:14But the House of Representatives disappears completely every two years and rebuild itself from scratch on January 3rd of after the midterm elections. So these 435 people who we just elected arrive on January 3rd and they're all sitting there with no power, with no rules, with no pending legislation, everything's gone. And they start from scratch at 12 noon. The first vote they take is to vote for a speaker. The second vote they take is to vote for a rules package. And that rules package determines so much. What happens when someone proposes a solution to one of the solvable problems that we've been wrestling with the last 30 years? Well, under the current rules package, mostly nothing. At every avenue, there's a place for that proposal, that solution, you just find itself in the trash. Okay. It takes a heroic of effort to actually find your way onto the House floor and be debated, amended and voted on.

8:19So you're considering Patti Foster of We Can Fix Congress, making something called a consideration bill. And that if a bill qualifies for protected treatment, you'll get in a second what that means. If it hits a bunch of triggers, it's got to reach a defined threshold of co-sponsors, gets reported out of committee by threshold committee members, passes the Senate or one of the 12 regular appropriations bills, which qualify automatically. That's a lot coming out of my mouth. Put that in layman's terms. If there is an idea out there that has broad support and I mean broad support, like a third of representatives, I think it at least deserves considerations by the House. Not passage, not in its exact form when it arrives, but it deserves to be considered. So there would be at the moment, like I said, the defaults are all going into the trash can every single one. It takes heroic effort and one person's authority, basically the speaker to say, okay, we can talk about this.

9:19Yes. I think the members of the House who all claim we are fighting for you during their campaign. And we hire these guys to go and fight for us. And then on January 3rd, at noon, for the last 30 years, they have given away any power they might have to fight for us by handing all that control to one person who decides what they can even discuss. So this is just a change of the default. There would be a pathway called a consideration bill, something that has enough support to at least deserve the House's consideration. And once it reaches that threshold, which could mean broad support within the House and or broad support and that it's been passed by committee or it's been passed by the Senate or an appropriations bill. I can't emphasize this one enough. This is what keeps our government from shutting down. And those bills deserve at least consideration. And consideration means you debate it. And then you amend it. There's an opportunity to make it better, hammer out the details. And then you vote on it up or down.

10:25And I'm not saying these bills will pass. I think those should get to the House floor and sometimes fail. I think that would be an interesting exercise for Americans to see how your representatives are trying their best. Fighting for you as hard as they can, making a bill better, including your priorities, trying to amend it. And then there's a vote. Can we come to a consensus or not? Right. But that consideration is what's not happening. Okay. That's fair. Yeah. That's fair. And it looks like they're actually doing so. Now whether they thumbs up, thumbs down. At least it's getting voted upon. Give me, do you have an example of like a real bill from the last few years that we all would know about that would have gotten unstuck under this rule? I do. I do. My favorite example is called Kosa K-O-S-A, which is the Kids Online Safety Act. 98% of Americans would love for our children to be safer online. Yes. So many people agree like we're maybe overprotecting our kids in real life, but they're underprotected online.

11:26And they're up against algorithms that are created by a giant industry to keep their attention to keep them hooked. So people want public policy. That's what public policy is. Is a solution to something like this where we feel our kids are unsafe. And there is, there are good answers to this. We can regulate algorithms. We can make companies have certain ethical procedures that they follow. And that's all through law. So again, that's all Congress. We're fighting these battles sometimes in the wrong institution. We expect the president or we expect the courts to give us our answer. Congress is the one that's literally built to give us this answer. They're supposed to absorb this agreement and hammer out a solution that can reach a majority and then boom. That's our public policy. So with COSA, 98% of people like it, it passed the Senate. I think 91 to 3. I mean, you couldn't even get a bill that says that the fund rises every day to pass 91 to 3 in the Senate.

12:27So it's just overwhelming consensus that this is a good idea. Never gets to the house floor. They never actually talk, they never debate it. Or when they do debate it, they maybe they talk about it in committee, but it doesn't go anywhere. So we have no law to describe how kids can be treated online. And then the absurdity, I noticed that you said in your ex profile that you like to talk about irony. I mean, the irony of this is that it ends up in court. We end up with state suing meta. So states are now saying meta, you're harming our kids. And we're waiting for those two parties to settle, which they just did. It couldn't go on to a jury. But again, this isn't creating public policy. This is just moving money around. It's letting the courts decide what public policy will be because no one wants to go on a record for fear that it's going to be used against them. And they may lose an election. So this is about protecting their jobs, not about protecting the country.

13:29Exactly. And courts are not built to create public policy. They're not what they do. Of course they look at the facts of one case. And if it gets to their decision, they decide who wins on those facts that are brought to them by the two parties. They don't, they can't interview industry officials. They're not hand holding hearings and and hammering out solutions. So, um, so yeah, that's the irony. Now we've got a settlement in that particular case, meta created rules that it says it's willing to live by. And their stock goes up that same day. So are those rules really enforcing things that are going to make meta the most responsible or as responsible as we want them to be? They're shareholders think it's not going to hurt them at all. Right. So, you know, again, where's Congress? Congress, this is where we're going to have to do this exercise. Um, if they would simply pass something that had well the consensus of the US Senate and for whatever reason the House just let it die. She's patty foster week and fix Congress. She's local a constitutional attorney.

14:29Um, and talking about a plan to well maybe get that approval writing a Congress up from 10% to maybe 15% to be a solid solid start. Simply because they don't really do anything. Her plan would essentially force them to vote on stuff and get stuff done. Well, maybe not get stuff done. At least take a vote. That's all we're asking for. So the first rule, as you mentioned, patty was the consideration bill. You just laid that up. The second rule, the second is a pretty easy plan. Let's the House vote to close debate early. Um, so what what's the explain that but what threshold are you proposing there and doesn't that reintroduce the same majority control problem you're trying to fix? Well, actually, I'm going to back up a little bit from that question. Okay. Because my my week and fix Congress is basically talking to two different groups. One is all of us. Everyone who votes and who is either disappointed, discouraged, whatever. We can understand this. It's not hard. I have the book I've written 146 pages quick read. And basically it will get your eye up and it will show you who is the right person to be mad at.

15:33And at this moment, the right person is Congress. So we can get to know this to the point that we stay during the campaign. Hey, you guy who wants my money and my vote. Who is telling me that you're going to fight for me. Well, I don't believe that. Tell me that you will support a different rule of package on day one. Yeah. Before you get my money or my vote. So we it's giving people agency to ask for that. And it's giving candidates. Like I said, the heroes journey. I mean, they're serving in this institution that has been broken like this for 30 years. This isn't new. And we're putting up with it and they're putting up with it. There's not a single person in Congress right now that ever governed under a different set of rules. They just adopt the rules basically from the previous term. That's been their habit for a long time. Well, I'm looking for the 20 representatives who will say, I'm not. I'm doing this job because I'm choosing to legislate. That is the job of a Congress person.

16:34And I'm not going to run for this job unless you, Mr. Ormys' potential speaker, give us a pathway where we, the candidates who were just elected and now said we're going to fight until we have a chance to actually do that. And that gets us to the consideration bill. The rules that would get us a fighter, a real fighter in Congress would basically say at some threshold to show that there's broad support for an idea, it defaults to this path where Congress debates it, Congress amendment and Congress votes on it. Because there is no default like that. And the defaults are important. The ordinary people do what the default is basically. You check yes as opposed to no on the survey almost every time. Right. So I'm giving these candidates a way to get these rules. And the rules themselves would be very simple. I'm talking, I mean, I wrote an illustrative rule package that's in the book. I'm not saying Congress has to adopt this verbatim.

17:36It's just an exercise to say, it's not that hard. Patty Foster and Cincinnati, Ohio can write four congressional rules that would mean that you can't just throw something in the trash. If it reaches this threshold, you guys got to at least talk about it. So the threshold, you ask the number. I have not given a number deliberately because, frankly, that's not my job. I need Congress and the rules committee to decide what is the right threshold. So as an example, I can describe what the threshold would have to accomplish. It would have to accomplish breadth, which means some significant number of people within Congress or the Senate or the fact that it's an appropriation bill means this up broad support. This is a real issue that a lot of people agree on this and it's time to talk about it. So what that broad support would be breadth, I'm proposing maybe like a third of the 435 people in the house would be sufficient to show that there is a broad number of people that want to be able to be in the house.

18:37So I'm throwing out there the number, let's say 131 would be co-sponsors that would find on to a bill to make it a, make it a consideration. So then there's another another important thing it has to be debt to because what you don't want is for this to become the new filibuster where 131 people in the minority can occupy all of the house's time basically hijacked the time with all these consideration bills. So that's a consideration bill of the minorities priority. That wouldn't be a representative. There's got to be a balance there. I guess you know bring this full circle patty patty foster of we can fix Congress. So the whole framework though depends, we talk about the Senate, but depends on the House of Representatives adopting voluntarily adopting part of its own rules package. The problem is we know is the people who benefit the most from the current choke points are the same leadership and senior chairs who have voted a week in their own power. So realistically what's the theory of change that gets in comments to hand away control.

19:40They have no incentive to give up. Why would they want to give up power? Well like you said it's the beginning 40 people are choosing not to run. Our representatives are pretty universally miserable and I've heard lots of them interviewed in lots of ways and they all come back to the same thing which is Congress is broken. We're not doing our job. I'm tired of the scheme where I am just a puppet standing in front of a camera campaigning two years to get in office the next time as compared to legislating and solving problems. That's what I said I was going to do. So they're the ones that vote on day one that January 3rd each one of those 435 people have exactly the same power as each other. And this is where the 20 comes from. If even 20 of those 435 universally held together on just this call to say to the incoming speaker, I promised my voters I was going to legislate when I got here and I can't do that under the current rules.

20:41I need a change in the rules that gives us a way to at least consider broadly supported legislation will you help me and they can withhold their vote for speaker based on that request. That time between the election and January 3rd is when all these rules get decided all the course trading goes on. People can ask for changes in the rule in order to support a speaker and the speaker is out there campaigning for this office of speaker at that point. So if 20 20 across party lines said to an incoming speaker that would include people within his party or her. And that compelling because they need every vote within their party we're so so evenly divided in the house and we have been for so long 20 is a majority. Yeah, and that's that's why you called the movement just 20 and again it is a patty foster she's from Cincinnati she's a former constitutional lawyer and it's come up with a plan to fix Congress and it takes just 20 members to do this again the website for more.

21:46And for more of the book to it's we can fix Congress dot com we can fix time Congress dot com and it's patty foster on the show this morning thanks again I appreciate it we'll talk again soon. Yes, ma'am have a great day. Scott Sloan back with more after news update and Julia's hits Julie on the job next we'll talk career laid itself just ahead on the big one. The entire draft room groans because you just took the guy they wanted there's no better feeling than crushing your fantasy football league. I'm JJ Zacharyson host of the award winning late round podcast before your draft are players to target and players to avoid episodes tell you exactly who to circle and who to cross off listen to the late round fantasy football podcast on the i heart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. Hey I'm like yeah I'm and I'm Trevor Sikama and together we host the NFL fantasy football show are you ready to dominate your fantasy league this season because if you aren't locked in with us on the NFL fantasy football show you're already playing from behind.

22:51Whether you're a first time player or a grizzled vet chasing another championship would give you the advantage and the confidence you need to make every move count. Listen to the NFL fantasy football show on the i heart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. The new NFL season is here and you should be listening to NFL daily as we march along to Super Bowl 61 it is in the name NFL daily you'll have fresh content in your feet every day all season long that game winning drive maybe it's her but maybe it's Gino maybe it's my homes we'll have the highlights if for Nando Mendoza or any of the rookies are ballin out will break down the tape join me. Greg Rosenthal and an all star cast of co host as we preview and recap every game listen to NFL daily on the i heart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Brett Coleman and I'm Trevor Sikama if you love football and want to understand what's really happening on the field check out our show NFL pro every week we break down the biggest plays trends and matchups using exclusive next gen stats insights and NFL content you will not find anywhere else.

23:56Whether you're new to football a fantasy football fan act or a die hard man NFL pro will help you analyze the game like a pro listen to NFL pro on the i heart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. College football will hijack your weekend ruin your sleep and break your heart and that's why we make the solid verbal college football show I'm Ty Hildenbrand. He's Dan Rubinstein every week we preview the games that matter in the story lines that are going to ignite your group chat and you can join us in the aftermath as we react to what happened why it matters and how the sport went completely bonkers yet again listen to the solid verbal college football show on the i heart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.