WASHINGTON – In October, four Minnesota men were indicted by federal prosecutors for their roles in a multi-million-dollar scheme to transport stolen catalytic converters across state lines.
Thefts of catalytic converters from motor vehicles have occurred from coast-to-coast. The emission-control devices in automobiles contain valuable metals — including platinum and rhodium — in their cores to reduce the toxic gas and pollutants from a vehicle’s engine. Since catalytic converters are not readily traceable, there is a lucrative market for these stolen parts.
The Minnesota catalytic converter ring hired street-level “cutters” who stole the converters from vehicles throughout the state. Ring members then sold them to out-of-state buyers for large sums of money.
Minnesota has taken a step towards combating these thefts with a grant program to etch vehicle identification numbers (VINs) on catalytic converters.
But because converters are sold across state lines, many believe a national approach is needed. So Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., introduced a bill in the Senate called the PART Act that would make it much harder to traffic in converters. Rep. Betty McCollum, D-4th District, co-sponsored a bill introduced by Indiana Republican Rep. James Baird in the House.
A casualty of dysfunction
Historically, a bill like the PART Act, which is bipartisan, noncontroversial and has, for Washington D.C. standards, a modest price tag of about $7 million, would be easily approved.
But not anymore. Congress continues its slide deeper into a world of dysfunction, with looming shutdown threats because of an inability to agree on a budget and failures to pass a five-year farm bill and reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration bill – which aims to improve safety in the air by modernizing airport systems and hiring and training more air traffic controllers.
The 118th Congress also can’t come to an agreement on aid to Ukraine and Israel, or on how to address a surge in immigrants seeking asylum in the United States.
About 400 bills were signed into law by President Joe Biden in the last Congress. In this Congress, which is about two-thirds through its session, only 39 bills have made it into law, making it one of the most, if not the most, unproductive Congress in history.
Even if a bill has popular support from both sides of the aisle, like the PART Act does, it is not likely to get attention from this Congress.
A loss of trust
The PART Act would require the National Traffic Highway Administration to revise its vehicle theft prevention standards so catalytic converters are inscribed with a VIN number in all new motor vehicles sold in the United States.
The bill would also establish a grant program so law enforcement entities could stamp VIN numbers on existing vehicles. The legislation would also impose new federal criminal penalties for those who steal catalytic converters.
The National Insurance Crime Bureau, which tracks the thefts, has estimated that catalytic converter thefts increased by 1,215% between 2019 and 2022. Stolen catalytic converters can bring anywhere from $20 to $350 on the black market, with the replacement cost to vehicle owners averaging more than $2,500.
That’s why the PART Act is supported by the National Automobile Dealers Association and organizations representing trucking outfits and rental car companies, all politically powerful groups that spend plenty of lobbying cash. And yet the bill could get no traction.
McCollum said the inability to even get a hearing on the PART Act, which is also supported by Rep. Angie Craig, D-2nd District, and has another 70 co-sponsors in the House, is an indication of the paralysis in Congress. She also said the dysfunction frustrates both Republican and Democratic lawmakers.
“It seems like everybody has a personal connection to a catalytic converter theft,” McCollum said. “Despite broad support from industry, law enforcement, and both sides of the aisle, the PART Act is not moving through regular order markups.”
Richard H. Pildes, a professor of constitutional law at New York University School of Law, said the condition Congress is in has been a long time coming.
“But now the parties have become much more polarized, which makes bipartisan legislation more difficult,” Pildes said.
In the Senate, partisanship and the filibuster — which means at least 60 votes are required to pass most bills in an evenly divided chamber — has upended legislation. The most recent example of this is the implosion of an immigration bill — negotiated by a Democratic, Republican and independent senator — that was rejected by GOP senators after former President Donald Trump told them to oppose it.
‘Free-agent politicians’
Pildes said there’s another reason nothing gets done in Congress.
“Social media and the internet have created more free-agent politicians, who are less focused on governance issues and more on performative politics, which draws attention and turns on the flow of small donations,” he said.
Like many House Democrats, McCollum blames the gridlock on the current House GOP leadership. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is struggling with a slim majority and can lose no more than two Republican votes to pass party line legislation.
And the most conservative members of the House Republican Conference — most of them Freedom Caucus members – are demanding hardline provisions in legislation that no Democrat could support.
So much of the House floor time is taken up by GOP “messaging” bills that have no chance of seeing the light of day in a Democratic-controlled Senate.
McCollum said the Republican majority “has put aside the serious work of legislating and governing to focus on partisan demands and political stunts.”
But Democrats, having moved to the left, are partly to blame for the polarization, too, with progressives in the party making their own demands that make it more difficult to find compromises.
A spokeswoman for Klobuchar said the senator is still optimistic she can get the PART Act through Congress.
“Despite the partisan divide, Sen. Klobuchar is working to pass the PART Act in this Congress, either as a stand-alone bill or as part of a larger crime package,” she said.
Pildes said that when Congress is paralyzed, there is greater pressure on the president to take unilateral actions to address major issues. He also said dysfunction in the Capitol can empower the courts, since Congress cannot effectively respond to court decisions that involve the interpretation of laws.
“More broadly, among citizens congressional failure to address major issues can lead to anger, withdrawal, loss of trust and faith in the political system,” Pildes said.
Ana Radelat
Ana Radelat is MinnPost’s Washington, D.C. correspondent. You can reach her at aradelat@minnpost.com or follow her on Twitter at @radelat.
