There is an element of Sisyphus in Rep. Rob Bishop. The mythical Greek character, who endlessly pushed a rock up a hill only to see gravity push it back down each time, could appreciate Bishop’s persistence.
Bishop’s rock is the 10th Amendment, the last amendment in the Bill of Rights that spells out that the powers not delegated to the U.S. government “are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”
In simplest terms, Bishop wants the federal government generally and Congress specifically to stop trying to do too much. Let state and local governments take the lead on the social safety net, he says, and they’ll do it better and for less money.