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By Marian Currinder

Leadership

Lindsey McPherson, “Conservative Groups Rally Behind Potential Jim Jordan Speaker Bid,” Roll Call:

“House Freedom Caucus founder Jim Jordan may not be ready to announce a bid to be the next speaker, but several grass-roots conservative groups have begun campaigning on his behalf. “

Dave Weigel, “Pelosi says she’ll run for speaker, as more swing-district Democrats look for alternative,” Washington Post:

“House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi reiterated Tuesday that she will run for speaker of the House if her party wins a majority in the 2018 midterm elections, telling the Boston Globe that it’s “important that it not be five white guys at the table” in negotiations between Congress and the White House.”

David Hawkings, “Analysis: Missteps, Paul Ryan’s Had a Few,” Roll Call:

“He says there are still eight months left in his speakership, but it’s probably not too soon to come up with a roster of Paul D. Ryan’s biggest hits and misses during his tenure in charge of the House.”

Budget and Appropriations

Susan Ferrechio, “Senators dream of passing spending bills in regular order,” Washington Examiner:

“It’s been more than two decades since Congress was able to pass on time the dozen individual spending bills that fund the U.S. government. Senate lawmakers say they plan to end the stalemate this year by passing into law at least some of the appropriations legislation that has long stalled due to deep partisan differences on spending and policy issues.”

Susan Ferrechio, “The task of fixing Congress’s broken spending process starts next week,” Washington Examiner:

“The Joint Select Committee on Budget and Appropriations Process Reform will hear from witnesses about finding “Bipartisanship in Budgeting,” which has been largely missing from the House and Senate over the past two decades when it comes to passing the dozen spending bills that fund the federal government.”

Judd Gregg, “Fixing the unfixable — the federal budget,” The Hill:

“It is therefore not only proper, but also incumbent on the Congress, to come up with a better way of managing the federal cash register. This responsibility has been shirked for too long.”

Stan Collender, “Congress Is About To Make The Budget Debate Even Worse,” Forbes:

“Congress is seriously considering two big changes that will make the already terrible federal budget debate much worse for taxpayers and voters but far better for representatives and senators.”

Congress, Miscellaneous

Casey Burgat, “Term limits for congressional staff? 10 reasons it’s an awful idea,” Washington Examiner:

“Though Trump has been vocal in his support of term limits on members of Congress as part of his pitch to “Drain the Swamp,” the potential reform has never been extended to the thousands of congressional aides serving in district offices and on Capitol Hill. Until now.”

Amber Phillips, “Sorry Mr. President: Term limits for Congress are still not going to happen,” Washington Post:

“We didn’t hear much from him about the idea after he won. Until now, 15 months into his presidency. Trump tweeted Monday that he had met with a handful of members of Congress who want to term-limit themselves.”

Anna Giaritelli, “These are the most bipartisan House lawmakers,” Washington Examiner:

“Of the 438 members in the study, only 150 were deemed more likely to be bipartisan compared to 288 who were ranked less accommodating.”

David Hawkings, “Voters Reward a Do-Something Congress. Wrong, Recent Results Show,” Roll Call:

“But will it matter, at least politically? If the past two decades point to the answer, it is “apparently not.” The levels of legislative intensity and accomplishment during the meat of campaign season have ranged from modest to significant — and yet at least one chamber of Congress has changed partisan hands after each of the past four midterm elections.”

Russell Berman, “An Exodus From Congress Tests the Lure of Lobbying,” The Atlantic:

“As candidates, Republicans and Democrats alike win over voters with jeremiads against Washington, pledging to bring their hometown values to a capital city overrun by lobbyists and special interests. But once their terms are up, a surprising number of these same politicians don’t return home. They stick around town, joining law firms, think tanks, and lobbying shops.”

Amber Phillips, “Nine members of Congress have lost their jobs over sex in nine months,” Washington Post:

“Here’s a depressing fact: Nine members of Congress have lost their jobs over allegations of sexual impropriety or related workplace misconduct since October.”

Amelia Frapolli, “When Flowers Blossomed on the Congressional Floors and Why They Were Banned,” Roll Call:

“Eventually, neither chamber could escape Uncle Joe’s dislike of the practice. In 1905, he forbid even a single bud from crossing the threshold onto the House floor, and the Senate followed suit and adopted a resolution on Feb. 24 of the same year, stating that “until further order the Sergeant-at-Arms is instructed not to permit flowers to be brought into the Senate Chamber.””

Robin Opsahl, “What is a House Chaplain and What do They Do?” Roll Call:

“The chaplain is an officer of the House, a position that the full House votes on at the start of each Congress. There is no stated process for removing the chaplain, unlike other offices of the House, which have rules saying they can be removed by the full House or the speaker.”

 

 

 

 

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Marian Currinder
Marian Currinder is a permanent staffer of the U.S. House of Representatives' Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress as of December 2019. ...

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