ICYMI: Top reads on Congress

Senate

Matt Glassman, “The SCOTUS Nomination, Senate Procedure, and Democratic Strategy,” Notice & Comment:

“With the announcement of Justice Kennedy’s retirement yesterday, many liberals have called on Senate Democrats to take action to block the Senate from confirming a new nominee to the Court. Here are six thoughts on the matter, from a Senate procedure point-of-view.”

John Berlau, “Judge protects us from ‘protection’ bureau,” Washington Examiner:

“As the Senate prepares for what should be a contentious confirmation hearing for President Trump’s nominee to head the powerful Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, a federal judge in New York just rules that the BCFP’s unchecked power violates the Constitution… Congress and the courts must protect Americans from the unchecked “protection” of government entities.”

House

Joshua Huder, “The Discharge Petition Doesn’t Have to be Dead,” Legislative Procedure:

“The immigration discharge petition died last week. Essentially, leaders killed the discharge  effort by pulling the underlying bill (H.R. 4760) to the floor. That meant that even though the discharge resolution is still pending at the clerk’s desk (H.Res.774), the resolution is effectively moot because the bill it would have discharged had already been voted on and the motion to reconsider was laid on the table. So that was that. But it actually wasn’t. There are at least a couple ways to get around it.”

Alexander Stern, “Can New Rules Fix a Broken House?,” Real Clear Policy:

“The Problems Solvers are a group of 48 congress members, equally balanced between Republicans and Democrats, pledging to fix a broken and polarized House. Their lunch was part of No Labels’ “Speaker Project,” a campaign to leverage the upcoming 2019 election of the Speaker of the House to pass needed rules changes.”

Stephanie Murray, “House Dem in ‘breach of decorum’ for playing audio of migrant kids crying,” Politico:

“Rep. Ted Lieu clashed with Republicans on Friday for playing an audio clip on the House floor of migrant children crying at a detention center.”

Congress, Miscellaneous

 Tom Daschle, “Opinion: 3 Ways to Defeat Dysfunction on the Hill,” Roll Call:

“More than anything, we believe it is critical the joint committee advance some reforms, even if they do not address every issue. The American public needs to see that members share their frustration with the current dysfunction, and that Congress is capable of reforming itself.”

Representative Ralph Norman, “Ensuring greater transparency in the travel of heads of federal agencies, Cabinet secretaries,” The Hill:

“Currently, members of Congress are not prohibited from flying lavishly and first-class, and there are no disincentives or laws preventing member of Congress, Cabinet secretaries or heads of agencies form doing so.”

Greg Weiner, “Congress Doesn’t Seem to Know Its Own Strength,” The New York Times:

“When the history of the cruel policy of family separation is written, constitutional theorists will record that more than 2,300 children were taken from their parents at the border because the legislative branch lost its appetite for legislating. This is what Congress, the first branch of government and the center of the constitutional regime, has become: an institutional supplicant that urges the other branches of government to do what it could do itself.”

Daniel Schuman, “Appropriators to strengthen access to Inspectors General reports,” Demand Progress:

“This appropriation, which is made to the GSA Inspector General but is directed towards CIGIE, is the first time there is a direct appropriation for CIGIE’s work…While an impressive first step, the Oversight.gov website can be significantly improved, and this will provide the funds to do that.”