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News items, blog posts, and opinion (most recent first)

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  • Kate Ackley, “Modernization panel calls for staffer HR hub, mandatory cybersecurity training,” Roll Call. July 26, 2019.
  • Jory Heckman, “House Modernization Committee recommends bringing back Office of Technology Assessment,” Federal News Network. July 26, 2019.
  • Kate Ackley, Thomas McKinless, Jinitzail Hernandez, “The mountains between Congress and modernization,” Roll Call. July 12, 2019.
  • “Committee Chat: Q&A with the Modernization Committee,” Bipartisan Policy Center of Action. July 11, 2019.
  • Kate Ackley, “House modernization leaders hit halfway mark with little to show,” Roll Call. July 10, 2019.
  • Tom Temin, “Interview: Lawmakers discuss challenges awaiting House committee to modernize Congress,” Federal Drive with Tom Temin, Federal News Network. June 28, 2019.
  • Richard Skinner, “Technology and transparency: the path to a modern Congress?” Vox. June 26, 2019.
  • Lindsey McPherson, “Congressional Compensation: Isn’t there a select committee for that?” Roll Call. June 24, 2019.
  • Rep. Derek Kilmer, Rep. Tom Graves, “The bipartisan effort to reform Congress,” CNN. June 21, 2019.
  • Lee Drutman, Kevin R. Kosar, “Why members of Congress should get a raise, whether they deserve it or not,” The Fulcrum. June 18, 2019.
  • Zach Graves, Kevin R. Kosar, “What to shrink government? Invest in making Congress smarter,” Real Clear Policy. June 13, 2019.
  • Eliza Newlin Carney, “To Reassert Its Lost Power, Congress Must Join the 21st Century,” The American Prospect. June 13, 2019.
  • “Improving Constituent Engagement: Three takeaways from the Modernization Committee’s fifth hearing,” Congress That Works. June 10, 2019.
  • Ashley Killough, “House Democrats delay bill that gives lawmakers a salary increase,” CNN. June 10, 2019.
  • Sarah Ferris, Heather Caygle, “Dems to yank bill to raise congressional pay after backlash,” Politico. June 10, 2019.
  • Kevin Kosar, “Congress’s tech policy knowledge gap,” Cato Unbound. June 10, 2019.
  • Geoff West, “Cameras as cash machines worrying Capitol Hill’s reformers,” The Fulcrum. June 7, 2019.
  • Cristina Marcos, “Lawmakers push to block pay raises for members of Congress,” The Hill. June 7, 2019.
  • “CMF supports COLA for Congress,” Congressional Management Foundation. June 7, 2019.
  • Cristina Marcos, “Swing-state Democrats see trouble in proposed pay hike,” The Hill. June 6, 2019.
  • ICYMI: “Improving Constituent Engagement”; Full video of Select Committee Hearing. C-SPAN. June 5, 2019.
  • Caitlin Emma, “House Democrats propose $4,500 pay raise for Congress,” Politico. June 4, 2019.
  • Yuval Levin, “What if Congress were in charge, not Trump?,” The New York Times. June 4, 2019.
  • Jessie Opoien, “Fixing Congress might be a pipe dream, but better scheduling would at least be a start,” The Cap Times. June 3, 2019.
  • Eric White, “First look at new ideas to modernize Congress,” Federal News Network. May 28, 2019.
  • Paul Kane, “Against the odds, select committee aims to push Congress into the 21st century,” Washington Post. May 25, 2019.
  • Alex Gangitano, “Congressional panel calls for lobbying disclosure reforms,” The Hill. May 23, 2019.
  • Tajha Chappellet-Lanier, “Transparency is focus of first recommendations from panel on modernizing Congress,” FedScoop. May 23, 2019.
  • Matt Yglesias, “Pay Congress more,” Vox. May 10, 2019.
  • Chase Gunter, “Transparency through technology,” FCW. May 9, 2019.
  • Andrew Taylor, “Some House members considering taking a pay raise this year,” AP. May 9, 2019.
  • David Thornton, “To modernize Congress, start with staffer pay and technology, retired lawmakers say,” Federal News Network. May 3, 2019.
  • Tajha Chappellet-Lanier, “Former Congress members throw support behind Office of Technology Assessment revival,” FedScoop. May 2, 2019.
  • Kate Ackley, “Lobbyists to Congress: Pay staffers better,” Roll Call. May 2, 2019.
  • Jory Heckman, “OTA gets $6M in startup funding under draft spending bill,” Federal News Network. May 1, 2019.
  • Cristina Marcos, “Former lawmakers urge Congress to consider pay raises,” The Hill. May 1, 2019.
  • Katherine Tully-McManus, “Legislative Branch spending bill opens door for employing Dreamers on Capitol Hill,” Roll Call. April 30, 2019.
  • Katherine Tully-McManus, “$15 an hour ‘living wage’ for interns in district offices and Capitol Hill introduced in House,” Roll Call. April 30, 2019.
  • Brett Bernhardt, “There’s More To Keeping Talent On The Hill Than Pay,” Hillfaith Blog. April 17, 2019.
  • Cristina Marcos, “Watchdog: Custodial staff alleged sexual harassment in lawmakers’ offices,” The Hill. April 12, 2019.
  • Grace Gedye, “How Congress Got Dumb on Tech—and How It Can Get Smart,” Washington Monthly. April 8, 2019.
  • Jory Heckman, “Freshman congressman: Axing Office of Tech Assessment made us ‘dumber as a nation’” Federal News Network. April 5, 2019.
  • Katherine Tully-McManus, “House members call for Office of Technology Assessment revival,” Roll Call. April 2, 2019.
  • Jory Heckman, “Congress ‘lacks sufficient capacity’ to oversee tech issues, but is Office of Tech Assessment the solution?” Federal News Network. March 29, 2019.
  • Mark Tapscott, “Democrat Urges Congress to Pay Staff Better,” The Epoch Times. March 28, 2019.
  • CNN, “App tells you when US House of Representatives is voting,” WTOP. March 28, 2019.
  • Katherine Tully-McManus, “Should Congress spend more on itself to avoid deterioration?” Roll Call. March 26, 2019.
  • Susan Davis, “Pay Raises, More Staff, Earmarks: Lawmakers Propose Ways To Overhaul Congress,” NPR. March 21, 2019.
  • Meredith McGehee, “House leaders need to modernize Congress for the sake of America,” The Hill. March 20, 2019.
  • Molly Redden, “Women Hold Just As Many Congressional Committee Jobs As Men But Are Paid Less,” Huffington Post. March 20, 2019.
  • Susan Ferrechio, “House ‘modernization’?: Pay raises and earmarks,” Washington Examiner. March 19, 2019.
  • Lee Drutman, “How to fix Congress — according to Congress,” Vox. March 18,  2019.
  • Mark Tapscott, “House To Modernize But More Transparency Not on the Agenda,” Epoch Times. March 18, 2019.
  • Cristina Marcos, “Lawmakers contemplate a tough political sell: Raising their pay,” The Hill. March 16, 2019.
  • Catie Edmonson, “In Most Diverse House, Aides of Color Join the Ranks of ‘Firsts’,” New York Times. March 15, 2019.
  • Kate Ackley, “‘Dead billionaires’ and a tech Peace Corps? Lawmakers float ideas to fix Congress,” Roll Call. March 12, 2019.
  • Jessie Bur, “Looking inward: Congress’s effort to improve itself,” Federal Times. March 7, 2019.
  • Jory Heckman, “Momentum builds for Congress restoring Office of Technology Assessment,” Federal News Network. February 28, 2019.
  • Aaron Boyd, “Former Staffers: Revive Congess’ Office of Technology Assessment Right or Don’t Bother,” Nextgov. February 28, 2019.
  • Gabe Stutman, “Congressman Kilmer talks climate change, Congress, government spending,” Bainbridge Island Review. February 26, 2019.
  • Katherine Scott, “Kilmer Brings Nerdy Consulting Tools to Task of Fixing House,” Bloomberg. February 20, 2019.
  • Kate Ackley, “Outside influences seek to remake ‘This Old House’” Roll Call. February 19, 2019.
  • Steff Thomas, “Kilmer: It’s ‘well past due’ for Congress to modernize,” Federal News Network. February 15, 2019.
  • Jason Miller, “Congress establishes new committee to modernize itself,” Federal News Network. February 15, 2019.
  • Lee Drutman, “Can Congress fix itself?” Vox. February 14, 2019.
  • Katherine Gypson, “Changes Coming for US Lawmakers Who Call Capitol Home,” VOA. February 8, 2019.
  • Federal News Network, “Some ways to modernize Congress’ own IT resources,” Federal News Network. February 6, 2019.
  • Kristina Peterson and Andrew Duehren, “Lawmakers Vow to Modernize Congress, One Modem at a Time,” Wall Street Journal. February 3, 2019.
  • Bruce Patton, “Where hope for Congress lies,” The Hill. January 31, 2019.
  • Eliza Newlin Carney, “House Democrats Want to Reorganize Congress. They Shouldn’t Stop Halfway.” The American Prospect. January 31, 2019.
  • MeriTalk, “House Modernization Panel Gains Momentum, Industry Weighs in With Advice,” MeriTalk. January 31, 2019.
  • Mark Strand and Tim Lang, “Here’s Some Reform Ideas To Prevent Government Shutdowns. You Won’t Believe What Happens Next (Spoiler: Effective Legislating by Congress),” Congressional Institute. January 30, 2019.
  • Casey Burgat and Kevin Kosar, “OK, so the House wants to reform itself? Here’s what it should really do.” Politico. January 29, 2019.
  • Nancy Pelosi (press release), “Pelosi names members of the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress.” January 29, 2019.
  • Louis Lauter and Colin McElhinny, “Time for Congress to take more leadership in our foreign affairs,” The Hill. January 29, 2019.
  • Zach Wamp and Tim Roemer, “Now is the moment for meaningful, bipartisan change in Congress,” Knoxville News. January 28, 2019.
  • Josh Huder, “Democrats want to modernize the House. Good luck with that,” Washington Post. January 18, 2019.
  • Paul Blumenthal, “Congress Might Actually Do Something To Stop Itself From Sucking So Much,” Huffington Post. January 17, 2019.
  • Jeffrey H. Birnbaum and Nick Schaper, “Debugging digital democracy in Congress,” Washington Times. January 14, 2019.
  • Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., “Why is Congress so dumb?” Washington Post. January 11, 2019.
  • National Journal, “Wednesday Q+A with Rep. Derek Kilmer,” National Journal. January 9, 2019.
  • Richard Skinner, “Congress finally stands up for itself,” Vox. January 7, 2019.
  • Tajha Chappellet-Lanier, “There’s a new select committee for modernizing Congress. What does it mean for legislative IT?” FedScoop. January 7, 2019.
  • John Haskell, “Congressional reform without the ideology,” LegBranch. January 7, 2019.
  • Press release, “Kilmer named chair of Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress,” Rep. Derek Kilmer’s office. January 4, 2019.
  • Lindsey McPherson, “First big bipartisan vote establishes House select committee on modernizing Congress,” Roll Call. January 4, 2019.
  • Don Wolfensberger, “Democrats’ rules package stiffs House Republicans and Senate,” The Hill. January 3, 2019.
  • Casey Burgat, “House Democrats revealed their rules package. Here are the biggies.” LegBranch. January 2, 2019.
  • Derek Willis, “Will Pelosi open the floor to bipartisan ideas?” New York Times. January 2, 2019.
  • Ella Nilsen, “House Democrats are making changes to decentralize power,” Vox. January 2, 2019.
  • Tim Roemer, “Freshman lawmakers should use the rules package vote to make Congress more transparent, accountable,” The Hill. December 19, 2018.
  • Don Wolfensberger and Tom Spulak, “Getting back to governing,” The Hill. December 3, 2018.
  • Casey Burgat and Joshua Huder, “Examining the Problem Solvers Caucus proposed rules changes,” LegBranch. November 27, 2018.
  • LegBranch, “House “Dear Colleague” letter soliciting support for bipartisan rules reforms in the 116th Congress,” LegBranch. October 22, 2018.
  • Casey Burgat, “The House asked members for their ideas to make Congress work better. This is what they suggested,” LegBranch. September 24, 2018.
  • Press release, “New Democrat Coalition urges rules changes to restore our democracy,” New Democrat Coalition. September 13, 2018.
  • Lindsey McPherson, “Good government groups urge ‘systematic reform’ of House rules,” Roll Call. September 12, 2018.
  • Kevin Kosar, “Video: History of congressional staffing,” LegBranch. September 5, 2018.
  • Mike Lillis, “Dems vow rules overhaul to empower members if House flips,” The Hill. September 1, 2018.
  • Kevin Kosar, “Congressional reform is way overdue,” LegBranch. August 2, 2018.
  • Jonathan Bernstein, “There’s a right way to overhaul Congress,” Bloomberg. June 19, 2018.
  • Carl Hulse, “Can the House speakership be saved? These lawmakers have an idea,” New York Times. June 16, 2018.
  • Zach Graves, “Technology assessment: Can the GAO fulfill the OTA’s mission?” LegBranch. April 20, 2018.
  • James Curry and Frances Lee, “What is “regular order” worth?” LegBranch. April 4, 2018.
  • Marian Currinder, “Rep. Darin LaHood on congressional dysfunction and the prospects for reform,” LegBranch. March 1, 2018.
  • Derek Kilmer, “How to stop government shutdowns,” Time. January 24, 2018.
  • Lee Drutman and Steven Teles, “Why Congress relies on lobbyists instead of thinking for itself,” The Atlantic. March 10, 2015.

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  • Oversight
  • Parties, Campaigns, & Elections
  • Reform Efforts
  • Representation & Leadership
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