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Molly E. Reynolds

Senior Fellow, Governance Studies, Brookings Institution

Molly Reynolds is a senior fellow in Governance Studies at Brookings. She studies Congress, with an emphasis on how congressional rules and procedure affect domestic policy outcomes.

She is the author of the book, “Exceptions to the Rule: The Politics of Filibuster Limitations in the U.S. Senate,” which explores creation, use, and consequences of the budget reconciliation process and other procedures that prevent filibusters in the U.S. Senate. Current research projects include work on oversight in the House of Representatives, congressional reform, and the congressional budget process. She also supervises the maintenance of “Vital Statistics on Congress,” Brookings’s long-running resource on the first branch of government.

Reynolds received her Ph.D. in political science and public policy from the University of Michigan and her A.B. in government from Smith College, and previously served as a senior research coordinator in the Governance Studies program at Brookings. In addition, she has served as an instructor at George Mason University.

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New report: Does the executive branch control the power of the purse?

October 30, 2020
Molly Reynolds and Philip Wallach have a new report out over at the American Enterprise Institute about the tug-of-war over the power of the purse between Congress… Read More
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ICYMI: Members of Congress have lost control over spending

September 30, 2020
(This piece originally appeared in the Washington Post.) The Constitution affords Congress the “power of the purse”: “No money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in Consequence of Appropriations… Read More
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How Congress could get some of its power back

September 8, 2020
Dr. Molly E. Reynolds, Brookings Institution One lesson from Congress’s experience with the Trump administration is that the informational imbalance between Congress and the executive branch means that a president… Read More