Floor procedures tightened in pandemic’s wake

July 8, 2020
Source: WilsonCenter.org. In his latest column on Congress, Don Wolfensberger writes: As urgent times call for urgent measures, the House Rules Committee last Wednesday pulled the… Read More

Podcast: Congress’s proxy wars

June 30, 2020
Listen here. The House of Representatives has resolved to allow members of Congress to vote by proxy. Some members of the House, led by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy… Read More

Three days a week

June 24, 2020
Senate Republicans consistently emphasized their performance confirming conservative judges in the months leading up to the 2018 midterm elections. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., pointed… Read More

Democrats support Trump’s judicial nominees

June 23, 2020
A recent Politico report examining “the Senate’s record-breaking gridlock” during Donald Trump’s presidency claims that Democratic “filibusters against the president’s nominees have hit historic highs.” The report claims… Read More

Republicans are responsible for confirmation process slowdown

June 22, 2020
A review of the Senate confirmation process in the 115th and 116th Congresses indicates that President Trump’s judicial nominees received more Democratic support than the standard view assumes. In short,… Read More

Filibusters and cloture

June 19, 2020
The standard account of Senate obstruction goes something like this: The Senate’s lax rules of procedure empower its increasingly polarized members to obstruct the majority party as it tries to… Read More

House bill passed with proxy votes becomes law

June 16, 2020
President Donald Trump signed the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act of 2020 (HR 7010) into law on June 5. Among its provisions, HR 7010 increases… Read More

A Plan for the People’s House Four Strategies to Reopen Congress and Restore America’s Voice

May 7, 2020
Benjamin Franklin once said, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” Recently, we called on Speaker Pelosi to establish a clear, safe, and effective plan for reopening… Read More

Podcast: Filibuster or filibusted?

April 2, 2020
Listen here. This week, Julia Azari, Lee Drutman, and James Wallner consider the filibuster. What purpose does it serve? Have its consequences gotten worse as the Senate has… Read More

Elizabeth Warren has the Senate’s gridlock problem all wrong

March 11, 2020
Elizabeth Warren wants to end gridlock in the Senate, and she believes eliminating the filibuster is the way to do it. In South Carolina’s presidential debate, Warren … Read More