Topic: Legislative Procedure (page 7)

Last year, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced shortly before the Senate adjourned for the holidays that he and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY., agreed that the… Read More

Niccolò Machiavelli was one of the principal architects of American constitutionalism. A heterodox thinker in his day, Machiavelli observed in his Discourses on Livy (1531): “Those who blame the quarrels of the Senate… Read More

Last September, one of us (Spulak) co-authored an op-ed with George Crawford, another former Democratic staff director of the House Rules Committee, suggesting a simple, one-step way “to fix” Congress:… Read More

In teaching introductory legislative procedure, the House Rules Committee is justifiably given a fair amount of attention given its outsized role in determining policy consideration for the… Read More

KEY POINTS 1) Today’s majority leaders exercise unprecedented control over the Senate floor. 2) They do so to prevent their colleagues from offering amendments without their prior approval. 3) Leaders… Read More

The Senate has spent much of its time in the 115th Congress confirming President Trump’s judicial nominations. Before the midterm elections, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., touted… Read More

(Editor’s note: This piece originally appeared in Legislative Procedure on October 29, 2018.) Senators often blame their leaders whenever they are frustrated with how the Senate works. Yet they… Read More

(Editor’s note: This post originally appeared in Legislative Procedure on October 22, 2018.) In the Senate today, the legislative process is centralized under the control of the party leaders… Read More

For almost a decade, House Republicans from the Tea Party, Liberty, and Freedom Caucuses—to whom we give the collective label “New Conservatives”—have repeatedly and publicly clashed with House Republican… Read More

In the months leading up to the 2018 midterm elections, media outlets and academics have devoted considerable attention to the potential for Democratic gains in the U.S. House of Representatives. Read More