ICYMI: Top reads on Congress

Kevin Kosar, “Congress’s tech policy knowledge gap,” Cato Unbound:

“The current Congress might benefit from an OTA that spends more time on the latter than the former. One can imagine a new OTA that is even more of a Wiki. The agency would keep a modest corps of scientists and technologists, but would network these staff to experts around the nation and world. Thus, when Congress was confronted with a breaking issue (like an intelligence agency claiming a rogue nation is weaponizing a new biotoxin), the OTA could activate its network of experts and provide legislators with research materials and briefings.”

Maggie Miller, “House panel advances bill to create cybersecurity standards for government IT devices,” The Hill:

“The House Oversight and Reform Committee approved bipartisan legislation on Wednesday that would establish baseline cybersecurity standards for government-purchased internet-connected devices.”

Jordain Carney, “Female senators hatch plan to ‘shame’ Senate into voting faster,” The Hill:

“The group, which has nicknamed itself the “efficiency caucus,” put the senators’ strategy into action during a six-vote series Wednesday. They called for votes to be limited to 10 minutes, remained seated in the chamber and called for “regular order” as votes dragged on.”

Sarah Ferris, Heather Caygle, “Dems to yank bill to raise congressional pay after backlash,” Politico:

“House Democratic leaders are postponing consideration of a bill that would include a pay raise for members of Congress after facing a major backlash from the party’s most vulnerable members.”

Dudley Poston, “What would happen to Congress if Washington, DC became the 51st state?,” The Conversation:

“But if the Democrats win the 2020 presidential election, along with the Senate, while maintaining control of the House, then statehood for the district could become a real possibility.”

Regina Barton, “Democrats want to evict the ‘Couch Caucus’,” Washington Examiner:

“Rep. Kathleen Rice has proposed an amendment to a bill set to fund the legislative branch that would stop lawmakers from sleeping in their offices.”

Geoff West, “Cameras as cash machines worrying Capitol Hill’s reformers,” The Fulcrum:

“Pulling the plug on each chamber’s six cameras or blacking out congressional hearings won’t happen. But members of the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress seem universally disgusted by the cameras’ impact, specifically how they’ve been weaponized for made-for-TV partisanship now feeding a divided country and 24-hour news cycle.”

Eliza Newlin Carney, “To Reassert Its Lost Power, Congress Must Join the 21st Century,” The American Prospect:

“But a little-noticed special committee toiling quietly out of the limelight might stand the best chance of helping Congress seize back some of the power it has ceded to the executive branch. The Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress, set up in January as part of a deal between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House moderates, is tackling an unglamorous but crucial question: How can Congress update its outmoded rules and infrastructure, and start to function again?”