Should the Budget Resolution Be Signed by the President?
George Mason University’s James C. Capretta suggests a joint budget resolution signed by the president would produce a more collaborative budget process. He writes: The current budget process does… Read More
House Votes Against Reducing Ethics Committee Funding
On Friday, June 10, the House rejected an amendment to reduce its spending on its Office of Congressional Ethics…. (Read more at Medium.com) Two Congressional Research Service reports… Read More
Register for the June 20 Meeting on Congressional Staffing
House Committee staff levels. Source: Lee Drutman and Steven Teles. We’ll meet in the Capital Visitors Center to discuss congressional staff. We chose this topic based upon your responses to… Read More
House Spending Data Shows Where the Staff Are
As DemandProgress’ Daniel Schuman reports, the House just began publishing its spending reports online as data. The House’s “Statements of Disbursement,” which show who how much money… Read More
Survey Results: Congress Is Not Well Equipped to Do Its Job
We received 45 responses to our survey on legislative branch capacity. The figures below display the aggregate responses, which came from Hill staff and close watchers of Congress. Figure… Read More
Save the Date: Meeting On June 20 at 12pm
Please hold the date for the next meeting of the Legislative Branch Capacity Working Group. We will meet on Monday, June 20 from 12 to 1:30pm in the Capitol… Read More
Academic Panel On Congressional Capacity
Lee Drutman and Kevin Kosar, the co-directors of the Legislative Branch Capacity Working Group, will be on a panel titled “Assessing Congress’ Capacity to Solve Problems.” This will occur… Read More
Spending on Congressional Staff Is Less Than Lobbying Expenditures
“The entire House and Senate combined now spend less on staff ($2 billion a year) than corporations spend on reported lobbying ($2.6 billion a year). But since that reported… Read More
Senate Does Not Raise Staff Salaries
Senate appropriators did not follow the House’s lead and increase funding for personal staff…(Read more at RollCall.com) Meanwhile, a recent report by the Congressional Research Service shows… Read More
The Legislative Branch’s Big Oversight Problem
The federal government has seen a century of growth. In 1915, the government had only a handful of departments, 400,000 employees (half of whom worked for the U.S. Postal… Read More