Blog Posts (page 2)

During the “Textbook Congress” era from roughly the late-1940s to the early-1970s, seniority was tremendously valuable to members of Congress, particularly in the House.  Since World War II, data demonstrate… Read More

To:             The Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress From:       Josh Chafetz, Cornell Law School Reform:   Shutdowns and their discontents Almost no… Read More

Republicans in the Senate finally acted to change the rules to speed up the confirmation process for some presidential nominations. They used the nuclear option to shorten the amount of… Read More

Niels Lesniewski, “‘Nuclear’ fallout in Senate might take some time to register,” Roll Call: “The Senate’s Geiger counters hardly registered Wednesday afternoon after the most recent deployments of the “nuclear option”… Read More

Follow the money. The  cliche is typically employed  by investigators looking to break a case. But the saying applies to Congress, as well. In order… Read More

To:             The Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress From:       Tracy Sulkin, Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Reform:   Congressional capacity and… Read More

Written testimony of Casey Burgat Senior Governance Fellow, R Street Institute Before the House of Representatives Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee… Read More

Written testimony of Kevin R. Kosar Vice President of Policy, R Street Institute Before the House of Representatives Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee April 2, 2019 Thank you, Chairman Ryan, Ranking… Read More

Frustrated by how long it takes to confirm President Trump’s nominees, Republicans are accusing Democrats of dragging out unnecessarily the time permitted under the rules after the Senate has invoked… Read More

In 2017, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., pledged not to abolish the legislative filibuster. He did so to persuade his fellow Republicans to back his plan to use… Read More