The R Street Institute announced the launch of a new online tool in support of the House Select Committee’s ongoing work on the Modernization of Congress. Guide for a Modern Congress provides easy-to-search options for reforming and modernizing the “people’s branch,” sourced from the Select Committee’s recommendations. In the future, the site will be expanded to include additional ideas and suggestions from the Select Committee, other members of Congress and outside experts.
Jonathan Bydlak, director of R Street’s Governance Program, stated: Our First Branch of government shouldn’t be content with basement-level approval ratings, high staff turnover and legislative gridlock. There’s plenty of blame to go around for the abysmal conditions in Congress, but it often comes back to one fundamental problem: legislative branch resources—funding, technology, support systems, processes—have not kept pace with legislative responsibilities and the public’s expectations.
We hope Guide for a Modern Congress will be a useful tool for all those committed to restoring the building-blocks of governance and increasing civility. Solutions to congressional dysfunction are broken down into six categories: (1) technology and transparency; (2) congressional capacity; (3) Article One and budget reform; (4) internal operations; (5) civility and bipartisanship; and (6) smarter constituent service. The full list can be found here.
