Their ideas ranged from a major rethinking of how the body works to symbolic changes that could be implemented next month if anyone had the willpower.
Eliminate partisan gerrymandering for House districts. Reshape campaign laws to give candidates almost full power over their own races. Make even modest tweaks to the legislative calendar to produce more days for committee work, and spread those meetings out so everyone can attend.
In one of the simplest yet more radical ideas of all: eliminate partisan seating in the Senate so that there is no more left-wing or right-wing construct. These were just some of the ideas circulated among more than a dozen former members of the House and Senate who convened Thursday for a day-long session by the University of Pennsylvania’s Biden Center for Diplomacy & Global Engagement.
Seven Republicans and six Democrats spent hours brainstorming both the causes of — and how to fix — what all agreed has been an atrophying institution critical to national discourse. The most optimistic portions of the day came as the ex-lawmakers discussed how some minor changes that require no political risk could start to create better incentives for a more productive legislature.