by jpitney | May 18, 2020 | Congress, Coronavirus, Deliberation, Technology
Daniel Schuman and Amelia Strauss at First Branch Forecast: Congress is beginning to innovate around how it deliberates in committees and on the floor. These changes are driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has made in-person meetings unsafe and unwise,...
by jpitney | May 16, 2020 | Congress, Coronavirus, House of Representatives
Katherine Tully-McManus at Roll Call: The coronavirus pandemic has prompted the House to allow lawmakers to vote by proxy, without physical presence at the Capitol. The significant, yet temporary, change to operations was not enacted during any other national crisis...
by jpitney | May 13, 2020 | Congress, Coronavirus
The Bipartisan Policy Institute and other organizations across the spectrum have an open letter to congressional leadership: We write to express our deep concern over the lack of a clear and transparent plan for maintaining congressional operations during the COVID-19...
by jpitney | May 9, 2020 | Congress, Technology
Zach Graves at LegBranch.org writes on a new CRS report about the Office of Technology Assessment: The report looks at the pros and cons of five different approaches Congress could take: Reestablish OTA Without Changes to Its Statute Reestablish OTA with Changes to...
by jpitney | May 2, 2020 | Congress, Senate
Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) , Dick Durbin (D-IL) and security expert Jason Matheny at the New York Times: An essential part of the Senate’s constitutional function, no matter the circumstances, is for senators to cast votes on legislation. We propose allowing remote...
by jpitney | Apr 29, 2020 | Congress, Coronavirus, Oversight
Yuval Levin and Yuval Levin and Adam J. White at National Review: [L]egislators should be prepared to take smaller steps by both authorizing and appropriating emergency government actions as required. Rather than assume that the president has the power he needs to...
