by jpitney | Sep 20, 2020 | Congress, Deliberation, House of Representatives
New report from New America: Congressional Brain Drain Legislative Capacity in the 21st Century By: Alexander C. Furnas, Timothy M. LaPira Executive Summary This research report comprehensively investigates congressional capacity and governance using publicly...
by jpitney | Sep 11, 2020 | Congress, Deliberation, Madison
Yuval Levin at National Review: Most often, proposals for reform are what we might call (following the political scientist Daniel Stid) Wilsonian rather than Madisonian: Implicitly following the advice of Woodrow Wilson, they aim to remake Congress along the model of...
by jpitney | Sep 8, 2020 | Congress, Oversight, Presidency, Separation of Powers
Molly E. Reynolds at Lawfare: Often, proposals to increase Congress’s capacity to oversee the executive branch fall victim to partisanship, with members of the president’s party being reluctant to support reforms that limit his power. Importantly, however, several of...
by jpitney | Sep 5, 2020 | Civility, Congress, House of Representatives
Edie Ritter at The Morning Call: In 1978, when my then-husband Don Ritter was first elected to the House of Representatives from the Pennsylvania 15 Congressional seat, the Washington political scene was different than it is now. At that time, members of both parties...
by jpitney | Sep 2, 2020 | Congress, Constitution, Presidency, Separation of Powers
Mort Halperin and Soren Dayton at The Washington Post: Consider one proposal for limiting the president’s national emergency powers: Sen. Mike Lee’s Article One Act. Under this, a presidentially declared national emergency would expire after 30 days — unless Congress...
