by jpitney | Mar 17, 2021 | Congress, Deliberation, House of Representatives
Don Wolfensberger at The Hill: When the proxy voting rule was renewed at the beginning of the current Congress, members have been reminded that reasons for absences must be limited to circumstances surrounding the pandemic (but then, what isn’t nowadays). However,...
by jpitney | Mar 12, 2021 | Civility, Deliberation, Polarization
Sarah Polus at The Hill: Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) is urging members of his own party to focus on more than culture wars with Democrats. “There’s more to being a conservative than just owning the libs,” Cox said during an interview on the “Matt Lewis...
by jpitney | Feb 26, 2021 | Civility, Congress, Deliberation, House of Representatives
Jonathan Bydlak at R Street: Dear Majority Leader Schumer, Minority Leader McConnell, Chairwoman Klobuchar, and Ranking Member Blunt: The COVID-19 pandemic, growing economic hardship for many American families, a national reckoning over racial injustice, and the...
by jpitney | Feb 21, 2021 | Congress, Constitution, Deliberation, House of Representatives, Senate
Yuval Levin at National Review: If the problem to be solved is that cross-partisan agreement is necessary for Congress to legislate but such agreement is very rare now, then there are broadly two sorts of possible paths toward reform: You could look for ways to make...
by jpitney | Feb 1, 2021 | Biden, Civic Education, civic virtue, Civility, Deliberation, Democracy, Polarization
A release from the University of Virginia Center for Politics Responding to President Joe Biden’s inaugural request to end the “uncivil war” in America, the University of Virginia Center for Politics is launching a yearlong national Civility Project in an effort to...
by jpitney | Dec 21, 2020 | Congress, Coronavirus, Deliberation, Economic Policy
First Branch Forecast: You gotta be kidding. We prep this newsletter during the week and finalize it over the weekend. Alas, there’s no way we could possibly evaluate what is in the appropriations + COVID bill(s) for you — and there’s no way most Members of Congress...
