by jpitney | Apr 10, 2020 | Congress, Coronavirus, Technology
From the House Rules Committee: The constitutionality of remote voting is an untested principle. As a threshold question, this uncertainty should give the House pause from transitioning wholesale to any remote voting or “virtual presence” scheme of conducting...
by jpitney | Mar 20, 2020 | Congress, Coronavirus, Senate, Technology
A March 19 news release from Senator Rob Portman: Today, U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) introduced a bipartisan resolution to amend the Standing Rules of the Senate to allow senators to vote remotely during a national crisis. During certain...
by jpitney | Mar 16, 2020 | Congress, House of Representatives, Technology
At LegBranch.org, Joshua Huder acknowledges that the House might have to use remote voting in emergencies, but argues that it should not become routine. Most proposals would limit remote voting to “noncontroversial” measures–basically, bills considered under...
by jpitney | Mar 1, 2020 | House of Representatives, Technology
Claire Abernathy, Kevin Esterling, and Marci Harris at LegBranch.org: As a complex, distributed system of 441 individual offices, 20 committees, two party leadership offices, and a dozen or so administrative and research support agencies, House technology has,...
by jpitney | Jan 8, 2020 | Bureaucracy, Technology, Uncategorized
Garrett Johnson and M. Anthony Mills at LegBranch.org: The Government Accountability Office (GAO) serves as Congress’s watchdog and plays a critical role in holding the federal government accountable to the American people. In November, the comptroller general issued...
by jpitney | Dec 18, 2019 | Congress, Deliberation, Technology, Uncategorized
M. Anthony Mills at LegBranch.org: Political momentum is building to revive the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), a congressional agency that once provided lawmakers with nonpartisan technical expertise. Presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Andrew Yang...
