Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Proposed changes to House rules could boost constituent services

U.S. Capitol, House rules
Samuel Corum/Getty Images

As lawmakers begin laying the groundwork for management of the House of Representatives under Republican control, a pair of left- and right-leaning advocacy groups issued a set of recommendations for improving transparency, efficiency and power-sharing when Congress convenes in January.

The House Rules Committee will convene Tuesday afternoon to consider potential changes to chamber management, and Demand Progress and the Lincoln Network hope the panel will consider their suggestions.

The recommendations, in some cases, echo the work of the Select Committee on the Modernization of the Congress, which recently issued its final report before being disbanded.


“There’s too much concentrated power in congressional leadership, which distorts the legislative process and stifles collaboration by members who share common interests,” said Daniel Schuman, policy director at the liberal-leaning Demand Progress. “These common-sense recommendations restore balance in the House so that all members can meaningfully engage in policymaking.”

While most of the recommendations might be considered “inside baseball,” they could have a significant impact on how lawmakers serve their constituents.

For example:

  • Creating a subpanel of the House Administration Committee to continue modernization efforts would establish a pathway for developing better ways to manage constituent requests through improved technology and staffing.
  • Changing the House calendar to create a more regular schedule for district work and make travel more efficient.
  • Establishing a chief data officer for the House would increase transparency of the legislative process.

The more than 50 recommendations cover a range of areas, including transparency and accountability, internal operations, oversight, security, staffing, and ethics.

“The Rules the House enacts will shape how Congress will function and who will have power,” said Lincoln Network Executive Director Zach Graves, whose center-right organization works to incorporate technology into governing. “It’s important to democratize the House so more rank-and-file members have a say in the legislation that gets considered and so that committees don’t have their roles usurped by leadership. All members are elected to Congress and each one has a duty and obligation to represent their constituents.”

The House Rules Committee is meeting Tuesday afternoon to consider rules changes proposed by individual members of Congress.

Over the past four years the Modernization Committee, as the select panel is commonly known, issued more than 200, 42 of which have been fully implemented, according to the committee’s own tracking. Another 88 have been partially implemented.

“I feel that we have made a huge impact in healing this institution and I know that our work is not done,” Vice Chair William Timmons said at the committee’s final meeting on Nov. 17. “But I think the work that we have done thus far is going to pay dividends for years to come.”

Read the full set of recommendations from Demand Progress and the Lincoln Network.

Read More

Yes, They Are Trying To Kill Us
Provided

Yes, They Are Trying To Kill Us

In the rush to “dismantle the administrative state,” some insist that freeing people from “burdensome bureaucracy” will unleash thriving. Will it? Let’s look together.

A century ago, bureaucracy was minimal. The 1920s followed a worldwide pandemic that killed an estimated 17.4–50 million people. While the virus spread, the Great War raged; we can still picture the dehumanizing use of mustard gas and trench warfare. When the war ended, the Roaring Twenties erupted as an antidote to grief. Despite Prohibition, life was a party—until the crash of 1929. The 1930s opened with a global depression, record joblessness, homelessness, and hunger. Despair spread faster than the pandemic had.

Keep ReadingShow less
Millions Could Lose Housing Aid Under Trump Plan

Photo illustration by Alex Bandoni/ProPublica. Source images: Chicago History Museum and eobrazy

Getty Images

Millions Could Lose Housing Aid Under Trump Plan

Some 4 million people could lose federal housing assistance under new plans from the Trump administration, according to experts who reviewed drafts of two unpublished rules obtained by ProPublica. The rules would pave the way for a host of restrictions long sought by conservatives, including time limits on living in public housing, work requirements for many people receiving federal housing assistance and the stripping of aid from entire families if one member of the household is in the country illegally.

The first Trump administration tried and failed to implement similar policies, and renewed efforts have been in the works since early in the president’s second term. Now, the documents obtained by ProPublica lay out how the administration intends to overhaul major housing programs that serve some of the nation’s poorest residents, with sweeping reforms that experts and advocates warn will weaken the social safety net amid historically high rents, home prices and homelessness.

Keep ReadingShow less
Trump’s Ultimatums and the Erosion of Presidential Credibility

Donald Trump

YouTube

Trump’s Ultimatums and the Erosion of Presidential Credibility

On Friday, October 3rd, President Donald Trump issued a dramatic ultimatum on Truth Social, stating this is the “LAST CHANCE” for Hamas to accept a 20-point peace proposal backed by Israel and several Arab nations. The deadline, set for Sunday at 6:00 p.m. EDT, was framed as a final opportunity to avoid catastrophic consequences. Trump warned that if Hamas rejected the deal, “all HELL, like no one has ever seen before, will break out against Hamas,” and that its fighters would be “hunted down and killed.”

Ordinarily, when a president sets a deadline, the world takes him seriously. In history, Presidential deadlines signal resolve, seriousness, and the weight of executive authority. But with Trump, the pattern is different. His history of issuing ultimatums and then quietly backing off has dulled the edge of his threats and raised questions about their strategic value.

Keep ReadingShow less
From Fragility to Resilience: Fixing America’s Economic and Political Fault Lines

fractured foundation and US flag

AI generated

From Fragility to Resilience: Fixing America’s Economic and Political Fault Lines

This series began with a simple but urgent question: What’s gone wrong with America’s economic policies, and how can we begin to fix them? The story so far has revealed not only financial instability but also deeper structural weaknesses that leave families, small businesses, and entire communities far more vulnerable than they should be.

In the first two articles, “Running on Empty” and “Crash Course,” we examined how middle-class families, small businesses, and retirees are increasingly caught in a web of debt and financial uncertainty. We also examined how Wall Street’s speculative excesses, deregulation, and shadow banking have pushed the financial system to the brink. Finally, we warned that Donald Trump’s economic agenda doesn’t address these problems—it magnifies them. Together, these earlier articles painted a picture of a system skating on thin ice, where even small shocks could trigger widespread crisis.

Keep ReadingShow less