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GOP taps six for House modernization committee

House Republicans on Friday afternoon named their members to the new Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress, which has been given a year – and a mandate for bipartisan consensus – to come up with proposals for improving the House's operating systems, technology, ethics, and legislative process and productivity.

The ranking member will be Tom Graves of Georgia, who last year was chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee on financial services and general government.

The others are Rob Woodall of Georgia (who announced Thursday he won't run again in 2020), Rodney Davis of Illinois (the ranking member of the House Administration Committee), Susan Brooks of Indiana (last year's chairwoman of the Ethics Committee), Dan Newhouse of Washington (who's on both Appropriations and Rules) and William R. Timmons IV of South Carolina, who fulfills leadership's obligation to include one freshman from each party.


The Democrats named their members last month. Derek Kilmer of Washington will be chairman. The others are Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri, Suzan DelBene of Washington (a former Microsoft executive), Zoe Lofgren of California (the new chairwoman of House Administration), Mark Pocan of Wisconsin and first-termer Mary Gay Scanlon of Pennsylvania.

In recent days, those Democrats have signaled they're ready to take on one of the House's more controversial modern practices – lawmakers using their Capitol Hill offices as their sleeping quarters during the week. While several dozen members, mostly Republicans, say doing so is a way to signal they haven't "gone Washington," critics say that lawmakers padding around in their pajamas late at night is all wrong in the #MeToo era and is a sign of disrespect to the institution.


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Kentucky’s Independent Voters Are Growing. Why Are They Still Shut Out?

Kentucky’s political establishment has just been handed a number it should not be able to ignore.

In July, more Kentucky voters registered as independent or “other” than registered as Republicans and Democrats combined. More than 8,500 Kentuckians registered to vote, and the “other” category grew by 2,530 voters, compared with 2,483 new Republicans and a decline of 32 Democrats.

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The purpose of the EO according to its proponents is to (1) enhance the verification of the citizenship status of the voting public and to explicitly prohibit non-citizens from registering to vote or vote in federal elections; (2) to utilize the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Systemic Alien Verification for Entitlements program (SAVE) to assist in verifying identity and voter eligibility. (3) Establish the transmission of state citizenship lists and prioritization of investigations and prosecutions related to election fraud. (4) Require the US Postal Service (USPS) to issue new rules on mail-in and absentee ballots. (5) Have the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Commissioner of the SSA, and the Postmaster General, in coordination with the Secretary of Commerce, to effectuate all relevant aspects of the implementation of the Order. (6) Enforcement authority for this EO is vested in the Attorney General.

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When Joshua Summers was in elementary school, his dad would come to class to perform science experiments. One time, they did an experiment to show how lightning bugs lit up.

“That was pretty cool,” he says. There was never one moment that drew him to science, but it may have helped that his mother was a nurse and his father was a mathematician.

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Understanding The Dissolution of Federal DEI Offices and Initiatives: Debate and Implications

This nonpartisan policy brief, written by an ACE fellow, is republished by The Fulcrum as part of our partnership with the Alliance for Civic Engagement and our NextGen initiative — elevating student voices, strengthening civic education, and helping readers better understand democracy and public policy.

Background

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is a buzzword often used in political spaces, and its implementations, or lack thereof, have repercussions on many groups. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts are organizational policies and initiatives that aim to equitably distribute opportunities and to create accepting workplaces for marginalized populations. These policies create hiring and recruitment guidelines to hire, retain, and promote individuals from those backgrounds. Supporters of these policies argue they are necessary in driving meaningful social progress, while critics argue they subordinate the role of merit in awarding opportunities.

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