Four years ago, the House of Representatives established a committee to recommend changes to how the chamber operates, covering everything from technology to bipartisan resources to constituent services. On Thursday, the committee announced its final set of recommendations, bringing the panel’s total number of proposals to more than 200.
The new recommendations focus on additional steps to improve congressional operations, but also call on the House to begin the work begun by the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress.
“The 105 recommendations this committee has passed will make a difference well beyond the 117th Congress and that’s the goal of modernization – to put processes and practices in place that will ensure ongoing improvement of the institution,” said the committee’s chairman, Rep. Derek Kilmer. “And I think we made great progress toward that goal.”
Of the 195 recommendations passed by the panel prior to the final set, 88 have been partially implemented and 42 have been fully implemented, according to the committee’s own tracking.
“I feel that we have made a huge impact in healing this institution and I know that our work is not done,” said Vice Chair William Timmons. “But I think the work that we have done thus far is going to pay dividends for years to come.”
The new recommendations call on the House to:
- Require committee meeting times to be entered into a shared scheduling tool.
- Regularly publish a report on lawmakers voting after House votes are supposed to conclude.
- Direct the House Administration and House Rules committees to send bipartisan congressional delegations to visit other nations’ legislatures to learn as well as facilitate collaboration among lawmakers.
- Direct the House Administration Committee to hold voluntary seminars for new lawmakers during their first terms, going beyond post-election orientation.
- Change the management of lawmaker’s travel-related expenses to align better with the policies used by federal agencies and the private sector.
But the committee wants to see modernization continue even after it is disbanded. The members recommended the House Administration Committee include a subcommittee on modernization to allow for continuing, ongoing work, as well as the reappointment of a select committee at least once every eight years.
The committee, which includes an equal number of Democrats and Republicans, was established in January 2019 with a one-year mandate to study Congress and make recommendations on how to make the legislative branch more efficient, effective and transparent. It was renewed for an additional year in February 2020 and then granted two more years in 2021.
Kilmer, a Democrat from Washington, spoke of the productive partnerships he has had with the panel's two Republican vice chairs, first Rep. Tom Graves of Georgia and now Rep. William Timmons of South Carolina.
“I’m a big believer in the notion that the boat moves best when all the oars are in the water, rowing in the same direction. In this place not only is that often not the case but even worse sometimes the oars are out of the water with people actively beating each other over the heads,” Kilmer said. “That has not been the case with William Timmons.”
See all the preceding recommendations from the 116th and 117th Congresses.
“Our work is not done,” Timmons said. “One of our recommendations is to continue this as a subcommittee on House Admin and I’m hopeful that will happen. I believe that will happen.”
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a“ Steel Across America” event ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks on the Ellipse near the White House on Sept. 8, 2026 in Washington, D.C. President Trump welcomed 9/ 11 first responders to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation’ s“ Steel Across America” event featuring a 16,900- pound, 21- foot steel beam recovered.
For Trump, even 9/11 is an opportunity
There was a reason organizers of the 9/11 ceremony in Manhattan told President Trump he could not speak at this year’s memorial service.
A good one, it turns out.
Because in a speech he gave on Tuesday in Washington, he did exactly what they were presumably worried about — he made it about himself.
According to The New York Times, Trump had wanted a speaking role at the service, but the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum, which oversees the site, said no, as they’ve maintained for the past decade-plus that the venue and event should be nonpartisan.
Trump has long used awful tragedies to either puff himself up, trash political opponents, or sell lies to the American people.
He blamed a deadly plane crash at Washington National Airport last year on diversity, equity and inclusion policies. He blamed Puerto Ricans for the devastation they endured after Hurricane Maria in 2017. He reportedly considered withholding disaster relief after the California wildfires based on the way affected regions voted. In an interview on Fox News meant to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, he used the occasion to slam former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi…with graves of the dead behind him.
And now, as we approach the 25th anniversary of what many New Yorkers consider the darkest day in modern history, Trump has done it again.
He told a rambling, nonsensical story — one he’s told before — about going to Ground Zero just after terrorists flew two commercial jets into the twin towers. In the story, which no one has been able to verify, despite multiple attempts, he says firefighters had to carry him out of One Liberty Plaza, also known as the U.S. Steel Building, because they thought it was about to collapse.
As CNN fact checker Daniel Dale notes, there’s no evidence Trump went into this building, especially at a time when NYPD and NYFD had locked down the area. There’s no evidence that building was collapsing — in fact, it was deemed structurally sound and reopened within two months of the attacks. There’s no evidence he was carried out of it by firefighters.
But the lie isn’t even the worst part. Pretend it was all true — why would the leader of our country, and a New Yorker, decide to make that tragic day about himself?
Because that’s who Donald Trump is. He’s a malignant narcissist.
He’s also, incidentally, a terrible and ineffectual president, who’s made ill-fated decisions that he has to keep defending, and there’s nothing he won’t do to make himself look and feel better.
Within the first two minutes of his speech, he was cravenly using 9/11 to justify and promote his dumb war in Iran — two events separated by 25 years and 6,000 miles.
“And I will tell you, we’re right now fighting because we have a certain nation that wanted a nuclear weapon, they were very close to getting it, and now they have no chance at getting it. They will never have a nuclear weapon. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. And they’ve been punished greatly. As you know, we’ve really taken it to them.”
As a New Yorker who lived through 9/11, still one of the worst days of my life, I’m utterly sickened by Trump’s crass, political, and self-promotional framing of that awful day.
And I’m relieved he won’t be given a platform to do it again on Friday’s anniversary in lower Manhattan.
Because for Trump, everything is his for the taking, and absolutely nothing is sacred.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.