Where Congress Learns About Congress
After the 2008 financial collapse and subsequent stimulus, the RAT Board — Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board — was established to track itemized spending of $840 Billion disbursed by 29 federal agencies. Funding was tracked by zip code, agency, recipient, and funding category.
In the midst of this pandemic, legislative staffers have been forced to modify the way they support lawmakers and constituents by switching to telework. These staffers remain on the metaphorical front lines though as they provide assistance to constituents who are desperately in need of support. Legislative staffers, especially those who reside in DC, are strapped with high housing costs, low wages, long work hours, and, with risk of illness particularly acute at the moment, they lack adequate paid and family leave protections.
There has undoubtedly been improvements to the paid parental leave benefits offered to legislative staffers in recent years, but there is still a long way to go. We have written before about the push for full paid family and medical leave for congressional staffers, but most policy proposals have been halted due to the ever-important task of adequately combating the coronavirus. While the passage of last year’s National Defense Authorization Act included provisions that enable congressional staff 12 weeks of paid parental leave, the legislation left out paid family and medical leave.
For weeks during this pandemic, legislative staffers have not been able to get guaranteed paid time off to take care of themselves, sick family members, or kids who may be at home due to school closures. There have been numerous cases of congressional staffers contracting coronavirus while others have been forced to quarantine due to exposure. It’s also evident that this pandemic will be lasting months or longer.
But there is some good news: the paid leave guidelines all changed last week, albeit in a narrow way.
Continue reading “Legislative Staffers Get Paid Family and Medical Leave During The Pandemic, But It’s Not Permanent”Congress, heal thyself.
Congressional capacity (or lack thereof) to respond to a global pandemic is on full display. Members in the House and Senate have tested positive, as have staff. Republicans in the Senate briefly held their majority by one (48-47 with 5 Republican Senators in quarantine).
Members are limited to in-person deliberation and voting at a time of social distancing and self-quarantining. Congress has historically underfunded its own operations, as well as science and technology assessment. Federal contracting rules and government systems make it difficult to buy and use commercial, off-the-shelf systems the rest of us take for granted.
Congressional capacity is “the human and physical infrastructure Congress needs to resolve public problems through legislating, budgeting, holding hearings, and conducting oversight.” As Congress funds millions of individuals and businesses, as well as state and local governments across the country with Trillions of dollars, it must fund its own capacity to respond to this crisis.
Continue reading “Coronavirus Relief: Science and Tech Capacity in Congress”By Maggi Molina and Dan Lips
Congress faces major challenges in 2020—including the Coronavirus pandemic and addressing its significant disruptions to our way of life. With the Congressional Budget Office already forecasting trillion dollar federal deficits through 2030, lawmakers may have less flexibility to authorize new spending to address these problems.
One way for Congress to improve the government’s balance sheet would be to stop federal agencies from making improper payments. “Improper payments” doesn’t sound that bad — perhaps you used Paypal instead of Venmo — but they are essentially illegal payments. These are payments that should not have been made or that were made in incorrect amounts.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently reported that federal agencies made $175 Billion in improper payments in 2019. Of those, $75 Billion (or 42 percent) were reported as a “monetary loss, an amount that should not have been paid and in theory should or could be recovered.” More than two-thirds of the improper payments were concentrated in three programs: Medicaid, Medicare, and the Earned Income Tax Credit.
GAO warned that the problem could be even bigger: “The federal government’s ability to understand the full scope of its improper payments is hindered by incomplete, unreliable, or understated agency estimates,” among other issues. Indeed, a number of agencies do not accurately report this information.
Continue reading “Congress Can Save Taxpayers Billions By Using Data Science to Stop Improper Payments”TOP LINE
It’s been another never-ending week. We hope that you’re staying healthy and staying at home. This issue focuses on continuity of Congress, protecting whistleblowers, mass surveillance, and coronavirus “oversight.”
(Hey, if you’re regularly reading our little newsletter, why not subscribe if you have not already? It’s free…)
Continue reading “Forecast for April 6, 2020.”For the week ending April 2, 2020, there were 4 Capitol Police incidents reported; 4 individuals arrested. Only 3 of the 4 incidents reported were within USCP jurisdiction. There were 3 traffic related incidents, including two invalid traffic permits. Numbers continue to decline as the US Capitol Complex stays closed and DC’s stay-at-home order goes into effect.
Continue reading “Capitol Police Round Up: Week Ending April 2, 2020”Last week Congress enacted its third Coronavirus supplemental bill in an effort to stabilize the country. The legislation limped out of Congress, requiring unusual voting procedures, a stifling of debate, and an almost unprecedented level of unanimity.
The Senate supplemental bill totals $2 trillion, the largest stimulus in our history. While the bill addresses somes issues critical to the preservation of life and functionality of the country — while missing others — Congress failed to provide sufficient funding for the Legislative Branch to ensure it can continue to operate during the crisis.
The appropriations division of the Senate’s bipartisan coronavirus aid and economic relief agreement contains $330 billion in new funding. Title IX of S. 3548 includes $93.1 million in funding for the Legislative Branch, a number that is far too low. It represents roughly 1/2000 of the expenditure.
Continue reading “What Leg. Branch Receives in the Third Supplemental”Back in December 2019 – which feels like ages ago – Congress passed the Legislative Branch Appropriations bill for FY 2020, starting the clock on dozens of Leg. Branch projects and reports.
In January, our team reviewed requests from the Leg. Branch approps bill, broke them down by entity, and summarized the deadlines. For those interested in looking at the complete spreadsheet, you can access it here.
We will regularly post a list of items due from the Leg. Branch approps bill, broken down by entity. We also will include which items were due during the previous month at the end of the report.
Continue reading “April Update: Legislative Branch Appropriations Items Due Dates”