Welcome to the First Branch Forecast, your regular look into the Legislative branch and government transparency. Tell your friends to subscribe.

THE TOP LINE

This week: the Senate is in today; the House is in on Tuesday. Congress cleared a CR that funds the government through February 18th so this week expect a debt limit vote, NDAA consideration, and likely the Protecting our Democracy Act (PODA). Watch as the House’s suspension list becomes ridiculously long. In committee, Senate Rules will look at the Capitol Police on Tuesday; House Rules will consider which of the 57 amendments to allow for the Protecting Our Democracy Act on Tuesday; Senate Judiciary will mark up a bill modernizing PACER on Thursday. ICYMI, the 2022 House Calendar is out.

A cranky note: appropriations are how Congress dictates priorities, so the ongoing use of CRs and the threat of a long-term CR is no less than an abdication of the responsibility to govern and an undermining of congressional prerogatives. It’s not the “Trump” or “Biden” spending bill, but Congress’s.

Capitol Police. In advance of Tuesday’s USCP oversight hearing, today we are releasing model public records request regulations (announcement) (regs). We got tired of waiting for the Capitol Police to implement Congress’s instructions to create a FOIA-like process — the agency is notoriously opaque — so our resident experts on FOIA and Congress spent the last few months drafting model regulations to (1) show that it’s possible and (2) create a standard to judge the USCP should they act. Perhaps it will liven up Tuesday’s hearing with the USCP IG.

Succession. It’s no secret there will be many changes in party and committee leadership in the 118th Congress and that jockeying is happening now. We are intrigued by the American Prospect’s deep dive into Hakeem Jeffries record and leadership style. On the Republican side, an opinion column from a senior fellow at a conservative think tank asks the question of whether McCarthy is suited to be Speaker. There’s also some drama around Elise Stefanik. For our part, we’re still wondering whether Rep. Jeffries will release the rules for the House Dem Policy and Steering Committee and Sen. Schumer will release the Senate Democratic Party Caucus rules.

Also: Our long-awaited recap of the 2021 Library of Congress virtual public forum on public access to legislative information is now available. (The Library has not committed to holding additional conversations with the public; the prior ones had to be requested by Appropriators). And see a new Twitter bot that tracks Leg branch procurements. The bot is how we know, for example, the Capitol Police are ordering 281 units of body armor.

Continue reading “First Branch Forecast: Police, PODA, and the Courts 12/06/2021” →

Welcome‌ ‌to‌ ‌the‌ ‌First‌ ‌Branch‌ ‌Forecast,‌ ‌your‌ ‌regular‌ ‌look‌ ‌into‌ ‌the‌ ‌Legislative‌ ‌branch‌ ‌and‌ government ‌transparency.‌ ‌Tell ‌your‌ ‌friends‌ ‌to‌ subscribe.

THE TOP LINE

Welcome back. The Senate is in today; the House is in on Tuesday, with the Courthouse Ethics and Transparency Act on suspension and further appropriations bills possible. We’re curious about House Oversight’s Wednesday hearing into the Future of Federal Work and Thursday’s Senate Judiciary markup that includes a judicial security bill with some concerning language and a much less fraught bill to modernize PACER.

Omicron, which you may know as a planet from Futurama but is now the COVID variant du jour, is the latest (awful) reminder of the necessity of the House and Senate being capable of working fully remotely. Yes, we’ve been making this point for a while. While we’ve seen some progress, proxy voting on the House floor is an imperfect solution and the Senate still has not grappled with the shifts in power that could occur if a single member becomes ill and cannot attend in person. We continue to track all this on ContinuityofCongress.org. On that final point, isn’t it time for the House and Senate to impose both mask and vaccination requirements for persons who work in-person?

ICYMI, there was big news last week on providing clearances for Senate staff. The House Diversity Office released two important new reports on House compensation & benefits and demographics and diversity. Rep. Gosar was censured and removed from his committees for tweeting a video he made depicting his murder of a House colleague, which he promptly RT’d after his censure. And serial fabulist Rep. Boebert is bucking for attention after she made up a story that suggested a House colleague is a suicide bomber because she is a Muslim.

We’re not sure what to do. There’s a constant stream of unacceptable and bizarre behavior from certain members of Congress that is both an effort to move the Overton Window of what’s normal and an effort to fundraise. We don’t want to ignore it, and thus normalize it, nor do we want to draw attention out of fear of the Streisand Effect. For example, what do you do with Rep. Greene’s introduction of a resolution to give Kyle Rittenhouse a Congressional Gold Medal? Denver’s Channel 9 News has it right.

Democratic slippage. For the first time, the US was listed as a “backsliding democracy” in the Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance’s 2020 global democracy report, described as falling victim to authoritarian tendencies. “A historic turning point came in 2020–2021 when former President Donald Trump questioned the legitimacy of the 2020 election results in the United States. Baseless allegations of electoral fraud and related disinformation undermined fundamental trust in the electoral process, which culminated in the storming of the US Capitol building in January 2021.”

Continue reading “First Branch Forecast: Democratic slippage, court accountability, and the mother of parliaments 11/29/2021” →

Welcome‌ ‌to‌ the Thanksgiving-week First‌ ‌Branch‌ ‌Forecast,‌ ‌a quick — abridged, even — ‌look‌ at ‌the‌ ‌Legislative‌ ‌branch‌ ‌and‌ government ‌transparency.‌ ‌Tell ‌your‌ ‌friends‌ ‌to‌ subscribe.

THE TOP (AND ONLY) LINE

OOO. We know most people are out, so here’s just the highlights — we’ll have a full report next week.

Clearances. Each senator can now designate one personal office aide as eligible to apply for a TS/SCI clearance and is no longer restricted to a mere TS level, a practice that had allowed the Executive branch to stonewall the nearly 2/3s of senators that did not have staffers cleared for highly classified matters. The modernization effort was led by Sen. Chris Murphy. The House, however, has not changed its policies that prevent staff from providing members the individualized support they need on highly classified matters even though there have been multiple letters on the topic and leadership is not similarly constrained. (Even members of HPSCI are not afforded personal staff with a TS/SCI clearance, unlike their SSCI counterparts who for years have been provided additional staffers that can obtain TS/SCI clearances.)

Staff pay, retention, and diversity. The House Office of Diversity and Inclusion released its 2021 study on staff pay and diversity. It’s a BFD — something we’ve wanted for years — and you should read Roll Call’s early reporting, which focuses on the significant pay decreases in personal offices. (If you want more, we’ve got an in-depth report on this topic.) It’s our understanding the Senate completed its staff pay study earlier this year, but we haven’t seen it. If you have a copy, email us at capacity@demandprogress.org.

Censure. Rep. Gosar was censured by the House and removed from his committees for tweeting a video showing him murdering a colleague; some colleagues defended him as apologizing (he didn’t) and not having bad intentions (really?). Astonishingly, party leadership did not punish him, only two fellow partisans supported his censure, and it was suggested that unnamed Democratic members will be subject to the same punishment for unnamed offenses that have not happened yet. One is reminded of Alice in Wonderland: “Sentence first—verdict afterwards.” After the censure, Rep. Gosar retweeted the video.

House Sergeant at Arms. The Defense Department IG says the new House Sergeant at Arms, when he was the head of the DC National Guard, did not act at 4:35 when authorized to deploy on Jan. 6th and had to be told a second time, raising concerns about the SAA’s accounting of events. House SAA William Walker, who also serves as a member of the U.S. Capitol Police Board, has called the report false and asked it be retracted.

The Capitol Police are not getting real scrutiny from the Jan 6th commission according to an anonymous whistleblower. We have ideas for fixes.

CLASSIFIEDS

TechCongress is accepting applications for its 2022 Congressional Innovation Scholars program, an “early-career pipeline” for technologists interested in shaping tech policy. Apply here.

ModCom. The House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress is hiring a clerk. Apply here.

Applications for College to Congress’ funded Capitol internship program for low-income college students open December 1st. More info here.

ODDS AND ENDS

You might be wondering why we didn’t mention the House’s passage of Build Back Better, Rep. McCarthy’s magic minute, the NDAA, the debt ceiling, and other assorted matters. What else could we say that hasn’t already been said at length? Have a great Thanksgiving. And go get your COVID booster.

Welcome‌ ‌to‌ ‌the‌ ‌First‌ ‌Branch‌ ‌Forecast,‌ ‌your‌ ‌regular‌ ‌look‌ ‌into‌ ‌the‌ ‌Legislative‌ ‌branch‌ ‌and‌ government ‌transparency.‌ ‌Tell ‌your‌ ‌friends‌ ‌to‌ subscribe.

THE TOP LINE

The House and Senate are back this week, as I’m sure you noticed.

— Senate. You’ve probably seen all the commentary on Senator Schumer’s letter on the Senate schedule for the next month or two. Of immediate interest is the Senate considering the NDAA this week — we can expect a lot of legislation will ride along — and everyone seems to agree that an appropriations Continuing Resolution is necessary, although we don’t yet know for how long. BBB and voting rights also made his list of items to do, but they entirely depend on Sens. Manchin and Sinema (even with notional bipartisan support for a VRA update).

— House. We didn’t see anything unexpected on the House’s floor schedule, although BBB is apparently (tentatively?) scheduled for a vote. I don’t know when the censure resolution for Rep. Gosar will be considered, but he has earned it. In the olden days, wouldn’t his party kick him off his committees?

Personal and committee staff could unionize under the Congressional Accountability Act, as well as be afforded other labor protections, should the House or Senate adopt a one-chamber resolution implementing regulations promulgated by the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights that date back to the mid-90s, according to testimony from OCWR representatives before the House Administration Committee last week. Congressional staff work under incredibly difficult circumstances; there’s a long history of unevenly applying federal workplace laws to the Legislative branch, including labor laws, and OCWR’s testimony sharpens the political question of whether members of the House (or Senate) will push a resolution to put labor protections into effect. More below.

Contempt of Congress. We are watching the gears of the Justice Department slowly turn to address Steve Bannon’s refusal to comply with a House subpoena. Enforcement of a congressional contempt citation should not depend on the vagaries of the Justice Department. We agree with calls to modernize the statutory contempt process to include an independent counsel and an expedited review process — such provisions likely would be opposed by elements of the Executive branch, which is why they should be added to legislation the White House would be unwilling to veto (such as White House funding). We are also not fans of Executive privilege generally, and successful efforts by the White House to expand the ambit of the privilege (through DOJ’s OLC opinions) which is a matter that warrants significant attention. Just for fun: Here’s a survey of committee rules on subpoenas.

Senator Leahy will retire at the end of this Congress. He is a tremendous champion of transparency and open government and has pushed these issues from his positions as chair of the Appropriations committee, the Judiciary committee, and elsewhere. He waged a decades-long fight to have CRS reports made publicly available (first co-sponsoring legislation on that point with Sen. McCain in 1998) and has shepherded countless FOIA reforms into law.

Continue reading “First Branch Forecast: Unions, CBO, & Leahy 11/15/2021” →

Welcome‌ ‌to‌ ‌the‌ ‌First‌ ‌Branch‌ ‌Forecast,‌ ‌your‌ ‌regular‌ ‌look‌ ‌into‌ ‌the‌ ‌Legislative‌ ‌branch‌ ‌and‌ ‌government ‌transparency.‌ ‌Tell ‌your‌ ‌friends‌ ‌to‌ subscribe.

THE TOP LINE

OOO. The Senate is in recess until the week of November 15th; no floor votes are scheduled in the House until the week of the 15th, although there are a few committee hearings. Before you schedule your long lunches, RSVP for today’s Advisory Committee on Transparency’s lightning talks on Big Ideas for Improving Transparency and tomorrow’s House Admin’s hearing on the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights. With Congress’s approval of BIF last week, expect BBB, appropriations, and the NDAA on Congress’s plate when it comes back.

APPROPS UPDATE

Top lines. A bicameral, bipartisan topline agreement is urgently needed so that appropriators can negotiate on the particulars, Sen. Leahy said in a statement Thursday. Republicans have yet to make a counteroffer to Democratic proposals. Sen. Leahy accurately described the potential of an “endless cycle of continuing resolutions” as an irresponsible way to govern, pointing out year-long CRs as counterproductive to Republicans’ stated goals of increasing defense spending, countering China, and so on. We have yet another process stand-off: Dems want to negotiate top line numbers and then would be willing to discuss policy riders; Republicans want policy rider agreement prior to discussing top line numbers.

Increasing Legislative branch funding is the focus of a conservative coalition letter focused on congressional offices, GAO, and CBO. The letter, organized by the Lincoln Network, urged appropriators to “allocate an increased share of resources from the discretionary spending pool for Article I responsibilities.”

LEG BRANCH

Oversight of the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights — specifically, lessons learned from the 1995 Congressional Accountability Act, which applied some employment laws to the Legislative branch and was amended a few years back — is the topic of a Committee on House Administration oversight hearing set for tomorrow, Nov. 9th, at 3 PM. The hearing comes amid the nomination of OCWR Director Susan Grundmann to serve on the Federal Labor Relations Board; per Congress.gov, a hearing concerning her nomination was held on Oct. 20th. FWIW, we’d be interested to know OCWR’s views on moving forward with unionization for Legislative branch political staff; the original CAA had OCWR promulgate regulations for support agencies and congressional offices, but only the former has been put into force. Are OCWR’s union regs for political offices still in effect and just waiting to be turned on? Unions are the traditional tool for workers to protect their rights and to collectively advocate for better working conditions.

Strengthening Congressional oversight powers was the topic of the latest House Modernization Committee hearing last Thursday. We have an extensive recap here and Demand Progress released a report with four recommendations here. In our recap, we cover the problems Congress has in conducting oversight, the cliches that have arisen about what’s holding it back, and summarize important reform ideas.

Process determines policy. The House Rules Committee’s purview is House procedure, including the rules of the House and the terms for floor debate on specific legislation. As RollCall noted last week, those duties grant the committee — and the Speaker of the House, who controls majority appointments to the committee — extraordinary power. (The rules didn’t always work this way.) We’ve written extensively about Demand Progress’s recommendations to modernize the Rules of the House, some of which have been put into effect and all of which received a thoughtful hearing, and our recommendations to modernize the Rules of the Democratic Caucus, which largely have not been put into effect (although they are now, finally, publicly available, although the rules of the Steering Committee are not.) With the expected transition in leadership at the end of this Congress, there is no doubt that the rules governing party operations and House operations will be pivotal to determining who has power and how it is exercised. We have a video primer on how the House adopts its rules.

Good news for the AOC. A recent IG report found significant improvements in how the AOC is handling phase 2 of the Cannon Building re-construction project compared to phase 1.

Continue reading “First Branch Forecast: Top lines, bottom lines, effective oversight, and legislative nirvana (Nov. 8, 2021)” →