The Top Line

From our shameless self-promotion division, Roll Call was kind enough to profile me this past Tuesday.

Do you support democracy? I mean, do you work at a foundation or are a high-net worth individual and want to see our political system work better? If so, the folks at Democracy Fund Voice have published a blogpost and white paper that outlines their successes and lessons learned in supporting congressional capacity and congressional reform work. I had the pleasure of working with Democracy Fund Voice and Democracy Fund for many years and their support  and insight was essential to my success.

Congress is out and it’s my suspicion that news from Congress may slow down. While the press chases the campaign, in the background are important efforts to resolve the differences in the Appropriations and NDAA bills for passage in December, hammering out a Continuing Resolution to keep the government open, jockeying for positions on committees as members retire – and the work to update the rules for the House, the Senate, and the parties inside them. The rules in particular have long been an interest of mine – process guides the results – and the August recess is the unofficial kick-off for a lot of this work. Stay tuned.

Know a technologist who should work in Congress? The TechCongress fellowship has applications open through August 7th for their January cohort. Mid-career fellows receive a $93,000/year stipend and early-career fellows receive a $70,000 annual-equivalent stipend.

Continue reading “FBF: Congress is OOO but this week’s Congress news is in your inbox (8/4/24)” →

Good morning and happy belated 4th of July! Did you miss receiving the First Branch Forecast? Well, we’re back and at our new home at the American Governance Institute.

It seems a few things happened while we were on hiatus. As usual, we’re going to stay focused on building a strong Congress, an accountable Executive branch, and a durable democracy.

Today’s issue is abbreviated, so let me name-check:

• The Supreme Court’s striking down of Chevron review, which is more about transferring power to the federal courts than to Congress. Everyone seems to want to do Congress’s job, which is reason #1 why Congress should act to strengthen itself.
• The Supreme Court’s creation of presidential immunity for official actions, which allows a president to commit unlawful acts without criminal accountability. Surely this won’t potentially create problems should a certain ex-president return to office.
• President Biden’s disastrous debate performance raised big questions about his competency, implicating the 25th Amendment, the ability of the press to learn about a president’s health and to accurately report that information, and what role (if any) there is for members of Congress in pushing out an incumbent. I think we’re about to break another precedent, folks.
• Several criminal and ethics proceedings against members, including Rep. Cuellar and Sen. Menendez.
• Did you think this would be the Congress where we saw an attempt to revive inherent contempt? There’s nothing inherently wrong with it, with some civil society groups and members pushing for a fix in the last Congress.
• Oh, and that funny Supreme Court is making enforcement of rules by agencies much harder.

Since this newsletter is coming to you from a new email address – firstbranch@americalabs.org –  please be sure to add it to your address book and forward it to anyone who might be interested. (They can subscribe here.) You can always email me directly at daniel@americalabs.org.

Continue reading “FBF: We’re back! Week of July 8, 2024” →

This week is Sunshine Week, the annual celebration timed to James Madison’s birthday “that shines a light on the importance of public records and open government.” Sunshine Week began in Florida in the early 2000s in response to efforts by members of the state legislature to create a plethora of new exemptions to the state’s public records law. It has spread nationally, with some federal agencies hosting Sunshine Week events and the House’s Oversight Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee (and sometimes Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee) holding oversight hearings, marking-up legislation, and sending letters. Here’s a list of this week’s events.

Why should we care about government transparency?

Continue reading “FBF: Sunshine Week Lights the Way” →

It’s not easy to recognize when our political system is transitioning from one era to another, but there are many signs that we are in the middle of that process.

This past week, Senator Mitch McConnell announced he will step down as Republican leader at the end of this Congress and retire from the Senate when his term ends. His nemesis, Democratic leader Harry Reid, retired from the Senate in 2017. In the House of Representatives, all of the “Young Guns” — Reps. McCarthy, Boehner, and Cantor, as well as Rep. McHenry — have left the Capitol, or are about to do so. Their longtime political opponents, Reps. Pelosi, Hoyer, and Clyburn, have recently stepped down from their leadership posts, although several are still influential in the House.

Continue reading “FBF: The End of an Era in the American Experiment” →

In January, the R Street Institute, Demand Progress Education Fund, and POPVOX Foundation hosted a cybersecurity training for House staff. While the House and Senate provide resources and training to protect official accounts, at this time, there’s no equivalent support for staffers’ non-official accounts.

Continue reading “FBF: Ensuring that Congressional Staff Can’t Be Backdoored on Cybersecurity” →

This past Tuesday, I sat in on an excellent hearing on the use of Artificial Intelligence in the Legislative Branch, hosted by the House Administration Committee. I’m not going to recap it here — Aubrey already did that — but I did want to share a good idea that I ripped off from the Obama administration.

It’s a really simple idea: in order to build on top of data, you have to know what you have. To wit: way back in the midst of time, 2013 to be precise, President Obama required agencies to conduct and create “enterprise data inventories” — a comprehensive list of all the data an agency holds.

Continue reading “FBF: The Untapped Goldmine of Legislative Data: Rocket Fuel for AI” →

In my work I have the luxury — sometimes the necessity — of digging into Congress’s past. How did things work before? What were people thinking? Is any of this relevant today?

So when reading through comments on the introduction of Congress reform legislation from the Congressional Record in the 1960s, I ran across a mention of a “Management Study of the U.S. Congress” by Arthur D. Little, Inc. in 1965. Naturally, I wanted to read it.

Continue reading “FBF: What’s Past is Prologue” →