Where Congress Learns About Congress
The Legislative branch plays a central role in our democracy, but for decades Congress has systematically underfunded congressional operations as compared to the rest of government.
The chart below shows discretionary non-defense discretionary spending from 1995-2020 (in constant dollars). During that quarter-century, non-defense discretionary spending increased by 58%, but spending for the legislative branch increased only by 27%.
The passage of the Legislative Branch Appropriations bill for FY 2020 back in December started the clock on a number of projects and reports inside the legislative branch. We took a look at the requests, broke them down by office, and summarized the deadlines, which are drawn from the House committee report, the Senate committee report, and the Joint Explanatory Statement.
Earlier today, letters signed by 25 organizations were sent to the Committee on House Administration and the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration urging them to address issues of congressional and public access to CRS reports.
Previously, Congress directed the Library of Congress to public current and archived CRS reports, but many of these reports are not made available to the public are not made generally available to Congress unless specifically requested and are not available from either the Library’s internal website or from its public-facing website.
Continue reading “Coalition Letters Urge House and Senate Committees to Expand Access to CRS Reports.”
Chaplains, doctors, historians and architects are part of the unseen Legislative Branch. While most know about the House and the Senate, did you know the US Capitol Police takes up more than 10% of the Legislative Branch budget ($456 Million in FY 2019) and has 2300 employees?
This article starts a series highlighting the various offices within the Legislative Branch and the issues that should be considered – in particular the process to appoint the leaders of these various offices. Continue reading “The Legislative Branch is More Than Congress”
TRENDS IN SENATE COMMITTEE FUNDING
How do Senate committees get their funding and how has funding changed over the last 25 years? We crunched the numbers for you and here are the highlights:
We’ve previously written about the rules that rule the rules, which has to be one of the world’s wonkiest subjects. In short, each party in the House and Senate has rules that govern their conference or caucus, leading to different party rules for (1) House Democrats, (2) House Republicans, (3) Senate Democrats, and (4) Senate Republicans.
Party rules shape the power structure inside the party: they govern things like committee chair assignments and term limits for leadership. These rules can empower rank and file members and give them a voice, strengthen committees, or consolidate power in the hands of a few at the top. Continue reading “Rule of Law(makers)”
It is hard enough to be a congressional staffer, but if you have young children the problem is magnified. Washington, D.C. is the most expensive place in the United States to raise a family, congressional staff work on average 53 hours-per-week when Congress is in session, and child care options in the nation’s capital can be particularly challenging. Given that Congress already faces significant staff retention problems and three-quarters of its staff find their jobs insufficiently flexible in addressing the work-life balance, is Congress doing enough to support staff in taking care of their youngest family members?
Here’s what we found:
Continue reading “Congressional Child Care Options Are Grossly Inadequate”
On Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously adopted the Legislative Branch Appropriations bill for 2019 (committee bill text, committee report), advancing the measure to the full chamber. The legislation contains provisions concerning the Senate’s ability to do its job, mirroring in some instances provisions contained in the House bill, which was passed by that chamber last week. (As is common practice for Senate legislative branch appropriations, there was no public subcommittee markup and the full committee markup was recorded as audio only — listen to the last 8 minutes here).
Among the highlights of what was included in the bill text or committee report: Continue reading “What’s in the Senate Appropriations Committee’s 2019 Leg Branch Approps Bill”
Rule 19 is interpreted to prevent any disparagement of another senator, regardless of whether it is true. (Rarely used)
The rule of perpetuities describes the sense of subjective time elapsed once a senator commence an oration. Continue reading “Lesser Known Senate Rules”
October 18, 2016
Dear Majority Leader McConnell, Majority Whip Cornyn, Democratic Leader Reid, and Democratic Whip Durbin:
The United States Senate is an institution rooted in history and tradition. Its long serving members and staff are a repository of policy expertise that serve as a counterweight to an often over-assertive executive branch. We encourage the Senate to continue to implement its rule on committee staff, Rule XXVII, in a way that reinforces one of the Senate’s key strengths: its committees.
Continue reading “Experts Call on Senate to Stabilize Committee Staff”