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AI and Emerging Technology, Congressional Security, Modernization, First Branch Forecast, Blog posts

First Branch Forecast for November 7, 2022: The Longest Weekend

By DanielSchuman November 7, 2022 17 min read

TOP LINE The fallout from the attempted murder of Paul Pelosi reverberates as Americans go to the polls. Those charged with protecting Members of Congress have asked for even more money while the proximate cause of security failures — bad leadership, bad management, bad oversight — remain unaddressed. As some on the new right escalate and make […]

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Congressional Security, Congressional Workplace Fairness and Inclusion, Modernization, First Branch Forecast, Blog posts

First Branch Forecast for Oct. 31, 2022: Improving Congressional Tech

By DanielSchuman October 31, 2022 11 min read

Top Line 1/ Speaker Pelosi’s husband was violently assaulted in their San Francisco residence. • At the time of writing, we do not know the motives of the assailant. However, it would not be surprising if the ultimate aim was to harm Speaker Pelosi. In this newsletter we have previously discussed the concept of stochastic […]

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Congressional Workplace Fairness and Inclusion, First Branch Forecast, Blog posts

First Branch Forecast for October 24, 2022: Adults in the Room

By DanielSchuman October 24, 2022 15 min read

TOP LINE Member and committee office staff on Capitol Hill work in an environment with very little incentive or opportunity for their employers to compensate them fairly for their abilities. Committee budgets are uncertain from term to term and Members pay staff out of a fixed allotment that has declined year-over-year until recently. The prestige […]

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Accountability and Oversight, Advocacy, Announcements, Blog posts

Statement on Senate Judiciary Subcmte Hearing: “Office of Legal Counsel’s Role in Shaping Executive Privilege Doctrine”

By DanielSchuman October 18, 2022 3 min read

Today at 2 PM ET, the Senate Judiciary subcommittee is holding a hearing entitled “The Office of Legal Counsel’s Role in Shaping Executive Privilege Doctrine” with OLC’s Assistant Attorney General Christopher Schroeder as the sole witness.  Given that secrecy is an all-too-common aspect of the OLC’s work, and that its secrecy has at times undermined […]

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Accountability and Oversight, Congressional Security, Congressional Workplace Fairness and Inclusion, Modernization, First Branch Forecast, Blog posts

First Branch Forecast for October 17, 2022: Looking Ahead

By DanielSchuman October 17, 2022 16 min read

TOP LINE Abby Livingston has had enough. After carving out a successful career as a Capitol Hill journalist – becoming a one-woman DC bureau for the nonprofit Texas Tribune – she quit. The trigger, she shared last week, was realizing a corridor in the Capitol that had felt like the safest place in the world to […]

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Congressional Workplace Fairness and Inclusion, Announcements, Blog posts, Reports & Analysis

The Office of Congressional Workplace Rights Updates its Overtime Regulations, but Congress Must Approve the Changes

By DanielSchuman October 14, 2022 2 min read

On September 28, 2022, the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights (OCWR) announced its Board of Directors voted to update regulations implementing the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The OCWR Board of Directors also called on Congress to approve the proposed changes in the Congressional Record.  The current FLSA regulations that apply […]

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Modernization, Rules, First Branch Forecast, Blog posts

First Branch Forecast for September 26, 2022: Rules Power Play

By DanielSchuman September 26, 2022 17 min read

TOP LINE Where will power reside in the next Congress? And what systems of control will delegate and manage that power? These are core questions to understanding the legislative branch at any time, of course. But the answers to those questions may be shifting, perhaps faster than anticipated and in ways that fundamentally change our […]

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Accountability and Oversight, Congressional Security, Continuity and Resiliency, Ethics and Influence, Modernization, First Branch Forecast, Blog posts

First Branch Forecast for September 19, 2022: Fixing Congress

By DanielSchuman September 19, 2022 17 min read

TOP LINE The Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress held its final hearing last Wednesday, aptly on how Congress should continue its work. The Committee has issued 177 recommendations over its three-and-a-half year tenure and likely will surpass the 200 mark before its work concludes at the end of this Congress. By its own […]

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Modernization, Rules, Blog posts, Reports & Analysis

What’s Next? Recap of the Final House Modernization Committee Hearing

By DanielSchuman September 16, 2022 7 min read

Written by Taylor J. Swift, senior policy advisor with Demand Progress Education Fund There was a feeling of serendipity during this week’s final Select Committee on the  Modernization of Congress hearing, where Members, witnesses, and staff all gathered to discuss the work of the committee and what the future may look like for this work. […]

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Continuity and Resiliency, Modernization, First Branch Forecast, Blog posts

First Branch Forecast for September 13, 2022: And We’re Back

By DanielSchuman September 12, 2022 11 min read

TOP LINE A pre-midterm cram session is emerging as the Senate tries to squeeze in votes on same-sex marrige protections, reforms to the Electoral Count Act, insulin pricing, energy permitting reform, FDA user fees…oh, and avoiding a government shutdown Oct. 1. So here we are, less than two months before a very consequential midterm election […]

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Accountability and Oversight, Announcements, Blog posts, Reports & Analysis

EveryCRSReport Adds Federation of American Scientists CRS Reports

By DanielSchuman September 7, 2022 3 min read

We are pleased to announce that EveryCRSReport now includes all CRS reports published online by the Federation of American Scientists. Steven Aftergood, who led FAS’s efforts on CRS reports for decades, has retired from that role, although he still is active on a number of projects. He gave us permission to add those reports to […]

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