Rules

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Accountability and Oversight, Appropriations, Congressional Workplace Fairness and Inclusion, Rules, First Branch Forecast, Blog posts

Forecast for September 17, 2018. Celebrating Constitution Day and Reforming the House Rules.

By DanielSchuman September 17, 2018 9 min read

THE TOP LINE Happy birthday to the US Constitution, signed 231 years ago today. In its honor, we are pleased to publish online the Constitution Annotated, a treatise commissioned by Congress that explains the Constitution as interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court. By we, I mean Cornell’s Legal Information Institute, GovTrack.us, and Demand Progress. Reforming the House’s […]

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Rules, Advocacy, Blog posts, Reports & Analysis

Time to Reform the House Rules

By DanielSchuman September 12, 2018 3 min read

Improving the House’s rules is the focus of a new letter and white paper released today. It’s no secret that Congress is struggling; these reforms are aimed at making it easier for Members to legislate, conduct oversight, and address constituent concerns. The letter sets out 10 principles for reforming the House rules, endorsed by 20 organizations and 8 experts […]

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Congressional Security, Congressional Workplace Fairness and Inclusion, Ethics and Influence, Rules, First Branch Forecast, Blog posts

Forecast for September 10, 2018. Legislative Branch Appropriations and Conference Rules.

By DanielSchuman September 10, 2018 10 min read

TOP LINE The Leg Branch minibus conference report may get a House floor vote this week; there was an actual, real-life conference committee last week. Here’s what’s in the House and Senate bills. — As a bonus (& thanks to Tim Ryan), the House plumped down $8.8m for intern pay in the amended legislation (text is unavailable), a big step forward to opening up the […]

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Accountability and Oversight, Rules, Advocacy, Blog posts, Reports & Analysis

The Rules for Rules

By DanielSchuman September 7, 2018 1 min read

The rules for the people writing the rules can seem like a black box, and that’s because to an extent they are. Demand Progress has voiced concerns for years that House Republicans are the only conference publishing their rules online (they also post their proposed changes to rules so extra credit for them). Historically Senate Republicans and […]

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Appropriations, Congressional Workplace Fairness and Inclusion, Ethics and Influence, Rules, First Branch Forecast, Blog posts

Forecast for September 4, 2018. Appropriations Bills and SCOTUS Nomination Are Moving Forward Quickly.

By DanielSchuman September 4, 2018 13 min read

THE TOP LINE Appropriations. House and Senate appropriators have moved their bills faster than usual, but time is running out. Only eight legislative days remain for the House and sixteen days for the Senate to reach agreement and enact them before the fiscal year starts on Oct. 1. The action will be on the floor, in the House Rules committee, […]

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Congressional Workplace Fairness and Inclusion, Ethics and Influence, Modernization, Rules, First Branch Forecast, Blog posts

Forecast for August 13, 2018. While #MeToo Stalls in Congress, SCOTUS Nomination Hearings Move Forward.

By DanielSchuman August 13, 2018 6 min read

THE TOP LINE Rep. Collins was arrested for insider trading every news outlet on earth reported, but that’s not the most interesting part. Multiple news outlets described what happened as Speaker Ryan stripping Collins of his committee membership. He didn’t. Curious? Read my dive into the Speaker’s power to police member behavior and what that means for policy dissenters. […]

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Rules, Blog posts, Reports & Analysis

The House Rules Should be Publicly Available in Advance of Their Adoption

By DanielSchuman February 9, 2017 5 min read

At the start of the 115th Congress, there was a fight over whether the Office of Congressional Ethics should continue its existence. I won’t get into the merits of the disagreement here (although I’ve written about it elsewhere), but how it occurred is interesting. The Office of Congressional Ethics is one of the many offices and agencies created […]

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Rules, Reports & Analysis

Lesser Known Senate Rules

By DanielSchuman February 7, 2017 1 min read

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.

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Appropriations, Rules, Blog posts, Reports & Analysis

Staff Designees on the House Appropriations Committee

By DanielSchuman August 12, 2016 3 min read

Earlier today I tweeted a request for evidence that members of the House Appropriations Committee used to be granted staff designees — staffers paid by the committee that are chosen by and serve the individual members of the committee — but that the designees are being phased out. The following is evidence of that practice.

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Ethics and Influence, Rules, Blog posts, Reports & Analysis

House Beats Back Effort to Weaken Office of Congressional Ethics, But It Was Ugly

By DanielSchuman June 11, 2016 5 min read

On Friday rank-and-file members of the House of Representatives beat back a last-minute amendment by Rep. Steve Pearce (R-NM) to reduce proposed funding for the Office of Congressional Ethics by nearly 9 percent. In the end 137 representatives voted in favor of the cut and 270 opposed, with Republicans more-or-less evenly split and nearly all Democrats opposed. […]

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

The Rules That Rule the Rules

By DanielSchuman April 14, 2016 2 min read

Politico’s Burgess Everett reports today on Sen. Mike Lee, who intends to run for the number 4 spot in the Republican Party Senate leadership but has become ensnared in a fight over party rules. Sen. Lee says he is running for an open seat because the current holder of that spot, Sen. Barrasso, is term limited under party rules, […]

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