Rules
We shape the official rules that govern how Congress functions.
The rules represent a huge opportunity to promote productive conflict and minimize gridlock, and make the institution of Congress run efficiently. Too often, though, rules entrench power, hinder transparency, and bog down legislative business.
We’ve conducted deep research into the rules and regularly make recommendations for how to use the rules to fix Congress. We also maintain a public spreadsheet tracking the rules for all House and Senate committees. This research came in handy during the pandemic, when the question of how committees could operate remotely became urgent. We knew that current Senate quorum rules would prevent any remote proceedings — though would allow for proxy voting in certain committees. We advocated for changing these antiquated requirements.
In partnership with the Lincoln Network (now the Foundation for American Innovation), we recommended the House change its rules for the 118th Congress, with these top priorities:
Establish a new subcommittee focused on congressional modernization efforts, to be housed within the Committee on House Administration
Create a Chief Data Officer of the House of Representatives focused on improving the transparency of legislative branch information
Create a commission to improve the security and continuity of Congress
Keep the Office of the Whistleblower Ombuds created in the 116th Congress
Improve the House Calendar’s regularity of proceedings by adopting a three weeks on, two weeks off schedule, which maximizes work time and minimizes travel time
Allocate every House member one personal office staffer who is eligible to apply for a TS/SCI (Top Secret / Sensitive Compartmented Information) clearance to support the member on relevant matters (just as the Senate now does)
Publish online House Inspectors General reports, which provide important oversight of congressional activities
Publish online in a central location all Congressional Budget Justifications, so we can understand how the Legislative branch spends taxpayer funds
Create modern Legislative Service Organizations as a platform for members of Congress to collaborate on issues of interest
Implement pending Office of Workplace Rights regulations, some of which have languished for a decade
Thanks in part to our recommendations, there is a new Committee on House Administration Subcommittee on Modernization, meaning the work to find bipartisan solutions to improve the systems and technology that buttress how Congress operates can continue.
The House Rules for the 117th Congress included provisions we recommended directing Congress to make more documents available in machine-readable formats, improved witness disclosures, and preventing misuse of a rule meant to improve bills from being used to stonewall the legislative process.
We have also argued for the Senate to modernize its rules and released these evergreen recommendations on how that chamber should operate.
Several sets of rules govern how Congress functions:
Chamber rules are set by the majority of each chamber at the start of each new Congress. The House rules and Senate rules each represent a major opportunity to accomplish our ten objectives for Congress.
Party rules apply to the Democratic Caucus and Republican Conference of each chamber. They govern how the parties choose their leaders and committee members, identify their priorities, and express their values.
We’re focused on rules changes to make party-controlled legislative activities more equitable, transparent, democratic, and improving power sharing among leadership, committees, and the rank-and-file.
Steering Committee rules. Each party’s steering committee writes the rules and assigns members to committees. But who sits on the steering committees, and what guidance they follow, is largely a black box. We’ve pushed for the Democratic Party to publish its Steering and Policy Committee Rules online, which they finally have done. Republicans have historically been much more transparent about their rules. Republican Steering Committee membership is public online; the rules guiding the steering committee are included in the Republican Conference Rules, also available online.
Committee rules are also set by the majority at the start of each new Congress. They dictate the size of each committee and how each committee conducts business.