The promise of the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress

In December, the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress released its most recent recommendations to the U.S. House of Representatives. These recommendations add to the Select Committee’s recommendations from last Congress, two thirds of which have already been or are nearly implemented. The latest recommendations address staff recruitment, diversity, retention, and compensation; civility and collaboration; congressional support agencies; and evidenced-based policymaking. Based on our collective experience in the House serving as staff for both parties (in both partisan and nonpartisan positions), we applaud these recommendations as constructive steps that will move the House in a productive direction. 

The recent challenges to our democracy posed by increasing political polarization is a problem too vast to assign responsibility to one institution and too daunting to task a select committee with fixing. Yet, with these recommendations, the Select Committee identifies concrete institutional reforms designed to promote constructive give-and-take rather than dysfunctional polarization, thereby facilitating collaboration and compromise.

Restoring opportunities for member-to-member engagement is critical. Today’s political discourse is at a modern historical low point. Political animosity has spilled out into the open between members of opposite parties, and at times even the same party.

Academic research has shown that legislative effectiveness increases in direct proportion to members’ social connections with each other, particularly those of the opposite party. As former staff, we recognize that building bipartisan staff relationships is also important to successful legislating, and the Select Committee has rightly focused on measures to improve these connections.

We commend the Select Committee’s exploration of a searchable intranet portal to facilitate collaboration on legislation and designated bipartisan co-working spaces for staff. 

We agree with the Select Committee that the House can build on its success in improving the new member orientation experience that is bipartisan. We also agree that a key feature of such orientation would focus on the House’s institutional role in lawmaking and the role of the legislative branch in executive oversight. 

While it was not among the specific recommendations, the Select Committee also considered how member and staff travel can build bipartisan relationships. Our experience has shown this to be the case, and bipartisan travel opportunities should be promoted beyond committees to include rank-and-file members and staff, caucuses, and delegations.

Recognizing that the House is—by the framers’ design—a majority body, the recommendations relating to legislation and committee processes are also designed to improve bipartisan activity. We commend the Select Committee for considering measures, for instance, like creating a bicameral, bipartisan task force to discuss rules changes to require reciprocated consideration for widely supported, bipartisan legislation.

On the committee front, we note that, contrary to popular belief, the House is holding a historically low number…