Now here's something you could harass (nicely) your Congressman about.
Everyone knows Congress is broken. There are lots of causes, from gerrymandering to the cost of campaigns to the explosive impact of social media. But believe it or not, there’s a relatively simple fix that the next speaker of the House, regardless of party affiliation, could make that would go a long way toward making Congress work again.
Free the House Rules Committee.
Few Americans who haven’t worked on Capitol Hill even know what the Rules Committee is, but it is key to the effective functioning of the House of Representatives. Since its establishment in 1880, it has been the primary means by which the leadership of the House schedules legislation and sets procedures for how bills are debated on the floor. Over the past several decades, however, the majority leadership in each party has used the Rules Committee to shut out the minority and often its own members from any meaningful participation in the legislative process.
The current Rules Committee has taken this to such an extreme that it has already set a record for issuing the highest ever number of “closed” rules—restrictions on the legislative process that allow no amendments and little debate—in a session of Congress. And the current session still has four months to go.
For those who long for the days when Congress “worked,” when debate mattered and compromise existed in the congressional lexicon, the impending change of speakership—regardless of whether it goes to a Democrat or Republican—offers a chance to change course.
https://www.politico.com/agenda/stor...ongress-000699
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