From The Art of Association: The Best-Kept Secret of the Secret Congress

A brief story about the results of the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress.

- Click here for it.

On this, the final day of the 117th Congress, I want to pay tribute to a remarkable bit of institution-building that occurred during it. The time is ripe for commendation. There is a growing recognition that, for all the chaos and conflict on Capitol Hill, a “secret” or “shadow” Congress operates behind the scenes to get things done for the American people.

The secret Congress is populated by pragmatic work horses, not performative show horses. Over the past two years, they have produced a raft of landmark legislation, almost all of it on a bipartisan basis. Stellar examples include the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Chips and Science Act, the Respect for Marriage Act, and reform of the 1887 Electoral Count Act.

For two congresses now, one group of House lawmakers has exemplified the commendable ethos of the secret Congress–but with a twist. The members of the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress have worked not to make public policy but rather to strengthen the institution that makes it – the People’s House. We will benefit from their labor.

The 202 recommendations made by the Committee during the 116th and 117th congresses span several critical areas, as reflected in chapter headings from its final report:

“Recruiting, empowering, and retaining an experienced, skilled, and diverse congressional staff”
“Building a more civil and collaborative Congress”
“Strengthening lawmaking and oversight capacity”
“Building a Modern Congress” (technology systems and talent)
“Modernizing the Workplace”
“Modernizing District Offices”