Update 660 — Rules of Engagement:Starve the Beast, with an Orwell Nod On Monday, the House of Representatives adopted the GOP Rules for the 118th Congress. Newly-minted Speaker McCarthy had to make many concessions with the most extreme MAGA members in his conference in exchange for their votes, including creating new oversight committees and spending …
Update 655 — Georgia Breaks the Tie:Political, Policy Import of Warnock Win Senator Raphael Warnock won reelection in Georgia’s runoff this Tuesday, defeating GOP nominee Hershel Walker, football star turned flawed first-time candidate, by almost three points. With Georgia again flashing purple, Democrats have bolstered their claim on a traditionally southern, conservative state. So Warnock’s …
Update 651 — Trifecta’s Final Frame:What Can Still Make it in Lame Duck? Congress returns from Thanksgiving break next Monday for a month-long lame duck session — all that remains of the 117th Congress until Christmas Eve, when you can expect adjournment — and the last shot for Democrats to make use of their fleeting …
Update 648 — The 2022 Midterm ElectionsWhat’s Next for the Democratic Experiment? A sense of foreboding attends the countdown to the Congressional midterm elections ending next Tuesday. The stakes include control of Congress, much of the public and economic policy agenda, and possibly the destiny of democracy. Leaders of the Democratic party like President Biden …
Update 646 — The Political Economy, 2022One Step Closer to One-Dollar, One-Vote The massive sums raised, spent, and required by candidates for Congress to run are setting records, yet dwarfed this cycle by the amounts wealthy individuals and corporations are spending on their behalf. OpenSecrets is predicting over $9.3 billion will be spent on this …
Update 640 — Political Reform BillsMostly Miss, not Meet the Moment With the midterm elections in 33 days, Americans are ready to cast their ballot to return verdicts on President Biden, the Supreme Court, the economy, their representatives in Congress, and just by deciding to vote, threats to democracy itself. Will voters return the nation …
Update 638 — House Democrats OfferCongressional Stock Trading Ban Bill After months of negotiations, House Democrats yesterday introduced legislation, the Combating Financial Conflicts of Interest in Government Act, to impose the tightest restrictions yet on trading stocks by senior government officials, members of Congress, and their families. The bill may go to the House Rules …
Update 632 — STOCK 2.0 Working GroupOffers Principles; Congress Urged to Act Late yesterday, a bipartisan working group of House members published a letter to House Administration Committee Chair Zoe Lofgren outlining provisions the group seeks in a compromise STOCK 2.0 bill. As the fall legislative session begins in earnest for Congress in the next …
Update 625 — Salvaging Democracy:A Clarifying Sliver of Election Reform After the eventful news this week, GDP down 0.9 percent in the second quarter, CHIPS passing both chambers, and the new reconciliation package – the Inflation Reduction Act – introduced, we turn to a similarly signal development last week as a bipartisan Senate working group …
Update 600 — MOC Stock Trading:Public Trust and the Public Interest Voters say, overwhelmingly, that members of Congress should be banned from trading stocks while in office, as MOCs receive privileged and tradable information that average Americans don’t. The policies currently in place to provide transparency regarding MOC stock trading get inadequate compliance and provide penalties that don’t deter insider …
