{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://lahood.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/can-congress-be-fixed-us-rep-darin-lahood-champions-bipartisan-effort-try", "Can Congress be fixed? U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood champions a bipartisan effort to try", "2016-09-29", "2016", "2016-09", "Republican", "House", "IL", "Darin LaHood", "L000585", "lahood.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "There may not be much Americans agree on this political season \u2014 or any other \u2014 but a general disdain for Congress is near the top of the list.\nUnderstanding why is easy: constant gridlock, delayed action on issues, personal conflict between members, crucial matters remaining unaddressed, the lowest number of bills passed and signed into law in decades.\nFixing it seems harder, but two Illinois lawmakers are asking colleagues to adopt a relatively simple process that worked before to improve how Congress functions.\nU.S. Reps. Darin LaHood, R-Peoria, and Dan Lipinski, D-Western Springs, introduced a measure this week to set up a joint House-Senate panel, equally divided between Republicans and Democrats, to recommend reforms to make the legislative bodies, in LaHood\u2019s words, \"more efficient, effective and accountable.\"\nDoing so mirrors a process that successfully led to reforms in 1946, 1970 and 1995.\n\"It\u2019s the one way Congress has always successfully made major changes,\" said Mark Strand, the president of the nonpartisan Congressional Institute that is supporting the proposal. \"Every 20 years or so, the system starts to break down. \u2026 The way Congress has always (worked on fixing that) was through this joint committee.\"\nSome of the reasoning for such a committee is evident.\n\"Americans understand that the legislative process is not working when they see Congress continually waiting until the last minute to address major issues, and sometimes not acting at all as we saw with the government shutdown a couple of years ago,\" Lipinski said. \"Just this week, we pushed to the brink of a government shutdown and then put off action on spending for (the new fiscal year) until the lame duck session after the election.\"\nThough the Congressional Institute has suggestions for places to look for fixes \u2014 as do plenty of other groups \u2014 what is particularly important to the backers is that there is no set agenda.\n\"There\u2019s no mandate on what (members) have to do,\" LaHood said. \"It\u2019s just an opportunity for people to give ideas.\"\nThose ideas, if they attract bipartisan support, would later be forwarded to leaders for a vote.\nWhile the measure was introduced in the waning days of this congressional session \u2014 members are home on recess to campaign into November and will return for a brief, lame-duck session after the election \u2014 it\u2019s expected to be re-introduced in January.\nThe whole initiative has gathered support from members of leadership in each party \u2014 Strand said having Paul Ryan, a policy wonk, as speaker, is an instance of having \"the right speaker at the right time\" for the proposal to move forward \u2014 but frustration from rank-and-file lawmakers also is at a high.\n\"There\u2019s no one happy,\" Strand said. \"The conditions are such that it\u2019s broken down to the point that no one enjoys being here.\"\nPast members of both chambers are supportive, including former Senate leaders Tom Daschle and Trent Lott, who recently co-authored a book on fixing American government, and former House Minority Leader and longtime Peoria Congressman Bob Michel.\nCitizen frustration being at a peak \u2014 with a corresponding chasm in public approval for Congress \u2014 helps as well, with Lipinski, a former American government professor, noting that \"it doesn\u2019t take a student of Congress to understand that the legislative body is not working effectively for the American people.\"\nLaHood says he hears similar messages, and this offers an opportunity to respond credibly and with concrete results.\n\"When people say 'What are you doing to change things, what are you doing to fix things?' \u2026 this is a way that internally we can address this problem,\" he said.\nUltimately, proposed solutions are likely to run the gamut.\n\"There\u2019s some simple ones, there\u2019s some low-hanging fruit, there\u2019s some others that are a lot more complicated,\" Strand said.\nBut the message from all three is similar: Congress needs to start legislating again.\nChris Kaergard\u00a0covers politics and government. He can be reached at 686-3255 and ckaergard@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisKaergard.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://lahood.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/can-congress-be-fixed-us-rep-darin-lahood-champions-bipartisan-effort-try"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5694301109761, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}