{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://lahood.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/dysfunctional-congress-targeted-bipartisan-house-bill", "A Dysfunctional Congress is Targeted in Bipartisan House Bill", "2016-09-30", "2016", "2016-09", "Republican", "House", "IL", "Darin LaHood", "L000585", "lahood.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "By Paul M. Krawzak, CQ Roll Call  \n\tLawmakers frustrated with what they say is continuing dysfunction in Congress want to start discussions about an overhaul, and their drive got off the ground this week with the introduction of bipartisan legislation.\nThe measure (H Con Res 169) to establish a Joint Committee on the Organization of the Congress is spearheaded by two House members from Illinois, Republican\u00a0Darin LaHood\u00a0and Democrat\u00a0Daniel Lipinski. It\u00a0was introduced Wednesday and would create a committee made up of 28 lawmakers evenly divided between the House and Senate and Democrats and Republicans.\n\u200bThe panel\u2019s mission would be to study the organization and operation of Congress and offer recommendations. These would be aimed at making lawmakers more accountable to their constituents, strengthening the relationship between the House and Senate and improving the \u201corderly, timely and effective consideration and disposal of legislation.\"\nThe legislation also directs the committee to study the organization of committees in the two chambers and their \u201ceffectiveness\u201d in addressing legislative responsibilities such as the authorization of government programs and \u201cfuture fiscal impact\u201d [curbing the growing cost] of entitlement programs.\nIn a joint interview with CQ on Thursday, LaHood and Lipinski said the panel would provide a bipartisan and bicameral forum for the discussion of changes in rules or laws that would relieve the \u00a0\u201cdysfunction\u201d in Congress.\n\u201cPeople complain all the time about Congress needs to be fixed, it\u2019s dysfunctional, it doesn\u2019t work, we\u2019re not getting the essential work that we need to get done done,\u201d LaHood, the chief sponsor and a first-term member, said. \u201cAnd so what do you do about it?\u201d\nAnswering his own question, he said a joint committee \u201cgives us a platform to have a debate on those issues.\u201d\nCosponsor Lipinski, who holds a doctorate in political science and once worked as a professor, said it \u201cdoesn\u2019t take a congressional scholar to know that Congress is broken. We\u2019re not getting our job done.\u201d Lipinski said rules changes \u201ccould make Congress work better.\u201d\nThe proposal, which grew out of a series of discussions among former lawmakers and senior staff sponsored by the Congressional Institute, has so far gained 38 cosponsors, including 11 Democrats. The Republican-leaning institute is a not-for-profit group that organizes legislative conferences.\nUnder the legislation, 12 members from each chamber would be appointed to the committee, with six each appointed by the House speaker and House minority leader, and by the majority and minority leaders of the Senate. The majority and minority leaders of both the House and Senate would be ex-officio members of the committee with full voting rights.\nThe proposal empowers the committee to hire staff and requires the panel to report its findings to Congress at the end of each session of the Congress.\nLipinski and LaHood both took a pass on advocating any particular changes in rules or policies, saying they do not want to create the wrong impression. \u201cWe\u2019re not looking at this as a way to implement something that we have in mind,\u201d Lipinski said.\nThe plan has been endorsed by former lawmakers and outside observers.\nIn an emailed statement, Robert L. Livingston, a former Republican House Appropriations chairman from Louisiana, urged support for the proposal \u201c if you are concerned as so many of us are that Congressional inertia has eroded the power of the legislative branch of government.\u201d\nFormer Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Robert S. Walker said in a statement the Congress is in need of \u201cstructural and process reform\u201d and that \u201cits structure must allow it to address 21st Century concerns in a timely way, and its processes must reinvigorate the marriage between policy setting and spending priorities.\u201d\nBoth Livingston and Walker are lobbyists. Livingston is a founding partner of The Livingston Group, while Walker is executive chairman of Wexler/Walker.\nJohn Fortier, director of the Democracy Project at the Bipartisan Policy Center, wrote that because society, communications systems and national imperatives have changed \u201cdramatically\u201d over the last 25 years, \u201cmuch will be gained from a broad and deliberate assessment of institutional strengths and needs.\u201d\nLaHood said he doubts the plan would get a vote before the end of the year. Introducing it now gives supporters \u201ca head start going into the next Congress,\u201d he said.\npaulkrawzak@cqrollcall.com\nSource:\u00a0CQ News\n\u00a9 2016 CQ Roll Call All Rights Reserved.", 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/dysfunctional-congress-targeted-bipartisan-house-bill"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6234698705375195, "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"}