[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 2 (Friday, January 4, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H220-H224]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ADOPTING THE RULES OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FOR THE 116TH
CONGRESS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to section 3 of House Resolution 5,
proceedings will now resume on the resolution (H. Res. 6) adopting the
Rules of the House of Representatives for the One Hundred Sixteenth
Congress, and for other purposes.
The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. When proceedings were postponed on Thursday,
January 3, 2019, the portion of the divided question comprising title I
had been disposed of.
Pursuant to section 2 of House Resolution 5, the portion of the
divided question comprising title II is now debatable for 1 hour.
The gentleman from Florida (Mr. Hastings) and the gentleman from
Oklahoma (Mr. Cole) each will control 30 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Florida.
Mr. HASTINGS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 6, Title II--Select
Committee on the Modernization of Congress.
Title II establishes a bipartisan Select Committee on the
Modernization of Congress to investigate, study, make findings, hold
public hearings, and develop recommendations to modernize and improve
the way Congress operates.
This institution has a responsibility to the people--to our
constituents--and to this country to build a Congress that works for
everyone, not just those at the top. This is not something that will
happen on its own. It is going to take hard work, but it is worthwhile
work.
This is not the first time Congress, as an institution, has wrestled
with how to be more effective and efficient. Three times in the 20th
century--in 1945, in 1965, and again in 1992 when Ms. Lofgren and I
came to Congress--we established joint committees to examine various
aspects of the legislative process in an effort to improve efficiency
and promote transparency.
Madam Speaker, today we are at a similar crossroads. Last Congress,
we witnessed the Republicans lead the most closed Congress in the
history of our country. Republicans blocked everything from immigration
reform and infrastructure to gun safety and lowering prescription drug
costs.
Last November, many of the American people demanded a new direction.
Part of that new direction includes making the House of Representatives
an institution that debates big ideas.
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We are at a moment where the challenges we face as a country are so
great--everything from the opioid epidemic that is devastating
communities across the country to the immense economic and human cost
the world will incur as a result of climate change--that we must come
together as a body in a deliberate and transparent way.
{time} 0915
The select committee will provide a venue for Members to consult
outside experts, academics, and this institution's own Members in an
effort to analyze, debate, and adopt those ideas that will help us
improve how we do the people's business.
This select committee, along with the bipartisan rules package that
passed on the House floor yesterday, is proof that we stand ready,
willing, and able to protect not only this institution's prerogative
but the interests of the American people.
With public trust in Congress at historic lows, House Democrats are
taking transformational steps that will modernize Congress, restore
regular order, and bring integrity back to this institution. This
comprehensive and deliberate approach will undoubtedly improve the
overall function of this great institution that we all have the
privilege and honor to serve in.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, I rise as the designee of the Republican leader, and I
thank the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Hastings), my good friend, for
yielding me 30 minutes.
For the third time in 2 days, Madam Speaker, my good friends from the
Democratic side of the aisle and I are here to debate part of the
Democratic rules package for the House of Representatives. Unlike the
first two times, I find myself in agreement with what the Democrats are
proposing today.
We are here today on title II of the rules package, which establishes
a Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress. While I think
improvements can be made to what my friends are proposing, I am pleased
to say I think that this proposal is an excellent idea.
I know my good friend also mentioned the last Congress, and I want to
take just a second to defend that Congress. Frankly, it was the last
Congress that gave us the first tax modernization overhaul and tax
reduction in 31 years. It was the last Congress that began the opioid
initiative that we worked on in a very bipartisan way. It was the last
Congress that did more deregulation than any Congress in American
history. It was the last Congress, working with my friends on the other
side, that did historic work in human trafficking. It was the last
Congress that also did historic work, again, in a very bipartisan way,
with my friends on the veterans' issues. Finally, it was the last
Congress that began rebuilding the American military after 8 years of
neglect. We will see if this Congress has a record that matches that in
the next 2 years.
Having said that, as my friend laid out, the proposed select
committee would be charged with investigating, studying, and making
recommendations for modernizing Congress, including improvements to
rules; to procedures, including the schedule and the calendar; to staff
recruitment, diversity, and retention; and to technology.
I am especially pleased that this select committee will be equally
divided between Democrats and Republicans and that the makeup of the
committee will include two members of each part from the Rules
Committee, the House Administration Committee, and two freshmen.
Most importantly, the select committee is required to produce a
report with their recommendations by a two-thirds supermajority by the
end of Congress. Those are all excellent proposals by my friends, and I
wholeheartedly endorse them.
Madam Speaker, there is a lot to like in this proposal. I think we
can all agree, no matter which party you belong to, that Congress needs
to be modernized and its processes improved. I am especially happy that
my friends have done so in a way that is bipartisan and, hopefully,
will be above politics.
The proposal isn't quite perfect, of course. Personally, I would have
preferred to have seen the House take up this responsibility in
coordination with our colleagues in the Senate. I am sure the bulk of
my conference and probably the bulk of my friend's conference would
probably tell you that, if any body in Congress needs improvement, it
is undoubtedly the one on the other side of the Capitol rotunda. On
that, we can have a bipartisan agreement within this Chamber.
Of course, Congress works best when the House and the Senate work
together, and that includes the need to improve processes and modernize
Congress as an institution, as a whole. The majority would have done
better to have found a way to work with the Senate on developing a
joint committee made up of Members from both houses of Congress that
would be charged with making improvements to the House, the Senate, and
to Congress, as a whole.
That aside, this is certainly a very good and serious proposal, and I
look forward, with a great deal of optimism, as the select committee
does its work this Congress.
Madam Speaker, I urge support of the measure, and I reserve the
balance of my time.
Mr. HASTINGS. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished
gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), chairman of the Rules
Committee and my good friend.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida (Mr.
Hastings), for yielding to me and for his leadership on the Rules
Committee. I am looking forward to working with him as a member of the
majority in this Congress.
Madam Speaker, we started an important conversation about how to
improve this House as the rules package was developed. Members on both
sides of the aisle brought forward ideas. Many of them were included in
the final package. But these rules shouldn't be the end of the
dialogue. They should be only a start.
I know that there are many Members who will have even more good ideas
in the coming weeks and months, and this Select Committee on the
Modernization of Congress is a unique opportunity to continue the
conversation.
It is a truly bipartisan way to consider ideas on how to promote a
more modern and efficient Congress and procedures to develop the next
generation of leaders, increase staff diversity, and improve technology
and innovation. It is also a way for this Congress to hold ourselves
accountable, to ensure our work to reform this House is delivering on
behalf of the American people.
I especially thank Representatives Kilmer, Lipinski, and Sarbanes, as
well as the New Democrat Coalition, for this idea. It is a step that
this House can take, and it is a step that this House, quite frankly,
should take.
Madam Speaker, finally, I just want to say, as the gentleman from
Oklahoma pointed out, this select committee is truly bipartisan, and
the ideas that come out of this select committee will be truly
bipartisan.
We can improve the way this House is run. We can improve the way we
do things here. I think the American people are hoping we will move in
that direction, and I think we have an opportunity to do that.
I say to the gentleman from Oklahoma, I really appreciate his tone
and his support for this initiative. We all talk about new beginnings
and about ways to make things better, and I think we are off to a good
start. For that, I thank the gentleman from Florida.
Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, I echo my friend's comments, to some degree.
First, I thank him personally, and I thank his fellow members on the
Democratic Rules Committee, for presenting this proposal. It is a
genuinely excellent and bipartisan effort, and it suggests that the
language we heard about trying to change the way in which we operate
was very sincere and well motivated. It is much appreciated on our side
of the aisle.
While we certainly had our differences yesterday, I appreciate the
way, frankly, that was handled by both sides. I am pleased that we are
ending this on a point of agreement and a bipartisan commitment to
actually improve the nature of our institution.
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Again, I expect this committee to actually produce really substantive
proposals. I don't know yet, obviously, who the members on either side
will be, but I know the leadership on both sides takes this very
seriously. I think there is a genuine commitment to try to open up the
process a little bit to make it, if you will, more Member-friendly,
whether you are Members in the majority or the minority, and that is to
be commended on the part of my friend.
Again, this is a good start, as my friend Mr. McGovern said, and I
look forward to playing my part in participating as we make progress in
this direction.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. HASTINGS. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished
gentleman from Washington (Mr. Kilmer), my friend, a member of the
Appropriations Committee.
Mr. KILMER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Madam Speaker, I am proud to rise in support of title II of this
resolution to establish a new Select Committee on the Modernization of
Congress, and I start by thanking Chairman McGovern and the Speaker for
their collaboration over the past several months as they formed this
plan.
Let me say something that the American people know to be true, and
that is that this House is a fixer-upper. Every time the American
people feel like they don't have a say and nothing gets done, or every
time a bill is written behind closed doors and passed without debate,
the American people lose their faith in the ideal that formed this
body, the idea that they have the ability to shape the outcome of what
happens here.
It is time to rebuild this institution so it lives up to the motto
that serves as this Nation's motto that hangs in this room: E pluribus
unum, out of many, one.
Now, every 20 years or so, there has been an effort to reform and
modernize this House. There has been an acknowledgment that like any
other functional organization, it is worth diagnosing what is working
and what isn't, and determining how to have it perform better.
This committee that is established with today's vote will empower
Members to help Congress to work better and to be more responsive to
the American people, a Congress that will lead to the advancement of
shared goals between the parties, and a reform system that allows the
435 people lucky enough to work here to have meaningful outcomes to
show for their work, to produce solutions.
Look, we are on the cusp of a new era. We need to rise to the
challenge by modernizing this legislative body so that we can fulfill
the priorities of the Nation that elected each one of us to represent
them. I truly believe that this select committee will help us chart a
better course, one where consensus is not only sought but actually
achieved, where we can finally make progress on our Nation's greatest
challenges by developing proposals with broad bipartisan support and
allowing them to move through regular order, looking at key issues like
the use of technology, looking at how to cultivate leadership, and
looking at operational changes to this body.
I believe that modernizing this institution is the key to settling
our diverse country's most pressing challenges and restoring the
public's faith in Congress.
Again, I commend Chairman McGovern and the Speaker for leading the
way forward by establishing this committee. I also take a moment to
thank some of the folks behind the scenes who have worked really hard
to bring this plan to fruition, people like Don Sisson and the Rules
Committee Democratic staff, and Jamie Fleet and the House
Administration Committee Democratic staff, who spent countless hours
working to bring us to today.
Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this resolution so
that this committee and Congress can finally get to work.
Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I have an additional speaker on the way, I
hope, but, right now, I don't have anything additional to add
personally.
Madam Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. HASTINGS. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished
gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Sarbanes), my good friend and a member of
the Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Committee on Oversight and
Reform.
Mr. SARBANES. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Madam Speaker, I rise up in support of the rules package being put
forward by the Democratic majority. In particular, I applaud the
decision to establish a Select Committee on the Modernization of
Congress, and I thank Chairman McGovern, Speaker Pelosi, and all those
who made this a priority.
We know that the best motives of Members on both sides of the aisle
are too often frustrated by dysfunction in the legislative process,
which then makes it difficult for us to deliver on the promises that we
give to our constituents and to the Nation. Diminishing congressional
resources and, at times, overly centralized decisionmaking have
empowered outside interests in the legislative process, and those are
interests who don't always have the public interest in mind.
Of course, we know that modern-day campaigning demands are running
Members ragged. We are increasingly unable to study the material and
build the relationships necessary for a healthy legislative
institution.
We have a responsibility to the people to build a Congress that
serves the people well. This is not something that is going to be easy,
and it is not something that is going to happen until we make it
happen. It will take work, but it is work that needs to be done.
The challenges we face as an institution are not entirely new, as my
colleague, Congressman Kilmer, just said. For much of modern
congressional history, Congress has continuously wrestled with how to
be more effective as the first branch of government.
In the past, when the challenges grew, we have come together as a
body to explore reforms to our rules and to institutional design,
congressional capacity, and the matter of resources.
{time} 0930
In 1945, in 1965, and again in 1992, Congress convened Joint
Committees to study the functioning of Congress and to propose
comprehensive, expert-guided reforms.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. HASTINGS. Madam Speaker, I yield the gentleman an additional 30
seconds.
Mr. SARBANES. Such a moment is before us again. It will be a
challenge. After all, Congress is complicated and messy by design.
Modernizing its operation is no simple task, but that is exactly the
role that the proposed Select Committee can play. It can create a space
for Members of Congress from across the ideological spectrum,
representing different parts of the country, different world views and
different backgrounds, to come together to work through the challenges
and think through the remedies. It will be a place for experts,
historians, and academics to present their views and help us wrestle
with how to self-improve; and it will signal to the American people
that we are earnest in our efforts to make Congress work better.
I strongly support the rules package before us, and I look forward to
the work of the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress.
Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. HASTINGS. Madam Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote on the resolution,
and I yield the control of the remainder of my time to the gentlewoman
from California (Ms. Lofgren), the distinguished chairwoman of the
Committee on House Administration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman from California will control
the remaining time.
Ms. LOFGREN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of the creation of the Select
Committee on the Modernization of Congress, and I encourage all of the
House to do the same.
There is precedent for Select Committees like this one. During 1973,
in the 93rd Congress, the House created the Select Committee on
Committees. And although the Select Committee's mission was to study
the structure and operation of House committees, it ultimately made
several recommendations
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to improve House-wide administrative and technology functions.
Among the improvements and modernization steps, the Select Committee
suggested that the House form a Commission on Information and
Facilities, tasked with responding to the growing number of issues
Congress faced, but with limited access to information and analysis.
The Commission also tackled the problem of growing staff needed to
support an increased workload, but with limited physical space to
accommodate them. The result was an installation of a system of 30
computer terminals for Members of Congress and committees of
legislative research.
Now, this seems trivial now, especially when information is in our
pockets, in our iPhones, but at the time it was revolutionary for the
Congress to be able to get this information on its computers. This is
just one example of how a Select Committee made Congress work better.
Following the Select Committee came the election of the Class of
1974. Fueled by the Watergate scandal, the new Members did much to
change the Congress. They decentralized power. They invigorated our
oversight responsibilities. They began a conversation that would change
how we do business forever.
For example, televising the floor proceedings; the 1976 Government in
the Sunshine Act. The process they started opened up our democracy to
the American people and created a lasting record for history.
This Select Committee has a broad mandate to study how our Congress
has changed and is changing. That begins with our changing workforce.
We need to invest in our workforce, and that is why the proposal we
passed in the rules package yesterday to create the Office of Diversity
and Inclusion was so important. This Select Committee will be tasked
with studying how we can better recruit, retain, and compensate our
staff.
We also must be responsible stewards of public money, and this Select
Committee will help us minimize waste and maximize value in how we
operate the House.
Now, as has been mentioned, one of the virtues of the Select
Committee is its composition. It will be composed of members of the
House Administration Committee who have firsthand experience with the
details of House administration. There will be members of the Rules
Committee, experts in process and procedures who know what works and
what doesn't when it comes to an efficient legislative process, and the
Select Committee will feature Members in their first term who bring a
new perspective and great energy to the House.
Shortly after her election, my home State colleague from California,
Representative Katie Porter said: ``Congress wasn't built for Members
like me.'' And unfortunately, I think Katie is right. But we can change
that, and we will change that. We can give the people's House back to
the people.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, my additional speaker has not yet arrived,
so I am prepared to close whenever my good friend is.
Ms. LOFGREN. Well, I do have an additional speaker. I yield 5 minutes
to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Lipinski).
Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. LIPINSKI. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of title II of
H. Res. 6, which creates a Select Committee on the Modernization of
Congress.
Before I was elected to Congress, I was a political science
professor. I studied and taught American Government, and my specialty
was Congress. Whenever I was teaching a class on Congress, I would
start by showing the old Schoolhouse Rock video ``I'm Just a Bill.'' In
this video, Bill taught how a bill becomes a law. It was a great way of
introducing, not just kids watching Saturday morning cartoons, but also
teaching college students how a bill goes through the process in
Congress to become a law. This was a 3-minute video from 40 years ago.
Unfortunately, if the song was updated today, it would need to be
much longer than 3 minutes, with the addition of many more verses that
explained how difficult it is for a bill to become a law.
Over the years, Congress has become increasingly dysfunctional. When
I taught American Government, I would always point out that the
Constitution established Congress in Article I, before the executive
and judicial branches, because the drafters understood the critical
importance of Congress leading in our representative democracy.
Congressional dysfunction increasingly turns more power, however,
over to the President and to the courts, which takes power away from
the American people. So Congress needs reform so it can function as it
was intended and return this power to the American people.
Since 2016, I have introduced legislation with my friend and
colleague, Mr. LaHood, to establish a Joint Committee on the
Organization of Congress so we could have a mechanism to study and
enact reform proposals to improve the operations of the House and
Senate. I advocated for this committee because we need a forum for the
holistic examination of the rules and procedures essential to effective
legislating.
We need to hold up a magnifying glass to Congress and to push for
comprehensive reforms to make the institution more efficient,
effective, and accountable to all Americans. We need to find new ways
to empower all Members to participate in the legislative process,
debate ideas, advance their ideas, and get laws enacted.
As Ms. Lofgren talked about, through the history of Congress, we have
had these committees that have brought important changes to the way
that this body operates. With the start of this new 116th Congress, I
am happy to see that this call for reform has been heeded with the
inclusion in the resolution creating a Select Committee on the
Modernization of Congress.
While the Select Committee does not contain all the elements of the
legislation we had introduced, notably, it doesn't include Senate
reform; this is an important step forward that we can achieve today,
immediately, through House rules. The Select Committee will be able to
make recommendations on a wide range of issues affecting work in
Congress, including procedural reform, leadership development, staff
recruitment and retention, technology, innovation, and administration.
And the committee gives both parties an equal say in the process of
developing the package of reforms.
I am grateful to my party's leadership, especially Speaker Pelosi and
incoming Rules Committee Chairman McGovern, for making this a part of
the House rules package for the 116th Congress.
Madam Speaker, I look forward to continuing to work to restore public
trust in this institution by making Congress more transparent and
effective. And by doing this, we will return power to the American
people, and we can have lawmaking just as explained by Bill in his
Schoolhouse Rock video, with power going to the people through their
representatives in the House.
I ask my colleagues to support this resolution.
Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I again want to advise my friend I am
prepared to close whenever she is.
Ms. LOFGREN. Madam Speaker, I am prepared to close.
Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
In closing, while I normally would stand here and be in opposition to
what my good friends, Mr. Hastings, Mr. McGovern and Ms. Lofgren would
be proposing, in this case I fully support the measure that they are
bringing before us.
The proposed Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress is a
serious, well-intentioned proposal to create a bipartisan committee to
produce a bipartisan product aimed at improving the way Congress
functions now and into the future. And while this idea could have been
improved if it incorporated the Senate and insured that both houses
were working together on improving the overall institution, it is
still, nonetheless, a very worthy endeavor.
I, for one, thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, and I
think that this is an issue that they could and should support in a
bipartisan fashion. Frankly, I want to thank my friends; having been on
the losing side of every vote yesterday, it will be nice to be on the
winning side today.
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So, Madam Speaker, I want to urge a ``yes'' vote on the underlying
measure, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Ms. LOFGREN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Congress is a creature of precedent, but we must never be captive to
the old ways. The House, the people's body, must continually update and
renew itself to meet the challenges facing the Nation and to respond to
the needs of a new generation of representatives. This Select Committee
on the Modernization of Congress is a way this Congress can identify
and address the challenges of tomorrow, and will assist us in boldly
meeting these challenges.
The Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress is a way to
deal with problems facing this body right now, today. The Select
Committee is a way to make sure that my colleague, Katie Porter, works
in a Congress built for her and all our new Members.
It is long past time to chart a path forward and to address the
problems we must face. I look forward to working with all the members
of the Select Committee and congressional stakeholders in transforming
the House for the better on a bipartisan basis.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 5, the previous
question is ordered on the portion of the divided question comprising
title II.
The question is on that portion of the divided question.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the ayes appeared to have it.
Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further
proceedings on this question will be postponed.
____________________