[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 37 (Tuesday, February 25, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H1184-H1187]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE MODERNIZATION OF CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2019, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Kilmer) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.


                             General Leave

  Mr. KILMER. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include 
extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Washington?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. KILMER. Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak about the work of 
the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress.
  As chair, I am extremely proud of what the select committee has 
accomplished in the past year. I am also proud of how we have 
accomplished our work.
  In addition to unanimously passing 45 recommendations to improve the 
way Congress works, the select committee is establishing a new and 
meaningful precedent for bipartisan collaboration.
  For those watching on C-SPAN, your television is not broken. We are 
actually proving that it is possible for Members of Congress from both 
sides of

[[Page H1185]]

the aisle to sit down together, engage in tough discussions, listen and 
learn from one another, and reach consensus. And I am fortunate and 
grateful to serve on this committee with such thoughtful and dedicated 
Members, including Vice Chair   Tom Graves, whom we will hear from 
later this evening.
  The select committee's guiding principle is to make Congress work 
better so that the institution and its Members can better serve the 
American people. That simple but profound goal guides all of our work. 
It helps us identify institutional problems and develop helpful 
solutions.
  Last year, we held hearings on important topics like improving 
transparency in Congress, bettering constituent engagement, cultivating 
staff diversity and retention, developing next-generation leadership, 
technology best practices used in the States, the congressional 
schedule and calendar, and rules and procedures.
  We kicked off this year with two hearings on Article I of the 
Constitution. The first focused on restoring congressional capacity, 
and the second focused on debate and deliberation.
  While this may not have set any ratings records on C-SPAN, the 
reality is these hearings actually helped us dig deeper into the many 
challenges facing Congress and helped us identify innovative solutions 
to have this institution function better on behalf of the American 
people. As we continue to examine the range of issues in our mandate, 
we are going to continue to listen closely to what our colleagues and 
staff have to say about making Congress work better for the American 
people.
  Many Members and staff have generously devoted their time and 
knowledge to helping the select committee think about policies to 
modernize Congress. We are grateful for their support and thrilled by 
the amount of interest our House colleagues have expressed in our work.
  If one thing is clear, it is this: The desire to make Congress a more 
effective and efficient institution is actually devoid of partisanship. 
Modernizing Congress helps all Members to do a better job on behalf of 
their constituents.
  So far, the select committee has reported three sets of 
recommendations containing a total of 45 unanimously approved 
recommendations out of committee. The committee reports containing 
these recommendations were reported to the House today, pursuant to 
section 201(f)(2) of H. Res. 6, and will be made publicly available at 
govinfo.gov.

  Our first set of recommendations was reported favorably by the select 
committee last May and focused on improving transparency in Congress. 
Transparency increases accountability and, ultimately, improves the way 
Congress serves the American people.
  While a lot of legislative information is public, it is often not 
made available in a format that is easy to access or to review or to 
digest. These recommendations address transparency and accessibility 
problems and encourage the continuous public posting of new legislative 
information, including bill status, committee votes, program 
authorizations, and lobbying disclosures.
  Ultimately, it is the people who pay for the data Congress collects, 
so they should be able to access basic information about what Members 
of Congress do here, whether it is following a bill through the 
process, seeing how we vote in committee and on the floor, or tracking 
what bills Members of Congress sponsor and cosponsor. Improving public 
access to legislative data is wholly consistent with making Congress 
work better for the American people.
  Our second set of 24 recommendations were reported favorably by the 
committee last July. These recommendations fit into four broad 
categories.
  The first set updates policies governing House human resources and 
consolidates the many H.R.-related offices in the House into a one-stop 
shop to help Members and staff with questions about recruitment, 
retention, diversity, legal counsel, training, and benefits. These 
recommendations recognize that attracting and retaining a diverse and 
highly qualified workforce requires offering competitive benefits and a 
motivating work environment.
  The second set overhauls the onboarding process for new Members and 
provides continuing education for all Members.
  The select committee has heard a lot about how new Member orientation 
should be nonpartisan and should include courses emphasizing the 
necessity of civility and respect. Rather than divide new Members by 
party as soon as they arrive here for orientation, we should encourage 
more relationship building.
  Whether at the start of someone's service or later, Members should 
also have the opportunity to continue learning best practices so they 
can better serve those they represent.
  The third set of recommendations modernizes House technology 
resources and emphasizes quality IT services to reduce reliance on 
outside vendors, to leverage bulk purchasing power, and to save 
taxpayer dollars.
  Congress has been described by one of our colleagues as an 18th 
century institution using 20th century technology to solve 21st century 
problems. To address that, we also recommend reestablishing and 
reenvisioning the Office of Technology Assessment to help Congress 
address modern science and technology challenges.
  Our fourth set of recommendations establishes that all proceedings 
and functions of the House should be made accessible to all Americans.
  This year, we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the signing of the 
Americans with Disabilities Act. While much progress has been made, 
there is still a lot of work to do to ensure that Americans with 
disabilities do not face discrimination. Our recommendations seek to 
address the equal access challenges persons with disabilities face when 
working for, visiting, or interacting with Congress.
  Before I continue and dive into some of the other work of the select 
committee, I want to invite my colleague and the vice chair of the 
committee, the gentleman from Georgia,   Tom Graves, to say a few 
words.
  Tom has been a terrific partner, and I value the way that he has 
approached this committee, approaching these as problems to be solved, 
not working to score political points and, like every member of this 
committee, has really had his oar in the water trying to move our 
effort forward.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Graves), 
and I invite him to say a few words.
  Mr. GRAVES of Georgia. Madam Speaker, let me first thank Chairman 
Kilmer for his great work. How he has led this committee has been 
remarkable and an example for all committees, so I thank him for that 
example.
  Madam Speaker, I rise today not only to commend my good friend from 
Washington State, but to echo his remarks and also the pride and the 
joy that each of us on the committee share in the work that has been 
done.
  I guess tonight I am representing the six Republican members of this 
completely bipartisan committee, and we have all committed to work 
together in a great way. So, on behalf of our side, I thank the 
chairman for his good work.
  In the last year, as Mr. Kilmer shared, we have passed 45 
recommendations to make Congress work better for the American people. 
Now, he has highlighted the way we have worked together to get that job 
done, and I want to commend him for leading us in an environment of 
bipartisanship and true collaboration. It is through his commitment to 
success and thinking outside of the box that we have been able to break 
the mold and to get this job done. This is an opportunity that comes 
around about every couple of decades, and to see the work that the 
chairman has done and how he has led this committee is really a great 
thing to be a part of.
  When the select committee first started, we chose to work together 
and combine our resources as one team. Instead of separating the staff 
and office by party line, we chose to just join together and work to 
get the job done as one team.
  As Mr. Kilmer often says: We decided to put the committee not in red 
jerseys and in blue jerseys but, instead, ``fix Congress'' jerseys. 
Thanks to him, this experiment has created a bipartisanship bond of 
trust and collaboration unlike anything I have seen in my 10 years here 
in Congress.
  In fact, our committee was only supposed to last for 1 year, through 
2019.

[[Page H1186]]

But thanks to the support of our colleagues throughout the House, from 
freshman Members to Republican Study Committee members, to House 
leadership in both parties, to the new Democrat members of that Caucus 
and many other caucuses, we were able to get our committee extended 
through the end of this Congress.

  Now, I know I speak for both of us when I say that we are grateful 
for the opportunity to build on last year's work and dive a little bit 
deeper into the issues affecting the legislative branch. Every 
recommendation we make aims to strengthen the capacity of the House so 
that we can better serve all Americans.
  Our goal is simple. It was something we set out early on in an early 
retreat that we had together. The goal is simple, but it is critical, 
and that is we are to make Congress work better for the American 
people. It is that simple but yet that critical.
  So, as the chairman shared, our first round of transparency-focused 
recommendations in May aimed to ``open up'' Congress for the American 
people. The work we do here in Washington is for our constituents, and 
they should be able to easily access information about our votes, about 
the bills and who is lobbying Congress.
  What happens here should just be a click away, as the chairman said a 
minute ago, just one click, one-stop shopping. We want to make sure 
that the American people can truly view the inner workings of Congress.
  While exploring ways to improve transparency and access, we heard 
from many of our colleagues and staff about the need for better 
technology and better processes here in the House. This also included 
giving offices the flexibility to hire more staff and to meet the needs 
of their constituents, as it is individual in each and every office.
  We also recommended creating a Congressional Leadership Academy to 
offer training for Members, not just any ordinary training, but 
professional development training, because each and every Member 
deserves that opportunity to better prepare themselves in how to manage 
their offices and better represent their districts.
  Every day that we are here, we should be asking the questions and 
learning about the issues that matter most to our constituents. 
Continued learning is an important part and an important piece of our 
representation here in Congress.
  Another one of our recommendations that I think is incredibly 
important is that Members of Congress should receive mandatory 
cybersecurity training. Now, this idea came from one of our colleagues 
on our Member listening day, Miss Kathleen Rice from New York. She has 
a bill that requires this practice, and it is something that we have 
pushed forward as a recommendation in the House. Congressional staff 
must undergo cybersecurity training, so our thought is that Members of 
Congress should do the same.
  In September, we held a hearing to discuss improving civility 
throughout the Halls of Congress. At times, it felt like we were going 
against the grain just a bit on this issue. Recommendations on civility 
and bipartisanship are not something that I think the American people 
have heard from much here in Congress, but I think that is why this 
committee's work matters so much.
  Even during times of division, we have to find a path forward. We 
recommended creating a bipartisan, Members-only space here in the 
Capitol to encourage more collaboration across party lines and 
instituting biennial bipartisan retreats for Members and their families 
at the start of each Congress so that Members and their families can 
begin to get to know each other.
  I have often said that the breakdown in civility and bipartisanship 
here in Washington is because of the breakdown in relationships; and, 
in fact, maybe it is because many relationships haven't even begun yet. 
So it is important that we can talk to each other but, most 
importantly, that we can listen to one another.
  So when it comes to communicating, we recognize the importance of 
good, robust communication with the American people as well. That is 
why we recommended increasing opportunities for constituents to 
communicate with their Representatives and allowing for faster 
correspondence between our offices and our constituents.

                              {time}  1745

  Now, we aren't finished yet. We have more work to do before the year 
is over. And I can think of no better capstone to my legislative career 
than to leave Congress in better shape for future Representatives.
  Through the partnership of this committee with the Committee on House 
Administration, we have crafted legislation that will turn our 
bipartisan recommendations into results. This ongoing work is so 
important because it is the first time a committee like ours has seen 
its work move through the legislative process in this way.
  So, as I close, no idea is too big or too small, and we encourage 
everyone to continue sharing their ideas with us to reform Congress. 
Together, we are giving the House a roadmap for a brighter future, and 
it wouldn't be possible without the great leadership of Chairman 
Kilmer.
  Mr. KILMER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his kind words 
and for his partnership. This has been a true partnership with every 
member of the committee, but I particularly appreciate Mr. Graves' 
leadership as our vice chair.
  Madam Speaker, I want to just dive in a bit on where he ended, which 
is we are the first select committee in several decades to propose and 
adopt recommendations on a rolling basis. Put simply, when we have 
consensus, we move.
  We are also the first select committee in recent history to introduce 
our recommendations as legislation, to ensure that they actually get 
implemented further on down the road.
  We introduced legislation in December, H. Res. 756, that incorporates 
the first two sets of recommendations passed by the select committee, 
and we are expecting a committee markup soon.
  The select committee unanimously approved a third set of 
recommendations in December, and those recommendations fit into three 
broad categories.
  The first set emphasizes the necessity of civility and the importance 
of bipartisan collaboration in Congress. Select committee members 
believe that Congress is stronger when Members find ways to work 
together to solve problems, and civility is key to making Congress a 
more productive institution that better serves the American people. 
That is especially important now. And the select committee intends to 
continue pushing for improved civility through further recommendations.
  The second set addresses various administrative inefficiencies in 
Congress: to update Member cosponsorship powers, procurement and bulk 
purchasing policies, the travel card program, and Member emergency 
preparedness training.
  And the third set, modernize the House Franking Commission on mailing 
standards and its regulations governing all Member communications. The 
select committee worked closely with the Franking Commission to develop 
these recommendations, and we were pleased to see the Commission 
implement updated communication standards for Members in January. The 
new guidelines modernize franking rules by including digital 
communications, improving transparency, expediting the review process, 
and allowing for more seamless interaction with constituents across 
platforms.
  As with our first two sets of recommendations, the select committee 
will introduce legislation that incorporates our third set of 
recommendations to ensure further implementation. We don't want to just 
make recommendations for the sake of making recommendations; we want to 
make recommendations that actually improve Congress and its function on 
behalf of the American people.
  The select committee has accomplished a great deal in the past year, 
but there is still a lot more work to do. I believe I speak for all of 
the members of the committee when I say we are ready for that 
challenge. Our plan is to build on our success thus far and continue 
issuing recommendations over the next several months.
  Working to build a more efficient and effective Congress that will 
better

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serve the American people is a mission I am proud to lead, and I am 
lucky to lead this committee alongside Vice Chair   Tom Graves, who has 
been a great and steadfast partner in this effort. I am lucky to have a 
terrific set of committee members who are working to make Congress 
function better on behalf of the American people.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________