The Work Of The Former House Select Committee On The Modernization Of Congress Will Continue
The House Select Committee on Congressional Modernization adjourned until the end of the 117th Congress. The committee's long list of recommendations, however, will continue with a new subcommittee. Also, on Federal Drive, Tom Temin joined former committee chairman Rep. Tom Quadman, executive vice president of the US Chamber of Commerce, at a House event . Derek Kilmer (R-WA) discussed the question-and-answer format Washington, DC, Friday, February 3.
Derek Kilmer
Every 20 or 30 years or so, Congress realizes that things aren't going the way they should and puts together a committee to do something about it. The most recent iteration was called the Select Committee on Congressional Updates, which sounds like the IT Help Desk, but we call it the Congressional Corrections Committee. And our mission was, simply put, to make Congress work for the American people. In this regard, we have considered several factors. How can Congress as an institution recruit, retain, and acquire a more diverse workforce? How can Congress create a more public and collaborative culture? How do we deal with things like programming and calendaring? And one of the topics that we touched on, which I know will be relevant to today's summit, is how does Congress use technology?
Tom Temin
When the high-tech wireless microphone malfunctioned, Kilmer said Congress was being portrayed as an 18th-century institution using 20th-century technology.
Derek Kilmer
To solve the problems of the 21st century.
Tom Temin
Derek Kilmer
One of the challenges facing Congress is that members of Congress sit on an average of 5.4 committees and subcommittees. If you look at pre-pandemic 2019, Congress sat for 57 full days and 58 days in Congress. Basically, all of your committee meetings are packed into these full days. Unfortunately, this program does not currently have a mechanism for dispute resolution. Therefore, if you watch C-SPAN at all, you have a lot of free time. But if you look at C-Span and notice they have no people on their committee. They don't miss work, they're probably on three or four committees at once. So one of our recommendations was that if you want Congress to work, you should work on a committee. This means that members have to do more than just show up ahead of time to speak, give a five-minute speech, and put it together. So one of our recommendations is to do what all colleges, universities and high schools across the country are doing: use technology to remove conflict from the curriculum. It's not like rocket science. Another suggestion we have is to make better use of technology. Therefore, Congress as an institution should pursue policies that are better based on data than ideology. We recommend the creation of a new Evidence-Based Policy Committee in the Legislature. Involving organizations in things like data analysis to help make better decisions for the American people. I think this is really important.
Tom Temin
Kilmer argues with membership. Local constituents go to a member of Congress, say, about a veteran's problem or a Social Security problem, and the member goes to an agency and presumably fixes the problem.
Derek Kilmer
So basically 435 independent contractors get their own data from their own survey. But technology has no use summarizing that information, saying, "Hey, wait a minute, this VA case was also a VA case that 50 other offices called. Oh, it's a system problem. Let's treat it as a political problem." , a nine-labor problem." So one of our recommendations is to use technology to collect case data so that we can address some of the issues that our constituents face VA, Immigration, IRS, or any other federal agency We do that too Recommendations on how Congress can incorporate technology innovation as an organization We brought their foundation and created the Congressional Digital Service to see how Congress incorporates innovation I am a congressman, a freshman who came in January 2013 I turned the page while taking the oath in. I'm not sure what to do with it.
Organizations need to be more modern. It is not only how we communicate with ourselves or those we communicate with, but how we communicate with our representatives and how we solve our problems. So a lot of our technology advice really focuses on that. Beyond that, outside of the tech world, are some very important tips. I gave it to the board because they have been vocal about the need to help build the capacity of the organization. If Congress breaks itself, it will be difficult to solve the big problems of the American people. I've seen things like the 90's OTA disappear. I've seen things like permanent cuts to committee staff funding. As a result, the organization shows a high employee turnover rate and the average employee stays less than three years. It's hard for an organization to develop brains to solve big problems, because if you find someone smart enough to solve a problem, they'll be hired right away. I appreciate our recommendation and the commitment of the House.
Tom Quadman
We are in a new Congress. Therefore, this Congress does not authorize this special commission. You have 202 recommendations by two parties who elected a committee. How do you see the workflow? Or have you seen it happen?
Derek Kilmer
Yes, this is really good news. At the end of the last conference our defunct special committee made two recommendations. First, he said, Congress should take on modernization and reform issues instead of waiting every 20 or 30 years. We therefore recommend setting up such reform committees at least every three to four Congresses. However, in addition, we have proposed the formation of a new subcommittee under the House of Representatives to implement these 202 recommendations. And now the good news. Of these, 45 have been fully implemented and 70 are under implementation. But they need attention. Congress is a slow moving machine. And for at least some people to commit to implementation, I think that's very important. Thanks to the new majority, they accepted this recommendation and followed it. Then a new Committee on Modernization of Congress was created, a new subcommittee of the Department of the Interior. Run by Stephanie Baez (right) of Oklahoma. I will be a senior member. And I'm excited about that because I think we'll make some progress on these reform ideas.
Tom Quadman
One of the reasons we want to hold this conference is to connect the public sector with the private sector. Explore available solutions and see if you can prioritize government IT modernization. Now let's talk about what started yesterday between President McCarthy (Representative California) and President Biden, well, how do we solve the debt ceiling issue? But apart from that, how do we manage the cost? Does the government need to modernize information technology? Does this conversation have a place?
Derek Kilmer
I hope so too. Because I think there are areas where Congress can invest in the use of technology. As you both improve government efficiency, you increase government transparency, and you eliminate real cybersecurity vulnerabilities, which I think is certainly a problem for congressional offices and federal agencies. I think some of it will eventually require investment. And the [FAA] example is a good example, because when it was a technical problem, it cost a lot of money This has had a significant impact on the tourism sector. Some of these investments will save us a lot of money in the future. And I believe that information technology modernization should be part of the conversation to make government more efficient and effective for the American people.
