Understanding Congress

The topic of this episode is, “What Happens If Congress Gets Blown Up?”

On a sunny Tuesday morning 25 years ago, Congress reconvened. Speaker Dennis Hastert called the House of Representatives to order, and then the Illinois Republican recognized Representative Earl Blumenauer. The bow-tie-wearing Democrat from Oregon then began delivering a speech criticizing the marketing of tobacco.

He was the first of three members who were queued up to give speeches that morning. Only a handful of representatives were in the chamber. Most lawmakers were in their personal offices preparing for a full day of votes, hearings, and meetings, which would begin at 10:00 AM. Much the same was happening across the Capitol, where senators and their staff were preparing to start the day’s business.

But by 9:45 AM, legislators were fleeing the Capitol, and Hastert, the leaders of the Senate, and other top legislative branch officials were being whisked away to an undisclosed location in Virginia by the Capitol Police and their personal security details. Planes had struck and set aflame the two World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon.

United Airlines Flight 93 out of Newark, New Jersey, with enough fuel to carry it to San Francisco, had also been hijacked, and it was heading toward Washington, DC, and possibly the US Capitol. Were it not for the brave passengers of Flight 93 who stormed the cockpit and brought the plane down in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the federal government could have been crippled for months.

A quarter of a century has passed since that terrible day, September 11, 2001. Yet, unfortunately, it appears that Congress still is not fully prepared to recover and to resume its duties should a large number of its members be killed or disabled. This is a problem, and it is a problem that should have been solved long ago, because the legislative branch is the heart of our federal government, and our system will not work unless we have a fully functioning Congress.

To discuss this issue, I have with me today my colleague, John Fortier. He is a senior fellow here at the American Enterprise Institute, the author of many books, and, critically, he served on two commissions studying the continuity of Congress.

Read the full transcript here.

The topic of this episode is, “Are we being too hard on Congress?”

Hating Congress has become a national pastime. If you asked the average American what they think of Congress, they’ll tell you that it is corrupt, that nobody is doing anything, and that the President and Supreme Court are making all the decisions. They’ll also gripe that Congress keeps passing bigger and bigger spending bills, but that Congress also cannot keep the government open.

No bones about it, Congress falls short in many ways.

To be fair, however, Congress also gets a lot of bad press. Many of you no doubt recall the podcast I did with Rob Oldham last summer, where we discussed the research showing that Congress does not get a lot of media coverage for doing good things but gets plenty of bad ink for its conflicts, its kooks, and its shortcomings.

But bad press aside, are we being too hard on Congress?

According to a brand new book, the answer is “yes.” The book is titled A Case for Congress (University of Oklahoma Press, 2026) and it was authored by Frances Lee, a superb scholar at Princeton University. Frances, I should add, was a guest on this podcast a couple of years ago and helped us think more clearly about partisan polarization and its effects on Congress.

I read Frances’ book this summer and thought I would use this month’s podcast to share those thoughts. So here we go.

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The topic of this episode is, “How can the average American influence a member of Congress?”

A lot of Americans feel no connection to the US Congress. If you asked them, they probably could not name their members in the House of Representatives and their Senators. And few voters have had a conversation with their legislators, or have tried to persuade them by sending a letter or email to their legislators.

I am not picking on the average voter. I can tell you that before I started writing a doctoral dissertation on Congress in my late 20s, I had never been in contact with a representative or Senator. It simply had not occurred to me, nor did I believe that if I asked these people in suits who were hundreds of miles away from me, they would help me.

What was lost on me and is lost on so many other Americans is this basic truth: if you don’t tell Congress what you want, then how can you expect it to do what you want? Voting for candidates who support policies you prefer is important, but it's not enough. You need to communicate to your legislators to remind them of what you want and to let them know that your vote in the next election is not to be taken for granted.

So how can the average American get his voice heard on Capitol Hill? Here to help me answer this question is Brad Fitch, the author of the book, The Citizen’s Handbook for Influencing Elected Officials (Sunwater, 2025). Brad knows an awful lot about Capitol Hill—he has been there for 40 years and previously served as the CEO of the Congressional Management Foundation and a congressional staffer.

Read the full transcript of the episode here.

The topic of this episode is, “Who were the House Appropriations Committee Surveys and Investigations Staff and what did they do?”

More than a decade ago, a friend and longtime veteran of Capitol Hill informed me that he had received a contract to work for the House Appropriations Committee Surveys and Investigations staff. I had no idea who these folks were, despite all the years I had spent working for Congress. When I asked him for details, he explained to me that he really couldn't share much about who they were and what he was doing. I thought that was odd, but I didn't cry and I let it go. I remember thinking it was something that I should look into, but I had more pressing research and life responsibilities, and I never conducted that research.

As fate would have it, a couple of years ago, I ran into Professor Matthew Dull at an academic conference. He is a tenured professor at the Center for Public Administration & Policy at Virginia Tech University.

To my wonder and delight, he informed me that he had written a lengthy paper on the history of the House Appropriations Committee Surveys and Investigation staff. We talked about what he learned about this mysterious corps of congressional staff, and I was riveted. I promised myself that I would not only read that paper but that I'd bring him on the Understanding Congress podcast, and finally, I'm making good on that.

So Professor Matthew Dull is with me today to tell what he has learned.

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Read the archival documents here.

The topic of this episode is, “Does the Congressional Baseball Game increase collaboration in Congress?”

Each June, members of our national legislature play ball. Democrats and Republicans from the House of Representatives each field a team, practice, and then play a game. The 2026 Congressional Baseball Game is on Wednesday, June 10, at 7:05 pm EDT at Nationals Park in Washington, DC. This tradition goes back to 1909, and the proceeds are contributed to charities.

More than a few Americans have scoffed at this event and groused that elected officials should be inside the Capitol doing their jobs. And sadly, the Congressional Baseball Game has been targeted by political extremists. Environmental activists ran onto the field during the 2024 game in hopes of drawing attention to their cause. They got booed, rightly. And one far left kook shot Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) and four other individuals at a practice for the game.

My guest is SoRelle Wyckoff Gaynor. She is an assistant professor at the University of Virginia’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. She is also a faculty affiliate at the Center for Effective Lawmaking, which produces studies that entail who in Congress gets things done—and who doesn't. SoRelle recently coauthored an article on the Congressional Baseball Game titled “Playing Ball: Collaboration in the U.S. Congress.”

And I would be remiss if I did not mention that Professor Gaynor is the coauthor of Congress Explained: Representation and Lawmaking in the First Branch (CQ Press) and the author of the forthcoming book, Echo Chambers: How Partisan Communication Took Over Congress (University of Chicago Press).

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The topic of this episode is, “What’s the status of congressional modernization?"

My guest is Representative Stephanie Bice, who is the chairperson of the Subcommittee on Modernization and Innovation in the US House of Representatives. She also sits on the Committee on House Administration, which has jurisdiction over a lot of aspects of the legislative branch’s operations.

Rep. Bice is a Republican who has represented Oklahoma's 5th Congressional District since January 2021. She previously served in the Oklahoma state legislature from 2014 to 2020. Prior to that, she worked in business for her family’s technology company and ran her own marketing firm.

This is Rep. Bice’s second time on this podcast. Not long ago, she spoke to us about how the House of Representatives could better prepare new members.

Read the full transcript here.

The topic of this episode is, “Does Congress need a Congressional Capacity and Technology Office?”

Congress has a reputation for being behind the times when it comes to technology. Legislators often do not understand new technological developments, and the Hill itself has lagged in adopting technology. I recall being employed at a legislative branch support agency, and we were handed Blackberries while the rest of the country was using iPhones and Androids.

So what can be done to help Congress catch up? A solution has been suggested by the POPVOX Foundation, a nonprofit organization that tries to “help democratic institutions keep pace with a rapidly changing world.” It has proposed that Congress create a Congressional Capacity and Technology Office.

Here to talk with me about this idea is Aubrey Wilson, POPVOX's Director of Governmental Innovation and Global Initiatives. Aubrey has been working on congressional reform for a long time. She previously served as Deputy Staff Director for the Committee on House Administration. In this role, she coordinated efforts to make the House work more effectively. Prior to that, Aubrey and I worked together on governance reform at the R Street Institute. Aubrey also edits the Future-Proofing Congress newsletter, which informs Hill staff of “operational improvements and new resources on and off the Hill” that make their jobs easier.

So who better to have discuss this topic?

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The topic of this episode is, “Why should we care about Congress's power of the purse?”

Well, we are just getting through the FY2026 budget process, which Congress was supposed to finish nearly half a year ago. And the next budget process has begun.

During the second administration of Donald Trump, we have seen an escalation of the longstanding battle between the executive branch and the legislative branch over federal revenue-raising and federal spending. Mr. Trump famously unleashed the Department of Government Efficiency, and he has refused to spend money appropriated by Congress. In other cases, he has repurposed money appropriated for one purpose to another purpose. And this is to say nothing of some of the peculiar revenue-raising maneuvers he has made, such as seizing oil from Venezuela, selling it, and then tucking the money in an overseas bank account.

Should we be bothered by any of these doings? Should we really care whether Congress or the president exerts more or less power over the federal purse?

To discuss these questions, I have with me Shalanda Young, who has an extraordinary amount of expertise and experience in federal budgeting matters. Ms. Young presently is a Distinguished Scholar in Residence and Adjunct Professor of Law at New York University’s law school.

Previously, Ms. Young was the Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget from 2021 to 2025. In that position, she also led the development of all four of President Joseph Biden’s budgets and presented them before Congress each year. She was also a lead negotiator for the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 that averted a first-ever debt default and lifted the Nation’s debt ceiling. Ms. Young came to the executive branch with a load of legislative branch experience. She worked for the House Appropriations Committee for nearly 15 years and served the Committee as the Staff Director.

So who better to discuss Congress’s power of the purse?

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The topic of this episode is, “What’s wrong with Congress?”

I can’t recall the last time I met someone who said, “Congress is doing great. The first branch of government is getting things done and playing its central role in our Constitutional system.

Nope. Almost everyone who shares their feelings about Congress with me despairs of the state of our national legislature. They think that it is playing second or third fiddle to the president and the courts.

So what’s wrong with Congress? And are things as bad on Capitol Hill as we are told?

Usually on this podcast I have a guest who answers my questions. But this time around I am going to share my own thoughts. So let me give you my top line conclusion before I share my thoughts

Yes, Congress has some real problems. But it is not a hopeless case; nor is it as bad as it seems. Moreover, legislators, Hill staff, and we the people can improve Congress and revive representative government. We really can.

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The topic of this episode is, “What is the primary problem?”

Every two years, we have congressional elections, which feature both primary elections and general elections. For nearly everyone who listens to this podcast, this seems like an eternal feature of governance system: primary elections are used to winnow the candidate field, and then general elections give voters the choice between two or maybe three finalists.

But in truth, congressional primaries are a more recent development in our political history. They became the norm only about five or six decades ago.

And like any other system of rules—be it the laws restricting investments or the rules of baseball—primaries are imperfect and susceptible to gaming by the players. Worse, according to some critics, primaries are fueling toxic partisanship within Congress and curbing its capacity to serve the public.

Is there a primary problem? And what is this problem? To help us think through this subject I have with me Nick Troiano. He is the author of The Primary Solution: Rescuing Our Democracy from the Fringes (Simon & Schuster, 2024). Nick is the executive director of Unite America, an organization that advocates for nonpartisan election reform and alternatives to partisan primary elections.

Click here to read a full transcript of the episode.