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Antiquated operations and processes, out-of-date technology, and 20th-century personnel and management practices make it difficult for members of Congress to provide business and other constituents with the level of service they deserve — including businesses, large and small.
Our partner, the Congressional Management Foundation just released the State of the Congress 2024, which reveals that senior congressional staff agree with what many Americans already believe: Congress is not doing well. A large majority of our survey respondents said Congress is not "functioning as a democratic legislature should," and identified deficiencies in the institution, especially with regards to civility and bipartisan collaboration.
In 2018, six Democrats and six Republicans formed the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress with the goal of making the institution more effective and efficient, and to work better for the American people. At a time when Congress is increasingly polarized, the committee has been an exciting model of bipartisan progress and comity.
The bipartisan committee’s work drew to a close at the end of 2022 and resulted in over 200 recommendations on improving the adoption of technology and changing long-standing rules and norms. So far, 132 of the committee’s recommendations have been fully or partially implemented — but there is still more to do.
In the 118th Congress, BFA is mobilizing the business community to advocate for adopting additional recommendations to revitalize Congress to make it work better for every American. Please contact us if your company wishes to partner with us in our bipartisan efforts to enact solutions.
UPDATE: On October 29th 2024, BFA signed an open letter to Congress asking House leadership to support the continuation of the Committee on House Administration’s Subcommittee on Modernization into the 119th Congress and beyond. The letter is also signed by many members of the fix Congress cohort, and was featured in POLITICO on 11/4/24.
