CHA Markup a Step Towards Increasing Constituent Services & Boosting Congressional Capacity

On Tuesday, April 30, the Committee on House Administration (CHA) marked up three legislative items focused on empowering Members and their offices to better serve their constituents while eliminating waste.

Strengthening Congress as an institution that meets the modern needs of constituents is not a goal that can be achieved, but rather is an ongoing opportunity for Members, staff, and constituents to challenge the status quo and implement adaptable solutions in an ever-changing world.

Today’s actions, led by CHA Chair Bryan Steil [R, WI] and Ranking Member Joe Morelle [D, NY], have put two initiatives in route to the House Floor and one Handbook change in place that will make the House more effective, efficient, and accountable.

CHA has given the final green light to follow updated guidance from the House Ethics Committee to amend the Members’ Congressional Handbook to allow Member’s district offices to cosponsor constituent services events. This change allows Member’s teams in their home state to partner with qualified outside groups to host events that directly connect constituents with services and support teams. In the past, red tape has precluded Members from helping their constituents in this way, but due to groundwork laid by the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress through its recommendation #154 and the dedicated follow-up work done by CHA, co-hosted events can be planned, advertised, and aided by a Representative’s staff to boost constituent awareness and benefit. This allows teams to explore innovative new ways of connecting with constituents, especially in moments of crisis where it may not be possible to secure multiple levels of Ethics and administrative review in a timely manner.

The Committee also considered and affirmatively reported out H.R. 7593, “Modernizing the Congressional Research Service’s Access to Data Act.” This bill strengthens the ability of Congress’ top research entity to access information from the Executive branch, in turn leading Members to have better information on hand to make more informed policy decisions.

And last but definitely not least, CHA has also moved forward with its approval to eliminate the required annual printing of the “Constitution Annotated,” which is a valuable educational resource for Members, staff, and the public – but one that has been successfully adapted to an interactive, online platform since 2019. By no longer requiring hard copies of this resource through the proposals within H.R. 7592, taxpayers would be off the hook for nearly $1 million every ten years.

This CHA full committee markup closely follows the CHA Subcommittee on Modernization markup that favorably reported out many of the same items, demonstrating CHA’s commitment to following regular order. The bills and handbook changes exemplify the vital work being done in CHA to make Congress work better for the American people through strengthening the institution and fighting wasteful spending.