From Staff Cuts to Lagging Technology, Congress Has a Capacity Problem

Casey Burgat writes at Brookings Institution’s FixGov Blog:

“Congress has convened for one of the busier sessions it has faced in decades. But can it do its job?

“A recently published report from the Congressional Management Foundation provides yet more support for the growing and alarming consensus that Congress lacks the resources to perform its duties successfully. In the words of author Kathy Goldschmidt: “Congress may not be working well because it does not currently have the capacity to work well.”

“More striking still is that these findings come not from academics or think-tankers, but from those who actually do the work. The survey was culled from the responses of 184 senior congressional senior staffers, including chiefs of staff, deputy chiefs of staff, legislative directors, communications directors, House district directors and Senate state directors. Senior aides—veterans of both D.C. and district offices—are most familiar with the demands and deficiencies of Congress, and are in a unique position to provide experience-backed answers as to why the national legislature increasingly fails to execute its role in our democracy….”

Read more at https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2017/09/11/congress-has-a-capacity-problem/

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