Associate Director, @BPC_Bipartisan | Fmr. @ModernizeCmte | Interested in all things Congress 🏛 | Opinions = My Own, RT ≠ Endorsements | he/him
Washington, DC
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Modernizing Congress is a sprawling portfolio of issues that can often be unwieldly! That’s why my @BPC_Bipartisan colleagues & I put together a new -LIVE & searchable- database of the @ModernizeCmte’s 200+ recommendations! bipartisanpolicy.org/moderni…
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Patrick rocks, hire Patrick!
🌟 It's Job Market Season! 🌟
Over the next week we're highlighting all of our amazing PhD candidates, postdocs, and recent alumni entering the job market. You can learn more about the candidates and their research on their websites.
Today we highlight Patrick Buhr, a Ph.D. Candidate studying Congress, the presidency, and separation-of-powers policymaking.
Website: patrickbuhr.com/
- Patrick's dissertation assesses how the nationalization of congressional elections affects legislative negotiations between Congress and the president.
- He argues that nationalization undermines the president's legislative agenda by giving the opposition party electoral incentives to see this agenda fail.
- He develops and tests this argument using formal theory, quantitative methods and new data collection, and interviews with Members of Congress, their staff, and former White House officials.
You can learn more about his dissertation or read his other working papers in legislative politics and administrative policymaking by visiting his website: patrickbuhr.com
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J.D. Rackey retweeted
🧵📈📉NEW: full 2026 primary turnout data from @BPC_Bipartisan and @Jferrer505.
New this publication, an interactive 2026 map courtesy of @lilykincannon.
Going back to 2010, we have:
-state-by state data
-two-party turnout
-national turnout trends
-highest and lowest turnout states
-turnout by primary type
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J.D. Rackey retweeted
Do you feel adequately represented? Me neither.
Congress needs more resources to do that, but most of all it needs to let ALL members really truly actually deliberate on substantive things.
I know it's really enjoyable to dunk on Congress, but we have curtailed legislative branch resources for decades and crippled its institutional capacity. If we want better results we need to change course.
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As I recently wrote, "By providing a venue for idea submissions...the Subcommittee is keeping with the best practices that, in the words of one expert, made its predecessor, the “premier example of a reform committee.” 2/3 bipartisanpolicy.org/article…
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@BPC_Bipartisan, @BPCAction, & our coalition partners recently sent a letter to the Subcommittee identifying common themes across submissions. We are excited to see what's next as the new set of 200 recommendation ideas are debated and scoped! 3/3 bpcaction.org/appetite-for-m…
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Congressional Modernization Lives!!
Earlier this summer @HouseAdmin @HouseAdm_Dems launched a portal to collect ideas for future congressional modernization efforts. Many groups and individuals internal and external to Congress contributed, yielding 200 submissions!! 1/3
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J.D. Rackey retweeted
A new @aei report by Scott Warren and me: understandingcongress.org/co…
We're having a program about this subject on Wednesday. Come or tune in! aei.org/events/congress-is-s…
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J.D. Rackey retweeted
Congress still lacks a robust continuity plan. And no Congress would mean no representative democracy.
My latest for the Examiner: washingtonexaminer.com/premi…
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To further clarify where this comes from: Research shows that increasing interpersonal relationships among lawmakers increases bipartisanship and effective lawmaking. Obviously, there are limits to it--but I think it's worth trying to incentivize good behavior. Research 👇
Press griping aside, this idea has some merit IMO. One of the problems that plagues Congress is the inability for members to form relationships--particularly bipartisan ones. There is currently no bipartisan members only space in the Capitol. 1/2
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Press griping aside, this idea has some merit IMO. One of the problems that plagues Congress is the inability for members to form relationships--particularly bipartisan ones. There is currently no bipartisan members only space in the Capitol. 1/2
House Rules Chair @virginiafoxx tells 535 one proposed rule change for the next Congress had “a lot of support”: kicking the press out of the Speaker’s Lobby.
“People are very irritated about the press being right off the floor.”
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This is why @ModernizeCmte made rec #30. If we want a better politics, that requires building relationships across the aisle. But relationships don't just spring forth out of nowhere, they need the opportunities and ~space~ to blossom. 2/2
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J.D. Rackey retweeted
“There are more bullets in the round of a semi-automatic pistol than it would take to change the balance of power in both the House and the Senate.”
25 years after 9/11, Congress is still without a continuity plan for a mass casualty event.
rollcall.com/2026/09/09/cong…
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J.D. Rackey retweeted
Ed Markey is now the 9th-longest-serving member of Congress in history, having eclipsed Manny Celler (D-NY) over the weekend:
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J.D. Rackey retweeted
Bipartisan cry for just basic changes to House rules & customs: voting calendar & committee timing, allowing new parents to vote by proxy, giving some training for handling intel.
"This place doesn't have to work this way."
My @washingtonsun column ...
notus.org/analysis/congress-…
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Lots of good ideas at the @RulesReps @RulesDemocrats member day hearing! Several ideas, such as bipartisan dual cosponsors and schedule & calendar reform would help move the institution forward! @BPC_Bipartisan & @BPCAction has some other ideas, too: bpcaction.org/120th-rules-re…
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If only there was a place where members could go to specialize in a policy area to develop legislation and conduct oversight when there isn't policy ready for the floor...someone should form a group...a...committee...to figure out what such places would look like.
☀️AM: SHOULD THE HOUSE JUST GO HOME?
Later today, the House is slated to pass a govt funding bill to avert a 9/30 shutdown.
Then what?
Should the House just go home until after Election Day? It’s what many in the GOP leadership are asking. And it’s sure to be a topic at today’s closed-door Republican Conference meeting.
As of now, the House is scheduled to be in session until Thursday and then on recess until Sept. 14, after the Labor Day holiday. Johnson and GOP leaders have scheduled three weeks in session later this month, with members out for virtually all of October. President Donald Trump is planning a “midterm convention” for Republicans next week in Dallas.
But let’s be perfectly blunt here: House Republicans don’t have much else they can do this month. The midterm election is just over two months away. The House Republican Conference is split. Even keeping the lights on is a challenge most days.
punchbowl.news/archive/9126-…
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