12 Oct 2018 What Congressional Rules Would You Change?

What Congressional Rules Would You Change?

In Article 1 Section 5 of the Constitution, each House of Congress may determine the Rules of its Proceedings.  Over the course of time, this has grown.  The current rules for the House of Representatives is over 45 pages, the Senate over 90 pages.  

One of the unwritten rules has to do with seniority.  If a member of Congress is elected more times than another member, they somehow are afforded seniority privileges.  That is, they get to pick the committees they want to sit on before the “junior” person.  This makes no sense in a democracy, especially in the House of Representatives where each member has roughly the same number of constituents.  Why one has more power than the other is not right. It should be a lottery for positions. You can request to be on whatever Committee you want, however, if too many people want to be on it, a lottery should select who gets on.  The actual rule is the Speaker of the House assigns members to committees.  However, a seniority system is in place so he/she makes the assignments based on that. Getting rid of this one practice will improve Congress a lot.  New members with new thinking would get the chance to legislate instead of having to “wait their turn.”  

It clearly states in the Constitution, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”  However, the rules of the House call for the election of a Chaplain who will offer a prayer each day in session.  How they get by with this one, I have no idea.  

The rules of Congress are designed to keep the people who have the power in power. The only way to change the system is to elect members who are not beholden to a party and want real democratic operations in Congress.