Today, the House voted to extend the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress after Rep. Dean Phillips (MN-03) delivered a bipartisan letter signed by more than 30 freshmen members of Congress asking for the extension to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

The bipartisan Select Committee was created at the beginning of the 116^th Congress and tasked with making recommendations to update House procedures and policies to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Congress. After months of hearings, the Select Committee released 29 recommendations, including ideas inspired by Rep. Phillips to overhaul the onboarding process for freshmen members so that newly-elected Republicans and Democrats have a chance to develop a strategy and learn how legislation works together.

“Members of Congress are working in social, organizational, and physical environments that were designed for workers in the early 20^th century,” said Phillips. “Isolation from our colleagues makes laying the foundations of trust and collaboration extremely difficult.  I enthusiastically support the Committee’s mission to propose bipartisan solutions for modernizing our processes, technologies, and spaces to foster greater cooperation in our work on behalf of the American people.  There is much more work to do, and I am glad that the committee can continue into 2020.”

The Select Committee was set to disband at the end of this year, but today’s House vote extended it through at least the end of the 116^th Congress, which concludes on January 3, 2021, as requested in Phillips’s letter.

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