Monitoring the Implementation of Congressional Modernization Recommendations

In 2019, the House of Representatives began taking stock of problems at the core of congressional operations and developing solutions to make Congress work better for the American people. These efforts were led by the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress, which operated from 2019 through 2022 and passed over 200 bipartisan recommendations aimed at improving the first branch.

In 2023, the Committee on House Administration established a new Subcommittee on Modernization to implement the Select Committee’s recommendations and seek out new ideas for boosting congressional capacity. This resource outlines the status of recommendations made by the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress.

Progress Report

The table below provides an overview of recommendations passed by the Select Committee. It details the recommendation, its current implementation status, and the most recently available information related to the recommendation, as well as the type of recommendation and topic area it is intended to improve.

Additional context for each recommendation can be found in the Select Committee’s final reports:

• 116^th Congress (2019-2020) Final Report
• 117^th Congress (2021-2022) Final Report

Implementation Status:

• Closed: Recommendations may be closed for three reasons:
  • The recommendation has been implemented as intended (this is the most common reason recommendations are listed as closed);
  • An entity within Congress has taken action or provided information that resolves the problem the recommendation was intended to solve; or,
  • Either the Select Committee or Modernization Subcommittee determined that further action to implement the recommendation was either impossible or highly unlikely due to technical or logistical barriers.
• Open-In Progress: Full or partial implementation of the recommendation has begun but is not yet complete.
• Open-Needs Attention: No meaningful progress towards implementation of the recommendation has taken place.

Recommendation Type:

• Policy: These recommendations require a policy change of some form, including changing an existing statute, amending House Rules, updating the Members’ Congressional Handbook, or altering some other written policy from a congressional entity.
• Practice: These recommendations involve altering member, leadership, committee, or support office behavior but do not require policy changes.
• Project: These recommendations require the building of new technology products, handbooks, or other deliverables for congressional stakeholders but do not require policy nor practice changes.

Latest Information:

This column provides the most recent information related to the recommendation. For areas where no new information has been made available since the Select Committee’s final report, the cell includes information from the 117^th Congress’s report.