Summary#
The Congress at Work Resolution is a House resolution, not a bill amending federal statutes. If adopted, it would require House Members and committees to publish monthly activity reports; its stated goal is to make their work public.
- Members, including Delegates and the Resident Commissioner, must post reports on their official websites covering their schedules, committee activity, House votes, and sponsored or cosponsored legislation.
- Schedule reports must list meetings and events related to official or representational duties that the Member attended, and name the people and organizations who attended meetings with the Member.
- Committee reports must record members’ attendance and votes at committee hearings and other meetings. They must be searchable and downloadable.
- Members and committees must post each month’s report by the earlier of 60 days after the month ends or the last day of that Congress.
- The Committee on House Administration must issue rules to carry out and enforce the requirements, while ensuring reports do not disclose classified information. The Chief Administrative Officer must notify the committee when a Member or committee fails to comply.
What it means for you#
- House Members: If the resolution is adopted, they must publish the specified monthly information and links on their official websites. Their reports must include how they voted on each recorded House or Committee of the Whole vote, with the date, roll-call number, related measure, and a brief description or short title.
- House committees: Each standing, special, and select committee must publish its monthly attendance and voting report in a searchable, downloadable format.
- Public: You would have a monthly source for this information on Members’ and committees’ official websites. The resolution does not directly change public rights, taxes, benefits, or services.
- House administration officials: The Committee on House Administration must make rules, and the Chief Administrative Officer must report failures to comply to that committee.
- The resolution has been referred to the House Committee on House Administration and is not yet adopted. It would not create a new federal agency.
Money#
No publicly available information on the resolution’s costs.
- The resolution requires reporting and rulemaking, but the supplied material gives no staffing, implementation, or other cost estimate.
What is unclear#
- The resolution does not specify an effective date or explain how the first monthly reporting period would be handled.
- It does not set out the detailed rules, procedures, or consequences for noncompliance; those would depend in part on later regulations.
- It does not say how Member reports must be formatted. Committee reports, by contrast, must be searchable and downloadable.
- The resolution requires names of people and organizations attending meetings with a Member, but does not describe exceptions beyond requiring safeguards against disclosure of classified information.
- It does not explain what information would count as a meeting or event related to official or representational duties.
Case for#
- A possible argument for the resolution is that it would gather information about schedules, votes, committee work, and legislation into regular public reports.
- Linking to Congress.gov, House roll-call records, and committee reports could help readers find the underlying records.
- Monthly deadlines could make this information available on a regular schedule rather than leaving it to each Member or committee to decide when to post.
Case against#
- The reports would require Members and committees to collect and publish information every month; the resolution gives no cost estimate.
- The resolution requires names of meeting attendees but does not spell out how to handle meetings that are sensitive but not classified.
- The Committee on House Administration would set enforcement rules later. The resolution does not itself state a specific penalty for a failure to report.
- The resolution does not define some key terms, including which events count as related to a Member’s official or representational duties.