Reforming Congress – Daniel Lipinski, Former United States Representative, PhD, Political Science

September 13, 2022   Matthew Chervenak

  • Congressional Reform
  • Video
  • 0:18 Background
  • 6:40 Can you talk about your PhD and your dissertation on communication, what questions were you asking and what did you find?
  • 10:13 The experience going from academic to practitioner, how was that transition?
  • 12:59 Can you talk about the information flow in Congress?
  • 18:48 You mentioned the notion of information flow, what about with the committees?
  • 20:44 How is the party collecting information and making its decisions?
  • 24:28 Does the speakers office have a shadow committee system where they have their own expert staff? How does that work with the information flow?
  • 30:08 What about in terms of procedural elements of Congress, are there sets of procedures or norms of procedure that has changed over time?
    – Lightning Round –
  • 39:51 What should congressional representation mean?
  • 43:34 Do you think primaries should be eliminated then?
  • 46:23 How do you think about the future of your constituency? Where do you see this notion of representation going in the future?
  • 54:10 The other question I have to Congress is the time, from your perspective what is the appropriate amount of time in DC vs home?
  • 59:51 The party control has increased over time, how do you break those rules? Are there other simple ways to address this issue?
  • 1:04:24 My next question is around debate, dialogue, how should that occur in Congress?
  • 1:08:27 What fundamental institutional improvements do you think Congress should make in the next 50 years?
  • 1:10:05 What books or article have influenced you regarding congressional reform?
  • 1:11:12 What are your plans for the future?