Reforming Congress – Tom Wickham, Former Parliamentarian of the US House of Representatives

0:14 – Background
4:22 – What does the U.S. House Parliamentarian do? Comparison to the Parliamentarian of the Senate?
9:38 – How big is the office of the Parliamentarian?
10:55 – How does the evolution of rules happen? Does the parliamentarian have any say in this?
14:25 – Set of rules that the parliamentarian is enforcing
18:00 – Informal Rules (example: intraparty rules)
18:53 – What is the purpose of the rules in Congress?
21:05 – Majority versus minority
23:18 – When you think of any parliamentary procedure– how do rules get judged on good or bad?
26:18 – Concept of the equal representation3
0:35 – Groups of rules in the bill to law process
40:27 – Concept of the majoritarian ideal
42:25 – What are the rules on the floor?
45:15 – Studying the rules of other countries and their parliamentarian systems
47:18 – How can the rules be visualized?
49:45 – What rules would you change and add to the legislative system?
52:49 – Are there rules in the party systems that become institutional components?
[Lightning Round]
55:48 – What do you think congressional representation should mean?
59:03 – How would your ideal Congress allocate its time?
1:00:12 – How should debate, deliberation, or dialogue occur or be structured in Congress?
1:05:01 – What fundamental institutional improvement should Congress make within 50 years?
1:06:21 – What book or article most shaped your thinking with respect to congressional reform?
1:07:47 – Long term plans