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Democrats in Congress blog
Budget Reconciliation, the Byrd Rule and How Majorities Pass Big Bills Reconciliation lets a Senate majority pass tax and spending bills without sixty votes, within strict limits. Here is how it works, why a $15 minimum wage failed the Byrd rule, and who enforces it. Edmund Muskie and the Clean Air Act of 1970 How a senator from a Maine paper-mill town built the Clean Air Act of 1970, why its health-based standards still matter, and who breathes the difference. The 1917 Cloture Rule and Wilson's Little Group of Willful Men How a filibuster against arming merchant ships in March 1917 gave the Senate its first cloture rule, and why that two-thirds bar still shapes what a Democratic majority can pass. 1931: How Democrats Won the House Through Special Elections Before It Even Met Republicans won the House in 1930, but deaths and special elections handed it to Democrats before Congress met. How that happened, and what the new majority did with it. 219 to 212: The Sunday Night Vote That Passed the Affordable Care Act How a lost Senate seat, an abortion-language deal and a budget procedure got the Affordable Care Act through the House by seven votes on a Sunday night in March 2010. How Committee Gavels Are Assigned, From Steering Panels to Term Limits Committee chairs decide which bills live or die, and each party picks them differently. Here is how steering panels, seniority, caucus votes and the 1995 term-limit rule decide who holds a gavel. How Congress Writes Twelve Spending Bills, and Why It So Often Fails Since the 1974 Budget Act set the fiscal year to start October 1, Congress has finished all its spending bills on time only four times. Here is how the process is meant to work and where it breaks. How Constituent Mail Works and How to Write a Letter That Gets Read Why a paper letter to Congress can take weeks to arrive, how staff sort and answer constituent mail, and how to write a short letter or email that a staffer reads and answers. How Senator Harry Truman's Committee Investigated Wartime Contract Waste A little-known Missouri senator drove to military bases in 1941, found waste, and built a bipartisan committee that became the model for policing defense spending. How the Inflation Reduction Act Became the Biggest US Climate Law How a bill declared dead in late 2021 passed the Senate on a tie-breaking vote in August 2022, and what its tax credits, grants and loans were built to do. How the Speaker Is Elected on the First Day of a New Congress The House cannot swear in members, adopt rules or do anything else until it picks a Speaker. Here is how the vote works, why it took fifteen ballots in 2023, and what can stall it. How to Ask a Question at a Town Hall and Get a Real Answer How to find a town hall, write a question short and specific enough that a politician has to answer it, ask it well under pressure, and follow up so the answer goes on the record. How to Call Your Member of Congress So the Staff Tally Your Call What happens to a phone call after a congressional staffer picks up, how calls are logged by issue and position, and how to make a ninety-second call that lands in the count. How to Meet Your Senator's Staff at a District Office Visit How to request, prepare for and run a constituent meeting with a senator's staff back home, from the scheduling email to the one-page leave-behind and the follow-up that keeps the door open. James Hansen's Hot June Day Before the Senate in 1988 On June 23, 1988, a NASA scientist told senators global warming had begun. Here is what that hearing changed, what Washington did and failed to do next, and why it took decades. Sam Rayburn's 1955 Return to the Speaker's Chair and the Art of Quiet Power How Sam Rayburn ran a new Democratic House under a popular Republican president, what his quiet methods won, and what they cost the people his caucus left waiting. The 100th Congress and the Veto Overrides of a New Senate Majority How a new Democratic Senate in 1987 joined the House to override Reagan on clean water, highways and civil rights, and why each override needed Republican votes. The 1974 Deal Between Nixon and Ted Kennedy That Never Got Signed In 1974 a Republican president offered near-universal coverage through employers. Kennedy and organized labor held out for more, and Watergate ended the chance. The 95-0 Byrd-Hagel Vote That Doomed Kyoto in the Senate In July 1997 the Senate voted 95-0 against any climate treaty that bound only rich nations. How that vote sank Kyoto and shaped every US climate agreement since, including Paris. The Cuyahoga Fire and the 1972 Veto Override That Made the Clean Water Act A small fire on an oily Cleveland river in 1969 became a national symbol, and three years later Congress overrode President Nixon's veto by huge bipartisan margins to pass the Clean Water Act. The Early-Morning Thumbs-Down That Saved the Affordable Care Act Why seven years of promises to repeal the Affordable Care Act ended with John McCain's no vote in July 2017, and what the failure revealed about who a law belongs to. The Filibuster Began as an Accident of an 1806 Senate Rules Cleanup How Aaron Burr's 1805 advice to tidy the Senate rulebook removed the motion that could end debate, how that gap became the filibuster, and what the history means for a new Democratic Senate. The House Rules Package and Why the First Vote Shapes the Next Two Years One line in the January 2023 House rules let a single member force a vote to fire the Speaker, and that October it happened. Here is how the rules package works and what goes in it. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 and the Power of the Purse Why Richard Nixon's refusal to spend money Congress had approved led to the 1974 budget law, how GAO enforces it, and what the 2025 fights over frozen funds tested. Waxman-Markey, the 2009 Cap-and-Trade Bill That Passed the House and Died How a carbon cap squeaked through the House in June 2009, why the Senate never voted on it, and how its failure shaped the very different climate law of 2022.