[caption id="attachment_15926" align="aligncenter" width="800"] April 22, 2020 NYC's city council met by Zoom. Why not Congress?[/caption]
A Civic Hall virtual conversation, Wednesday April 29, noon-1:00pn EDT
When the US Congress recessed in mid-March so that Members as well as congressional staff could go home as COVID-19 social distancing measures came into effect, it did so without preparing to conduct remote deliberations. Now, Congress is stuck in limbo, trying to govern using the “unanimous consent” rule, which allows any single member to stymie proceedings and making it impossible for committees to function.
Behind the scenes, longtime democracy and transparency organizers tried before the recess occurred to get House leadership to amend the rules to allow remote voting and live-streaming of hearings and votes, but...
