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Members of Congress are notorious for being tight-lipped about the details of the legislative process -- especially when they’re talking to journalists. Luckily there are exceptions to the informational lock-down reporters face: members of Congress who are on their way out. Our “DecodeDC: Exit Interview” series continues with one of only a couple of lawmakers who is also a scientist: New Jersey Congressman Rush Holt. Rep. Rush Holt Jr., a Ph.D. in physics, says science trains your mind. “Scientists want the evidence first and consensus later. Politicians tend to look for consensus first, and look for the evidence to match,” Holt says. That has set up a bad precedent in the current Congress, Holt says. When it comes to climate change, and other science-based topics, “ideology has trumped evidence.” Holt is also frustrated at how the Republican Leadership is running the House of Representatives. “The House is run by people who are so skeptical of government that they don’t believe government can or should do an

House Speaker John Boehner, the country’s most powerful Republican, says he’s going to sue President Barack Obama on behalf of the Congress for alleged misuse of executive orders. Is Boehner's threat more of the same partisan Washington theater or a real constitutional crisis? "The House leadership is scrambling so hard to try to reassert some kind of actual leadership, that it’s I think awfully hard for most Americans to see really this in serious way as the Congress trying to defend its authority," says political science professor Phillip J. Cooper of Portland State University, and author of “By Order of the President -- Use and Abuse of Presidential Direct Action.” Cooper points out that Speaker Boehner doesn’t have the authority to sue on behalf of Congress without a vote authorizing him to. These facts make it more likely that the would-be constitutional crisis will likely be reduced to a congressional kerfuffle. But there are important questions at play here. On this week's podcast we ask, what are exec

Members of Congress are notorious for being tight-lipped about the details of the legislative process -- especially when they’re talking to journalists. In part this is because of the intense polarization of our day. It's also because lawmakers are wary of describing the kind of compromise and flexibility it takes to actually get legislation passed. At the same time, the two-year election cycle in the House of Representatives and the narrow margin of control in both chambers makes for an environment in the Capitol of constant campaigning. Sound depressing? It is for us, too. But luckily there are exceptions to the informational lock-down reporters face: Members of Congress who are on their way out. Retiring lawmakers suddenly become great sources of honest information about how the legislative branch operates. Today we’re introducing a new feature to our podcast and blog: “DecodeDC: Exit Interviews.” In the next few months we’ll be interviewing some of the dozens of lawmakers who have announced their retirem

Episode 41: Critical Infrastructure and The Next War by The Scripps Washington Bureau See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When hackers broke into the computers of top American discount chain Target Corp, it made international headlines. Cyber-criminals sucked up tens of millions of credit card numbers, email and home addresses, phone numbers and more, selling them on the blackmarket to reap untold millions of dollars in profits. Target was forced to spend hundreds of millions in computer security upgrades, and much worse for the company was the loss of its customers’ trust. But what if you didn’t have a choice about whether to shop at a particular store, or whether to give an organization access to your identifying data? What if you were forced to turn over personal information that’s even more sensitive, like how much money you make, who you’re related to, and the names and ages of your children? And how would you feel if the organization collecting your data already had an incredibly poor track record for keeping that information safe? Well that’s the situation most Americans are already in, and the organization that collects

The words “populist” and” populism” have been ubiquitous on cable news talk shows and in the political press for the past couple of months. This makes us at DecodeDC cranky. The words, it seems to us, are being used in silly, nonsensical ways, sullying the great tradition of American populism. One person’s populism is another’s demagoguery; there’s right-wing populists, centrist populists, libertarian populists and unpopular populists. As we covered earlier this week, it’s an etymological mess. After House Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost his primary to Tea Party underdog David Brat, The Week warned “The peril of America's populist confusion.” A few weeks earlier a headline in The New York Times read “Obama’s Budget Is Populist Wish List and Election Blueprint.” Populist Wish List? Obama’s budget, really? How so, exactly? The Times headline used “populist” as a synonym for liberal or progressive. There were some items in the budget to help the poor and middle class and there were some tax hikes for the on

Pop Quiz: Which was the most polarized time in American history? The Civil War? Prohibition? The Civil Rights Movement? Nope, no, and nyet. Well, if you gauge by the House and Senate, that is. Political Science professor Sean Theriault tells us that, though the American public has been extremely divided at times over the course of the nation’s history, today’s Congress is more polarized than any before it. Despite the fact that the public is much less so. Theriault teaches and conducts his research at the University of Texas at Austin, and says that unlike in the past, the current polarization in the House and Senate has little to do with big societal issues, or sea-changes in American culture. The fighting is about something much smaller, more arcane, and frankly, boring: congressional procedure. The fight, says Theriault, has become “not about the issues but about the war.” This week on DecodeDC’s podcast, Theriault explains why procedure, and not big issues, are dividing Congress. It’s because of the perma

There’s a quiet movement afoot in Washington; one you won’t hear about on cable news or flashy political blogs. It is the 21st century iteration of a classic American ideal: radical transparency in government. The modern pursuers of this goal include non-profits and business titans, hobbyists and hackers. They have formed a kind of nerd-corps of cyber-civics - designers, computer programmers, hackers and political activists - all working to build technology that makes government more accessible to people. Every year, a non-partisan, open-government group called The Sunlight Foundation hosts a kind of conference for this nerd-corps, it’s called Transparency Camp, or T-Camp among its faithful. Sound obscure? You might be surprised to hear that T-Camp is sponsored by the likes of Google and Microsoft. Many of the attendees are rock stars in their fields, with experience developing some of the most lucrative sites and apps of recent years. They’re now turning their significant brains toward a less sexy, but in ma

"Can you spell logorrhea?" That's what DecodeDC asked Members of Congress and their constituents -- specifically those whiz-kid spellers who are in the nation's capital for the annual Scripps National Spelling Bee. Turns out, the answer is N-O; just about every US Representative we spoke with had no idea what logorrhea means (excessive wordiness), and not a single one spelled it correctly. Most admitted to relying heavily on spell check and their smartphone to pick the right word at the right time. Contrast that with this fact: when we spoke with dozens of kids in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, we had trouble finding one who couldn't spell logorrhea. Most correctly identified the word's roots (from the Greek word 'logos' meaning 'words' and 'rhea,' meaning 'to flow') and even knew its meaning. Ironic, you wonder, that a bunch of pre-teens in Washington could show-up their Representatives with a word that means, 'to spew words from the mouth'? We thought so too. Of course, there are plenty of big-brained l

DecodeDC podcast episode #35: Bright, Young Conservatives; But Who to Look Up To? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The future of Congress has been on our minds. Recently, we considered how advances in technology and data analysis can and will change the way legislators do their work. There are places that are pushing the envelope in this arena. In Brazil official state hackers are building apps, games and data visualizations to help Brazilians – and the members of Parliament – understand the legislative process. In Finland, they are trying legal reform through crowdsourcing – literally turning the legislative process over to the people. There’s one other place we wanted to explore for ideas about the future and politics – Mars. Author Kim Stanley Robinson is probably best known for a trilogy of novels called “Red Mars,” “Green Mars” and “Blue Mars.” Their story follows the first human colony on the Red Planet, from scientific outpost through growing villages and cities, to political revolutions, independence from Earth, and a new constitution. Science fiction is like a big sandbox of ideas in science and technology, but

We have always been innovators. It is in our nature as Americans. Heck, democracy itself was born here, as part of what the 19th century French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville called the Great American Experiment. But with the average age in Congress at around 60, plus a legislative process that has come to a grinding halt in the past several years, could the United States be losing its experimental edge? Sure, it may feel like our civic lives are advancing with the Internet age, what with the massive proliferation of ways you can contact your representatives in Washington -- email, Twitter, Facebook, and so on. The problem is, the people on the receiving end of those messages -- Congress -- hasn’t really put in place ways to deal with the modern onslaught of messages. In fact, unless you take great pains to be clear that you live in the district of the lawmaker you’re contacting, the truth is, by and large, members of Congress ignore your messages. By contrast, consider Finland. There, lawmakers are experi

This is it, folks — DecodeDC is relaunching next week! Keep an eye out for our new logo, and enjoy multimedia content on our daily blog, which will be posted on all Scripps websites. Thanks for sticking with us as we’ve been preparing for the all new DecodeDC and reposting some of our favorite podcasts. For the final repost, we’re going back to the very beginning of DecodeDC to Episode 1: House of (Mis) Representatives. This very first podcast focuses on a feeling many people get when dealing with Washington: “My voice isn’t being heard.” Why do they feel that way? It could be because they aren’t being heard. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As we prepare for the relaunch of DecodeDC, we are continuing to repost some of our past episodes. This week we re-present our conversation with former congressmen Jim Kolbe, a Republican from Arizona who served in the House for decades. Similar to many of his Republican colleagues, Kolbe is a strong fiscal conservative. But what makes Kolbe such a fascinating political character is what makes him very different from many members of the GOP. He’s pro-choice, and he’s openly gay. Kolbe describes his outlook on the future of Congress — what should change, and what can’t change. On another note, stick with us as we prepare for the relaunch. Very soon we’ll have a multimedia blog, new logo and even more content! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last week we re-posted an episode featuring former Congressman Lee Hamilton reading his essay on how politics has changed. As promised, we’re now reposting our follow-up conversation with Hamilton from July of 2013 about the biggest problem he sees in politics today: Money. “While there’s a lot of rhetoric given to the ordinary voter — government of the people, by the people, for the people — the fact of the matter is, a politician spends most of his or her time courting money. And the people who give the money want something in return. That may not be corrupt, it’s certainly not illegal —but it does put disproportionate influence on the money side,” he says. Hamilton cautions against the assumption that the American system has worked for more than 200 years, so it will continue to do so. And another reminder that we’re getting ready to relaunch in DecodeDC in the coming weeks. We’re almost ready with a new logo, a multimedia blog, and even more content. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s a question that never seems to go away or have a clear-cut answer: What’s wrong with Washington? For an answer – or some answers – we’re turning to former Rep. Lee Hamilton this week. We’re reposting a June 2013 podcast with Hamilton, who, with a resume that includes decades representing Indiana’s 9th District and vice-chair of the 9/11 Commission, knows a thing or two about Washington. In this episode, Hamilton reads his essay “How Politics Has Changed.” He argues that in the current political climate, it’s much harder to do the basic work of politics, which, according to Hamilton, is finding common ground. Next week, we’ll repost our conversation with Hamilton about the biggest problem he sees in politics today: money. On another front, stay tuned for the relaunch of DecodeDC in just a few weeks. We’re almost ready with a new logo, a multimedia blog, and a lot more content. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sometimes the journey is as interesting as the destination. That’s what our colleague at Scripps News, investigative reporter Mark Greenblatt, discovered as he pursued what he thought was a straightforward news story. Greenblatt got a tip: NASA was spending a boatload of money on first-class and business-class airfares. That set Greenblatt off on a quest worthy of Camelot, through mazes of bureaucracy, mountains of Freedom of Information requests and dungeons of unreturned phone calls. We thought the story of the story said a lot about the government – and about trying to report on the government. So we debriefed him for this week’s podcast. Semi-spoiler alert: Yes, NASA does spend millions on so-called “premium travel.” But there also is a deeper story about how the government as a whole does not know how much is spent on something as simple as premium travel, despite being ordered to keep track of it. And that raises the question: How does the government keep track of the really complicated stuff? And now

The Obama administration called for an end Thursday to the National Security Agency's bulk collection of data about phone calls made within the United States. The proposal, which would have to be approved by Congress, stems from the uproar following NSA contractor Edward Snowden's disclosure of details about the federal government's intelligence gathering. Disclosures by Snowden and others, such as Bradley Manning and Julian Assange, raise the question of which is worse: breaking the law to leak classified secrets, or keeping quiet about what could be a violation of Americans' constitutional rights? We've gone back to the DecodeDC archives to re-present Episode 23: Morality 2.0, which tackles this issue, and what we should do about it. Featured is Northwestern Professor Peter Ludlow, who explains a generational rift, and where the country should go from here. A reminder: We are getting ready to relaunch DecodeDC in the next few weeks. In addition to the podcasts, which will be weekly, we are planning a daily,

It’s that time of year again, where flowers are budding, the grass is growing greener, people are shedding their winter layers, and taxes are due—sorry for the reminder. Have you ever wondered why there’s so much burdensome paperwork associated with taxes? In fact, Americans spend more than two billion collective hours filling out income tax forms. To provide some clarity, we’ve gone back to the DecodeDC archives to re-present our episode on The Paperwork Reduction Act. This episode from August 2013 features Clay Johnson, a tech CEO and former Presidential Innovation Fellow. He explains how the implications of the PRA go beyond tax time, playing a fundamental role in how we interact with government. So if you feel like the government isn’t listening to you, Johnson says you have to take a look at the PRA. Another reminder: We are getting ready to relaunch DecodeDC. In addition to the podcasts, which will be weekly, we are building a daily, multimedia DecodeDC blog for all Scripps properties—and for a national

He was an influential figure in one of the biggest social changes the country has seen in decades --x the growing acceptance of gay Americans. But, you've probably never heard of him. So we've gone back to the DecodeDC archives to bring you this encore podcast from June of 2013, featuring Rich Tafel. Tafel opened the first office in Washington for the Log Cabin Republicans, the nation's largest organization representing gay conservatives. Tafel provides stunning behind-the-scenes insight of an early 1990s Washington. He describes a vibrant, underground network of gays working in politics that cut across party lines. But Tafel tells the story of how that comradery was undermined by pure politics as the Republican Party became more socially conservative. It's a story of closed door meetings, outing campaigns, and a vast shift in how politics are done today. Quick reminder: We are getting ready to relaunch DecodeDC. In addition to the podcasts, which will be weekly, we are building a daily, multimedia DecodeDC b