Rebuilding Congress
By Lee Hamilton

With their promise of new energy on Capitol Hill, congressional elections are a time for hope. That's especially true now. Congress needs to fix itself so it can do the people's business. Here's how to go about rebuilding Congress.

First, Congress needs to reassert itself as a robust institution comparable in strength and initiative to the President - our system works best when there is creative tension between a strong Congress and a strong President. It needs to make oversight of the executive branch a regular part of how it does business, and return to what Capitol Hill veterans call "the regular order" - taking up one appropriations bill at a time and allowing all the major issues to be fully investigated, debated, and voted on.

Perhaps most important, with the nation politically divided in the face of fundamental threats to its wellbeing, Congress needs to work harder to forge consensus and national unity behind solutions to problems. The American people expect it at least to try, and when they go to the polls this November, that hope will go with them.

Lee Hamilton is Director of the Center on Congress at Indiana University. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years.