Eliza Collins, “How Nancy Pelosi is leading divided Democrats through political turmoil, Trump’s administration,” USA Today:

“The only woman to become speaker of the House – not once, but twice – is plowing forward with her agenda, despite demands from her left flank to act more boldly and her right flank to move with caution.”

Grace Gedye, “How Congress Got Dumb on Tech—and How It Can Get Smart,” Washington Monthly:

“These old-fashioned habits may be charming coming from your grandparents, but your grandparents aren’t charged with legislating on cryptocurrency, regulating autonomous vehicles, or protecting consumers from data breaches.”

Eugene Daniels, “The honeymoon is over for the most diverse class in Congress’ history. Now what?” Politico:

“In 2018, Americans elected the most diverse class of lawmakers in history. There have never been more women, people of color, young people or LGBTQ lawmakers walking the halls of Congress.”

Caroline Simon, “Committee had broken voting rules for years, gets scolding,” Roll Call:

“Since roughly 2007 — extending to when both Republicans and Democrats controlled the committee — it had allowed members who missed votes to add their names to markup tallies after the votes had concluded, as long as the added votes did not change the outcome.”

Tara Golshan, “House progressives think defense and non-defense budgets should be equal — and they’re putting up a fight,” Vox:

“The most liberal members in Congress are demanding that domestic programs get just as much money as the military does — a break from the norm in Congress, which typically approves higher spending caps for defense.”

Ryan Kelly, “Here’s why the Senate went nuclear for district judge nominations,” Roll Call:

“Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell cited what he called the Democrats’ “systematic obstruction” of the president’s nominees as the reason for the change. Previously, district court nominees had taken a backseat as Senate Republicans pushed to get President Donald Trump’s circuit court picks through.”

Lindsay Wise and Dave Lightman, “Will the Senate change tradition to ease the way for GOP legislation?” McClatchy:

“A top GOP senator wants to make it easier to debate legislation — an historic step that would smooth the path for Republican-authored initiatives.”

Jonathan M. Ladd, “The Senate is a much bigger problem than the Electoral College,” Vox:

“Two parts in the original Constitution, written in 1787, that are often criticized by pundits and political scientists are the Senate and the Electoral College. It is easy to conflate the two, but here I want to point out they have important differences and thus pose distinct challenges in adapting to the modern world.”

Carl P. Leubsdorf, “Mitch McConnell is Gingrich-ing the Senate,” Dallas News:

“What Newt Gingrich did for the House a quarter century ago, Mitch McConnell is doing now for the Senate, turning it into a far more partisan body in which the minority’s rights are increasingly constrained.”

John Sides, “Don’t blame our polarized politics on voters. Blame it on who runs for office in the first place.” Washington Post:

“In his new book, “Who Wants to Run?” Stanford University political scientist Andrew Hall investigates a familiar question — why Congress is so polarized — but comes to a less familiar answer. He writes, “Most legislative polarization is already baked into the set of people who run for office.” To understand more, I asked him some questions via email. Here is a lightly edited transcript of our exchange.”

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