House and Senate procedure explained by scholars and practitioners with real Capitol Hill experience.
In the News
A step-by-step guide to how a determined majority can overcome minority obstruction without abolishing the filibuster.
This post highlights how the House can make it easier for the Senate to pass legislation.
This piece reviews the procedural tools that can shorten, structure, or otherwise discipline extended debate in the Senate.
This piece explains how Democrats could have used existing Senate rules to force a real talking filibuster on voting-rights legislation.
The Senate
A detailed guide to how Senate majorities can avoid unlimited amendments in a talking filibuster.
A step-by-step guide to how a determined majority can overcome minority obstruction without abolishing the filibuster.
This post highlights how the House can make it easier for the Senate to pass legislation.
This piece reviews the procedural tools that can shorten, structure, or otherwise discipline extended debate in the Senate.
A practical guide to identifying appropriations provisions that may run afoul of Rule XVI.
This piece explains why moving a minibus through the Senate often depends less on raw majority power than on unanimous consent.
Senate rules and party practices may give Republicans more leverage over earmarks than they are using.
How substantive disagreements can quickly become floor-management problems when senators don’t follow their own party rules.
Senate minorities only gain leverage when they are willing to use the tools available to them.
This piece lays out how existing procedures can be used to move the process forward without nuking the rules.
The article explores how Senate rules shape the timing, leverage, and possible resolution of fiscal brinkmanship.
This post argues that so-called pocket rescissions fit more comfortably within the law and practice than critics often admit.
A useful primer on how rescission proposals move through Congress and where the pressure points lie.
The parliamentarian’s influence is significant, but the Senate’s rules are ultimately determined by senators themselves.
This piece explores what happens when the House revisits a decision after the process is already in motion.
How Senate rules might be used to move a border bill more quickly than many observers expect.
“Secret holds” aren’t secret—they’re tools senators use to gain leverage in negotiations.
The House
This post highlights how the House can make it easier for the Senate to pass legislation.
This post argues that so-called pocket rescissions fit more comfortably within the law and practice than critics often admit.
A useful primer on how rescission proposals move through Congress and where the pressure points lie.
This piece explores what happens when the House revisits a decision after the process is already in motion.
A procedural guide to impeachment mechanics in the House and the political stakes when members bring such a resolution to the floor.
Meet the Founder
James Wallner brings firsthand Capitol Hill experience to his analysis, having worked at every level of Congress, from Legislative Assistant to Executive Director of the Senate Steering Committee. He is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation.

A detailed guide to how Senate majorities can avoid unlimited amendments in a talking filibuster.