Government Reform

With the Republican monopoly on power in Washington broken, the new Democratic majority in the House of Representatives can now advance a bold agenda for the country. To do so, progressives inside and outside the House will need to force hearings and floor votes on signature reforms, from Medicare for All to a Green New Deal.

For politically-minded interns, a gig in Rep. Ro Khanna's congressional office just got better. Khanna said he will pay his incoming class of interns a $15 an hour wage.

"The House has a new fund for internships. This is a welcome change & long overdue. Like many other offices, we will be paying our interns at least $15 an hour," Khanna tweeted Wednesday. "This will ensure that young people of different economic backgrounds will be able to pursue public service internships."

The Congressional Progressive Caucus, which has historically lacked the clout of other values-based congressional factions, is making a serious play for influence in the next Congress.

In the recent midterm elections, the caucus' political action committee spent more than three times what it spent in the previous election cycle.

The money paid off. The CPC is on track to pick up 19 more members: 25 people from the incoming freshman class and two incumbents ― California Reps. Jimmy Panetta and Brad Sherman. Eight of its current members are retiring.

The recent confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and Republicans' 2016 stonewalling of Merrick Garland have upended liberals' view of the Supreme Court as a protector of key constitutional rights. Now, progressives are starting to talk about how to challenge the power of the sitting Supreme Court.

Even as the final votes are being tallied in the midterm elections, it's clear that Democrats' majority in the House next year will be a boon for the Bay Area's congressional delegation.

Many of the area's lawmakers — all of whom are Democrats — are poised to run key committees or are angling to be elected to party leadership. Bay Area lawmakers are poised to play key roles on issues from immigration to the environment, voting rights to health care.

Here's an in-depth look at what local representatives will be up to:

Often the most critical parts of major legislation are the most boring. For those of us working to bring government into the digital age, the bipartisan 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act, known as the 21st Century IDEA Act, is an incredibly important piece of legislation which gets the big things right. Its downside is that it's not boring enough.

Across the country, people are increasingly anxious about election meddling. On July 13, Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, announced that special counsel Robert Mueller had indicted 12 members of Russia's military-intelligence agency for their roles in the alleged hacking of the Democratic National Committee. While indictments are not evidence, it's clear that the United States has much work to do in order to make its election system free, fair, and secure.