Congress in Greatest Existential Crisis Since 1788

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Jul 22, 2026, 16:04 ET

House Six-Week Recess Will Leave U.S. Vulnerable to Trump's Growing Power-Grabs and Irrationality - Or Can Reform Itself with One 34-Word Procedural Change

WASHINGTON, July 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Grand Bargain Project, organized by the Center for Collaborative Democracy, today sent a letter to every member of the House and Senate demanding that both chambers adopt a simple procedure that will spur each lawmaker to tackle our nation's challenges far more constructively. It reads as follows:

This House Will Draft All Future Legislation by Forming Task Forces that Represent Viewpoints of All Members on the Relevant Issues. Each Task Force Will Hire Professional Facilitators to Guide Deliberations and Resolve Conflicts.

An abridged version of the letter:

The Grand Bargain Project is offering the House and Senate a 34-word procedure to spur all members to act in constituents' best interests on the most critical issues.

To put this offer in context, the U.S. is now the only country where 53% of citizens see most citizens as "morally bad." Social media has stoked this trend. But Capitol Hill has for decades been Ground Zero for political dysfunction, contempt for opposing views, and intentional stirring of public outrage.

No lawmaker has to our knowledge taken responsibility for any of this. Instead, we keep hearing the same excuses for failing to improve Americans' lives enough for most to notice:

The other party
Dysfunctions of your own party
Outdated norms & procedures on The Hill
Day-to-day demands of the job
Need to raise money for the next election

Lawmakers have even given these excuses when shown a YouGov poll in which 83% of voters viewing the above-cited procedural change - and 38 other major political and economic reforms - wanted Congress to make the entire package "a priority."

Hence this letter. The five excuses apparently represent most of you wanting the title of Senator or Representative without really earning it.

Even so, to each member of the House and Senate, we offer you an opportunity to - at long last - do the right thing at this moment of grave crisis for America, for humanity, for posterity, for our rights "to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." On Thursday, the House recesses until Labor Day, leaving us all subject to the whims, grievances and insatiable lust for power of Donald J. Trump.

If any of the 535 of you want to turn your chamber into a problem-solving institution, please join me on the Capitol Hill steps to reveal the one change that will do the job.

These visuals include the new procedure, the rest of the Grand Bargain, the YouGov poll, and evidence that - without these changes - Trump's havoc will continue unabated until U.S. democracy perishes this year, on your watch.

This note is especially addressed to lawmakers now breaking ranks with their own party to do right by the American people: