Four prominent members of the U.S. House of Representatives who have spent their careers looking not only for the best policies but also for ways to improve the way Congress makes policies have come together around a set of reforms in House Rules to limit the influence of lobbyists, increase fiscal responsibility, curb abuses of power, end the 2 day work week, allow members to know what is in the legislation they are voting on before they cast their votes and allow full and open debate in conference committees where much of the real work of legislating takes place. They will unveil their package of institutional reforms for the first time at a luncheon panel discussion held at the Center for American Progress on Monday, December 5, 2005. Norman Ornstein, Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and author of the forthcoming book Broken Branch, and Scott Lilly, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, will join them.

The Center for American Progress is pleased to invite you to attend a conference on a bold new proposal to strengthen the competitiveness of U.S. agriculture, promote global economic growth, and develop safe, clean and affordable energy.

Congressional Scholar Donald Mathews divided legislators into two categories, "work horses" and "show horses." Congressman David Hobson is definitely in the former category. As Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development and the Second Ranking Republican on the Defense Subcommittee, Hobson attracts relatively little press attention but plays an enormous role in shaping government policy in a variety of venues.

On December 14—a day after the International Criminal Court (ICC) presented an update on the court’s progress to the United Nations and the Justice Minister of Sudan declared that the court was barred from entering Darfur—the Open Society Institute (OSI) and the Security and Peace Initiative (SPI) provided experts and the press an exclusive opportunity to discuss these developments with ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo.

Iraq's historic elections for a new national assembly on December 15 mark the end of Iraq's transitional government and the start of a precarious process of establishing a permanent Iraqi government. Iraqis face many challenges ahead as they work to create a new national government and resolve many questions left unanswered by the constitution passed in Iraq’s constitutional referendum. Please the join the Center and its expert guests for a panel discussion on the parliamentary elections and the next steps in supporting Iraq's political transition.