Continuity of Legislatures Series

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt public life, legislatures around the world have been forced to adapt. While in-person meetings have become increasingly challenging, many legislatures have adopted new technologies that allow them to remotely convene, deliberate, and vote.

Drawing on interviews with lawmakers and local experts, The GovLab has created a series of videos and blog posts documenting the most innovative approaches to legislative continuity. This blog post collects links and short descriptions of each post in the Continuity of Legislatures series.

World

Continuity of Congress: Beth Simone Noveck, The GovLab

• Beth Simone Noveck, director of The GovLab, provides an overview of how legislatures in Brazil, Chile, France, and other countries are using technology to convene, deliberate and vote remotely in this short video.

Beth Simone Noveck — Testimony before a Mock Hearing of Congress on International Legislatures and their Use of Technology to Convene, Deliberate and Vote

• On April 16, 2020, members of the Association for Former Members of Congress held a virtual mock hearing on the continuation of legislative functions during the pandemic. This is an extended version of the testimony presented by Beth Simone Noveck.

The GovLab — Congress in Crisis: How Legislatures are Continuing to Meet during the Pandemic

• An initial scan compiling resources about efforts related to continuity in legislatures around the world

Sam DeJohn, Anirudh Dinesh, and Dane Gambrell — Continuity in Legislatures Amid COVID-19: An Updated Snapshot

• This post is an updated compilation covering those international and state legislatures that are the furthest ahead with the use of new technology to continue operations.

CrowdLaw Communiqué: Continuity of Legislatures (April 2020)

• This special issue of The GovLab’s quarterly newsletter on open and participatory public-decisionmaking collects various articles, videos, and other resources about the continuity of legislatures around the world.

Europe

Continuity in Legislatures: France

• In this video, French Member of Parliament Paula Forteza explains how the French National Assembly is responding to COVID-19 and conducting online committee hearings.

Victoria Alsina and Dane Gambrell — Continuity in Congress: Does Spain Lead the Way?

• This blog post from co-authors at The GovLab uses Spain’s Congress of Deputies as an example to explain several challenges in the shift to remote lawmaking and how Spain has addressed them.

Continuity in Legislatures: United Kingdom

• Chi Onwurah, Member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, describes how the House of Commons is conducting committee meetings and plenary sessions online in response to COVID-19.

Dane Gambrell — Continuity in Legislatures: The United Kingdom’s Hybrid Approach

• This blog post describes recent developments in the UK House of Commons. Parliament is testing a “hybrid approach” where some lawmakers are physically present in the legislative chamber while most join via Zoom videoconference.

Latin America

Continuity in Legislatures: Brazil | Cristiano Ferri

• In this short video, Cristiano Ferri, Founder of the Hacker Lab in the Brazilian House of Representatives, describes how the Brazilian parliament is responding to COVID-19.

Continuity in Legislatures: Argentina

• Carolina Tchintian, Director of the Political Institutions Program, CIPPEC (Center for the Implementation of Public Policies for Equity and Growth), describes how the legislature in Argentina is responding to the COVID-19 crisis.

Continuity in Legislatures: Chile

• Adriana Muñoz D’Albora, President of the Senate of Chile, describes how the country’s legislature is responding to the COVID-19 crisis.

Continuity in Legislatures: Brazil | Hon. Tabata do Amaral

• Member of Congress Tabata do Amaral describes how The National Congress of Brazil is responding to the COVID-19 crisis.

Continuity in Legislatures: Brazil | Luiz Fernando Bandeira

• Mr. Luiz Fernando Bandeira, Secretary General of the Board of the Brazilian Senate, speaks about the Senate’s remote deliberation system (SDR).

United States

Marci Harris — Second “Mock” Hearing Convenes Experts to Discuss Remote Proceedings

• On April 16, former members of the US Congress participated in a “Mock Remote Hearing” exercise to test the viability of online proceedings during the COVID-19 pandemic. Marci Harris, CEO and Founder of POPVOX, documented the proceedings in this Medium article.

Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress Hosts Virtual Member Discussion

• Press release originally written and distributed by US House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress on May 7, 2020 which describes a virtual discussion with guest speakers Marci Harris and Beth Simone Noveck about how Congress can continue working effectively on behalf of the American people during the ongoing global pandemic.

Beth Simone Noveck and Dane Gambrell — How Congress can improve productivity by looking to the rest of the world

• This article, first published in The Hill, argues that while House Resolution 965 is a step in the right direction, the US Congress needs to follow the lead of legislatures around the world who are using technology to continue to legislate, conduct oversight and innovate.

Thread: Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress
Reflects on First Virtual Discussion

• This Twitter thread, originally posted by the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress (@ModernizeCmte), documents the Committee’s first Virtual Member Discussion, which covered committee continuity and remote operations.

Dane Gambrell — Congressional Staff Report Says Remote Voting is “Technologically Feasible”

• This blog post discusses a report, published in November 2020 by the Committee on House Administration, which details the findings from a feasibility study on the use of remote voting in the US House of Representatives.

Podcast: It’s time to talk about voting technology. No, not that kind of voting.

• In this podcast from Marketplace.org, Marketplace Tech correspondent Amy Scott interviews Beth Simone Noveck, Director of The GovLab, about the opportunities remote voting presents for the US Congress to improve the lawmaking process.

This post is regularly updated to include each new item in the Continuity of Congress series.

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