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One of my thoughts is that legislatures need more money for staff. Executive branches have billions of dollars to hire experts on long term contracts. How many

One of my thoughts is that legislatures need more money for staff. Executive branches have billions of dollars to hire experts on long term contracts. How many in house experts does a legislature have? Maybe 100 years ago this would work, but the modern state is really complex, and the problems are really complex, because if they were easy they would be solved. The amount of money that state and federal legislatures control is huge, My hunch is that if they spent more on extra staff, the increase in quality of legislation would provide enough economic benefits to cover the cost.

michaelbuckbee 2y ago
Theoretically, the agencies in the executive branch should fulfill this role.
theoreticalmal 2y ago
Isn’t this part of the benefit of lobbyists? Assume that every bill that goes before the legislature has someone who cares greatly (because if no one cared, it’s a problem that would have been solved beforehand), and you can guarantee at least two opposing viewpoints being represented by lobbyists, for “free” from the point of the legislative admin budget.
- finnthehuman 2y ago
  Unless, of course, the best policy position does not create enough concentrated financial incentive for someone to hire a lobbyist to advocate for it.
RattlesnakeJake 2y ago
> ...more money for staff. Specifically, this staff: https://www.reliks.com/lord-of-rings-hobbit/staff-of-gandalf-grey/ https://www.reliks.com/lord-of-rings-hobbit/staff-of-gandalf...
trogdor 2y ago
Congress has the Congressional Research Service. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Research_Service https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Research_Servi... and https://crsreports.congress.gov/search/#/?termsToSearch=&orderBy=Date https://crsreports.congress.gov/search/#/?termsToSearch=&ord... CRS reports are a phenomenal source of information.

michaelbuckbee 2y ago

Theoretically, the agencies in the executive branch should fulfill this role.

theoreticalmal 2y ago

Isn’t this part of the benefit of lobbyists? Assume that every bill that goes before the legislature has someone who cares greatly (because if no one cared, it’s a problem that would have been solved beforehand), and you can guarantee at least two opposing viewpoints being represented by lobbyists, for “free” from the point of the legislative admin budget.

finnthehuman 2y ago
Unless, of course, the best policy position does not create enough concentrated financial incentive for someone to hire a lobbyist to advocate for it.

RattlesnakeJake 2y ago

> ...more money for staff. Specifically, this staff: https://www.reliks.com/lord-of-rings-hobbit/staff-of-gandalf-grey/ https://www.reliks.com/lord-of-rings-hobbit/staff-of-gandalf...

trogdor 2y ago

Congress has the Congressional Research Service. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Research_Service https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Research_Servi... and https://crsreports.congress.gov/search/#/?termsToSearch=&orderBy=Date https://crsreports.congress.gov/search/#/?termsToSearch=&ord... CRS reports are a phenomenal source of information.