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Congressional Modernization Framework

Strengthening How America Elects and Governs for the Next 250 Years

Published February 2026

Based on Rev 5.0 of the Federal Elections Modernization Act and Rev 1.3 of the Office of Congressional Procedure Act

America's legislative infrastructure operates at two levels -- electoral and procedural -- and both need updating. The electoral system produces a Congress that struggles to reflect voter preferences accurately, while the procedural system concentrates power in whoever holds the gavel regardless of how narrow their margin. These are separate problems with separate causes, but they reinforce each other -- and modernizing only one produces incomplete results.

The Congressional Modernization Framework (CMF) addresses both. It pairs two complementary legislative proposals, each designed to function independently but engineered to reinforce the other. Together, they create conditions where multi-party electoral outcomes generate organic demand for proportional procedure, and proportional procedure makes multi-party governance functional.

The CMF is a modular framework, not an omnibus bill. Each act can be introduced, passed, and implemented on its own timeline as political conditions allow. The sequencing is deliberate: electoral modernization creates the multi-party conditions that make procedural modernization both necessary and politically viable.

Components

  • Federal Elections Modernization Act (FEMA) -- Modernizes federal electoral architecture through STAR voting, multi-member districts with proportional representation, House expansion via the cube root rule, uniform ballot access standards, federal party recognition, non-qualifying candidate assessment examinations, and enhanced congressional compensation. Strengthens who gets elected.

  • Office of Congressional Procedure Act (OCP) -- Establishes professional procedural infrastructure for proportional governance, including proportional floor time allocation, distributed committee leadership, tenure-protected procedural staff, discharge petition reform, Supreme Court nomination consideration deadlines, and phased authority with acceleration triggers responsive to multi-party conditions. Strengthens how those who are elected govern.

How the Components Interact

FEMA without OCP produces multi-party representation with no procedural infrastructure to support it -- new parties win seats but remain procedural supplicants. OCP without FEMA creates proportional procedural rules that the two-party duopoly has no incentive to honor. Together, each act makes the other both more necessary and more politically sustainable.

The OCP includes acceleration triggers that compress its implementation timeline in direct response to the multi-party conditions FEMA creates. Under dual enactment, the estimated timeline to a mature proportional governance regime is 8-10 years, compared to approximately 16 years for OCP alone.

Documentation

See the FEMA and OCP legislative texts and their respective policy rationales for detailed provisions. The CMF Integration Analysis provides comprehensive examination of how the two acts interact, their optimal sequencing, and expected outcomes under dual enactment.

📄 Download this document (opens on GitHub -- click the ⬇ download button)

Prepared by Albert Ramos for The American Policy Architecture Institute