Michael Thorning
Visiting Fellow
Michael Thorning serves as the Director of Structural Democracy at the Bipartisan Policy Center. Prior to BPC, Thorning worked for Senators Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall where he focused on campaign finance and election reform, Senate rules and congressional reform, and judiciary, civil rights, and civil liberties issues. Thorning has been a fellow of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University and is a member of the guest faculty of the University of New Mexico. Thorning earned his B.A. in political science with honors from the University of New Mexico and served as a Fred R. Harris Congressional Intern.
How to Make Congress Work for the American People
Public frustration with Congress has been the status quo since the institution’s very first days. Many point to constant gridlock and high levels of partisanship as the main problems that have led to Congress’s recent decrepitude. While partisanship and gridlock does impact Congress’s ability to be a responsive and representative body, an often underdiscussed problem is that of the institution’s internal capacity. What resources does Congress need to effectively, efficiently, and transparently meet the needs of the American people? What incentives drive member behavior and how can the day-to-day workflow of the institution be altered to drive more bipartisan policymaking?
The Dole Institute is committed to universal accessibility in all programs and resources. We are in the process of making all of our web projects fully accessible. An accessible version of the material represented on this site will be made available upon request. Please contact us at doleinstitute@ku.edu to request the material be made available in an accessible format, or for general assistance.