Coalition Urges House Subcommittee to Resume Public Witness Days

February 27, 2025

The Honorable David Valadao
Chair, Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515

The Honorable Adriano Espaillat
Ranking Member, Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Chair Valadao, Ranking Member Espaillat, and Members of the Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee:

We respectfully request the House Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee resume its longstanding bipartisan tradition of holding public witness days, when members of the public can request to testify in person before the committee.

Public witness hearings provide a vital opportunity for subcommittee members to hear new perspectives. These hearings, which often bundle member days and public witness testimony together, have inspired the subcommittee to direct further improvements in the operations of the Legislative branch or to inquire closely into particular aspects of its operations. It also provides the public an opportunity to express its support for the work of the subcommittee.

The COVID pandemic prompted the House to reduce the number of appropriations hearings. We urge you to return to the practice of opening up the process to in-person public feedback. The Interior Appropriations Subcommittee already invited public witness testimony at the end of February and we expect other subcommittees to follow suit.

Over the last 25 years, the public testified in person under Chairs Ryan, Yoder, Crenshaw, Wasserman-Schultz, Taylor, and Walsh.[1] We hope this will be part of your legacy as well.

Thank you for considering this request and for your commitment to ensuring that the voices of the public remain an integral part of the legislative process.

For more information or to discuss this further, please contact Daniel Schuman, executive director at the American Governance Institute, at daniel@americalabs.org, or Zach Graves, executive director at the Foundation for American Innovation, at zach@thefai.org.

For a full list of signatories and members of the subcommittee, see the original letter below:

[1] Records from the Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee hearings on GPO’s website are incomplete. We can confirm that in-person public witness testimony occurred on the following schedule: FY 2021 (March 4, 2020, Chair Ryan); FY 2020 (April 2, 2019, Chair Ryan); FY 2019 (April 17, 2018, Chair Yoder); FY 2018 (May 3, 2017, Chair Yoder); FY 2012 (May 11, 2011, Rep. Crenshaw); FY 2011 (February 24, 2010, Rep. Wasserman-Schultz); FY 2010 (May 5, 2009, Rep. Wasserman-Schultz); FY 2009 (May 7, 2008, Rep. Wasserman-Schultz); FY 2001 (February 2, 2000, Rep. Taylor); FY 2000 (February 10, 1999, Rep. Taylor); FY 1999 (February 12, 1998, Rep. Walsh). There may have been additional instances during this period.