Daniel Schuman was supposed to interview for his first job in Congress, as an intern in Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman’s office, on Sept. 11, 2001.

The recent Emory University graduate had come to Washington to see “how the sausage was made.” He left his unfurnished apartment that morning, got off the city bus at Union Station and started making his way to the Hart Building, only to see a group of people running the other direction and rifle-toting officers stationed around the campus.

It was a harrowing introduction to D.C., but Schuman wasn’t deterred. 

“And do what?” Schuman said recently when asked if he considered abandoning his early career aspirations. “This was the place to be.”

Schuman didn’t interview that day, but he did eventually land the gig. It launched a roughly two-decade career working on and around the Hill, where he’s earned a reputation as an advocate for transparency and become a fixture (and at times the only spectator) at House Administration and Legislative Branch Appropriations panel meetings. 

Schuman did stints at the Congressional Research Service and a series of nonprofit and advocacy groups, like the Sunlight Foundation, Demand Progress and the POPVOX Foundation.

Now, he’s opening up his own shop, dubbed the American Governance Institute, where he said he’ll continue his crusade for a better, stronger Congress.

“I’m focused on systems thinking that addresses the flaws in our democracy. And Congress, from my perspective, is the linchpin of democracy,” Schuman said. 

And he sees plenty of room for improvement.

Schuman got his start in Washington on the heels of the Newt Gingrich era, and in many ways, he’s been working ever since to reverse the damage he feels was done to the legislative branch.

In addition to ushering in a new kind of hyper-partisan politics, the former Republican House speaker, as part of his “Contract with America,” slashed funding for congressional support agencies and committee staff and consolidated power in leadership, which subsequent speakers continued. 

“That stuff is why we don’t have nice things. So I’ve spent a lot of time trying to fix that,” Schuman said.

Congress can be a sclerotic institution, but he’s seen some success on a series of pet issues.

The pay ceiling for House and Senate staff was raised for the first time in a decade in a fiscal 2020 spending package, and has increased more in subsequent years. After years of pushing, CRS reports were finally made publicly available online in 2018. And he successfully lobbied for the creation of the Office of the Whistleblower Ombuds, which helps House staff work with whistleblowers.

“I think he’s developed a really strong specialty around appropriations as a vehicle to incrementally shape democratic institutions for things like access to data and improving technology, but also a broader array of kind of state capacity-oriented reform,” said Zach Graves, executive director of the Foundation for American Innovation. “Things like building greater staff capacity and expertise in personal offices and committees, and MRA [Members’ Representational Allowance] expansions.”

For nearly a decade Schuman has written a regular newsletter, called the First Branch Forecast (which he recently relaunched), that covers the kinds of wonky legislative branch stories that are his forte. 

“It was the first thing I read every Monday morning, and that’s saying a lot,” said Jean Parvin Bordewich, a former staff director at the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and former program officer at the Hewlett Foundation, which provided funding for Demand Progress projects while Schuman was there. 

The newsletter was often the place Bordewich turned for niche nuggets on the Capitol Police, or legislative branch appropriations, or oversight of CRS. Schuman, she said, established himself as a fount of knowledge for the Hill community.

“I think he has become really good at understanding how staff work and how they do things. He respects that and he’s built relationships on the Hill that allow him to be deeply knowledgeable and influential,” Bordewich said. 

It’s a strong foundation on which to build his new nonprofit. The Fund for Constitutional Government is acting as the fiscal sponsor, and in recent months he’s secured funding for what is at the moment a solo operation. 

As he gets off the ground he’s continuing to publish his newsletter, planning meetings of the Congressional Data Task Force, and helping to lead staff trainings, like one for district-level aides on cybersecurity scheduled for this Wednesday. He’s compiling recommendations to strengthen House rules, like he does every term, and he’s starting to think about next year’s appropriations cycle. 

This may be getting “in the weeds,” or showing how the “sausage” is made. Whatever you call it, after more than two decades in Washington, Schuman is still doing it.

“I’m a believer that if you can see what’s happening on the inside, you can see if it’s working,” Schuman said.