Here's a radical idea: in today's day and age, do we really need Congress to be in a centralized location at all?
Yes, there are practical and security obstacles to governance via permanent telepresence, but there are many upsides as well. Aside from the enourmous cost and disruption to existing practices, is there anything that makes it completely unfeasible? I imagine many representatives would much rather live in their home state than move to DC or constantly commute.
I personally think we should distribute the whole federal government. A side effect of the size of the federal government is that a ton of money flows into the Washington Metro area, which I don't think is fair.
Much of the infrastructure is already in place. The federal courts and the DOJ are already distributed. The SEC, EPA, etc, already have field offices in major cities across the country. Work could be pushed down from HQ into those field offices, giving them greater autonomy and moving jobs from DC to other parts of the country.
Yes, there are practical and security obstacles to governance via permanent telepresence, but there are many upsides as well. Aside from the enourmous cost and disruption to existing practices, is there anything that makes it completely unfeasible? I imagine many representatives would much rather live in their home state than move to DC or constantly commute.