( CNN ) -- When Senators Trent Lott and Tom Daschle ran the Senate , partisan politics was nonexistent and the chamber ran with no hiccups . Well , not exactly . In the late 1990s and early 2000s , they dealt with President Bill Clinton 's impeachment , controversial tax cuts , and welfare reform just to name a few contentious issues . But Tuesday , the two former majority leaders said that partisanship has gotten so extreme that things need to change . `` As we have seen throughout our careers , many political decision-makers increasingly favor partisan rancor over reasoned debate in discussing national policies , '' Daschle and Lott said in releasing a set of recommendations to turn things around in Washington . Daschle was the top Democrat in the Senate from 1995-05 and Lott led Republicans from 95-02 . They served on a 29-member committee along with other former members of Congress , White House officials , business owners and academics formed to drum up solutions . The Bipartisan Policy Center 's Commission on Political Reform offered changes to the legislative system and the electoral process , recommendations that Daschle said are aimed at transforming Congress `` into a high performing '' entity . Among the proposals : . * Senate only be allowed to change its rules at the start of a session . The Democratic-led Senate imposed controversial rule changes in the middle of the current session . * Lawmakers return to a five-day work week . Currently , the House and Senate mainly work three-day weeks . * Congress pass budgets every two years . Currently , annual budget fights exacerbate partisanship . * Independent commissions oversee congressional redistricting every 10 years . Currently , redistricting is conducted by the states based on census shifts every decade , so the time frame would n't change . But gerrymandering has created districts loyal to individual parties , which critics say limit competition and exacerbate partisanship . * Create a national primary day and ease access to voting and registration . Primaries are staggered nationally , and controversy has flared over Republican-led voter ID campaigns , which critics say disenfranchises minorities . Olympia Snowe , a moderate Republican who represented Maine in the Senate until 2012 , said she decided not to run for reelection when she realized she could not invoke change within the system because `` partisanship and politics would not diminish . '' She said increasingly partisan congressional districts have resulted in a noncompetitive general election , giving primaries an `` outsized and disproportionate role '' in politics . The low voter turnout in primaries results in a minority of people are determining who is elected to office , she said . Writing the report is the easy part . Implementing it is not . The political heavy hitters plan to use their heft to push the ideas in Congress and state legislatures . Lott said that when he ran it by the current Senate leaders , Republican Mitch McConnell and Democrat Harry Reid , they were `` both moderately not happy . '' That 's a good place to start , Lott said , grinning .
Two former Republican leaders back a bill that would change the political system . Recommendations include a national primary day and altering rules . They say it is dysfunctional and changes are needed to make it work .