Veteran Capitol Hill journalist David Hawkings will speak about congressional dysfunction at an upcoming Rotary Club of Chestnut Hill breakfast meeting.

Hawkings, who has covered Capitol Hill for three decades, will present "The 5 Ms That Explain Our Dysfunctional Congress" at the Dec. 13 meeting. He argues that Congress is more broken now than it has been in over a century.

The event will begin at 7:30 a.m. at the Center on the Hill, 8855 Germantown Ave. It is open to the public and will include a question-and-answer session.

Hawkings is a freelance journalist and communications consultant who specializes in making government more accessible. He has appeared as a guest analyst on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC and NPR. He is also the founding editor-in-chief of The Fulcrum, a digital news site covering American democratic reforms.

"I've been asked time and again to enumerate the causes for the metastasizing polarization and partisanship – and has reduced what's a pretty complex diagnosis to five elements," Hawkings said. "They can be readily remembered using this alliterative mnemonic: 'Money, maps, media, mingling and masochism.'"

Earlier in his career, Hawkings covered federal courts, city hall and served as press secretary for Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas. He returned to journalism in 1989 as a Washington correspondent for Thomson Newspapers.

After 35 years in Washington, D.C., Hawkings now lives in Chestnut Hill. He is a member of the Rotary Club of Chestnut Hill.

Founded in 1995, the Rotary Club serves Mt. Airy, Germantown and Chestnut Hill. It is part of Rotary International, a 1.4 million-member humanitarian organization.