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An Introduction To The Us Congress
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Book Synopsis The U.S. Congress: A Very Short Introduction by : Donald A. Ritchie
Download or read book The U.S. Congress: A Very Short Introduction written by Donald A. Ritchie and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-06-21 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the second edition of The U.S. Congress, Donald A. Ritchie, a congressional historian for more than thirty years, takes readers on a fascinating, behind-the-scenes tour of Capitol Hill, pointing out the key players, explaining their behavior, and translating parliamentary language into plain English. No mere civics lesson, this eye-opening book provides an insider's perspective on Congress, matched with a professional historian's analytical insight. After a swift survey of the creation of Congress by the constitutional convention, he begins to unscrew the nuts and pull out the bolts. What is it like to campaign for Congress? To attract large donors? To enter either house with no seniority? He answers these questions and more, explaining committee assignments and committee work, the role of staffers and lobbyists, floor proceedings, parliamentary rules, and coalition building. Ritchie explores the great effort put into constituent service-as representatives and senators respond to requests from groups and individuals-as well as media relations and news coverage. He also explores how the grand concepts we all know from civics class--checks and balances, advise and consent, congressional oversight--work in practice in an age of strong presidents and a muscular Senate minority.
Book Synopsis Act of Congress by : Robert G. Kaiser
Download or read book Act of Congress written by Robert G. Kaiser and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2014-01-28 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Washington Post Notable Book An eye-opening account of how Congress today really works—and how it doesn’t— Act of Congress focuses on two of the major players behind the sweeping financial reform bill enacted in response to the Great Crash of 2008: colorful, wisecracking congressman Barney Frank, and careful, insightful senator Christopher Dodd, both of whom met regularly with Robert G. Kaiser during the eighteen months they worked on the bill. In this compelling narrative, Kaiser shows how staffers play a critical role, drafting the legislation and often making the crucial deals. Kaiser’s rare insider access enabled him to illuminate the often-hidden intricacies of legislative enterprise and shows us the workings of Congress in all of its complexity, a clearer picture than any we have had of how Congress works best—or sometimes doesn’t work at all.
Book Synopsis How Congress Works and Why You Should Care by : Lee H. Hamilton
Download or read book How Congress Works and Why You Should Care written by Lee H. Hamilton and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2004-02-26 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How Congress Works and Why You Should Care is a concise introduction to the functions and vital role of the U.S. Congress by eminent former Congressman Lee H. Hamilton. Drawing on 34 years as a U.S. Representative, Hamilton explains how Congress reflects the diversity of the American people, serves as a forum for finding consensus, and provides balance within the federal government. Addressing widespread public misperceptions, he outlines areas where Congress can work better and ways for citizens to become more engaged in public affairs through their representatives in Washington. How Congress Works and Why You Should Care is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the inner workings of Congress, and how all citizens can participate in its unique mission.
Book Synopsis Congressional Procedure by : Richard A. Arenberg
Download or read book Congressional Procedure written by Richard A. Arenberg and published by The Capitol Net Inc. This book was released on 2018-10-01 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A clear explanation of the workings of the United States government that should be required reading for politically engaged Americans." -- KIRKUS Congressional Procedure explains the legislative and congressional budget processes along with all aspects of Congress. This comprehensive guide to Congress is ideal for anyone who wants to know how Congress really works, including federal executives, attorneys, lobbyists, media and public affairs staff, government affairs, policy and budget analysts, congressional office staff and students. Clear explanation of the legislative process, budget process, and House and Senate business - Legislative process flowchart - Explanation of the electoral college and votes by states - Relationship between budget resolutions and appropriation and authorization bills - Amendment tree and amendment procedures - How members are assigned to committees - Glossary of legislative terms Each chapter concludes with Review Questions. Chapter 1 examines the relationship between the U.S. Constitution and the House and Senate. It discusses Constitutional provisions that directly affect Congress. The makeup, roles and leadership of the House and Senate are compared and contrasted. Congressional committees and their place and power in the House and Senate are explored. Chapter 2 begins with a discussion of why members submit legislation, explains the forms of legislation, and lays out the steps involved in drafting legislation. Bills, joint resolutions, concurrent resolutions and simple House and Senate resolutions and their purposes are separately described. Ends with a flowchart of the legislative process. In Chapter 3, the work of Congressional committees is examined in greater detail: types of committees and their structures; subcommittees; power of the chairs of committees; hearings, markups and amendment procedure in committee; and the reporting of legislation to the House and Senate floor. Chapters 4 and 5 follow the course of legislation through the respective chambers and some of the more arcane elements of House and Senate floor action. Chapter 4 addresses some of the unique characteristics of the House including the central and crucial role played by the Rules Committee and the special rules it reports. Scheduling, consideration, amending, and passage of legislation through the House is described in detail. Chapter 5 discusses the handling of legislation on the Senate floor, including unique Senate characteristics like the filibuster, the nuclear option, holds, and the filling of the amendment tree. Chapter 6 explains the various procedures for resolving differences in legislation between the Senate and the House. The budget process is addressed in Chapter 7, including appropriations and authorization procedures, the 1974 Budget and Impoundment Control Act and the key role it has played since its adoption, the use of the optional budget reconciliation process, and the somewhat complex but crucial Byrd Rule. Chapter 8 concludes the detail and analysis of Congressional procedure with a number of processes that are not strictly legislative, including a number of Constitutional responsibilities given to Congress such as oversight and investigation and advice and consent, counting of Electoral College ballots, and impeachment. The conclusion, Chapter 9, describes the way in which many of the procedures explained in this book are increasingly being used, and some would say abused, in both the House and the Senate. Glossary Index Also see related CRS Reports and links on TCNCPAM.com For detailed Table of Contents, see CongressionalProcedure.com
Book Synopsis An Introduction to the U.S. Congress by : Charles B. Cushman
Download or read book An Introduction to the U.S. Congress written by Charles B. Cushman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-12-18 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does Congress do? How does it do it? Why is it such a complicated institution? This concise primer offers students and general readers a brief and systematic introduction to Congress and the role it plays in the US political system. Drawing on his experience as a former Congressional staff member, the author explores the different political natures of the House and Senate, examines Congress's interaction with other branches of the Federal government, and looks ahead to the domestic and foreign challenges that are likely to drive the Congressional agenda for decades to come. The book provides revealing insights into the sometimes-contradictory Congressional responsibilities of representation and lawmaking; oversight and appropriation; and managing and organizing the government. It includes a case study (on the formation of the Department of Homeland Security) that sheds light on Congress's often-complicated procedures. The book also includes boxed features on Congressional action - highlighting such topics as file sharing and student loans - that show students how Congress's work affects their lives. Chapter-ending lists of web resources add to the book's usefulness.
Book Synopsis The American Congress by : Steven S. Smith
Download or read book The American Congress written by Steven S. Smith and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-08-31 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The American Congress provides the most current treatment of congressional politics available in an undergraduate text. Informed by the authors' Capitol Hill experience and scholarship, this book presents a crisp introduction to major features of Congress: parties and committee systems, leadership, voting, and floor activity. This text contains discussions of the importance of presidents, courts, and interest groups in congressional policy making. Recent developments are also discussed within the context of congressional political history. The seventh edition includes complete coverage of the first Congress of the Obama presidency, the 2010 midterm elections, healthcare reform, and an early perspective on the 112th Congress with a Republican majority.
Book Synopsis The U. S. Congress: a Very Short Introduction by : Donald A. Ritchie
Download or read book The U. S. Congress: a Very Short Introduction written by Donald A. Ritchie and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Compromise is essential for accomplishing anything significant in the legislative arena, and yet recent political polarization has made compromise much harder to achieve. The U.S. Congress was created by a compromise at the Constitutional Convention, which established a House of Representatives apportioned by population, and a Senate in which all states would be equal. The House set rules to allow its majority to prevail, while Senate rules gave more muscle to the minority. Although Congress is divided between two such widely different bodies, no legislation can be enacted, or funds appropriated, without full agreement from both. The membership of Congress has grown increasingly diverse, with more women and minorities being elected. But it has also become more divided, with members of the party conferences voting together more than ninety percent of the time. After winning a seat, members must make choices between national needs and constituent approval. Compromises necessary to passing legislation may prove unpopular and cause primary challenges. Members devote much attention to constituent services and adopt the latest technology to communicate with voters. The news media also plays a key role in making or breaking congressional careers. The Congress examines the legislative process, from committee assignments to floor procedures, and conference that reconcile disagreements. The contrasting rules of the two bodies require different strategies and tactics. Members of the larger House band together by party, state delegation, or caucuses, to increase their impact. Being able to filibuster, senators exert more individual influence. Legislation is shaped largely in committees but also by the floor leaders. Some committees wield more power than others, particularly the Appropriations Committees, which control government spending In the constitutional system of checks and balances, the three branches share power. Legislation passed by Congress may be vetoed by the president or overturned by the Supreme Court. Presidents appeal to Congress to enact and fund their proposals. The Senate votes to confirm or reject the president's nominations-including members of the judiciary. Polarized politics have prompted the Senate majority to employ a "nuclear option" to prevent filibusters on nominations. While the presidency has grown more powerful, Congress retains the ability to investigate executive branch behavior and to impeach and remove presidents, judges, and other federal office holders. Over time, Congress has expanded in size, filling a vast Capitol complex to accommodate, members and their staffs, along with a myriad of constituents, lobbyists, reporters, and other visitors. As a symbol of American democracy, the Capitol has also become a target. Burned by British troops during the War of 1812, threatened on September 11, 2001, and invaded on January 6, 2021, the Capitol has steadily increased security while also seeking to remain on open public view. This new edition explains how Congress has evolved and adjusted to changes in American politics and society"--
Book Synopsis An Introduction to the U.S. Congress by : Charles Bancroft Cushman
Download or read book An Introduction to the U.S. Congress written by Charles Bancroft Cushman and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Congress written by Benjamin Ginsberg and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2019-08-20 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An introduction to the U.S. Congress, from seasoned political historians and teachers In this accessible overview of the United States Congress’s past and present, Ginsberg and Hill introduce students to the country’s most democratic institution. This text surveys Congressional elections, the internal structure of Congress, the legislative process, Congress and the President, and Congress and the courts. Congress: The First Branch offers a fresh approach to the First Branch grounded in a historical, positive frame.
Book Synopsis Witnessing America by : Library of Congress
Download or read book Witnessing America written by Library of Congress and published by Viking Adult. This book was released on 1996 with total page 584 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents a portait of America's social and cultural history between 1600 and 1900, told through letters, diaries, memoirs, tracts, and other articles and first-hand accounts found in the collections of the Library of Congress.
Book Synopsis The American Congress by : Julian E. Zelizer
Download or read book The American Congress written by Julian E. Zelizer and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2004-09-21 with total page 800 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Congress is the heart and soul of our democracy, the place where interests are brokered, laws are established, and innovation is turned into concrete action. It is also where some of democracy's greatest virtues clash with its worst vices: idealism and compromise meet corruption and bitter partisanship. The American Congress unveils the rich and varied history of this singular institution. Julian E. Zelizer has gathered together forty essays by renowned historians to capture the full drama, landmark legislation, and most memorable personalities of Congress. Organized around four major periods of congressional history, from the signing of the Constitution to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, this volume brings a fresh perspective to familiar watershed events: the Civil War, Watergate, the Vietnam War. It also gives a behind-the-scenes look at lesser-known legislation debated on the House and Senate floors, such as westward expansion and war powers control. Here are the stories behind the 1868 vote to impeach President Andrew Johnson; the rise of Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to Congress and a leading advocate for pacifism; and the controversy surrounding James Eastland of Mississippi, who carried civil rights bills in his pockets so they could not come up for a vote. Sidebars further spotlight notables including Huey Long, Sam Rayburn, and Tip O'Neill, bringing the sweeping history of our lawmaking bodies into sharp focus. If you've ever wondered how Congress worked in the past or what our elected officials do today, this book gives the engaging, often surprising, answers.
Book Synopsis Congressional Record by : United States. Congress
Download or read book Congressional Record written by United States. Congress and published by . This book was released on 1957 with total page 1414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of the American Congress by : Eric Schickler
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of the American Congress written by Eric Schickler and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-03-14 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No legislature in the world has a greater influence over its nation's public affairs than the US Congress. The Congress's centrality in the US system of government has placed research on Congress at the heart of scholarship on American politics. Generations of American government scholars working in a wide range of methodological traditions have focused their analysis on understanding Congress, both as a lawmaking and a representative institution. The purpose of this volume is to take stock of this impressive and diverse literature, identifying areas of accomplishment and promising directions for future work. The editors have commissioned 37 chapters by leading scholars in the field, each chapter critically engages the scholarship focusing on a particular aspect of congressional politics, including the institution's responsiveness to the American public, its procedures and capacities for policymaking, its internal procedures and development, relationships between the branches of government, and the scholarly methodologies for approaching these topics. The Handbook also includes chapters addressing timely questions, including partisan polarization, congressional war powers, and the supermajoritarian procedures of the contemporary Senate. Beyond simply bringing readers up to speed on the current state of research, the volume offers critical assessments of how each literature has progressed - or failed to progress - in recent decades. The chapters identify the major questions posed by each line of research and assess the degree to which the answers developed in the literature are persuasive. The goal is not simply to tell us where we have been as a field, but to set an agenda for research on Congress for the next decade. The Oxford Handbooks of American Politics are a set of reference books offering authoritative and engaging critical overviews of the state of scholarship on American politics. Each volume focuses on a particular aspect of the field. The project is under the General Editorship of George C. Edwards III, and distinguished specialists in their respective fields edit each volume. The Handbooks aim not just to report on the discipline, but also to shape it as scholars critically assess the scholarship on a topic and propose directions in which it needs to move. The series is an indispensable reference for anyone working in American politics. General Editor for The Oxford Handbooks of American Politics: George C. Edwards III
Book Synopsis Congress Overwhelmed by : Timothy M. LaPira
Download or read book Congress Overwhelmed written by Timothy M. LaPira and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2020-12-07 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Congress today is falling short. Fewer bills, worse oversight, and more dysfunction. But why? In a new volume of essays, the contributors investigate an underappreciated reason Congress is struggling: it doesn’t have the internal capacity to do what our constitutional system requires of it. Leading scholars chronicle the institutional decline of Congress and the decades-long neglect of its own internal investments in the knowledge and expertise necessary to perform as a first-rate legislature. Today’s legislators and congressional committees have fewer—and less expert and experienced—staff than the executive branch or K Street. This leaves them at the mercy of lobbyists and the administrative bureaucracy. The essays in Congress Overwhelmed assess Congress’s declining capacity and explore ways to upgrade it. Some provide broad historical scope. Others evaluate the current decay and investigate how Congress manages despite the obstacles. Collectively, they undertake the most comprehensive, sophisticated appraisal of congressional capacity to date, and they offer a new analytical frame for thinking about—and improving—our underperforming first branch of government.
Book Synopsis How Our Laws are Made by : John V. Sullivan
Download or read book How Our Laws are Made written by John V. Sullivan and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Book Synopsis Congress at War by : Charles A. Stevenson
Download or read book Congress at War written by Charles A. Stevenson and published by Potomac Books, Inc.. This book was released on 2007-08 with total page 111 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive and concise overview of Congress's wartime legislation
Book Synopsis Congress in Black and White by : Christian R. Grose
Download or read book Congress in Black and White written by Christian R. Grose and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-01-31 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The symbolic importance of Barack Obama's election is without question. But beyond symbolism, does the election of African-American politicians matter? Grose argues that it does and presents a unified theory of representation. Electing African-American legislators yields more federal dollars and congressional attention directed toward African-American voters. However, race and affirmative action gerrymandering have no impact on public policy passed in Congress. Grose is the first to examine a natural experiment and exceptional moment in history in which black legislators – especially in the U.S. South – represented districts with a majority of white constituents. This is the first systematic examination of the effect of a legislator's race above and beyond the effect of constituency racial characteristics. Grose offers policy prescriptions, including the suggestion that voting rights advocates, the courts, and redistricters draw 'black decisive districts', electorally competitive districts that are likely to elect African Americans.
