Congress overwhelmed : the decline in congressional capacity and prospects for reform

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Congress overwhelmed : the decline in congressional capacity and prospects for reform

edited by Timothy M. LaPira, Lee Drutman, and Kevin R. Kosar

University of Chicago Press, c2020

  • : paper

Available at  / 4 libraries

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Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. [295]-318) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

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.

Table of Contents

1 Overwhelmed: An Introduction to Congress's Capacity Problem Timothy M. LaPira, Lee Drutman, and Kevin R. Kosar Part 1 The Foundations of Congressional Capacity 2 Capacity for What? Legislative Capacity Regimes in Congress and the Possibilities for Reform Lee Drutman and Timothy M. LaPira 3 The Decline in Congressional Capacity Molly E. Reynolds 4 How Congress Fell Behind the Executive Branch Philip A. Wallach Part 2 Knowledge and Expertise in Congress 5 The Congressional Capacity Survey: Who Staff Are, How They Got There, What They Do, and Where They May Go Alexander C. Furnas, Lee Drutman, Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, Timothy M. LaPira, and Kevin R. Kosar 6 What Do Congressional Staff Actually Know? Kristina C. Miler 7 How Committee Staffers Clear the Runway for Legislative Action in Congress Casey Burgat and Charles Hunt 8 Legislative Branch Support Agencies: What They Are, What They Do, and Their Uneasy Position in Our System of Government Kevin R. Kosar Part 3 The Politics of Capacity in the Legislative Process 9 Still Muddling Along? Assessing the Hybrid Congressional Appropriations Process Peter Hanson 10 Congress and the Capacity to Act: Overcoming Gridlock in the Senate's Amendment Process James Wallner 11 The Issue Dynamics of Congressional Capacity Jonathan Lewallen, Sean M. Theriault, and Bryan D. Jones 12 Congressional Capacity and Reauthorizations E. Scott Adler, Stefani R. Langehennig, and Ryan W. Bell 13 How Experienced Legislative Staff Contribute to Effective Lawmaking Jesse M. Crosson, Geoffrey M. Lorenz, Craig Volden, and Alan E. Wiseman 14 Capacity in a Centralized Congress James M. Curry and Frances E. Lee 15 Congressional Capacity and Bipartisanship in Congress Laurel Harbridge-Yong Part 4 Capacity and the Politics of Reform 16 Lessons from the History of Reform Ruth Bloch Rubin 17 Dodging Dead Cats: What Would It Take to Get Congress to Expand Capacity? Anthony Madonna and Ian Ostrander Acknowledgments Notes References List of Contributors Index Online appendixes are available at https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataverse/congressionalcapacity/.

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