(This piece originally appeared in Legislative Procedure.) If Congress does not act soon, funding for approximately one-third of the Federal government will expire on Thursday, at the end of… Read More
(This post originally appeared on Legislative Procedure.) President Donald Trump announced that he will soon nominate someone to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court. Read More
According to today’s conventional wisdom, people are deeply divided about politics. Liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, are at odds with one another when it comes to identifying the problems… Read More
King George III. Painting by Allan Ramsay, 1765. In January 1787, America’s top diplomat, John Jay, asked George Washington, its leading citizen, “Shall we have a King?” Neither… Read More
The filibuster is one of the great bugbears of American politics. Democrats and Republicans have routinely blamed the infamous practice when the Senate fails to act on their policy priorities. Read More
Listen here. In this special bonus episode of Politics In Question, Julia Azari, Lee Drutman, and James Wallner discuss the values that make democracies successful. What exactly are… Read More
An intricate architecture of rules and practices governs the legislative process in the Senate. The institution’s procedural structure rests on five interlocking supports: the Constitution; the Standing Rules of the… Read More
Republicans in the Senate finally acted to change the rules to speed up the confirmation process for some presidential nominations. They used the nuclear option to shorten the amount of… Read More
Frustrated by how long it takes to confirm President Trump’s nominees, Republicans are accusing Democrats of dragging out unnecessarily the time permitted under the rules after the Senate has invoked… Read More
In 2017, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., pledged not to abolish the legislative filibuster. He did so to persuade his fellow Republicans to back his plan to use… Read More