Will McCutcheon Decision help the House Majority?
To say the Republican majority has struggled with the influence of outside groups during the past two congresses is to put it mildly. These groups have stymied progress on major… Read More
This Quiet House
This past week the House passed by voice vote the SGR patch, or “doc fix,” setting Medicare physician reimbursement rates. This means we don’t know how individual House members voted. Read More
Tradition v. Partisanship: Holds in a Post-Nuclear Senate
Originally posted for the Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown. Since roughly the 1950s, “holds” have been a staple of the Senate landscape. Though they can’t be found in… Read More
Why Americans “Tune Out” the State of the Union
With the State of the Union just a few hours away, the political science blog-o-sphere is all abuzz. The essential reading list includes: Can presidential speeches sway public opinion? … Read More
Let’s Pump the Brakes on Congressional Approval Bashing
Let me start with this: yes, America hates Congress. With few exceptions Congress very rarely enjoys high job approval. Job disapproval is in some ways built into the institution’s DNA. Read More
Yes, Elections are Cultivating Polarization. But…
Competition for power, gerrymandering, disappearing marginal districts define Congress’s electoral landscape. Today, the American electorate is both closely divided and increasingly uncompetitive. In other words, partisan majorities are narrower today… Read More
Rules Changes through Precedent: History and Consequences
Don Wolfensberger wrote a nice piece on the parallels between Majority Leader Reid’s nuclear option and Speaker Reed’s ruling in 1890 that eliminated dilatory motions in the House. Both are… Read More
The Senate’s Nuclear Winter… or Not
Since Democrats invoked the nuclear option, reducing cloture on judicial and executive nominations, there are serious concerns that those actions would result in fallout. Would the Republican minority, in retaliation… Read More
Our Very Unproductive Congress: Why Today’s Gridlock is Different and more Devastating
One of President Truman’s most repeated lines, the “Do Nothing Congress,” is increasingly being used less as a metaphor and more as a statement of fact. The 112th Congress was… Read More
Party Competition and the Supression of Minority Rights
This blog post has been in the back of my mind for some time, but is especially relevant given today’s events in the Senate. I don’t have some profound… Read More