Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process (Politics and Public Policy Series) - Softcover

Oleszek, Walter J

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0871872811 ISBN 13: 9780871872814

Publisher: CQ Press, 1984

Synopsis

Thoroughly updated in a new edition, this is the definitive work on how congressional rules, procedures, and traditions affect the course and content of legislation. From committee room to the floor, in the House and in the Senate, the fundamentals of lawmaking are made clear. In a highly readable format—including dozens of lively examples, illustrations, charts, and extracts from real documents—the author explains the role of congressional leadership, illustrates the use of strategic tactics such as the Senate's filibuster, and elucidates complicated parliamentary processes such as the amendment procedure. Among the topics that receive new or expanded coverage in the fifth edition the shift from the politics of deficit to the politics of surplus, innovations in Senate floor procedures and the use of new rules in the House, new developments in the ways that the two chambers resolve their differences, and new trends in legislative oversight. Oleszek's concluding chapter examines broad trends in the lawmaking process as well as the transformations currently underway that will influence congressional lawmaking in the twenty-first century.

About this title

About the Author

Walter J. Oleszek is a senior specialist in the legislative process at the Congressional Research Service. He has served as either a full-time professional staff aide or consultant to every major House and Senate congressional reorganization effort beginning with the passage of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970. In 1993, he served as Policy Director of the Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress. A long-time adjunct faculty member at The American University, Oleszek is a frequent lecturer before various academic, governmental and business groups. He is the author or co-author of several books, including Congress and Its Members, 10th ed. (2006),with Roger H. Davidson, and Congress Under Fire: Reform Politics and the Republican Majority (1997), with C. Lawrence Evans.

Review

The new edition of Walter Oleszek's Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process continues to be the preeminent and most comprehensive work on the rules, procedures, and decision making of Congress. No other work comes close to this book in its objective and original scholarship, clarity and usefulness to Members of Congress, the media, scholars, students, and the general public. Oleszek has written a treasure. It is the primary source of authoritative knowledge about the complexity of the rules of the congressional policy process. I have adopted every edition of this book for my students and I will continue to do so. --- James A. Thurber, Distinguished University Professor; Director, Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies, American University

I have used Oleszek's book about congressional procedures as the central text in my undergraduate courses about Congress for many years. It provides a superb introduction to the practical nuts and bolts of lawmaking, emphasizing not just the content of congressional rules and precedent, but also how procedure is used strategically by members to accomplish their goals. The book is impressively up-to-date and has lots of great anecdotes. The chapter on the budget process is still the best short introduction to the topic currently in print. Overall, by the end of the course, my undergraduate students are really glad that they have mastered the book. Especially for students who take post-graduate positions relevant to the legislative process in Congress, they often comment years later that reading the Oleszek book during their student days helped them in their professional life after graduation. --- C. Lawrence Evans, Newton Family Professor of Government, College of William and Mary

Walter Oleszek's Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process provides clear, precise explanations of congressional rules along with timely examples that illustrate how procedures affect what happens in Congress. This book is both an essential text for courses on Congress and an indispensable reference volume for scholars and practitioners. --- Randall Strahan, Emory University

Edition details

• Publisher: CQ Press
• Publication date: 1984
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0871872811
• ISBN 13: 9780871872814
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 289