Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process - Softcover

Oleszek W

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0872893030 ISBN 13: 9780872893030

Publisher: CQ Press, 2007

Synopsis

The definitive work on how congressional rules, procedures, and traditions affect the course and content of legislation, this seventh edition reflects both thorough updating and further refinement. In the House and the Senate, and from committee room to the floor, the fundamentals of lawmaking are made clear in Walter Oleszek's straight talking, informative book on Congress. With dozens of lively illustrations, charts, and extracts from real documents, Oleszek spotlights both "regular order" and unconventional procedures while explaining the role of congressional leadership, the use of strategic tactics, and complicated parliamentary processes. Readers will appreciate Oleszek's insight on the ever-sophisticated use of procedures--such as "filling the tree"--to achieve party and policy objectives in a time of sharper partisanship.

Updates include:

• changes in congressional budgeting, such as the return of fiscal deficits, the clash between discretionary spending and entitlements, and the drive to curb the explosion in earmarks
• the "nuclear option" controversy over filibusters
• the wider use of technology in the lawmaking process

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: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0872893030
• ISBN 13: 9780872893030
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 328