{"product_id":"congress-overwhelmed-9780226702438","title":"Congress Overwhelmed","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCongress 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 compreh\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Congress Overwhelmed brings together a strong set of congressional scholars addressing some of the most important issues facing the institution today. It will appeal not just to other scholars but also to observers of Congress, such as members of the media, staffers, and anyone working in and around Capitol Hill. The book offers an honest assessment of existing congressional limitations and how Congress can become more productive and functional.\" -- Josh Ryan, Utah State University\u003cbr\u003e“Congress Overwhelmed brings together the leading experts on Congress to address a critical issue facing American democracy: what can be done to ensure that Congress fulfills its role as a coequal branch in our political system? The volume provides a clear and compelling account of the many challenges facing today’s Congress and offers valuable lessons for reformers seeking to improve the legislative branch’s capacity.” -- Eric Schikler, University of California, Berkeley\u003cbr\u003e\"The United States Congress is a dysfunctional institution. Congress falls short on just about every measure of its myriad responsibilities. But how is Congress broken and why? Moreover, what can be done about it? These are the critical questions that \u003ci\u003eCongress Overwhelmed\u003c\/i\u003e seeks to address.\" * Congress \u0026amp; the Presidency *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1              Overwhelmed: An Introduction to Congress’s Capacity Problem\u003cbr\u003e Timothy M. LaPira, Lee Drutman, and Kevin R. Kosar\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Part 1    The Foundations of Congressional Capacity\u003cbr\u003e 2              Capacity for What? Legislative Capacity Regimes in Congress and the Possibilities for Reform\u003cbr\u003e Lee Drutman and Timothy M. LaPira\u003cbr\u003e 3              The Decline in Congressional Capacity\u003cbr\u003e Molly E. Reynolds\u003cbr\u003e 4              How Congress Fell Behind the Executive Branch\u003cbr\u003e Philip A. Wallach\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Part 2    Knowledge and Expertise in Congress\u003cbr\u003e 5              The Congressional Capacity Survey: Who Staff Are, How They Got There, What They Do, and Where They May Go\u003cbr\u003e Alexander C. Furnas, Lee Drutman, Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, Timothy M. LaPira, and Kevin R. Kosar\u003cbr\u003e 6              What Do Congressional Staff Actually Know?\u003cbr\u003e Kristina C. Miler\u003cbr\u003e 7              How Committee Staffers Clear the Runway for Legislative Action in Congress\u003cbr\u003e Casey Burgat and Charles Hunt\u003cbr\u003e 8              Legislative Branch Support Agencies: What They Are, What They Do, and Their Uneasy Position in Our System of Government\u003cbr\u003e Kevin R. Kosar\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Part 3    The Politics of Capacity in the Legislative Process\u003cbr\u003e 9              Still Muddling Along? Assessing the Hybrid Congressional Appropriations Process\u003cbr\u003e Peter Hanson\u003cbr\u003e 10           Congress and the Capacity to Act: Overcoming Gridlock in the Senate’s Amendment Process\u003cbr\u003e James Wallner\u003cbr\u003e 11           The Issue Dynamics of Congressional Capacity\u003cbr\u003e Jonathan Lewallen, Sean M. Theriault, and Bryan D. Jones\u003cbr\u003e 12           Congressional Capacity and Reauthorizations\u003cbr\u003e E. Scott Adler, Stefani R. Langehennig, and Ryan W. Bell\u003cbr\u003e 13           How Experienced Legislative Staff Contribute to Effective Lawmaking\u003cbr\u003e Jesse M. Crosson, Geoffrey M. Lorenz, Craig Volden, and Alan E. Wiseman\u003cbr\u003e 14           Capacity in a Centralized Congress\u003cbr\u003e James M. Curry and Frances E. Lee\u003cbr\u003e 15           Congressional Capacity and Bipartisanship in Congress\u003cbr\u003e Laurel Harbridge-Yong\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Part 4    Capacity and the Politics of Reform\u003cbr\u003e 16           Lessons from the History of Reform\u003cbr\u003e Ruth Bloch Rubin\u003cbr\u003e 17           Dodging Dead Cats: What Would It Take to Get Congress to Expand Capacity?\u003cbr\u003e Anthony Madonna and Ian Ostrander\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e References\u003cbr\u003e List of Contributors\u003cbr\u003e Index\u003cbr\u003e Online appendixes are available at https:\/\/dataverse.harvard.edu\/dataverse\/congressionalcapacity\/.\u003cbr\u003e  ","brand":"The University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49400091312471,"sku":"9780226702438","price":87.4,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780226702438.jpg?v=1730469691","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/congress-overwhelmed-9780226702438","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}