Description
Book SynopsisThis book challenges the easy assumption that Congressional procedure is descending into nothing more than chaotic brutishness or eternal stalemate. Instead, it explains the transformation of the traditional model about "how a bill becomes a law" before 2000, into the new current model in which Congress acts very differently.
Trade ReviewProfessor Tiefer has provided the reader with a fascinating and insightful discussion of what passes for the “new normal” on Capitol Hill. * Congress & the Presidency *
Charles Tiefer knows congressional procedure and modern history like few others. In The Polarized Congress: The Post-Traditional Procedure of Its Current Struggles, he masterfully examines and analyzes how rules and procedures have changed in their use and form as Congress has moved more and more toward partisan polarization. He finds the ways in which artful leaders have found or adapted their toolkits to make sure that gridlock has enough flexibility to pass essential measures. Examining separately and together the House and Senate, and using multiple real-life examples to illuminate the process and the change, Tiefer has made an invaluable contribution to our understanding of the contemporary, dysfunctional Congress. -- Norman J. Ornstein, political scientist and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and the author of It’s Even Worse Than It Looks (2012)
Using a panoply of concrete examples, Tiefer vividly illuminates just how dramatically Congress has changed in recent years due to increasing partisan polarization. Drawing on two decades of Hill experience as a template, he highlights the ways in which standard lawmaking procedures have morphed into contorted mutations to accommodate leadership-driven imperatives. -- Donald R. Wolfensberger, congressional scholar at the Woodrow Wilson and Bipartisan Policy centers, and former staff director of the House Rules Committee.
In Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Jimmy Stewart’s character brought the art of the filibuster to the big screen. In The Polarized Congress, Charles Tiefer masterfully shows how congressional procedure still matters. From his discussion of the passage of the Affordable Care Act to the “fiscal cliff” vote, he describes how it shapes our laws and, ultimately, our lives. This book is a must-read for lawmakers, Capitol Hill staffers, or anyone interested in the behind-the-scenes mechanics of American politics. If Mr. Smith went to Washington today, you’d see him carrying around The Polarized Congress—an indispensable guide for reform that not only explains the filibuster, but cloture and reconciliation votes, appropriations and supplementals, and a dizzying array of little-known procedural tools like “unanimous consent” and “filling the tree.” -- John Bessler, PhD, author of The Birth of American Law: An Italian Philosopher and the American Revolution
Table of ContentsTable of Contents Preface Chapter 1 Introduction and Overview Chapter 2 Bicameral Agreement: Conferences and Ping-Ponging Chapter 3 Running the Polarized House: Polarization, the Hastert Rule, and the Fettered Floor Chapter 4 Trying to Work with the Polarized Senate Chapter 5 Cloture in the Often-Blocked Senate Chapter 6 The Budget Process Serving Polarized Chambers Chapter 7 Appropriations Chapter 8 Change Bibliography Index
