The Polarized Congress: The Post-Traditional Procedure of Its Current Struggles

by Charles Tiefer

Overview

The Polarized Congress: The Post-Traditional Procedure of Its Current Struggles argues that the rise of the polarized Congress means a totally different Congressional procedure, especially after 2007, compared to the accustomed "traditional" one. Polarized Congress explores a host of lesser-known, even sometimes below the radar, aspects of the post-traditional or polarized model. These range from "ping-ponging" of major measures between chambers (without conferencing), to the Senate Majority Leader's new "toolkit". They go from the now-crucial "Hastert Rule" in the House, to the astonishment of legislating the Affordable Care Act by singular procedures including budget reconciliation. The book challenges the easy assumption, especially by the non-specialist press, 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761867487
Publisher:	University Press of America
Publication date:	04/27/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	210
File size:	496 KB

About the Author

Charles Tiefer is professor of legislation at the University of Baltimore Law School, and the author of five books including the only treatise on Congressional procedure, Congressional Practice and Procedure (1989). As General Counsel (Acting) of the U.S. House of Representatives during 1984 to 1995, he represented Congress in court and led numerous Congressional investigations. In 2008-2011 he served on the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is a regular contributor to Forbes.com. He often discusses Congressional procedure in print and broadcast media.

Table of Contents

Table 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

Editorial Reviews

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

Professor Tiefer has provided the reader with a fascinating and insightful discussion of what passes for the “new normal” on Capitol Hill.

Congress & the Presidency

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

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