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Veteran Hill observer Walter J. Oleszek discusses the organizational and political environment of the contemporary Congress and how its rules shape domestic and foreign policy. This book is the definitive work on congressional lawmaking today, providing a detailed look into the interplay of rules, procedures, precedents, and strategies, and focusing on the changes evolving from the 104th Congress.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Tables, Figures, and Boxes(p. xi)
• Preface(p. xv)
• 1 Congress and Lawmaking(p. 1)
• The Constitutional Context(p. 2)
• Functions of Rules and Procedures(p. 5)
• Rules and Policy Making in Congress(p. 10)
• Congressional Decision Making(p. 17)
• The House and Senate Compared(p. 23)
• Pressures on Members(p. 30)
• 2 The Congressional Budget Process(p. 41)
• Overview(p. 41)
• Authorization-Appropriations Process(p. 43)
• Prelude to Budget Reform(p. 56)
• The 1974 Budget Act(p. 56)
• Evolution of the Budget Process(p. 66)
• The Surplus Era(p. 69)
• 3 Preliminary Legislative Action(p. 75)
• Categories of Legislation(p. 77)
• Bill Referral Procedure(p. 79)
• Consideration in Committee(p. 86)
• The Committee Chairman's Role(p. 89)
• Hearings(p. 91)
• The Markup(p. 95)
• The Report(p. 101)
• Bypassing Committees(p. 103)
• 4 Scheduling Legislation in the House(p. 109)
• The House Legislative Calendars(p. 110)
• Minor and Noncontroversial Bills(p. 110)
• Privileged Legislation(p. 117)
• Major Legislation(p. 118)
• Legislation Blocked in Committee(p. 138)
• Final Scheduling Steps(p. 142)
• 5 House Floor Procedure(p. 148)
• Adoption of the Rule(p. 150)
• Committee of the Whole(p. 151)
• General Debate(p. 153)
• The Amending Process(p. 158)
• Voting(p. 169)
• Final Procedural Steps(p. 173)
• 6 Scheduling Legislation in the Senate(p. 181)
• Flexible Scheduling System(p. 181)
• Noncontroversial Bills(p. 187)
• Major Legislation(p. 191)
• Unanimous Consent Agreements(p. 194)
• The Track System(p. 202)
• Scheduling Procedures Compared(p. 203)
• 7 Senate Floor Procedure(p. 207)
• Legislative and Calendar Days(p. 209)
• Daily Order of Business(p. 210)
• Debate in the Modern Senate(p. 211)
• Bills Considered by Unanimous Consent(p. 215)
• The Amending Process(p. 217)
• Bills Without Unanimous Consent(p. 227)
• Procedures to Circumvent Committees(p. 236)
• 8 Resolving House-Senate Differences(p. 245)
• Obscurity of the Process(p. 245)
• Agreement Without a Conference(p. 247)
• Preconference Considerations(p. 248)
• Conference Committee Process(p. 250)
• Presidential Approval or Veto(p. 268)
• 9 Legislative Oversight(p. 274)
• Techniques of Oversight(p. 278)
• Oversight Trends(p. 289)
• Lack of Consensus on Oversight(p. 291)
• 10 A Dynamic Process(p. 298)
• Glossary of Congressional Terms(p. 309)
• Selected Bibliography(p. 323)
• Selected Internet Sources(p. 327)
• Index(p. 329)

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CHOICE Review

The fourth edition of this classic text and reference combination is right on schedule. Like each previous edition, this one follows in the wake of some historic congressional change. This time the new Republican congressional majority has made changes in legislative rules and procedures. Thus, the dominant theme is that change is ever present in congressional procedure and politics and that these procedural details have a crucial policy impact in determining the fate of particular policies. Among the many procedural changes highlighted by Oleszek is his remarkably understandable chapter describing the revamped budget procedure, including the implications of the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act of 1985 and the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990; a series of innovative rules created by the House Rules Committee for considering legislation; new types of filibustering tactics employed in the Senate; and some significant centralization in the authority of the Speaker. Oleszek describes these otherwise dreary details in a lively and interesting fashion. He liberally employs illustrative documents, anecdotes, and examples from recent legislative sessions. Here is the first in-depth study of the new Republican Congress. Recommended for all libraries. E. C. Dreyer University of Tulsa

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Walter J. Oleszek is a senior specialist in American national government at the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress