Congress Overwhelmed : The Decline in Congressional Capacity and Prospects for Reform

Congress 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 comprehensive, sophisticated appraisal of congressional capacity to date, and they offer a new analytical frame for thinking about—and improving—our underperforming first branch of government. Overwhelmed : An introduction to Congress's capacity problem /Timothy M. LaPira, Lee Drutman, and Kevin R. Kosar --Part 1. The foundations of Congressional capacity.Capacity for what? Legislative capacity regimes in Congress and the possibilities for reform /Lee Drutman and Timothy M. LaPira --The decline in Congressional capacity /Molly E. Reynolds --How Congress fell behind the Executive Branch /Philip A. Wallach --Part 2. Knowledge and expertise in Congress.The Congressional capacity survey : Who staff are, how they got there, what they do, and where they may go /Alexander C. Furnas, Lee Drutman, Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, Timothy M. LaPira, and Kevin R. Kosar --What do Congressional staff actually know? /Kristina C. Miler --How committee staffers clear the runway for legislative action in Congress /Casey Burgat and Charles Hunt --Legislative branch support agencies : What they are, what they do, and their uneasy position in our system of government /Kevin R. Kosar --Part 3. The politics of capacity in the legislative process.Still muddling along? Assessing the hybrid Congressional appropriations process /Peter Hanson --Congress and the capacity to act : overcoming gridlock in the Senate's amendment process /James Wallner --The issue dynamics of Congressional capacity /Jonathan Lewallen, Sean M. Theriault, and Bryan D. Jones --Congressional capacity and reauthorizations /E. Scott Adler, Stefani R. Langehennig, and Ryan W. Bell --How experienced legislative staff contribute to effective lawmaking /Jesse M. Crosson, Geoffrey M. Lorenz, Craig Volden, and Alan E. Wiseman --Capacity in a centralized Congress /James M. Curry and Frances E. Lee --Congressional capacity and bipartisanship in Congress /Laurel Harbridge-Yong --Part 4. Capacity and the politics of reform.Lessons from the history of reform /Ruth Bloch Rubin --Dodging dead cats : What would it take to get congress to expand capacity? /Anthony Madonna and Ian Ostrander "Over the last four decades Congress as an institution has been steadily dis-investing in its own internal organizational resources. Member offices and committees have made do with fewer, and less experienced and expert, staff than they used to employ. It has failed to conduct vigorous investigations and oversight; members spend more of their time raising money than studying policy. It cannot effectively legislate or check and balance an executive branch to which it has delegated so much power without institutional resources. By all accounts, the capacity of Congress is in sorry shape. At the same time, demands on Congress have increased markedly as the scope of government has expanded. In this book the authors describe the institutional decline in Congress, discuss the reasons for the decline, and offer solutions"-- Provided by publisher Congress today is falling short. Fewer bills, worse oversight and more dysfunction. But why? In this volume of essays, the contributors investigate an underappreciated reason Congress is struggling: it doesn't have the internal capacity to do what the US 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