All Roads Lead To Congress

by Panagopoulos, Costas

• ISBN13: 9780872894617
• ISBN10: 0872894614
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-10-30
• Publisher: Cq Pr

Summary

While learning procedures like the markup or cloture, the legislative process can seem mechanical and dry. What students hunger for, and greatly benefit from, is seeing lawmaking from the inside&BAD:-the backroom politics that makes the process so fascinating, so real, so compelling. All Roads Lead to Congress drives students through one piece of legislation&BAD:-the surface transportation bill&BAD:-showing them the maneuvering and negotiating that go on among members of Congress and their staffers as they haggle over a huge pot of money. The bill provides an example of both sides of the domestic legislative coin, as members of Congress formulating the bill fight over both policy issues (mostly along party lines) and money (mostly along regional lines).While working on the Hill, Costas Panagopoulos and Joshua Schank were able to follow the path of this legislation from inception to law, observing firsthand the twists and turns of its journey. While filled with details and dialogue reminiscent of a good novel, All Roads is sure to explain the various rules that structure legislation, the leadership styles and strategies at play, the tensions among levels of government, and the impact of the executive. Students are not only likely to read this intriguing case study of Hill life cover to cover, but they also might seriously consider an internship or future career on the Hill. More important, they will have absorbed conceptual ideas about Congress effortlessly.

Author Biography

Costas Panagopoulos is assistant professor of political science and director of the Center for Electoral Politics and Democracy and the master's program in elections and campaign management at Fordham University. He is also a research fellow at the Institution for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University. He served as an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow in the office of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., from 2004 to 2005. He was part of the Decision Desk team at NBC News in 2006 and has provided extensive political analysis and commentary for various print and broadcast media outlets. Joshua Schank is director of transportation research at the Bipartisan Policy Center, where he is directing a national transportation policy study. He was a consultant with PB Consult, the management consulting arm of Parsons Brinckerhoff, one of the world's leading transportation planning and engineering firms, and a senior associate with ICF International, an environmental consulting firm; he was a consultant to federal and local government agencies on transportation issues for both firms. He advised Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on federal highway and transit legislation from 2002 to 2005. He has also been an analyst for the U.S. Department of Transportation Inspector General. Schank is president of the Washington, D.C., chapter of the Transportation Research Forum.

Table of Contents

Tables, Figures, Maps, And Boxes	p. ix
Preface
How A Bill Becomes Law	p. 1
Powers behind the Throne	p. 1
Setting the Stage	p. 4
Power: How to Get It, How to Use It	p. 8
History of the Surface Transportation Bill	p. 16
The Role of the White House	p. 24
Rustlings on the Hill	p. 31
Regional Alliances	p. 34
Follow the Money	p. 37
Notes	p. 40
Bill Introduction And Markup	p. 43
The Surrogate Staff System	p. 43
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee	p. 48
Getting to Markup	p. 50
The Bill Arrives	p. 55
The Revolt	p. 57
The Empire Strikes Back	p. 61
Last-Minute Dealmaking	p. 66
The Markup	p. 73
Afterglow	p. 76
Notes	p. 77
Floor Fight	p. 79
Floor Procedure	p. 80
The Transportation Bill	p. 84
The Equity Bonus	p. 85
Bill Financing	p. 90
Senate Debate-Opposition	p. 92
The Strength of a Rider	p. 96
A Waiting Game	p. 97
An Amendment Appears	p. 98
Moving Forward, Finally	p. 100
The Amendment Flurry	p. 102
The House Bill	p. 105
The Minimum Guarantee	p. 106
House Debate	p. 108
On to Conference	p. 109
Conference	p. 111
The ??Third House"	p. 111
Appointment of Conferees	p. 113
Conference Problems	p. 117
Picking up the Pieces	p. 121
Notes	p. 122
Back To The Drawing Board	p. 125
Markup Redux	p. 127
Back to the Senate Floor	p. 140
An Amendment on Toll Roads	p. 142
Senate Bill Passage	p. 147
Back to the House Floor	p. 151
Conference	p. 152
Final Final Passage (Finally)	p. 155
Notes	p. 158
Passage And Politics: The Aftermath	p. 159
Bill Signing	p. 159
Press Time	p. 162
The Coburn Amendment	p. 167
Donor/Donee and the Formula Fight	p. 169
Pork-Barrel Spending and the 2006 Election Results	p. 175
Beyond 2006: Earmark Reform and the 2008 Elections	p. 185
Earmark Reform and the Public	p. 186
The Future of Transportation Policy	p. 187
Conclusions	p. 190
Notes	p. 196
Appendixes
Examples of Reconciled Provisions in a Conference Committee Report	p. 201
House Conferees (Complete List, 108th Congress)	p. 203
House and Senate Conferees (Complete List, 109th Congress)	p. 205
Key Transportation Policy Changes in SAFETEA-LU	p. 207
Index	p. 211
About The Authors	p. 220
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