How Congress
Works
By Peter S. Winokur
2001 IEEE-USA Congressional Fellow
The following is a set of
observations on Congress and how it works taken down during the orientation provided by
the American Association for the Advancement of Science for the incoming Science and
Engineering Congressional Fellows. It will be interesting to see how my own
experience as a 2001 Fellow with Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) compares.
- Congress is the 1st branch of
government. Constitution of the US, Article 1, Section 1 reads "All legislative
Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall
consist of a Senate and House of Representatives."
- The majority and minority parties
of the people's House refer to each other as the "opposition," but the Senate is
the "enemy."
- There is no such thing as a
win-win. There are always winners and losers. If one program is funded, another program is
not.
- To be effective you need to know
what problem you are trying to solve, what do you want members of Congress to do, who is
for and who is against, what is it really going to cost, how long will it take to get
results, who benefits and who loses, etc.
- "Lobbyist" is not a bad
word. It's just important to know whose facts get used.
- The system is not meant to act.
10,000 bills are introduced each year and 200 become law. The job of Congress is to stop
bad laws.
- Entitlements are 2/3 of the budget,
while only 1/3 is discretionary. It's going to get worse.
- The public debt will be zero in a
few years (if projected budget surpluses continue). Sounds good, but the government owes
the Social Security Trust Fund 8T dollars! Any ideas?
- There is policy for science and
technology, and science and technology for policy. Don't confuse them. S&T is the driver for a great deal of
policy.
- On the Hill, interest and support
for S&T is 1/8-inch deep and 10 miles wide.
- Everything is political - even the
Census! Get over it.
- The big picture is the 4 Ps -
policy, procedure, politics, and patience.
- The House is the procedural
chamber. Some House members have never addressed the chamber because they don't know how.
Visit the House and listen to the banter of procedure; it sounds like an auction. Members
of the House play hardball; acrimony reigns.
- It's good to be on the House Rules
Committee (they control what amendments can be offered and the rules of debate).
- It's good to be in the majority.
- All Senators are kings. They pass
legislation by unanimous consent. Rules mean nothing. One Senator can kill a piece of
legislation. Typically, these guys and gals play nice. After all, they're royalty!
- To conduct business, the House goes
out of session and becomes the "Committee of the Whole." Look for the
staff with the eagle at the Speaker's podium. When they form (adjourn to) the
"Committee of the Whole," the staff comes down. When the House returns to formal
session, the staff is put back up.
- Members of Congress seen on CSPAN mostly address an empty chamber. They just have
important things to say.
- Campaign finance reform is a must.
The amount of money in politics is obscene. The folks who pay the campaign bills have the
greatest access.
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Last Updated:
10 May 2007
The Institute of Electrical and
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