For next Tuesday: Davidson, ch. 7-8.
Thoughts on the simulation?
Knowledge:
- Knowledge advantage comes from specialization, which can occur either in committee or personal offices (La Pira 101).
- Experience counts (107).
- "Staff specialization and staff retention are essential" (107)
- And offices with experienced staff do better (but take "legislative effectiveness scores" with a shaker of salt) -- ch. 13.
Support agencies: headcount ( p. 138) and spending update (see p. 19 of linked document)
That environment changed abruptly in 2006. That year, Louis Fisher made comments to a reporter about the limitations of the whistle-blower protection law. It ought to have been a shrug-worthy comment, especially as the facts indicated that agencies defeated whistle-blowers in court almost every time. But someone in Congress took offense and complained. A media circus ensued, and the Internet lit up with anger. In the end, the agency transferred Fisher out of his job and into another agency within the Library of Congress. We had lost a valuable and productive colleague. Congressional requests that would have gone to him were routed to others at the CRS with much less experience.The CRS’s blood was in the water, and more attacks came. Many of us were particularly shocked when Michigan Representative Pete Hoekstra, then chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, rebuked the agency. A CRS expert had written a confidential memorandum on wiretapping, concluding that the executive branch probably had not given Congress as much notification as the law required. Hoekstra told the CRS that it had no business writing about the topic. It was remarkable: the CRS’s expert had warned Congress that the executive branch might be taking advantage of the legislature, and a powerful member of Congress had essentially replied, “Shut up.”
Rewind: Centralization
"Unorthodox" development and management of bills (LaPira 228-231).
Bipartisanship and legislative productivity
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