2023 Simulation Roster

 On the alternate timeline of simulation world, Joe Biden is still president but Republicans have a Senate majority. 

Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

Republican

• Bill Cassidy (LA), chair Nick Teresi
• Rand Paul (KY) Auggie Aliaga
• Susan Collins (ME) Lexi Punishill
• Lisa Murkowski (AK) Sammy Moore-Thomson
• Mitt Romney (UT) Yulissa Sanchez
• Mitch McConnell (KY)* Isaiah Escobar

Democratic

• Bernie Sanders (VT), RMM  Sritha Chadalavada
• Patty Murray (WA) Jacey Carter
• Tammy Baldwin (WI) Kara Cato
• Maggie Hassan (NH) Ella Eichberg

Judiciary

Republican

• Chuck Grassley (IA), chair Maryum Khwaja
• Ted Cruz (TX) Olivia Carusi
• Lindsey Graham (SC) Shay Suresh
• Marsha Blackburn (TN) Olivia Licata
• Mike Lee (UT) Adam Alamy

Democrat

• Dick Durbin (IL), RMM  Bhanu Cheepurupalli
• Cory Booker (NJ) Maeve Conte
• Alex Padilla (CA) Stella Cheng
• Chuck Schumer (NY)* Caroline Bullock

*Added for simulation purposes

Political Deals I

Subminimum wage bill (S 533)

 

 

Conditions for Deliberative Negotiation (Lawrence, p. 14)

• Acceptable sources of information. 
• Repeated interactions 
• Penalty defaults (debt ceiling:  alum explains why it might not work this year)
• Privacy

Integrative Negotiation and linkage:  It takes a logjam to logroll.

Budget sequestration

Murray-Ryan:  A summary

Coda: They pretty much gave up on deficit control

Crisis and Scandal as a Prod to Action

Sanders and McCain find a deal

Bernie Sanders and John McCain

Policy Windows and  The Issue-Attention Cycle

Coda II:  Infrastructure and the important of policy windows

Public Lands Case Study

Most public lands are in the West:

 

Public Lands 2019

A couple of quotations about Congress and life in general:

• "At some point somebody has to decide, let's do it the old-fashioned way, which is `one thing I hate for one thing I love.'" (Lawrence, p. 39)
• "Here's a list of what we have to have. Here's a list of the ones we really, really hate. Here's a list of `if you put this language on page 4 we could swallow it.' And then you work that list." (Lawrence, pp. 40-41).

The vehicle

(The military administers 8.8 million acres of land)

The writeup  -- summary of provisions (and an illustration of Archive.org)

THE US DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE IS PRIMARILY A SOCIAL WELFARE AGENCY.

The 2014 farm bill and the "dairy cliff" penalty default (Lawrence, p. 51)

Interest Groups and Congress

For Tuesday, read Lawrence, all (it is a short book) and bring it to class.

Russian influence

• Lawful direct means
• Lawful indirect means
• Covert means
• Manafort
• Butina (and a postscript)

Interest group ratings

• HRC
• US Chamber of Commerce

Influence

• WHY WAS THE NRA POWERFUL? IT IS NOT THE MONEY (Note that NRA has gotten weaker)
• The "Daschle Loophole" -- his ill-fated HHS nomination
• Lobby numbers
• Deregistration 
• A graphic

• Think tanks
• Consultants
• Brookings and Qatar
• Recognition and awards
• Philanthropy
• Politicians' charities (see the rule, pp. 347-349) and government relations
• Rent-a-friend as deep lobbying
• Lobbyist cites letter that he ghost-wrote!
• A summary

Simulation Roles

On the alternate timeline of simulation world, Joe Biden is still president but Republicans have a Senate majority. 

Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

Republican

• Bill Cassidy (LA), chair
• Rand Paul (KY)
• Susan Collins (ME)
• Lisa Murkowski (AK)
• Mitt Romney (UT)
• Mitch McConnell (KY)*

Democratic

• Bernie Sanders (VT), RMM
• Patty Murray (WA)
• Tammy Baldwin (WI)
• Maggie Hassan (NH)

Judiciary

Republican

• Chuck Grassley (IA), chair
• Ted Cruz (TX)
• Lindsey Graham (SC)
• Marsha Blackburn (TN)
• Mike Lee (UT)

Democrat

• Dick Durbin (IL), RMM
• Cory Booker (NJ)
• Alex Padilla (CA)
• Chuck Schumer (NY)*

*Added for simulation purposes

Writing Advice from a Los Angeles Times Columnist

 

Decisions

For Wednesday, Davidson, ch. 13.

Questions on paper?  Comments on papers:  SW= page numbers in Strunk and White.

The winners

Reviewing Variations of Lawmaking
Vote-a-Rama
Rule XIV of the Senate:

The Senate’s standing committees play an essential part in the legislative process, as they select the small percentage of the bills introduced each Congress that, in their judgment, deserve the attention of the Senate as a whole, and as they recommend amendments to these bills based on their expert knowledge and experience. Most bills are routinely referred to the committee with appropriate jurisdiction as soon as they are introduced. However, paragraph 4 of Rule XIV permits a Senator to bypass a committee referral and have the bill placed directly on the Calendar of Business, with exactly the same formal status the bill would have if it had been considered and reported by a Senate committee.

Mr. MCCONNELL. Mr. President, I understand that there is a bill at the desk, and I ask for its first reading.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will read the bill by title for the first time.

The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

A bill (S. 1035) to extend authority relating to roving surveillance, access to business records, and individual terrorists as agents of foreign powers under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 and for other purposes.

Mr. MCCONNELL. I now ask for a second reading and, in order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV, I object to my own request.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection having been heard, the bill will be read for the second time on the next legislative day.2

Hotlining -- a 2019 example
Earmarking and Phonemarking
BTU'd
Alternative to conference: "message between houses" or Ping-ponging



Individual Decisions
Specialization and the importance of biography (Davidson, p. 247)

• Feinstein and guns
• Schiff and counterintelligence
• Cotton and the military

Timing


Party Unity (Davidson p. 276). TO ANALYZE A ROLL-CALL VOTE, LOOK AT THE EXCEPTIONS: THE MEMBERS WHO BROKE PARTY RANKS.

Marshall Bessey thesis on the impeachment Republicans



DO NOT TRY TO REDUCE ROLL CALL VOTES TO CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS. Consider primary and general election constituencies.


Voting in 2021 (From Roll Call )




History and DW-Nominate (Davidson 283)




This measurement is extremely influential in political science.


It is also extremely flawed.



Bargaining and cues


Cosponsorship and Dear Colleague

Process

 

Simulation issues and committees?

For next Tuesday, Davidson, ch. 9

• Another look at the committee system
• Organizing resolution
• Legislative hearings and oversight hearings
• Celebrity Witnesses -- a partial list
• Markup
• A committee report on eliminating useless reports
• Rules Committee (Davidson 234-240)
• The suspension calendar (Davidson 231-233):  
• Even post office renamings can get controversial in these polarized times.

• Open, Closed, Structured rules

• Motion to proceed in the Senate
• Motion to recommit in the House
• Filibuster and flip-flops

• Exception: Reconciliation
• Discharge petition flip-flops

The Basic Amendment Tree, Senate Version 

A CRS report on Senate amendments:

Senate precedents set out three principles of precedence among amendments that are directed to the same text: 

1. A second-degree amendment has precedence over a first-degree amendment;
2. A motion to insert and a motion to strike out and insert have precedence over a motion to strike out; and
3. A perfecting amendment (and an amendment to it) has precedence over a substitute amendment (and an amendment to it). 

The first of these principles is axiomatic. A second-degree amendment is an amendment to a first degree amendment, and it must be offered while the first-degree amendment is pending—that is, after the first-degree amendment has been offered but before the Senate has disposed of it. The Senate also acts on an amendment to a first-degree amendment before it acts on the first-degree amendment itself. So this principle conforms to Senate practice under both meanings of precedence.

It may be helpful in understanding the second two principles to think about decisions the Senate needs to make about a text. Changing the text of an amendment, through a second-degree amendment, could “cure” a problem Senators may have had with the amendment’s original language. That could obviate the need to strike out the text 

Senate Procedure and Rule XIV  "I object to my own request"

Therefore, through objection, a bill after two readings is prevented from being referred to committee and is placed directly on the Senate’s Calendar of Business. It is usually the majority leader (or a Senator acting in the majority leader’s stead), acting on his own or at the request of any other Senator, who objects to “further proceeding”—committee referral—on a measure.

How Mitch filled the tree 

• Filling the tree:  a pause in the 117th Congress

Just prior to Senate approval of S.Res. 27, the majority and minority leaders engaged in a colloquy on the floor to share additional information regarding their intentions for floor operations in the 117th Congress. ... The colloquy concerned two Senate practices that have become more common in recent Congresses. First, it has become common for the majority leader to “fill the amendment tree,” a process that temporarily blocks other Senators from offering amendments, except by unanimous consent. ... Regarding the amendment process, the majority leader announced in the colloquy: "I am a strong supporter of the right of Senators to offer amendments and commit to increase

dramatically the number of Member-initiated amendments offered in the 117thCongress. I am also opposed to limiting amendments by “filling the tree” unless dilatory measures

prevent the Senate from taking action and leave no alternative."

 

Other processes

• Vote-a-Rama  
• Hotlining  -- a 2019 example
• Earmarking and Phonemarking
• BTU'd
• Alternative to conference:  "message between houses" or Ping-ponging