Chapter 5: Congress Beyond the "Water's Edge"

Annotated Internet References

The Almanac of Policy Issues (www.policyalmanac.org) is a comprehensive site for searching policy issues passed and rejected by Congress. Research areas such as arms control, international trade, defense spending, and homeland defense are especially well covered. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports are hosted on this page for each issue area.

 

The Capitol.Net (www.thecapitol.net) is a nonpartisan research group that focuses on training researchers in networking, communicating, and understanding congressional policy making in Washington, D.C. Links are available to handbooks such as “How Congress Works” as well as to important directories of legislators, executive agencies, and media outlets. The site also has glossaries and dictionaries for guidance in understanding congressional politics and policy.

 

The Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies (http://spa.american.edu/ccps/) is hosted by American University and provides access to conferences, speeches, and articles regarding the presidency. Of particular interest to the center is the relationship between the executive and legislative branches along with presidential and congressional campaigning. The center publishes a number of books and series regarding these issues, as well as the peer-reviewed journal Congress and the Presidency.

 

Organized and maintained by Indiana University, the Center on Congress (http://congress.indiana.edu) aims to provide students and researchers hoping to become active in policy areas with a better understanding of how Congress works on a day-to-day basis. Books, radio reports, articles, and research projects are linked to the center.

 

Congress.org (www.congress.org) provides descriptions and analyses of the latest issues and votes on the Hill. Letters sent by organizations and interest groups to congressional officials and committees are listed.

 

The Congressional Budget Office (www.cbo.gov) provides the latest, as well as historic, data and economic forecasts on U.S. spending. Specifically, budget authorization acts and budget forecasts relating to defense, security, and homeland security are available on this Web site.

 

CNN’s Inside Politics Web site (www.cnn.com/POLITICS/) integrates Time magazine, Newsweek, AP, and CNN current events and political stories. Congressional action and voting are often the topics of articles posted on this site. Video, speeches, and live coverage are added bonuses to using this site.

 

The Library of Congress (www.loc.gov) provides links to legal and policy topics along with bibliographies to support research projects. The library also provides an index of popular research topics for political and social researchers. Through this website, students can access Thomas (thomas.loc.gov/) which provides a full database of legislation in Congress.

 

The direct link to the United States Congress (www.congress.gov), where researchers can access the House of Representatives and the Senate along with every committee and subcommittee, also provides links to each congressional member’s home page and descriptions of current legislation. The site also maintains links to current and past legislation, voting records, and committee reports.

 

The Weekly Political Wrap (www.pbs.org/newshour/political_wrap/index.html), organized and maintained by PBS, provides reporting on weekly political issues in Congress. Real audio and transcribed testimony are especially helpful for researchers.

Additional Links of Interest

American Political Science Review (www.apsa.com/pubs/)

Congress and the Presidency: A Journal of Capital Studies (http://spa.american.edu/ccps/pages.php?ID=20)

Congressional Research Service Reports (http://fpc.state.gov//c4763.htm)

CQ Weekly (www.cq.com)

Foreign Policy (www.foreignpolicy.com)

Journal of Politics (http://journalofpolitics.org/)

Legislative Studies Quarterly (www.uiowa.edu/~lsq/)

National Journal (www.nationaljournal.com/)

Political Research Quarterly (http://prq.sagepub.com/)

Political Science Quarterly (www.psqonline.org/)

Presidential Studies Quarterly (www.thepresidency.org/psq/index.htm)

Suggested Readings Cited in Chapter 5

Cronin, Patrick, and Benjamin O. Fordham. 1999. “Timeless Principles or Today’s Fashion? Testing the Stability of the Linkage between Ideology and Foreign Policy in the Senate.” Journal of Politics 61 (November): 967–998.

 

Davidson, Roger H., and Walter J. Oleszek, eds. 2006. Congress and Its Members. 10th ed. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press.

 

Deering, Christopher J. 1996. “Congress, the President, and Automatic Government: The Case of Military Base Closures.” In Rivals for Power: Presidential-Congressional Relations, ed. James A. Thurber, 153–169. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press.

 

Destler, I. M. 2001. “Congress and Foreign Policy at Century’s End: Requiem or Cooperation?” In Congress Reconsidered, 7th ed., ed. Lawrence C. Dodd and Bruce I. Oppenheimer, 315–333. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press.

 

Fisher, Louis. 2004. “The Way We Go to War: The Iraq Resolution.” In Considering the Bush Presidency, ed. Gary L. Gregg II and Mark J. Rozell, 107–124. New York: Oxford University Press.

 

Henehan, Marie T. 2000. Foreign Policy and Congress: An International Relation Perspective. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

 

Hersman, Rebecca. 2000. Friends and Foes: How Congress and the President Really Make Foreign Policy. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.

 

Hinckley, Barbara. 1994. Less than Meets the Eye: Foreign Policy Making and the Myth of the Assertive Congress. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

 

Johnson, Robert D. 2001. “Congress and the Cold War.” Journal of Cold War Studies 3 (Spring): 76–100.

 

LeLoup, Lance T., and Steven A. Shull. 2003. The President and Congress: Collaboration and Combat in National Policymaking. 2d ed. New York: Longman.

 

Lindsay, James M. 1994. “Congress, Foreign Policy, and the New Institutionalism.” International Studies Quarterly 38 (June): 281–304.

 

McCormick, James M., and Eugene R. Wittkopf. 1998. “Congress, the President, and the End of the Cold War: Has Anything Changed?” Journal of Conflict Resolution 42 (August): 440–467.

 

McCormick, James M., Eugene R. Wittkopf, and David M. Danna. 1997. “Politics and Bipartisanship at the Water’s Edge: A Note on Bush and Clinton.” Polity 30 (Fall): 133–149.

 

Nelson, Michael. 2004. “George W. Bush and Congress: The Electoral Connection.” In Considering the Bush Presidency, ed. Gary L. Gregg II and Mark J. Rozell, 141–160. New York: Oxford University Press.

 

Peake, Jeffrey S. 2002. “Coalition Building and Overcoming Legislative Gridlock in Foreign Policy.” Presidential Studies Quarterly 32 (March): 67–83.

 

Rosner, Jeremy D. 1995. The New Tug of War: Congress, the Executive, and National Security. Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

 

Scott, James M., and Ralph G. Carter. 2002. “Acting on the Hill: Congressional Assertiveness in U.S. Foreign Policy.” Congress and the Presidency 29 (Autumn): 151–170.

 

Silverstein, Gordon. 1997. Imbalance of Powers: Constitutional Interpretation and the Making of American Foreign Policy. New York: Oxford University Press.

 

Weissman, Stephen R. 1995. A Culture of Deference: Congress’s Failure of Leadership in Foreign Policy. New York: Basic Books.

Suggested Readings Following the Themes of Chapter 5

Auerswald, David, and Forrest Maltzman. 2003. “Policymaking through Advice and Consent: Treaty Consideration by the United States Senate.” The Journal of Politics 65 (November): 1097–1110.

 

Baccus, William I. 1997. The Price of American Foreign Policy: Congress, the Executive, and International Affairs Funding. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.

 

Binder, Sarah A. 2003. Stalemate: The Causes and Consequences of Legislative Gridlock. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.

 

Brady, David W., and Matthew D. McCubbins, eds. 2002. Party, Process, and Political Change in Congress: New Perspectives on the History of Congress. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

 

Campbell, Colton C., Nicol C. Rae, and John F. Stack Jr., eds. 2003. Congress and the Politics of Foreign Policy. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.

 

Cole, Timothy M. 1994. “Congressional Investigation of American Foreign Policy: Iran-Contra in Perspective.” Congress and the Presidency 21 (Spring): 29–49.

 

Crabb, Cecil V. Jr., Glenn J. Antizzo, and Leila E. Sarieddine. 2000. Congress and the Foreign Policy Press: Modes of Legislative Behavior. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.

 

Hamilton, Lee, and Jordan Tama. 2002. A Creative Tension: The Foreign Policy Roles of the President and Congress. Woodrow Wilson Center Press.

 

Johnson, Robert D. 2001. “Congress and the Cold War.” Journal of Cold War Studies 3 (Spring): 76–101.

 

Jones, Charles O. 1995. Separate but Equal Branches: Congress and the Presidency. Chatham, N.J.: Chatham House

 

Lindsay, James M. 1994. The Politics of U.S. Foreign Policy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

 

------. 1992–1993. “Congress and Foreign Policy: Why the Hill Matters.” Political Science Quarterly 107 (Winter): 607–628.

 

Maltzman, Forrest. 1997. Competing Principals: Committees, Parties, and the Organization of Congress. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

 

Marshall, Bryan W. 2003. “Presidential Success in Foreign Affairs: Institutional Reform and the Role of House Committees.” Social Science Quarterly 84 (September): 685–704.

 

Marshall, Bryan W., and Brandon C. Prins. 2002. “The Pendulum of Congressional Power: Agenda Change, Partisanship and the Demise of the Post–World War II Foreign Policy Consensus.” Congress and the Presidency 29 (Autumn): 195–213.

 

Polsby, Nelson. 2003. How Congress Evolves: Social Bases of Institutional Change. New York: Oxford University Press.

 

Ripley, Randall B., and James M. Lindsay, eds. 1993. Congress Resurgent: Foreign and Defense Policy on Capital Hill. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

 

Thurber, James. 2005. Rivals for Power: Presidential-Congressional Relations, 3^rd ed. Rowman and Littlefield.