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—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—the surface transportation bill—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.

CQ Press is pleased to comply with the Higher Education Opportunity Act. Please email heoacompliance@cqpress.com for additional information that may be available. Be sure to include your name, contact information, academic affiliation, and the title, author, and edition of the book in question.

Contact us at collegesales@cqpress.com if we may assist you in your book selection or if you have feedback to share. Thank you for your consideration of CQ Press books.

1. How a Bill Becomes a Law

2. Bill Introduction and Markup

3. Floor Fight

4. Conference

5. Back to the Drawing Board

6. Passage and Politics: The Aftermath

“This book takes the reader step-by-step through the entire legislative process, ending in a conference committee and final vote in both chambers. By emphasizing the conference committee, the authors draw appropriate attention to differences in chambers and the role of the executive—often a neglected sequence of events in books like these. In short, this book makes an excellent tool to reinforce generally 'vague' concepts and give students a genuine understanding of political strategy.”

"This is how to write a book about how a bill becomes a law! All Roads Lead to Congress is a rich, behind-the-scenes account that provides readers a candid and comprehensive view of the inner workings of Congress. With respect to how legislation moves through Congress, Panagopoulos and Schank hit the nail on the head. The authors unmask the proverbial legislative ‘sausage factory’ brilliantly."

"To understand, in the maze of the American separation-of-powers constitutional system, how a bill becomes a law, is not easy. This book, a case study by two scholars who served on Capitol Hill, effectively opens up the process."

Costas Panagopoulos is assistant professor of political science and director of the Center for Electoral Politics and the Master's Program in Elections and Campaign Management at Fordham University. He is also 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 Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) from 2004 to 2005. His academic research, focusing on American politics with an emphasis on campaigns and elections, voting behavior, public opinion and Congress, has appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, Public Opinion Quarterly, Presidential Studies Quarterly, Electoral Studies, and PS: Political Science and Politics. Panagopoulos 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 including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Newsday, CNN, NBC Nightly News, Fox News, and BBC Television. Panagopoulos holds an undergraduate degree in government from Harvard University and a PhD in politics from New York University.

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 Consulting, an environmental consulting firm; he was a consultant to federal and local government agencies on transportation issues for both firms. Schank 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, and he worked as a transportation planner for the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York City. Schank is president of the Washington, D.C., chapter of the Transportation Research Forum, one of the oldest professional transportation organizations. In addition to a PhD in urban planning from Columbia University, Schank has a master's degree in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.