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Davidson, Oleszek, and Lee’s focus on Congress as both a legislative institution and as a group of reelection-minded politicians has proven to be an extraordinarily effective and accessible way for thousands of students to understand the institution and the law-making process. A proven classic, the twelfth edition of Congress and Its Members features careful revising, new scholarship, and crucial updating.

From edition to edition, the updates you can always rely on feature coverage of:

• the 2008 elections
• the agenda of the new Congress 
• White House–Capitol Hill relationships 
• party and committee leadership changes 
• judicial appointments
• campaign finance 
• reapportionment 
• the future of partisan polarization 
• rules changes and procedural shifts

And revisions that explore the historic and significant changes since the last edition include:

• How will Congress deal with the economic crisis and financial meltdown, along with two foreign wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? 
• How will Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid—with consolidated majorities in the House and Senate—work with the Obama administration?
• How will Congress confront the “midnight regulations” of the Bush administration?
• What is the role of conference committees for reconciling bicameral disagreements? 
• Do the 2008 congressional elections signify a partisan realignment, or simply a continuing trend? 
• Do new developments in campaign funding, strategies, and techniques tell us something new, or do they mainly repeat past trends? 
• Has Bush’s “imperial presidency” become a precedent for future inter-branch working arrangements? How effectively can Congress strive to regain its powers and prerogatives?

Part I. In Search of the Two Congresses

1. The Two Congresses

2. Evolution of the Modern Congress

Part II. A Congress of Ambassadors

3. Going for It: Recruitment and Candidacy

4. Making It: The Electoral Game

5. Being There: Hill Styles and Home Styles

Part III. A Deliberative Assembly of One Nation

6. Leaders and Parties in Congress

7. Committees: Workshops of Congress

8. Congressional Rules and Procedures

9. Deliberation in Congress

Part IV. Policy Making and Change in the Two Congresses

10. Congress and the President

11. Congress and the Bureaucracy

12. Congress and the Courts

13. Congress and Organized Interests

14. Congress, Budgets, and Domestic Policymaking

15. Congress and National Security Policies

Part V. Conclusion

16. The Two Congresses and the American People

Reference Materials

Appendix A. Party Control: Presidency, Senate, House, 1901–2009

Appendix B. Internships: Getting Experience on Capitol Hill

“This book is the foundation text for courses on the U.S. Congress. It is clear, comprehensive, and easy to read. Students appreciate the up-to-date examples and the clearly-presented information. The authors’ use of the dual Congress framework helps to illuminate the underlying tension between the individual and collective responsibilities of legislators. This is one of the fundamental books for understanding how Congress operates.”

“Written in clear, direct prose, Congress and Its Members provides students with a central theme, the two Congresses, that enables them to organize and understand the myriad details that characterize the structure and operation of a very complex institution. I particularly value the fact that by following that theme through the many dimensions of Congress, students learn to think analytically as they learn about Congress itself.”

Roger H. Davidson is professor emeritus of government and politics at the University of Maryland and has served as visiting professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. For the 2001–2002 academic year, he served as the John Marshall Chair in political science at the University of Debrecen, Hungary. His books include Remaking Congress: Change and Stability in the 1990’s, co-edited with James A. Thurber, and Understanding the Presidency, Third Edition, co-edited with James P. Pfiffner. Davidson is co-editor with Donald C. Bacon and Morton Keller of The Encyclopedia of the United States Congress.

Walter J. Oleszek is a senior specialist in the legislative process at the Congressional Research Service. He has served as either a full-time professional staff aide or consultant to every major House and Senate congressional reorganization effort beginning with the passage of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970. In 1993, he served as Policy Director of the Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress. A long-time adjunct faculty member at The American University, Oleszek is a frequent lecturer before various academic, governmental, and business groups. He is the author or co-author of several books, including Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process, Seventh Edition, and Congress Under Fire: Reform Politics and the Republican Majority, with C. Lawrence Evans.

Frances E. Lee is associate professor of government and politics at University of Maryland. She has been a Research Fellow at the Brookings Institution and an APSA Congressional Fellow. She coauthored Sizing Up The Senate: The Unequal Consequences of Equal Representation with Bruce I. Oppenheimer, which won the D. B. Hardeman Prize in 1999. Her articles have appeared in American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, Legislative Studies Quarterly, and American Journal of Political Science, among others.