CQ Press’s renowned series, Congress and the Nation, is the most authoritative reference source on the actions of the U.S. Congress, providing a trusted, comprehensive, and accessible way to track legislation, debates, politics, and elections of the national government for more than three decades.
Now the tenth edition continues that tradition by chronicling the events in Congress and the presidency during the second term of Bill Clinton, from his second inauguration in 1997 until leaving office in January 2001.
In this new edition, readers and researchers will find:
- A survey of the politics of the period characterized by intensified partisan warfare between Clinton and the Republican Congress.
- A full description of the attempt by the GOP to impeach and remove Clinton from office that was fueled by the partisan rancor of the times.
- The remarkable agreement, in spite of the partisanship, between Clinton and his adversaries over federal spending that put the government on the road to ending chronic and massive budget deficits.
- The emerging U.S. foreign policy that sought to end the interminable ethnic fighting and civilian casualties in the Balkans.
- Continuing, and in the end fruitless, debate over the American health care system and its future.
- Details of Clinton’s electoral strengths and the congressional GOP’s unexpected electoral defeats.
- The disintegration of the career of House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who only a few years earlier had led his party out of electoral wilderness to capture a GOP majority for the first time in four decades.
- The unprecedented 2000 national elections in which the outcome, sending Republican George W. Bush to the White House, was decided in the end only by a hugely controversial Supreme Court decision.
A s with all previous volumes, CQ editors have condensed major legislative, presidential, and political coverage into a neatly woven story of the times, giving readers both an overview of the four-year period and detailed chronologies of congressional action in substantive areas. In addition to the overall picture, this volume continues its traditional features, to include:
- Key votes cast by senators and representatives during the 105th and 106th congressional sessions
- A generous selection of presidential speeches and other texts
- An examination of controversial nominations to important government jobs that were made during the period
- A list of individuals who served in Congress during the period, and the leading Cabinet figures of Clinton’s administration
- Detailed tables, election charts, and other appendices to aid fact-finding
- A detailed index and extensive cross-referencing in many articles.