Surviving Inside Congress - Sixth Edition

Here is an extensive chapter-by-chapter summary of the book

In the school of hard knocks, the lessons usually follow the exams. That’s why the school colors are black and blue. When we first undertook to write this book, our mission was to take the authors' combined 56 years of experience working in Congress and help new Congressional staff get ahead by learning from that experience.

Surviving Inside Congress is now in its Sixth (and likely final) Edition, growing from 270 to 512 pages. Since it first appeared on Capitol Hill in 2009, the Congressional Institute has distributed some 40,000 copies free of charge to members and staff in the House and Senate. Many more books have been sold to diplomats, foreign parliamentary staff, college students, lobbyists, and people who want to understand how Congress works or doesn’t, as the case may be.

I wrote this book with Mike Johnson, Jerry Climer, and Timothy Lang. Mike and Jerry have since written their own book, Fixing Congress, which was published last year, with their ideas on how to make Congress work better. Timothy Lang, who edited this book from the Second Edition, has been elevated to the author position. He and I worked long hours to prepare the new edition, which now includes a chapter, written mainly by Tim (a genuine Congressional scholar in his own right), on the relationship between Congress and the Judiciary.

We are grateful to the Congressional Institute for continuing to publish this book.

We have accomplished our mission. After reviewing the transcript of the Sixth Edition, the former Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, wrote: 

“Our Founders designed such a unique and beautiful system of representative democracy, but the complexities of our legislative branch can be difficult to understand and navigate. 

Surviving Inside Congress demystifies how Congress really works. It expertly details the players, processes, and pressure points involved in policymaking and offers readers a comprehensive roadmap to understanding Capitol Hill. Surviving Inside Congress is invaluable for anyone looking to make a difference, and the countless kernels of wisdom it provides will benefit staff and Members alike.”

Say what you will about his politics, and we assiduously avoid any partisan politics in the book; the former Speaker is undoubtedly an expert on Congress. We are grateful for his review.

A chapter-by-chapter summary will help you decide whether this book is for you.

Chapter One: In the Beginning

The book reviews the origins of Congress. The United States chose this Constitutional republic after some early experimentation with the Articles of Confederation.  

Today, many Americans hold the Constitution to be an almost sacred document, and it should never be lost on us just how impressive the drafting of our foundational charter was. Intelligent and strong-willed men offered myriad ideas and differing opinions. Every aspect of it was forged in compromise and consensus. As historian Paul Johnson noted, “No delegate was always on the losing side, and no delegate was always on the winning side.” At times, they had such significant disagreements that, at one point, Benjamin Franklin proposed hiring a chaplain in the hope that the Almighty could help bridge the divide. Yet the delegates always respected each other, and in the end, their final product was declared an act of genius.

There was no doubt among the writers of the Constitution that the legislative branch was the most essential. Not only is Article One establishing the Congress as the longest section of the Constitution, but the House of Representatives was also, at the time, the only directly elected branch of the government.

The 1st Congress went directly to work. It created three Federal departments: Treasury, War, and Foreign Affairs. It established the nation’s court system, passed laws dealing with trade, patents, crime, mail, the military, and bankruptcies, admitted two additional states into the Union, and deliberated over slavery and relations with the native peoples they called Indians. It established rules governing its internal operations. The House and Senate devised ways to communicate with each other and set salaries. The House also created the first permanent committee, the Committee on Elections, to judge the qualifications of its elected Members. It established the idea of Congressional oversight over the Executive branch of government.

They did this all without staff. However, as the size and power of the executive branch increased, it was no longer possible for members to do all their own staff work. The Senate allowed three staff in 1913, and the House followed suit in 1940. Since then, staff numbers have ebbed and flowed, with Senate staff sizes based on the states’ population, and House staff sizes, in the 1970s, increased to a maximum of 18. Today, budget restraints have resulted in most House offices averaging 14-15 staff members.

Remember that the House set a limit of 435 seats in 1913 when the average size of a Congressional district was 210,000. Today, we have the same number of seats, but the average size of a district is over 760,000 people. With changes in the ease of communication with Congress and continued growth in the Executive, accompanied by competition over power, any new staff member should understand from the beginning that they will be overworked and underpaid compared to the private sector. 

Despite the hard work and long hours, there is no lack of applicants for jobs on the Hill. That is because there is no better entry point to serving your country and making a difference in the lives of millions of people than the opportunity to serve in Congress.

Chapter Two: A Job or a Career?

Surviving Inside Congress describes “getting your foot in the door.” It discusses how to make the most of an internship and ace an interview. There is a range of jobs, from legislative assistants and media directors in Washington to employment in the Member’s home district, directly interacting with constituents. 

Many famous Members of Congress started as staffers. Lyndon Johnson, Hillary Clinton, Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, and Kevin McCarthy all worked for a Member of Congress. In the 117th Congress, 78 Members (15 in the Senate and 63 in the House) started as congressional staff.  

Good staff learn the rules and traditions of the chamber they serve in, and there are many. The best staff for a new Member of Congress is a combination of veteran staff who worked for someone else and brand-new employees. There are no civil service protections for Congressional staff. And there are no permanent professional staff. Everyone serves at the pleasure of their boss. While certain scandals have led to more job protections against racial and sexual discrimination, nothing saves the staffer from a lousy election year. If your boss loses, you are out of a job. 

Every Member is different and has their own ways of doing things and their own ideas of what a good representative is. All power is situational and temporary. How a Member decides to vote is very individual, and staff need to understand what motivates their boss to choose a committee and vote in a way that best serves their constituents. There can often be conflicts between what is best for an individual district or state and what is best for the nation as a whole. 

I developed one possible theory for Member motivation.

“Whether or not a Member is motivated solely by the desire to be reelected or perhaps gain power within the Congress by pleasing their party’s leadership, or even just trying to enact good policy, political decision-making seems similar to what a business school graduate would refer to as the rational choice model of decision-making. According to this theory, a decision-maker analyzes the situation, examines the possible alternatives, weighs the cost, and decides on the best solution. While not the same as a businessman, the seasoned legislator does, indeed, use a form of a rational decision-making model where outcomes are measured in the currency of politics: votes and political support, not dollars and cents. Everything else being equal, politicians will seek to propose a solution that maximizes political gains and minimizes political costs. (Political gains may include gaining power within the Congress, setting up a run for higher office, or trying to get reelected).”

Some people think Congress is out of touch with its constituents and has been bought off by big money interests in Washington. Whatever else may be true of the failings of Congress, nothing could be further from the truth. A member’s power depends on whether their constituents continue supporting them. If they lose touch with that, it is a short time until the next election when the voters will remind them who the boss is. Just ask former Speaker Tom Foley and numerous powerful Committee Chairs who have lost reelection. Gaining power is meaningless if you lose your seat.

Chapter Three: Who is Who

The book discusses the different staff roles in a congressional office—from the Chief of Staff to the newly hired staff assistant answering phones and greeting constituents.  

Congressional mail is one of the biggest challenges for an office. Some House offices receive more than 100,000 communications per year. While many letters and emails are on the same subject, there are thousands of issues that people write about, ranging from a small item in the tax code to opinions on farm price support. They all need to be answered. 

The role of communication staff has dramatically changed during this century. We must remember that there was no such thing as the Internet as recently as the Clinton Administration. Ronald Reagan never had to deal with 24/7 cable news. Social media changes rapidly, with today’s staff needing to deal with numerous online news sources and posting on Facebook, Instagram, and X.   

One of the most critical and personal services a Member of Congress offers is something never envisioned by the writers of the Constitution – constituent casework. The Federal government has become so big and bureaucratized that the average person has no idea how to solve a problem. Staff that handles casework deal with personal concerns ranging from military disabilities, immigration, small business, and natural disasters. Helping a constituent can have enormous satisfaction, but an emotional attachment also makes a failure deeply personal. Every caseworker during the ill-fated withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2022 has stories of constituent heartbreak as the United States abandoned American citizens and their families in the confusion over the rapid end to the American presence. 

Chapter Four: Power Stations

The Committee system is the backbone of Congress. It is where Members delegate the work of the country and specialize in issues vital to themselves and their constituents. Some Committees are remarkably bipartisan, even in this day of polarization. Others are fiercely divided. One committee changes its name every time the majority changes. 

Understanding the dynamics of Committee power and the role of Committee Chairs is critical to understanding how Congress works. Chapter Six gets into the specifics.

Leadership staff are a crucial part of making Congress work. The Speaker, as well as key leaders in the majority and minority, get extra staff to help them do their jobs. The Majority Leader must run the schedule and actions on the Floor of the House and Senate. Whips count noses to see if the majority has enough votes to pass a bill they want to bring to the Floor. The Republican Conference and the Democratic Caucus serve their membership by helping with broad communication messages and media relations. All of the leadership has “member services” staff that keep track of promises made and the needs of individual Members, advocating for them at the top leadership meetings.  

There are nonpartisan staff members who help make the House run. Many people were introduced to the Clerk of the House during the multi-ballot election for Speaker in 2023. The Clerk of the House and the Secretary of the Senate provide administrative support, particularly in maintaining legislative records and debates.

Other positions include the Sergeant-at-Arms, who runs the large Capitol Police force, the House and Senate Chaplains, and the Chief Administrative Officer. 

Let’s not forget the Library of Congress. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a source of research and information for congressional staff on the thousands of issues before Congress. Research staff hide their biases, some better than others. However, members benefit most when both parties recognize the work of CRS as objective.  

The need to increase Congress’s capacity to work on significant issues continues to grow. Recent Court decisions on “Major Questions” and the Chevron defense mean Congress must put much more detail and expertise into its bills rather than relying on non-elected bureaucrats to do their job.

Chapter Five: Genesis of a Law

Q. How Does a bill become law?
A. Any way it can.

Legislation is rarely as simple as the paths we learned in Civics class (and God save the modern staffer who may not have had the same civics education that previous generations did). There are numerous ways to get legislation passed, most of which are not done by simply passing a bill.  

You cannot understand how the House works unless you understand the role of the Rules Committee – the most important committee that most people have never heard of. The Rules Committee is the traffic cop of legislation, and the tool Speakers use to pass their agenda. In many ways, the power of the Speaker exercised through the Rules Committee has shifted power away from the Committee system and made open debate on the Floor of the House nearly non-existent. Just about everything that happens on the Floor of the House is choreographed by the Rules Committee, often depriving the House of spontaneous and creative solutions to legislative vehicles. 

The House of Representatives is highly formalized in its rules and processes, and a Member who does not understand that will be often frustrated and sometimes embarrassed. The Senate, on the other hand, is highly informal, with most actions involving unanimous consent. But don’t let that term fool you. Unanimous consent requests are often negotiated for days. There are indeed copies of the Rules of the Senate somewhere, but for the most part, they are ignored.  

The modern problem with the informality of the Senate is that it worked much better when there was a greater sense of collegiality among the Members. There still is some, but much of it went out the window during the reign of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. To understand the Senate, you need to understand “holds.” However, holds do not appear in the Senate rules. They are a response to Unanimous Consent (UC). When the Leader proposes bringing up legislation under a UC, any single Senator can object. Usually, their objection is stated in the form of a hold. Many times, a Senator wants to negotiate a provision in a bill. Other times, senators hold up appointments and legislation as leverage to get what they want. Other times, holds are put in place to force the Leader to go through the filibuster process and get 60 votes to bring up a bill. 

You must understand the filibuster and cloture to understand the Senate. Surviving Inside Congress will help you do that. 

Chapter Six: Formal Introductions

Serious-minded Members of Congress have legislative priorities they want to accomplish. Social media has made it possible for some elected Members of Congress to gain lots of attention without passing anything. Some are successful, getting their faces on the news and raising tons of money. They are called show horses. They tend to have little respect amongst their colleagues, who focus more on being workhorses. 

To be an accomplished legislator, Members and their staff must master the committee processes. The book describes the kinds of committees, how a committee hearing works, and how a committee passes legislation. While every committee has its traditions and ways of doing things, the basic process is similar. Most bipartisanship occurs in committees, and members who work well with their committee chair can accomplish their key priorities. 

Committees are also a great source of information on what Congress has done. Learning about the vital information in Committee Reports is how most people who follow Congress do their job. Adding a legislative priority to a Committee bill is an important step, but it is only the beginning. The legislation must pass the whole House. It must clear the Rules Committee. It must then pass the Senate. Then, it must be signed by the President. Each additional step is a threat to success and must be managed.  

Understanding how the House Floor works is one of the most critical skills a member and staff can develop. Staff who master this process are in demand from committees, leadership offices, and the private sector. Passing legislation takes a lot of work. Staff who help their boss do that are highly esteemed by their colleagues and valuable to the Institution. 

You will find out about pathways to passage in this chapter.

Chapter Seven: The Role of the Legislator-in-Chief

When the Constitution was established, the role of Congress was to pass laws, and the job of the President was to “faithfully execute” them. In reality, the President actively participates in the legislative process, and almost no bill becomes law unless the President is involved.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way, but the Founders did not appreciate the power of the veto. In Federalist Paper No. 72, Alexander Hamilton wrote: 

“It is evident that there would be greater danger of his not using his power when necessary than of his using it too often or too much. ... In the case for which it is chiefly designed, that of an immediate attack upon the constitutional rights of the Executive, or in a case in which the public good was evidently and palpably sacrificed, a man of tolerable firmness would avail himself of his constitutional means of defense and would listen to the admonitions of duty and responsibility.”

What Hamilton and his colleagues did not count on would be that the veto, more specifically, the threat of a veto, would become one of the primary sources of a President’s power in the legislative process. Why? A veto is hard to override. Two-thirds of both the House and the Senate must vote to override a veto. Since George Washington issued his first veto to the present, the President has won 96% of more than 2000 veto fights. Or, to change perspective, Congress has only successfully overridden fewer than 100 of the President’s vetoes.

As I said, passing legislation is hard. No one wants to go through the entire legislative process only to start again when a President vetoes your bill. And so, Congress involves the President in the legislative process from the beginning. The resident has a whole team of staff working in the Office of Legislative Affairs who spend their time negotiating on behalf of the President’s positions.  

Congress has also surrendered some of its power to the President. Nowhere is that as obvious as national security. Only Congress can declare war, you say? Well, Congress has declared war five times. We have fought in more than five wars in the last decade.   

Congress has also delegated powers to the Executive branch, which the Supreme Court has increasingly questioned. Additionally, the President has assumed pseudo-legislative powers like Executive Orders, Presidential Proclamations, Signing Statements, and National Security Directives. Before the Obama Administration, the Courts had only overturned two Executive Orders in its history. That has substantially changed over the last three Administrations, which, from a Congressional perspective, has helped to limit the excesses in Presidential authority.

Chapter Eight: Congress and the Courts

Congress was responsible for creating an entire judicial system when the Constitution was ratified. And, in the extraordinary 1st Congress, it did just that. However, the role of the Courts did not become apparent until the Marbury v. Madison decision in 1803. Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the Constitution was superior to all other laws and unchangeable by ordinary means. As a result, the role of the Supreme Court was to determine what the Constitution meant and how it was to be interpreted. 

The purpose of the Supreme Court is not to protect majority rule but to protect our natural rights, which we enjoy as humans, not as citizens. Practically speaking, that means a law agreed to by 435 Representatives, 100 Senators, and 1 President can be undone by 5 Supreme Court justices. As we have seen, Presidents and Congressional majorities often chafe at the third player in the Constitutional balance of power. Yet, it is the one part of our government that makes us a republic and not a democracy by protecting the political minority.

While the Court plays a significant role in balancing power, as this chapter details, the President and Congress play a crucial role in who sits on the Court. The nomination of a Supreme Court Justice and the ensuing Senate confirmation hearings have led to the famous maxim, “Everything has been said, but not everyone has said it yet.”  

Over the last few years, Congress has seen a renewed push to “pack the Court” with Justices more favorable to the President. The idea became prominent when President Franklin Roosevelt struggled to get parts of his New Deal agenda through Congress. It should seem obvious, but making the Court a rubber stamp for whoever holds the Presidency would dangerously weaken the system of checks and balances and threaten the rights of the political minority.  

The issue isn’t going away, so this Chapter is a must-read. 

Chapter Nine: The Budget – The One Essential Duty of Congress

The one thing Congress must do every year is pass the spending bills for every Federal agency and Department. The Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse, specifying that “No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law...” (Article I, section 9). If Congress fails, those parts of the government without an approved appropriation must shut down.

Yet Congress finds this job harder every single year. Congress has not completed a budget and appropriation process established by law since 1996, when it passed a balanced budget for the fiscal year 1997.

This chapter goes through the numerous terms and deadlines in the existing budget law. To explain why the budget process does not work, it is essential to understand how it is supposed to work. The budget, authorization, and appropriation process are all explained, as well as the stop-gap measures, such as Continuing Resolutions and Omnibus Appropriation bills, that are resorted to when budget deadlines are missed. And the chapter would not be complete without exploring the debt limit and how Congress deals with that. 

The consequences of our broken budget process and the massive national debt are serious societal threats. It has been called the “slowest train wreck in history” because we are all watching it happen in real time, seemingly without Congress and the President doing anything to stop it.

Not to leave the reader without hope, the book explores budget reform ideas that might help Congress get back on track, but no amount of reform will be sufficient if the political will to fix the budget is not there.

Chapter Ten: Managing to Succeed

Managing a Congressional office is a challenging job. But unlike the private sector, very few Chiefs of Staff are hired because they have an MBA or extensive managerial experience in the private sector. Most chiefs get jobs because they are good at legislation, communication, and campaigns. But offices do not manage themselves, and a chief oversees, in the House, the equivalent of a small business, and in the Senate, a small corporation. Every office manages district and state offices at the same time.

It is not without consequence. One way to measure how well an office is managed is by its turnover rate. Some poorly managed offices can have more than 100% turnover in one term (once an office completely turned over twice before losing, it lost the next election). Not all of that is on the chief. Some of it is the personality of the boss. But no one said this would be easy. 

Those decisions require careful planning, management, hiring, and knowledge of what the Member wants to accomplish.

It’s not an easy job. Failure is catastrophic, at least for the Member and the staff. Fortunately, there are good models to help people with the right instincts be good managers. One of my favorite management models is Manager Tools, created by its founder, Mark Horstman, author of The Effective Manager, who has spent years helping congressional offices work better. The first principle Horstman teaches is that you cannot manage people you do not know. To achieve that, Chiefs set up a series of weekly one-on-one meetings with their direct reports and insist that every other manager in the office, like the Legislative Director, the District Director, and the Casework Director, do the same with their direct reports. Whenever a chief complains about how hard it is, he reminds them that this is precisely what the CEOs of companies such as Apple, Google, and Space X do (and as he explains - “they are probably busier than you”). Horstman has also developed systems for giving feedback, staff development, and hiring.  

Chiefs need to manage between generations. It is common for the chief-of-staff to be younger than some staff, particularly in the District Office. Every generation has unique characteristics (although managing each well is remarkably similar).

The chapter also discusses knowledge management challenges in an environment where staff come and go with increasing frequency. How do you preserve one staffer’s critical work on the Member’s committee assignment when they leave? 

And in this age of terrorism and political violence, security must be managed. That includes staff at remote locations. In 2011, Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot while holding constituent meetings at a local supermarket. People often forget that her staff member, Gabriel Zimmerman, was killed, and staffers Pamela Simon and Ronald Barber were also severely wounded.  

Even safe driving is essential. One of the great experiences of young staff is learning from the members as they drive to meetings in the district. But in 2022, congressional staffers Zachery Potts and Emma Thomoson died along with their boss, Congresswoman Jackie Walorski, in an auto accident. This edition of the book is dedicated to those staff members. 

Chapter Eleven: Plotting Course

Life is crazy on the Hill. You could work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and still have work left over unless the Member’s priorities are defined, planned for, and systematically implemented. Many offices initially overlook the planning process, thinking they can handle everything that comes their way. It doesn’t work.

This chapter discusses determining priorities, defining a Member’s mission (always unique to their district), and managing a strategic plan. It is essential because politics is filled with the unexpected. A staff person can be working on their goals when, all of a sudden, a war breaks out, and nothing is accomplished except answering phones for the day. However, the plan allows staff to get back on track when the day’s surprises have been dealt with. 

Much of this chapter borrows from the business world, where sticking to a plan is the difference between success and failure. One of the critical elements of a successful plan is building a cohesive and positive culture in the office. One of the things I used to do when I was President of the Congressional Institute was conducting individual planning sessions for offices. One of the first signs of trouble was the chief, who rolled their eyes when I asked them for a plan. 

I am not saying every Member whose office was terrible at planning would lose the next election. Some districts are too safe for an incumbent to lose without a scandal. But that office would not be effective. And some offices that were very good at planning might be unable to overcome the political headwinds of a change election. But they would have a much better chance. At any rate, the purpose of planning is not to win reelection – it is to accomplish the goals and priorities of the Member. Of course, if an office is successful at that, it is also an excellent way to get reelected. 

Chapter Twelve: The Constant Revolution: How Citizens Get Their Political News

Nothing on Capitol Hill changes as fast as communication. How members communicate is essential to the success of their legislative programs. President Ronald Reagan, who never had a Republican Congress, understood that communicating his ideas effectively was the key to passing his legislative agenda.  

There are many more ways to communicate today than in the 1980s, and as a result, there is a lot more confusion to cut through to be a great communicator.  

Traditional journalism has changed. It once played a watchdog role for the nation, with trusted reporters and newscasters putting light on political problems and scandals. For many years, Walter Cronkite, the CBS evening news anchor, was voted the most trusted man in America. When he openly wept on air at the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the nation wept with him.

But those days are gone. Network television now competes with cable news. As competition increases, budgets are tightened, deadlines become more urgent, all leading to sloppy work and questionable journalistic ethics. 

Today, Facebook is the top source of political news for older Americans, and TikTok—a media service banned on most government computers—is the top news source for Gen Z. Newspapers that have not successfully converted to an online presence have folded. Even those online have lost their primary funding source in classified and print ads. 

The chapter contains tons of data on the changing media and how Americans get their news. This is important because if staff does not know how their constituents are getting the information they are trying to communicate to them, they might as well be whistling in the wind.

If there is one thing a communication staff person should do, subscribe to Pew Research, which does some of the best nonpartisan studies on how Americans get their political news. 

Chapter Thirteen: Strategic Communication – What It Takes To Be a Good Communication Staffer

Communicating with constituents is one of the most essential things a democratically elected public official can do. In many cases, it is the difference between success and failure.

This chapter discusses how to put together a strategic communication plan. It takes some work, but it can be done if the staffer is willing to invest time and research while understanding the office goals and the Member’s philosophy and priorities.  

Does a Member have a brand? Yes, they all do; the question is whether it is intentional. For a Member of Congress, a brand is who he or she seems to be in the eyes of constituents. Once a Member has a lousy brand, changing the perceived brand into the desired brand is awfully hard. So, it is best to communicate strategically from the beginning. 

Members communicate their ideas in different ways. One of the general differences between the parties is that Democrats tend to be very effective at communicating stories and ideas emotionally. They build empathy and sympathy for the cause they are promoting. Republicans tend to be more factual, flinging facts and numbers at people, hoping to convince constituents through a volume of information. Facts and figures matter, but if I talk about the effect of a policy on the Gross Domestic Product and you talk about the impact of an economic policy on the family budget, who do you think wins the battle for public opinion?

There are numerous tools Members can use to keep their constituents informed, including social media platforms (already not as easy as it once was), teletownhall meetings, and email newsletters. Of course, traditional media is still present, though most Members of the House spend less time with platforms such as network news and more time with platforms like cable television, radio, podcasts, and specialized websites. 

This is one of the book's longest chapters and the chapter that changes the most from edition to edition. However, it is filled with essential information for new and even many experienced communication directors.  

In Washington, DC, there are all kinds of traps for communication staff, from getting caught in an “off-the-record” trap to leaks of top-secret information. Not to mention, if a staffer ever gets caught in a lie, even if it was their Member who told them to lie, their reputation is shot. Good luck getting a reporter to believe you again for the next several years. 

Chapter Fourteen: Public Opinion and Public Judgment

Polls are ubiquitous in Washington—for good reason. A representative of 760,000 people cannot meet all of them, and they need a good way to measure what their constituents are thinking.  

Polls also are part of political calculations. Pollsters are always talking about the President’s job approval numbers. One reason is what I call the measure of relative political prestige:

If the President is more popular in your district than you are, there is a political price for opposing him. If the President is less popular in your district than you are, then a political price is paid for supporting him.

Most Members do not care about the President’s national numbers, at least not as a matter of individual interest, but they care very much about how the President is doing in their district or state. 

There is a difference between public opinion, which can change rapidly according to political circumstances, and public judgment, the long-term beliefs people hold that only change slowly. Politicians tend to live and die with public opinion polls, but leaders interested in transformational change study deeply held beliefs.  

This chapter spends some time examining political polls. How do you tell if a poll is accurate? What are the two components of a good survey, and how can you measure whether what you are being told is the truth or a manipulation? There are numerous examples of just plain lousy polling and some examples of reputable pollsters who tried their best but still missed the mark on election day.  

The chapter also discusses “push polls” and other unethical political manipulations to change the momentum of an issue or campaign.  

Chapter Fifteen: Putting It All Together

This chapter is a mini-graduate course for Members and staff interested in transformational change. We’re talking about big legislation like the passage of the Civil Rights Act, the Welfare Reform Bill, or a future Social Security Reform bill. These legislative efforts take years to build, sometimes an entire congressional career, but they are lasting legislative actions.

They are rare as it should be. Our Constitution makes change hard. Deliberately so. 

Just because transformational change is slow doesn’t mean it’s impossible. As the examples above show, Members and staff have accomplished great things that make it their mission to bring about the desired change. It requires planning and dedication. Most Members will not create such significant change, though they may be a part of it. If you are dreaming big, this chapter is for you.

Chapter Sixteen: Playing By The Rules

Ethics rules and Congress are essential topics for Members and staff. The Rules are complicated and all-encompassing, and thousands make careers out of exposing an ethical lapse by a public official or one of their staff members. Regarding Ethics, working for Congress is like swimming in a fish tank.

For good reason. Nothing destroys confidence in government faster than corruption – or even the perception of corruption. And as the book makes clear, there is never an excuse for violating an ethics rule. Never. 

Still, despite all the warnings, someone always breaks the rules. As a staffer, you will find that good Members despise rule breakers because the splash they make in the media tends to make many people believe the worst about all Members of Congress – even the very honest. 

The Constitution gives Congress the responsibility of policing itself. As a result, both chambers have an ethics committee and detailed written rules published on the Internet that are distributed to all members and staff. Both members and staff are required to undergo ethics training.

The chapter discusses the history of ethics rules, the principles, and many specifics. Gift rules, travel, attending meetings, campaign work, and even casework have ethics rules that regulate the behavior of Members and staff. Unsurprisingly, lawyers specializing in the ethics rules do significant business with Members and their staff. Getting caught in an ethics investigation is a nightmare for staff, especially since they often must pay their lawyers out-of-pocket.  

Members, staff, and even campaign workers are responsible for knowing the rules. The consequences are severe, and even a credible accusation can destroy a career. 

Ethics rules are serious business. The penalties for making a mistake can be harsh. The whole experience can make you second-guess the attraction of public service. We hope not. Instead, we hope you become a high-quality public servant who helps Congress restore its damaged reputation by being aware of the rules and committing to ethical behavior.

Chapter Seventeen: Working With the Private Sector

Special interests. The word almost sounds undemocratic. However, the reality is that all of us are part of some particular interest represented in Washington, DC. If you own a car, have trouble breathing, hunt or fish, or invest in a mutual fund, there are organizations in Washington looking out for your particular interests.

That does not mean they should not be scrutinized, but the government has become so large that it is difficult for individuals to influence legislation by themselves. Special interest representatives exist to advocate for the organizations they represent and to influence public policy. 

The chapter discusses five kinds of special interest groups: corporations, associations, single-issue organizations, lobbying companies, and, yes, governments. State governments have a healthy representation in Washington, and foreign embassies actively advocate for their citizens and companies. 

We have eight recommendations for staff dealing with special interest groups—everything from doing their homework to avoiding acts of impropriety. 

Chapter Eighteen: Can’t We All Just Get Along?

The final 40 pages of the book discuss what is wrong with Congress and what can be done to restore its place in the Constitutional order.

The modern rise of partisan polarization and incivility is as alarming as ever since the Civil War. Angry populism on both the left and right is present in most democracies, including ours. 

Gerrymandering and partisan redistricting have damaged Congress by encouraging extremism. Most congressional districts are so lopsided on a partisan basis that we know who will win 90 percent of the seats before an election. This hurts the country in two ways – if a district is 75% Republican or Democratic, the candidates for office never need to address the other party’s voters. But they do have to worry about primaries. So, we find Members in “safe seats” protecting themselves by becoming more ideologically extreme. That leaves about ten percent of the seats competitive – making them the targets of the major political party organizations every two years. Yet these Members have the greatest interest in bipartisanship and compromise.

The media plays a significant role in partisan polarization. Thanks to the First Amendment, the government cannot and should not do much about it, but a return to basic journalistic ethics would help.

The House and Senate can improve themselves by restoring regular order and shifting power from leadership to committees. Other reforms include restoring the authorization process, fixing the broken budget, and changing how Congress appropriates money. The Senate, once known as the world’s greatest deliberative body, needs to start deliberating again. Senators need to restore the free-wheeling amendment process that gives voice to the political minority.

The Chapter concludes with four pages of reforms that should be considered to fix Congress. But the truth is that Congress won’t change for the better until the voters demand it. In our system, people still hold power if they use it.

In his address on the 100th birthday of the United States, President James Garfield said:

“Now more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave and pure, it is because the people demand those high qualities to represent them in the national legislature.”

Finally, the book concludes with a Floor Procedures Manual for the House of Representatives and an extensive glossary of terms insiders use when discussing Congress.  

I hope this book will provide the reader with an advanced education in Congress, which is needed to make Members of Congress and congressional staff effective in serving their constituents. I also hope that the book contributes to educating citizens about what to expect and what to demand of their elected representatives.

You can get your copy soon on Amazon or here: https://bit.ly/SIC6th.