On Wednesday Senator Mikulski (D-MD), the floor manager to H.R. 933, a bill to fund federal agencies for the remainder of the fiscal year, accepted an amendment (#65) offered by Tom Coburn (R-OK) to increase scrutiny of National Science Foundation grants in political science. According to the Library of Congress website, Coburn’s amendment was cosponsored […]
Gregory Koger
Gregory Koger is a professor of political science at the University of Miami. All views expressed are his own.
Posted inPolitics
The Hastert Rule: It’s More Like a Guideline
Last week the U.S. House passed a bill supported by a majority of the Democratic party and a minority faction of the Republican members, even though the Republicans are the majority party and control access to the House floor. This has occurred three times in the last three months: Jan. 1, Extending and revising tax […]
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Proposed Senate Reforms: Recap and Discussion
The Congressional news (see links to text in article) of the day is that Senate majority leader Harry Reid and minority leader Mitch McConnell have reached a tentative agreement on a package of Senate reforms, subject to approval by (most of) their party conferences. The reforms are limited to agenda-setting motions, conference committees, and nominations. Here […]
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Senate Reform 101: The Case Against the Constitutional Option
On January 3, senators put off decisions about if or how to restrict the ability of senators to filibuster. The quasi-deadline for a decision is January 22. Why? Because, the argument goes, the first day of Congress is the magic hour when senators get to decide what their rules are. Once the magic day (and by “day” we mean […]
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The Failure of Plan B
After the House Republicans punted on legislation to extend the Bush tax cuts for all non-millionaires last night, today’s news cycle has been focused on a) what the failure of “Plan B” means for the fiscal cliff negotiations and b) what the failure means for Speaker Boehner. After great posts by Ezra Klein, Sarah Binder, […]
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Will Merkley & Warren’s “Talking Filibuster” Proposal Work?
Last Friday, our friends at Wonkblog posted comments on Senator Merkley’s proposed-but-still-vague reform. I thought I would elaborate on whether Merkley’s proposed reforms will help make the Senate more effective…or at least less of a disaster. First, some background on what the Senate reformers are talking about: HuffPo says, The critical component, though, is a mechanism […]
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Party Networks vs. Party Organization: the Republicans
This Politico article caught my eye last week. Its title is, “Playing to donors, GOP Groups Spill some Secrets” but, from a MoF perspective, this undersells the article. It is a great look at how, ten years after BCRA, the network of affiliated party groups is different from a formal organization like the RNC. One […]
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Property Rights Over Legislation? When Did that Happen?
This week Politico had a story about Joe Walsh (R-IL) violating the norms of the House of Representatives by introducing a slightly altered version of a bill by Tim Bishop (D-NY) without his consent or even the courtesy of a phone call. While I would be the last one to argue that Joe Walsh is a […]
