The Congress Project fosters a dialogue between scholars who study Congress and policymakers who have experience with how Congress works. The project offers a series of seminars and forums featuring members of Congress and their staff, political scientists, historians, and Washington media representatives. [more]

Bimonthly Column on Procedural Politics from Roll Call
In this bimonthly Roll Call column by Don Wolfensberger, the goal is to explain and hopefully demystify some of the arcane procedures by which Congress and its committees operate. In each column, Wolfensberger will highlight one of the current procedural devices or controversies in the news, unwrap it in simple English and place it in some historical context.

Read the column.

Publications

Books on Congress & Congressional Issues Congress and the People: Deliberative Democracy on Trial Wilson Center Congress Scholar's Work Named "Best of the Best" of University Press Books Author: Donald R. Wolfensberger , Wolfensberger is currently director of the Congress Project at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. Prior to that he served for 28 years as a top committee staff member in the U.S. House of Representatives. His book combines historical research with his own first hand observations and participation in congressional reform efforts over the past three decades. Congress and the People: Deliberative Democracy on Trial, by Donald R. Wolfensberger has been chosen as one of the top 40 University Press books published in 2000 recommended for public and secondary school libraries. The recognition will come in a special presentation by the Association of American University Presses and the University Press Books Committee titled, "The Best of the Best from the University Presses," at the American Library Association's Summer 2001 Conference in San Francisco on June 18. The top 40 books were singled out by the University Press Books Committee from among 354 titles it chose to be included in the eleventh edition of "University Press Books Selected for Public and Secondary School Libraries." The book committee consists of eight librarians—four members of the American Society of School Libraries, and four from the Public Library Association. Congress and the People, published jointly by the Woodrow Wilson Center Press and the Johns Hopkins University Press in April, 2000, gives both a historic and contemporary account of how Congress has tried to stay close and accountable to the people while maintaining its deliberative character in the face of periodic pressures for more direct forms of democracy. More About Congress and the People Tracing the ways in which Congress has changed over two centuries to remain responsive to the people, Wolfensberger asks whether direct democracy will supplant representative, deliberative government in the United States. He sets the stage by covering key moments from the constitutional convention and debate over the Bill of Rights, to debates over slavery petitions to war referendums in the First and Second World Wars—all crucial matters of substance whose determination depended on choosing who got to decide and under what conditions. But recent struggles are the central story, beginning with Watergate-era sunshine legislation, and ending in the surreal finale of the 105th Congress, which featured barrels of pork in an impenetrable spending bill, resignation of the speaker, and impeachment of the president. The paperback version of the book was released in May. You can order it online from Johns Hopkins University Press.

Background Reading on Congress & Congressional Issues

Civility, Society, and Politics: Is There a Problem?, Remarks of Don Wolfensberger, Drake University-Woodrow Wilson Center Seminar September 19, 2007
Download File (pdf)

Congress Project
Woodrow Wilson Center
One Woodrow Wilson Plaza
1300 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20004-3027
Email: congress@wilsoncenter.org
Tel: 202/691-4147