Congress

Latin American Program in the News: "Venezuela divide a la Casa Blanca y al Congreso de EE.UU."

[...] "El canciller Elías Jaua aseguró el domingo que denunciará a Washington ante organismos internacionales como la ONU por su "injerencia" y las amenanzas de sanciones.

Este tipo de reacciones ha puesto a la Casa Blanca en un incómodo dilema.

"La política de Obama está atrapada entre el imperativo político de hacer also y el efecto que esa pueda tener en el terreno", le dice a BBC Mundo Cynthia Arnson, directora del programa de América Latina en el Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars, un centro de estudios con sede en Washington.

Is Foreign Policy Bipartisanship Alive on Capitol Hill?

With today's Congress sharply divided along partisan lines, are U.S. lawmakers still capable of reaching across the aisle on foreign policy? This public program will examine the congressional politics of U.S. foreign policy making and the prospects for foreign policy bipartisanship.

Directions:

Directions to the Wilson Center

Robert Pittenger

Is Negotiating Political Agreement a Lost Art?

Voters often complain that members of Congress “can’t seem to agree on anything.” You know people are on to something when their own representatives in Washington echo the same complaint — one of the few bipartisan sounds emanating from the capital, if not in perfect harmony.

Jane Harman on the Crisis in Ukraine

Jane Harman appeared on "Fox News Sunday" with columnist George Will, former Senator Rick Santorum and Time Magazine Assistant Managing Editor Rana Foroohar to discuss the crisis in Ukraine and US politics.

"Vladimir Putin doesn't know the Colin Powell rule -- if you break it you own it. And if he breaks up Crimea, he's going to own their pension liabilities, their tanked economy, at a time when the Russian economy is stretched," Harman said.

Congress’ Budgeting Would Baffle a Martian

If a martian landed here today with the mission to bring back information on how Congress makes budgets, he might report back there is no sign of intelligent life in Washington — at least when it comes to budgeting. On the other hand, he might conclude the opposite: The budget process is so convoluted and complex that officials have obviously encrypted the whole thing so no other country or planet can crack the code as to how U.S. budgets are really made.

McConnell’s Lament Stirs Fresh Breeze of Hope

It is not unusual for sitting members of Congress to twitch and moan that the other party is destroying the institution. The majority party lambastes the minority for obstructing the important business of the country and the minority counter-bastes the majority for excluding it from making those important decisions.

Senate Leader Reid’s Rule Recalls House Czar Speaker Reed

The joke used to be that the House of Representatives has dozens of rules while the Senate has just two: unanimous consent and exhaustion.

However, after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pulled the trigger on the “nuclear option” on Nov. 21 to effect a change in the filibuster rule for most nominations, it can now be said that the Senate has three rules: unanimous consent, exhaustion and Reid’s rule. The latter can be defined as any procedural edict the majority leader wishes to impose on the Senate so long as he has the backing of just 50 members.

Historical Perspective on the Purge of Jang Song Thaek

The December 2013 purge and execution of Jang Song Thaek, who was often described as the No. 2 in North Korea, came four months after the ruling Korean Worker’s Party announced that the Ten Points of the Monolithic Ideological System, the basic tenets of the unitary leadership system in North Korea, had been updated for the new leader, Kim Jong Un.

Don’t Dismiss Bicameral Working Group Out of Hand

Procedural Politics
Roll Call
Oct. 9, 2013

House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions, R-Texas, surprised even his own party caucus colleagues Tuesday by introducing a bill to create a Bicameral Working Group on Deficit Reduction and Economic Growth, then calling it up in his committee an hour later.