Congress and Its Members

Congress and Its Members has been the gold standard for Congress courses for thirty years. Now in its 20th edition, the book offers comprehensive and current coverage of the U.S. Congress and the legislative process by examining the tension between Congress as a lawmaking institution and as a collection of politicians constantly seeking re-election.

The 20th Edition covers the outcomes of the 2024 election and subsequent changes in in congressional organization and leadership. Updated coverage looks at how Congress operates in today's polarized context, including recent procedural changes, policy debates, and interbranch dynamics, as well as a breakdown of data on the members of the new Congress.
 
Always balancing great scholarship with currency, the book features lively case material along with relevant data, charts, maps, and photos.

Roger H. Davidson was professor emeritus of government and politics at the University

of Maryland and served as visiting professor of political science at the University of

California, Santa Barbara. He was a senior fellow of the National Academy of Public

Administration. During the 1970s, he served on the staffs of reform efforts in both the

House (Bolling-Martin Committee) and the Senate (Stevenson-Brock Committee).

For the 2001–2002 academic year, he served as the John Marshall chair in political

science at the University of Debrecen, Hungary. His books include Remaking

Congress: Change and Stability in the 1990s, co-edited with James A. Thurber (1995),

and Understanding the Presidency, 7th ed., co-edited with James P. Pfiffner (2013).

Davidson was co-editor with Donald C. Bacon and Morton Keller of The Encyclopedia

of the United States Congress (1995).

 

Walter J. Oleszek is a senior specialist in the legislative process at the Congressional

Research Service. He has served as either a full-time professional staff aide or consultant

to many major House and Senate congressional reorganization efforts beginning

with the passage of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970. In 1993, he served as

policy director of the Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress. A former

adjunct faculty member at American University, Oleszek is a frequent lecturer to various

academic, governmental, and business groups. He is the author or co-author of several

books, including Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process, 11th ed. (2020),

and Congress Under Fire: Reform Politics and the Republican Majority, with C. Lawrence

Evans (1997).

Frances E. Lee is professor of politics and public affairs in the School of Public and

International Affairs and the Department of Politics at Princeton University. She has

been a research fellow at the Brookings Institution and an APSA congressional fellow.

Most recently, she is co-author of The Limits of Party: Congress and Lawmaking in a

Polarized Era (2020). She is also the author of Insecure Majorities: Congress and the

Perpetual Campaign (2016) and Beyond Ideology: Politics, Principles, and Partisanship

in the U.S. Senate (2009) and co-author, with Bruce I. Oppenheimer, of Sizing Up

the Senate: The Unequal Consequences of Equal Representation (1999). Her articles have

appeared in the American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, Legislative Studies

Quarterly, and American Journal of Political Science, among others.

Eric Schickler is Jeffrey & Ashley McDermott Professor of Political Science at the

University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of three books that have won the

Richard F. Fenno Jr. Prize for the best book on legislative politics: Disjointed Pluralism:

Institutional Innovation and the Development of the U.S. Congress (2001), Filibuster:

Obstruction and Lawmaking in the United States Senate (2006, with Gregory Wawro),

and Investigating the President: Congressional Checks on Presidential Power (2016, with

Douglas Kriner; also a winner of the Richard E. Neustadt Prize for the best book on

executive politics). His book Racial Realignment: The Transformation of American

Liberalism, 1932–1965 was the winner of the Woodrow Wilson Prize for the best book

on government, politics, or international affairs published in 2016, and is co-winner of

the J. David Greenstone Prize for the best book in history and politics from the previous

two calendar years. He is also the co-author of Partisan Hearts and Minds, which

was published in 2002.

James M. Curry is professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame. He is coauthor

of The Limits of Party: Congress and Lawmaking in a Polarized Era (2020); author

of Legislating in the Dark: Information and Power in the House of Representatives (2015);

and winner of the Alan Rosenthal Prize, the E. E. Schattschneider Award, and the Carl

Albert Award. His research appears in the American Political Science Review, Journal of

Politics, Perspectives on Politics, and Legislative Studies Quarterly, among other outlets.

He received his Ph.D. in government and politics from the University of Maryland,

and he previously worked on Capitol Hill in the offices of Rep. Daniel Lipinski and the

House Appropriations Committee.