Sarah A. Binder

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Senior Fellow, Governance Studies
Portrait: Sarah Binder

Sarah Binder is an expert on Congress and legislative politics. Her work includes studies of the politics of the Senate filibuster, the causes and consequences of legislative gridlock, and the politics and practice of advice and consent for selecting federal judges. Her current project focuses on Congress’s response to financial crisis, including a study of Congress’s relationship with the Federal Reserve. | View Full Bio

  • Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (REUTERS/Joshua Roberts).

    Featured Opinion

    Three Reforms to Unstick the Senate

    November 29, 2012, Sarah A. Binder

    Sarah Binder examines the filibuster in the Senate as a recurring factor of gridlock. Binder proposes three reforms for scaling back the filibuster which would allow more fluidity in Senate functions, while also preserving minority party rights.

  • Opinion

    What Senators Need to Know about Filibuster Reform

    December 2, 2010, Sarah A. Binder, Gregory Koger, Thomas E. Mann, Norman Ornstein, Eric Schickler, Barbara Sinclair, Steven S. Smith and Gregory J. Wawro

Recent Activity

Refine by: U.S. Congress | U.S. Politics | Politics and Elections | The Senate Filibuster

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Expert Information

Contact

Email Sarah Binder

202.797.6079

202.797.6105 — Brookings Office of Communications

Resources

Expertise

  • Congress and congressional history
  • House and Senate rules and reform
  • judicial selection
  • political parties

Experience

Current Positions

  • Professor of Political Science, George Washington University

Past Positions

  • Robert Hartley Research Fellow, Research Associate, and Fellow, Brookings
  • Press Secretary and Legislative Aide to U.S. Representative Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.) (1986-90)

Education

  • Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 1995
  • B.A., Yale University, 1986

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Sarah A. Binder

In the News

"There's a defense wing of defense hawks, and they've been pretty vocal about the impact on the Defense Department and national security, generally. And we know there's a hard-core group as well that's opposed to any and all revenue increases. And between the two of those, there's no agreed-upon path of what to do, and so it looks like they may prefer the sequester to any alternative — certainly the alternatives the Democrats are offering up."

Source: National Public Radio

Advice and Dissent

  • Advice and Dissent

    The Struggle to Shape the Federal Judiciary

    Forrest Maltzman and Sarah A. Binder

Sarah Binder's Website

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