U.S. Congress

On Topic

The 2012 election left the power structure in Congress unchanged, with the Republican party controlling the House and the Democrats the Senate. Questions remain about whether the 113th Congress can overcome the deep ideological differences between the parties that led to so much legislative gridlock during the previous term.

U.S. President Barack Obama announces Michael Froman (L) as his nominee for U.S. Trade Representative while in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington (REUTERS/Larry Downing).

Opinion

Free Trade Is Not Quite President Obama's Neglected Stepchild, But...

May 1, 2013, Bill Frenzel

Bill Frenzel argues that trade was not a priority during the first Obama administration. However, Frenzel says steps taken by the president to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership along with the recent nomination of Michael Froman as U.S. Trade Representative will help increase U.S. and world trade.

Recent Activity

Refine by: U.S. Politics | Politics and Elections | U.S. Economic Performance | The Presidency

In the News

When budget cuts hit high-profile business travelers, you can get Congress to act.
April 30, 2013, Darrell M. West, Bloomberg
Interview | Moyers & Company

Why Congress is Failing Us

April 26, 2013, Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein
Interview | NPR

As 'Devastating' as Sequester is, not 'Immediate Catastrophe'

March 3, 2013, Thomas E. Mann
In the News

[Without U.S. approval] the whole effort to make the IMF a more accountable, more legitimate institution worldwide cannot really be fulfilled.
February 15, 2013, Domenico Lombardi, Bloomberg
In the News

Don’t hold your breath [on Obama seriously tackling entitlement reform]. He has every reason to sit tight and play to his base. The American public is very much on his side.
February 11, 2013, Ron Haskins, The Daily Beast
In the News

[Obama's tone of his ’08 campaign] hasn’t worked very well, but this is the moment to go back to it, because if he doesn’t, he dooms the rest of his term to squabbling with the Republicans.
February 11, 2013, Alice M. Rivlin, The Daily Beast
In the News

[Filibustering of a presidential nominee is] just sort of emblematic of senators pushing their powers here into an area where we traditionally said that senators are willing to defer to the president.
January 11, 2013, Sarah A. Binder, National Public Radio
In the News

I suspect that in a war of wills between the parties [in Congress], an intense minority might prevail. After all, the majority typically has a full agenda on its plate and is just as likely to want to move on to other issues [giving in to the filibuster] as it is to battle it out with the minority.
November 17, 2012, Sarah A. Binder, Washington Post
In the News

What I would guess is the tea party types and other activist conservatives will heckle him [Rep. Scott DesJarlais] into leaving (Congress). He can expect a (primary) challenge.
November 16, 2012, Thomas E. Mann, USA Today
In the News

Forces within the Democratic Party are clearly mobilizing to prevent President Obama from returning to anything resembling the 2011 negotiations. Where [Nancy Pelosi] will come down on that, I don't know.
November 14, 2012, William A. Galston, The Daily Beast