The House and Senate return this month from their winter recess to begin the second session of the 110th Congress. On January 22, Brookings’s Mending the Broken Branch Project released its report on congressional performance last year and preview the year ahead.
Brookings Senior Fellows Thomas E. Mann and Sarah Binder examined this Congress in terms of its legislative activity, achievements—on issues such as the war in Iraq, energy, and children’s health care—and process while also drawing conclusions based on comparisons to earlier congresses. They were joined by American Enterprise Institute resident scholar Norman Ornstein, who recently published with Mann The Broken Branch: How Congress is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track (Oxford University Press, 2006). After the program, panelists took audience questions.
The Mending the Broken Branch Project examines policy-making and oversight activity in the 110th Congress as well as action on key issues to provide a complete picture of the legislative branch’s efforts to mend itself. The project issues regular reports as it monitors Congress’s performance under its new Democratic majorities in the House and Senate.
Agenda
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January 22
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One Year Later: Is Congress Still the Broken Branch?
2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
As Congress reconvenes, lawmakers face a final year of compromise or conflict with President George W. Bush. At this event, Brookings Senior Fellows Thomas Mann and Sarah Binder examined the congressional record and its agenda. They were joined by AEI resident scholar Norman Ornstein.
Norman J. Ornstein Resident Scholar for Public Policy Research - American Enterprise InstituteNorman J. Ornstein Resident Scholar for Public Policy Research - American Enterprise Institute
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