Dealing with Congress: A Guide to Navigating the Bureaucratic Politics of the House and Senate
Abstract
This is a guide written to help a newcomer in the Washington arena understand how to navigate the bureaucratic politics of congress. Many people think it is a highly formal process. That groups of decision makers carefully examine all the options. That the best option is always chosen. Not so. Most of the process is informal. Most of the lawmakers have little time to examine all the issues. much less the options. Most of tile rime the best option is chosen. But not always. As Federalist No. 62 stated above good government is two things: keeping the people happy and lawmaking. This statement is still true today. Learning how to do both at the same time is a key lesson for doing business on Capitol Hill. This guide is written in the form of ten commandments to successfully deal with the bureaucracy and politics of Congress. How these commandments apply to real life will then be demonstrated in some recent legislative cases. Both the commandments and the cases are based on interviews with senior military officers responsible for day-to-day liaison with the House and Senate. The cases involve recent examples of how the bureaucracy and the politics of Capitol Hill can be successfully overcome. They illustrate how the ten commandments can he applied by showing how disruptive officer end-strength legislation was changed and how an A6 Wing Improvement Program that was deleted was reinstated.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 1991
- Accession Number
- ADA440822
Entities
People
- Al Fraser
Organizations
- National War College