Research Partnerships for Critical Issues (RPCI): Lessons from APSA’s Congressional Reform Task Force

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Session Description

This roundtable will highlight work conducted by APSA’s Congressional Reform Task Force. The APSA Task Force on Congressional Reform brings experts from the academic and think tank worlds together to engage in non-partisan research and analysis of Congressional Reform. The task force aims to identify means of strengthening Congress in the following areas: congressional capacity; staff recruitment, diversity and retention; floor and committee processes; budget and appropriations processes; calendar reform; and technology and innovation. Roundtable participants will include Task Force chairs and hosts, as well as representatives of the group’s subcommittees. The roundtable will offer a briefing on the work of the task force thus far and participants will reflect on:
o the participation of political scientists in this kind of venture,
o how task force members and subcommittees interacted with Congress members and staff,
o how participants deliberated about the substance of reform proposals, and
o the kinds of recommendations developed

Sub Unit

• Theme Panel

Chairs

• William A. Galston The Brookings Institution

• Frances E. Lee Princeton University

Presenters

• Kathryn Pearson University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

• Lee Drutman New America

• Kevin M. Esterling University of California, Riverside

• James M. Curry University of Utah

• Sarah Binder GWU / Brookings Institution