Congress and Its Members

The Fifteenth Edition covers the 2014 midterm elections and includes discussions of the agenda of the new Congress, White House-Capitol Hill relations, party and committee leadership changes, judicial appointments, and partisan polarization. Offering a balance of great scholarship and currency, this best seller features lively case material along with relevant data, charts, exhibits, maps, and photos. 

New and updated topics in the Fifteenth Edition include:

• Coverage of changes in the campaign finance landscape
• Recent examples of legislative battles and policy debates
• Profiles of new leaders and members 
• Discussion of changes in congressional rules and procedures
• Examination of rising party conflict in House and Senate
• Extensive updates on national security issues facing Congress

Roger H. Davidson is professor emeritus of government and politics at the University of Maryland, and has served as visiting professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. During the 2001–2002 academic year, he served as the John Marshall Chair in political science at the University of Debrecen, Hungary. His books include Remaking Congress: Change and Stability in the 1990’s, co-edited with James A. Thurber (1995), and Understanding the Presidency, Seventh Edition, co-edited with James P. Pfiffner (2012). Davidson is co-editor with Donald C. Bacon and Morton Keller of The Encyclopedia of the United States Congress (1995).

Walter J. Oleszek is a senior specialist in the legislative process at the Congressional Research Service. He has served as either a full-time professional staff aide or consultant to every major House and Senate congressional reorganization effort beginning with passage of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970. In 1993 he served as Policy Director of the Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress. A longtime adjunct faculty member at American University, Oleszek is a frequent lecturer to various academic, governmental, and business groups. He is the author or co-author of several books, including Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process, 10th ed. (2016), and Congress under Fire: Reform Politics and the Republican Majority, with C. Lawrence Evans (1997).

Frances E. Lee is professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland. She has been a Research Fellow at the Brookings Institution and an APSA Congressional Fellow. Most recently, she is the author of Insecure Majorities: Congress and the Perpetual Campaign (2016). She is also author of Beyond Ideology: Politics, Principles, and Partisanship in the U.S. Senate (2009), which received the Richard F. Fenno Jr. Prize for the best book on legislative politics in 2010 and the D. B. Hardeman Prize for the best book on the U.S. Congress published in 2009. She is co-author, with Bruce I. Oppenheimer, of Sizing Up the Senate: The Unequal Consequences of Equal Representation (1999). Her articles have appeared in the American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, Legislative Studies Quarterly, and American Journal of Political Science, among others.