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Article: What Congress needs to know.
- Article from:
- State Legislatures
- Article date:
- September 1, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 National Conference of State Legislatures. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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For at least the ninth time in the past 50 years the Congress of the United States is engaged in a process of intense self-criticism. Some of those earlier efforts to improve the legislative process ultimately led to major reorganization and new procedures, but many of the problems now being addressed were created by previous reforms.
Every political scientist, journalist and member of Congress has his or her own list of the institution's ills, but all agree that excessive fragmentation, poor scheduling and increased political posturing at the expense of serious debate have crippled the legislative process and shaken the public's faith.
"I've been ...