Comments on: How to legislators learn to legislate?

Question: How to legislators learn to legislate?

empath — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 08:36:28 -0800

How do new legislators learn all the congressional rules of order?

I know a lot of people in Congress had prior legislative experience, but some of them are coming from the private sector. Do they take classes? Do they have aides brief them? Is it something the parties show them how to do? Are they just handed a book of the rules and they study them? Did they learn from political science courses in college? Do they just kind of stumble along and pick things up as they go along? Anybody out there who works on capital hill have some inside experience to share?

By: empath

empath — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 08:38:25 -0800

I'm asking mostly about the "Mr Speaker, I rise in support of etc, and I'd like to reserve the balance of my time.. and I've got a parliamentary inquiry" -- that kind of thing. It seems like a lot of protocol that needs to be learned in the time between getting elected and being sworn in.

By: ikkyu2

ikkyu2 — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 08:41:35 -0800

There is a week-long "class" at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government for incoming freshmen Representatives. I guess that in addition to learning the basic rules of order, they meet and greet a lot of people. I used to live across the street and it was something that happened every 2 years that was slightly disruptive.

By: empath

empath — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 08:42:55 -0800

wow, that was fast.

Thanks :)

Still interested in more details, though, if anybody has personal experience.

By: gauchodaspampas

gauchodaspampas — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 08:47:11 -0800

Also, this is supposedly not as much the case anymore, but from what I've learned, freshmen in congress used to not be expected to really do much except sit and watch, and in fact it was frowned upon to do otherwise. I'm not sure how much they're expected/encouraged to do/not do anymore, but certainly that used to be one way they learned the ropes in the past.

By: gauchodaspampas

gauchodaspampas — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 08:51:38 -0800

Also, I've got a follow up for ikkyu2 if you're still watching: Is more or less mandatory for all freshmen? Is it the official government sponsored class? Is it just a service harvard offers that has become the standard? I would think if it were mandatory or government sponsored, it would be held in DC, but I suppose it would also make sense to have it at arguably the best school of government in the country.

By: monkeymadness

monkeymadness — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 08:57:40 -0800

gauchodaspampas's (thankful for cut and paste :) method is my experience in academia. I know my first year on faculty I was wary of saying anything for fear it was out of order. I think the class that ikkyu2 mentioned would be great fo us, too.

By: ewiar

ewiar — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 09:04:03 -0800

Here's a guide that is distributed to new Canadian parliamentarians as part of their orientation.

Perhaps the most interesting story I have about the orientation process is the session the party holds for spouses, where they're told "80% of your husbands will end up cheating on you, so start getting emotionally prepared for that." My member is actually one of the 20%, but his wife still cast a very cold eye on young female hires for a while.

By: ikkyu2

ikkyu2 — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 09:11:32 -0800

Gaucho: I don't know the answers to your questions! Here is a Harvard Crimson article covering the 2002 orientation.

By: Partial Law

Partial Law — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 09:19:11 -0800

Some information on the program, for which it seems Harvard picks up the tab.

By: MrMoonPie

MrMoonPie — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 09:49:57 -0800

The Congressional Research Service also has all sorts of training for new Members, from floor procedures to legislation drafting.

By: andrewraff

andrewraff — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 12:48:33 -0800

For a vague sense of what the Kennedy School Congressional orientation program is like, the Colbert Report taped a segment there.

By: Alt F4

Alt F4 — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 13:38:34 -0800

I mention this only since the term hasn't yet been dropped, but parliamentary procedure is often based off of Robert's Rules of Order.

By: MattD

MattD — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 16:46:03 -0800

One of the first thing a Reprentative- or Senator-elect does, if he or she lacks heavy Hill experience, is hire someone who has such Hill experience as his or her #1 or #2 staffer, and leans on that person heavily for at least the first year or so in DC. The fine points are too important to be left to a class; they require constant reminders to avoid some embarassing lapses.

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 19:18:27 -0800

These are all correct.

In addition:

*It's relatively common for new-ish members to take a turn presiding over their chamber as a means of learning by doing.

*There are endless opportunities for informal learning from co-partisans, caucus meetings, other members from your state, and so on.

*Not everybody becomes an expert on procedure.