Reforming Congress – James Curry, PhD, Professor at the University of Utah (Part 1)

March 23, 2021  

  • Video
  • 0:13 – Introduction
  • 2:07 – Discussing personal experiences on Capitol Hill
  • 5:48 – Differences between working on a committee vs. a personal Member’s office
  • 6:35 – Current research interests since going into academia
  • 7:19 – What questions are you asking, and what answers have you found?
  • 11:24 – Discussing the important types of information that factor in to drafting policy
  • 13:45 – How does the leadership structure (and Congress more generally) incorporate outside expertise, if at all?
  • 18:08 – Describing the challenges between passing legislation, maintaining party cohesion, and deflecting outside expertise threats
  • 21:16 – Are there any members of Congress that do their own research anymore?
  • 24:54 – If a member of Congress had a tool to gain insights into any issue that they or the district/state cares about, what would they want to know and how would it be used?
  • 28:03 – What research have you conducted on political parties and what have you found?
  • 29:19 – If so much time is spent on messaging politics, what impact has there been on their legislative activities?
    [End of Part 1]
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