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

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]