Understanding Congress

The topic of this episode is, “What Happens If Congress Gets Blown Up?”
On a sunny Tuesday morning 25 years ago, Congress reconvened. Speaker Dennis Hastert called the House of Representatives to order, and then the Illinois Republican recognized Representative Earl Blumenauer. The bow-tie-wearing Democrat from Oregon then began delivering a speech criticizing the marketing of tobacco.
He was the first of three members who were queued up to give speeches that morning. Only a handful of representatives were in the chamber. Most lawmakers were in their personal offices preparing for a full day of votes, hearings, and meetings, which would begin at 10:00 AM. Much the same was happening across the Capitol, where senators and their staff were preparing to start the day’s business.
But by 9:45 AM, legislators were fleeing the Capitol, and Hastert, the leaders of the Senate, and other top legislative branch officials were being whisked away to an undisclosed location in Virginia by the Capitol Police and their personal security details. Planes had struck and set aflame the two World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon.
United Airlines Flight 93 out of Newark, New Jersey, with enough fuel to carry it to San Francisco, had also been hijacked, and it was heading toward Washington, DC, and possibly the US Capitol. Were it not for the brave passengers of Flight 93 who stormed the cockpit and brought the plane down in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the federal government could have been crippled for months.
A quarter of a century has passed since that terrible day, September 11, 2001. Yet, unfortunately, it appears that Congress still is not fully prepared to recover and to resume its duties should a large number of its members be killed or disabled. This is a problem, and it is a problem that should have been solved long ago, because the legislative branch is the heart of our federal government, and our system will not work unless we have a fully functioning Congress.
To discuss this issue, I have with me today my colleague, John Fortier. He is a senior fellow here at the American Enterprise Institute, the author of many books, and, critically, he served on two commissions studying the continuity of Congress.
Read the full transcript here.

The topic of this episode is, “Are we being too hard on Congress?”
Hating Congress has become a national pastime. If you asked the average American what they think of Congress, they’ll tell you that it is corrupt, that nobody is doing anything, and that the President and Supreme Court are making all the decisions. They’ll also gripe that Congress keeps passing bigger and bigger spending bills, but that Congress also cannot keep the government open.
No bones about it, Congress falls short in many ways.
To be fair, however, Congress also gets a lot of bad press. Many of you no doubt recall the podcast I did with Rob Oldham last summer, where we discussed the research showing that Congress does not get a lot of media coverage for doing good things but gets plenty of bad ink for its conflicts, its kooks, and its shortcomings.
But bad press aside, are we being too hard on Congress?
According to a brand new book, the answer is “yes.” The book is titled A Case for Congress (University of Oklahoma Press, 2026) and it was authored by Frances Lee, a superb scholar at Princeton University. Frances, I should add, was a guest on this podcast a couple of years ago and helped us think more clearly about partisan polarization and its effects on Congress.
I read Frances’ book this summer and thought I would use this month’s podcast to share those thoughts. So here we go.
Read the full transcript here.

The topic of this episode is, “How can the average American influence a member of Congress?”
A lot of Americans feel no connection to the US Congress. If you asked them, they probably could not name their members in the House of Representatives and their Senators. And few voters have had a conversation with their legislators, or have tried to persuade them by sending a letter or email to their legislators.
I am not picking on the average voter. I can tell you that before I started writing a doctoral dissertation on Congress in my late 20s, I had never been in contact with a representative or Senator. It simply had not occurred to me, nor did I believe that if I asked these people in suits who were hundreds of miles away from me, they would help me.
What was lost on me and is lost on so many other Americans is this basic truth: if you don’t tell Congress what you want, then how can you expect it to do what you want? Voting for candidates who support policies you prefer is important, but it's not enough. You need to communicate to your legislators to remind them of what you want and to let them know that your vote in the next election is not to be taken for granted.
So how can the average American get his voice heard on Capitol Hill? Here to help me answer this question is Brad Fitch, the author of the book, The Citizen’s Handbook for Influencing Elected Officials (Sunwater, 2025). Brad knows an awful lot about Capitol Hill—he has been there for 40 years and previously served as the CEO of the Congressional Management Foundation and a congressional staffer.
Read the full transcript of the episode here.

The topic of this episode is, “Who were the House Appropriations Committee Surveys and Investigations Staff and what did they do?”
More than a decade ago, a friend and longtime veteran of Capitol Hill informed me that he had received a contract to work for the House Appropriations Committee Surveys and Investigations staff. I had no idea who these folks were, despite all the years I had spent working for Congress. When I asked him for details, he explained to me that he really couldn't share much about who they were and what he was doing. I thought that was odd, but I didn't cry and I let it go. I remember thinking it was something that I should look into, but I had more pressing research and life responsibilities, and I never conducted that research.
As fate would have it, a couple of years ago, I ran into Professor Matthew Dull at an academic conference. He is a tenured professor at the Center for Public Administration & Policy at Virginia Tech University.
To my wonder and delight, he informed me that he had written a lengthy paper on the history of the House Appropriations Committee Surveys and Investigation staff. We talked about what he learned about this mysterious corps of congressional staff, and I was riveted. I promised myself that I would not only read that paper but that I'd bring him on the Understanding Congress podcast, and finally, I'm making good on that.
So Professor Matthew Dull is with me today to tell what he has learned.
Read the full transcript here.
Read the archival documents here.

The topic of this episode is, “Does the Congressional Baseball Game increase collaboration in Congress?”
Each June, members of our national legislature play ball. Democrats and Republicans from the House of Representatives each field a team, practice, and then play a game. The 2026 Congressional Baseball Game is on Wednesday, June 10, at 7:05 pm EDT at Nationals Park in Washington, DC. This tradition goes back to 1909, and the proceeds are contributed to charities.
More than a few Americans have scoffed at this event and groused that elected officials should be inside the Capitol doing their jobs. And sadly, the Congressional Baseball Game has been targeted by political extremists. Environmental activists ran onto the field during the 2024 game in hopes of drawing attention to their cause. They got booed, rightly. And one far left kook shot Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) and four other individuals at a practice for the game.
My guest is SoRelle Wyckoff Gaynor. She is an assistant professor at the University of Virginia’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. She is also a faculty affiliate at the Center for Effective Lawmaking, which produces studies that entail who in Congress gets things done—and who doesn't. SoRelle recently coauthored an article on the Congressional Baseball Game titled “Playing Ball: Collaboration in the U.S. Congress.”
And I would be remiss if I did not mention that Professor Gaynor is the coauthor of Congress Explained: Representation and Lawmaking in the First Branch (CQ Press) and the author of the forthcoming book, Echo Chambers: How Partisan Communication Took Over Congress (University of Chicago Press).
Read the full transcript here.