Capitol Hill Internship Program

CAPITOL HILL INTERNSHIP PROGRAM GVPT 376A/GVPT 377A P. Herrnson Office: 1106 Tawes Hall Hours: Mon. 2-3, Tues. 2-3 Tel.: 301-405-4123 E-mail: pherrnson@capc.umd.edu One day [Senator] Tillman called the [new] page over and asked him the name of the new Senator sitting on the Republican side of the Chamber. But the page was not only ignorant of the new Senator's name; he didn't even know who Tillman was, though he noticed the South Carolinian had a bad eye. Puzzled as how to proceed, the boy went over to the Senate clerk and asked: "Who is the man with one eye?" "Cyclops," said the clerk without looking up. The boy rushed back to Tillman. "Now Senator Cyclops," he said triumphantly, "I will go and find out the other Senator's name!" -- Paul F. Butler, Jr., Congressional Anecdotes   COURSE OBJECTIVES The Capitol Hill Internship Program is designed to integrate hands on experience in Congress with a theoretical understanding of the legislative process. To meet these experiential and theoretical goals requires continuous reflection on your role in the classroom and your role in a congressional office. You will be expected to record, analyze, interpret, and discuss the legislative process in light of your personal experience and the assigned readings. Participants in the Capitol Hill Internship Program receive a total of nine credits. Only the three seminar credits (GVPT 377A) count toward satisfying upper-level GVPT requirements. The six fieldwork credits (GVPT 376A) count as elective credit only. FIELDWORK Your work schedule on the Hill is to be negotiated with your intern supervisor, provided your total time commitment is between 18 and 20 hours per week for the length of the semester. You are urged to contact me if there appears to be any confusion about what is expected of you or if you have difficulty working out an appropriate set of duties. Do not hesitate to notify me of any potential problems. To make the most of your experience it is important to be alert to what happens around you. Carefully observe even those people and activities with which you are not directly involved. Remember that what you observe may in some cases be confidential; you must honor that confidentiality. You were screened and selected for your personal as well as academic qualifications. Mature judgment and discretion are expected of you at all times and places, including at social events to which you have been invited because of your internship. Remember you have made a professional commitment. You have a responsibility to take that commitment seriously and fulfill your duties to the best of your ability. Your legislative supervisor will make a final evaluation of your work. I will consider this evaluation when giving you a grade. THE SEMINAR Most of the seminars will meet on Monday from 3:30-6:00 on campus; some will be held at other times at locations on Capitol Hill. During the seminar we will discuss theoretical concepts that will further your understanding of your internship experience and place that experience into the larger context of American politics. The observations and reflections that you make from the readings and from your experience on Capitol Hill should serve as the basis for the ideas you present in the seminars. Each intern is expected to make unique and substantive contributions to the discussions, and the quality of your participation will be reflected in your course grade. COURSE REQUIREMENTS The requirements for the seminar (GVPT 377A) are three 10-page essays, each of which is worth 25% of the total seminar grade. The final 25% of the grade will be based on presentations, participation, and quizzes. The seminar will be graded using the standard letter option. The paper topics are as follows: 1. Home Style. Discuss the concept of home style, your member's home style, how that home style helps your member accomplish his or her goals, and how it influences the operations of Congress in general. 2. Congressional Committees. Discuss your member's committee assignments, how they contribute to your member's ability to accomplish his or her goals, and how the committee system influences Congress's ability to conduct its business. 3. Public Policy. Discuss your member's policy position and his or her efforts on a specific bill or some other legislative activity. Be sure to discuss what informs your member's policy position, how your member's efforts contribute to his or her ability to accomplish some policy goals and broader objectives, and how your member's activities and those of Congress as a whole contribute to the national policy making. Also, be sure to compare and contrast the policy and your member's policy-related activities with the information imparted from at least one of the policy-focused readings. You may exceed the page limit for this paper. The requirements for the fieldwork (GVPT 377A) include keeping a weekly journal. The journal should provide a developmental record of your experience on Capitol Hill. You should discuss the tasks you perform and significant activities you observe within the broader context of the legislative process. Journal entries will naturally vary in length and importance. It is not necessary to manufacture items for increased length, nor should you include repetitious details of routine experiences. Journals will be collected in the second week of class, at mid-session, and in the final seminar. They will count for one-third of the grade for fieldwork. Another one-third the will be based on the quality of your in-class presentation. The final one-third will consider your legislative supervisor's evaluation of your work. Fieldwork will be graded using the pass/fail option. The university code of academic integrity will be strictly enforced in this course. Contact the Office of Judicial Programs at 314-8205 if you have questions about the code. Any student who has a documented disability and wishes to discuss academic accommodations should meet with me after class after the first class or in my office hours during the first or second week of class. REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS Roger H. Davidson and Walter J. Oleszek, Congress and Its Members (CQ Press, 2000). Paul S. Herrnson, Congressional Elections (CQ Press, 2000). David E. Price, The Congressional Experience (Westview Press, 2000). Diana Dwyre and Victoria A. Farrrar-Myers, Legislative Labyrinth (CQ Press, 2001). OPTIONAL TEXTBOOKS William Connelly, Jr. and John Pitney, Jr., Congress' Permanent Minority? (Rowman and Littlefield, 1994). Lawrence C. Dodd and Bruce I. Oppenheimer, Congress Reconsidered (CQ Press 2001). James Gimpel, Fulfilling the Contract (Allyn and Bacon, 1996). Gary C. Jacobson, The Politics of Congressional Elections (Addison-Wesley, Longman, 2001). Barbara Sinclair, Unorthodox Lawmaking (CQ Press, 2000). COURSE OUTLINE September 10: Introduction September 17: Structure of a Congressional Office Davidson and Oleszek, Chs.1-2 Hawkings, Setting Course, Ch.4 (on reserve) Price, Chs. 1,4 FIRST JOURNAL ENTRIES DUE IN CLASS September 24 Home Style: Members of Congress and their Constituents Fenno, "U.S. House Members and their Constituencies," American Political Science Review, September 1977 (on reserve) Davidson and Oleszek, Ch. 5 Price, Ch. 9 October 1 Student Consultations in 1106 Tawes October 8 Congressional Elections Herrnson, Introduction, Introcution, Chs. 1-9 Davidson and Oleszek, Chs. 3,4 Price, Chs. 2,3 *Friday, October 12 TBA The Interest Group Connection Reading materials will be distributed in class in advance. October 15 PAPER ON HOME STYLE DUE BY 4:00 IN 1108 TAWES October 22 Congressional Committees Davidson and Oleszek, Ch. 7 Price, Ch. 5 JOURNALS DUE IN CLASS October 29 Student Consultations in 1106 Tawes November 5 Congressional Committees (Briefing on Capitol Hill) November 12 Party Leadership Davidson and Oleszek, Ch. 6 Price, Ch. 8 PAPER ON CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES DUE IN CLASS November 19 Congress and the Press (Briefing in Class) November 26 Public Policy Davidson and Oleszek, Chs. 13-14 Price, Chs. 6-8 Dwyre and Farrar-Myers, entire book December 3 Peer Orientation for New Interns STUDENTS MAKE PRESENTATIONS AND GIVE PEER ADVISEMENT TO INCOMING INTERNS. THE CYCLOPS AWARD IS PRESENTED AT THE INTERNSHIP DINNER. December 10 Evaluation of Congress Davidson and Oleszek, Ch. 15 Price, Chs. 11,12 Herrnson, Ch. 11 JOURNALS DUE IN CLASS December 14 PAPER ON PUBLIC POLICY DUE BY 4:00 IN 1108 TAWES