Why does Congress host a state of the union address?

And where can I find figures for how much Congress spends on itself?

The latest episode of the Understandiong Congress podcast is online. I ask the Government Affairs Institute’s Matt Glassman about the modern #SOTU tradition, and also ask whether the House of Representative could refuse to allow a president to come and speak. This is not outside the bounds of possibilities in this era of hyperpartisanship and institutional hardball! Listen in.

Money and those crazy ‘70s

“Follow the money” we often here. OK, so how does one figure out how to find how much money Congres spends on itself and for what purposes? The answer is here.

Today’s Congress is in many ways a product of the changes wrought during those tumultuous years. You can watch my chat with John Lawrence about his book, The Class of ’74: Congress after Watergate and the Roots of Partisanship, which describes the generation of new members of Congress who shook up the House of Representatives—for better and for worse.

And, oh, what outrageous things happened on Capitol Hill in those days! Shall we speak of the chairman who sent the DC mayor a truckload of watermelons?