Welcome to The Dirksen Congressional Center's Communicator - a web-based e-newsletter providing educators with news and ideas to improve the understanding of Congress -- http://www.webcommunicator.org

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1. Monthly Feature -- Congressional Committees
2. Monthly Theme -- Resources: More About Congressional Committees
3. Featured Grant-funded Project
4. News and Views from The Center
5. Trivia - Committee Confusion
6. Postscript Information

1. CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES

There are so many ways to tackle the task of teaching about Congress. Do you start with the Constitution? With the history of the place? With the personal stories of the members themselves? There are so many choices. But if you decide that it's fundamentally important to understand how laws are enacted, you're going to have to deal with committees.

Committees are essential to the effective operation of legislative bodies. Committee membership enables members to develop specialized knowledge of the matters under their jurisdiction. As "little legislatures," committees monitor on-going governmental operations, identify issues suitable for legislative review, gather and evaluate information; and recommend courses of action to their parent body. Congress does its work through five types of committees -- standing committees, subcommittees, special ofrselect committees, joint committees, and conference committees.

Obviously, learning about committees can be overwhelming. A Google search on "congressional committees" yields 2,860,000 hits! The best place to start is the Senate site -- http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/briefing/Committees.htm -- and the House Rules Committee site -- http://www.house.gov/rules/comm_jurisdiction.htm. You'll discover information about the history, powers, jurisdictions, and membership of congressional committees.

More general information about the Congress is located on one of The Center's own sites, AboutGovernment. See -- http://www.aboutgovernment.org/usgov_legis.htm

2. RESOURCES: MORE ABOUT CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES

The Communicator featured a newsletter on the work of congressional committees in May 2003, offering resources to help students examine the role that congressional committees play in the legislative process of the U.S. Congress. Find this issue at: http://www.webcommunicator.org/site%20resources/archives/may03.htm.

Read a selection from expert Charles O. Jones, a distinguished political scientist, who identifies the ten most important points that a high school student should know about Congress. Find item 7 in Professor Jones's list, along with questions and activities that can be used in the classroom to illustrate his point that committees are important in both chambers for preparing bills and why they are especially critical in the House of Representatives. Find this item listed in What Every Student Should Know About Congress at: http://www.congresslink.org/print_expert_studentknow.htm.

For an historical perspective on the role of congressional committees, CongressLink offers a lesson plan that provides background and primary source material on the behind-the-scenes maneuvering that was required to keep this controversial bill from dying in committee. Find How a Bill Becomes Law: The Case of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 at: http://www.congresslink.org/print_lp_civilrights.htm.

The Congressional Bibliographies compiled at the NCSU Libraries introduces a searchable database of the committee meeting descriptions found in the Congressional Record's Daily Digest sections. From its search page you may query a database of 57,000 Senate and House committee meeting records that begins with the 99th Congress (1985-86) and continues to the present. New records are added to the Meetings Index monthly. Find Congress Committee Meetings Index at: http://www.congresslink.org/print_teaching_websites.htm.

A House-Senate probe into possible intelligence failures prior to 9/11 revealed there was evidence of a threat to the U.S. homeland. Committee members from the U.S. House and Senate authorized the congressional report mentioned in the story, "Intelligence Probe." Use this opportunity to introduce students to the congressional committee system. Have them read "Intelligence Probe" and answer the listed questions to help them learn about the committees of the House and Senate and their functions. Find Learn about the Congressional Committee System at: http://www.congressforkids.net/games/houseofrep/2_legislativebranch.htm.

3. FEATURED GRANT-FUNDED PROJECT

On January 21, 2005, The Dirksen Center awarded a Robert H. Michel Special Project Grant in the amount of $3,000 to Stephanie Vance, AdVanced Consulting, for her project entitled, The Congressional Hearing Toolkit. This project will help students understand the role of the congressional hearing in the policy process, i.e., how committees operate and influence legislation, through an interactive model. The deliverables will include written materials, video of committee hearings, and two committee hearing simulation models for student use.

To learn more about the Robert H. Michel Special Project Grants, visit: http://www.dirksencenter.org/print_grants_specialprojects.htm.

4. NEWS AND VIEWS FROM THE CENTER

** FINAL CALL FOR PARTICIPATION: Congress in the Classroom 2005 **

** SPECIAL NOTICE: Past participants are welcome to apply! **

DEADLINE: March 15, 2005

Congress in the Classroom® is a national, award-winning education program now in its 13th year. Sponsored by The Dirksen Congressional Center, the workshop is dedicated to the exchange of ideas and information on teaching about Congress.

Congress in the Classroom® is designed for high school teachers who teach U.S. history, government, civics, political science, or social studies. Forty teachers from throughout the country will be selected in 2005 to take part in the program.

You will gain experience with The Center's educational Web site, CongressLink - http://www.congresslink.org -- which features online access to lesson plans, student activities, historical materials, related Web sites, and subject matter experts.

Throughout the program you will work with national experts as well as colleagues from across the nation. This combination of firsthand knowledge and peer-to-peer interaction will give you new ideas, materials, and a professionally enriching experience.

In sum, the workshop consists of two types of sessions: those that focus on recent research and scholarship about Congress (and don't always have an immediate application in the classroom) and those geared to specific ways to teach students about Congress.

The 2005 program theme will be Our New Congress -- the 109th. Confirmed session titles are:

• A View from Capitol Hill
• The Importance of Teaching Democracy Appreciation
• George W. Bush's Second Term: What's in Store for Congress?
• Reporting on Congress: The Role of the Media
• How Congress Members Decide (Hint: It Looks Like a Game of Billiards)
• Teaching Congress through Visuals
• The Struggle to Reform Congress and Its Consequences
• What are the Ten Most Important Things High School Students Should Know about Congress?
• Congress Has a Humorous Side
• How to Get Your Point Across to Congress Members
• The Dirksen Center Web Suite as a Resource for Teachers
• Congressional Insight: A Computer Simulation of a Member's First Term in the House of Representatives, and more.

Speakers for this year's workshop include a member of Congress; political scientists from Rutgers University, the U.S. Naval Academy, the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University, Dickinson College, and the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University; a historian from Boston College; and a former congressional staffer who now runs her own consulting company.

The workshop will take place from Monday, July 25 through July 28, 2005, at the Radisson Hotel in Peoria, Illinois. Teachers who are selected for the program will be responsible for (1) a non-refundable $135 registration fee (required to confirm acceptance after notice of selection) and (2) transportation to and from Peoria, Illinois. Many school districts will pay all or a portion of these costs.

The Center pays for three nights lodging at the headquarters hotel (providing a single room for each participant), workshop materials, local transportation, all but three meals, and presenter honoraria and expenses. The Center spends between $25,000 and $30,000 to host the program each year.

Those teachers who are not selected for the program will have an opportunity to register for the Web-based Congress in the Classroom® Online professional development workshop -- http://www.congressclass.org.

The deadline for applications is March 15, 2005. Enrollment is competitive and limited to forty. Selection will be determined by The Center. Individuals will be notified of their acceptance status by April 1, 2005.

Take a look at The Dirksen Center Web site -http://www.dirksencenter.org/print_programs_CongressClassroom.htm -- to see what participants say about the program and to learn more about the scheduled sessions and presenters.

If you are interested in registering for the Congress in the Classroom® 2005 workshop, you can complete an online registration form found at: http://www.dirksencenter.org/programs_CiCapplication.htm.

** Professional Development Workshop Updates **

Congress in the Classroom® Online -- http://www.congressclass.org -- helps participants understand today's Congress and suggest ways to teach about it.

Below are recent updates to the self-paced workshop which is organized around the twin responsibilities of Congress members: representation and lawmaking.

1) New work product for Assignment 5 -- http://www.congressclass.org/print_workproduct5.htm

2) New work product for Assignment 7 -- http://www.congressclass.org/print_workproduct7.htm

3) New work product for Assignment 10 -- http://www.congressclass.org/print_workproduct10.htm

We invite you to register -- http://www.congressclass.org/print_registration.htm --to participate in Congress in the Classroom® Online to help you understand today's Congress and discover ways to teach about it -- with all the convenience and speed of the Internet.

For more information, visit -- http://www.congressclass.org/courseinformation_contents.htm -- for a complete online professional development workshop overview.

5. COMMITTEE CONFUSION

1. Where is most of the actual and detail work of legislating conducted?

A) Floor
B) House Rules Committee
C) Standing Committee
D) Caucuses
E) Ad Hoc Committees

2. When a bill passes the House and Senate in substantially different forms, the differences are resolved in…

A) The Rules Committee
B) The cloture process
C) The original standing committee
D) The Senate Select Committee
E) A conference committee

Answers to February's issue of Fun, Facts, and Trivia: http://www.webcommunicator.org/funfactstrivia0205ans.htm.

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