Congress and the Nation 2017-2020, Volume XV

Book excerpt: Chronicling the polarized partisan environment during the President Donald Trump’s term, Congress and the Nation 2017-2020, Vol. XV will be the most authoritative reference on congressional lawmaking and trends during the 115th and 116th Congresses. Congress and the Nation is a unique reference product, rivaled only by the annual editions of the CQ Almanac in its coverage of the legislative and policymaking activities of the U.S. national legislature. After its original publication in the mid-1960s in a one-volume work covering 20 years (1945-1965) of lawmaking, the succeeding editions (vols. II – XIII) have been focused on 4 years of lawmaking activity under succeeding presidential administrations. Each new quadrennial edition is organized into 14 policy-centered chapters (economy, homeland security [since vol. XI], foreign policy, defense policy, energy and environment, health, etc.) and two chapters that cover matters internal to Congress and the presidential administration. The policy chapters cover the major legislative activities in the two numbered congresses convened during the four year period. The result is a narrative and analytical account of the lawmaking by the U.S. Congress that provides students, scholars and journalists with a digestible and accurate retrospective accounts difficult to find or reconstruct from news media, as well as longer term historical perspective of congressional lawmaking. This is a landmark series for CQ Press that has proven its value among librarians for decades