A bipartisan group of senators said it reached a deal on $550 billion in new spending on infrastructure.
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Articles on US Senate
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The Senate has a lot of rules, and its parliamentarian interprets what those rules allow – and what they don’t. That can mean a bill will face either huge obstacles, or very few obstacles to passage.
Many states have found ways to remove partisan politics from their court systems.
The majority of Americans say they’d like to be able to vote for a third party. Donald Trump says he might start one. But neither is likely to happen.
Three scholars examine President Biden’s rhetoric, the symbolism and the several ambitious plans he proposed in his first address to Congress.
The idea that Washington, D.C., is paralyzed by gridlock rests on half-truths about the legislative process and a basic misunderstanding of how contemporary policymaking works.
The US system was designed with more checks and balances than many other successful democracies – the filibuster’s main function is to give undue power to a vocal minority.
In 1974, Congress invented the reconciliation process to reduce deficits. More recently, reconciliation has been used in ways that increase the deficit. A public policy scholar explains the process.
The idea that Washington, DC is paralyzed by gridlock rests on half-truths about the legislative process and a basic misunderstanding of how contemporary policymaking works.
Endless filibustering has paralysed the US Senate, and with it all of Congress. Will this form of obstructionism be one of the main challenges facing Biden, as some Democrats fear?
In the end, Republicans could not convict the former president for inciting the January 6 Capitol riots without implicating themselves.
The vote to acquit former President Trump for inciting the attack on the Capitol is a symptom of the dramatic decline of the US constitutional system, which is being eroded from within.
Politicians say they want it, but how often, and under what circumstances, does bipartisanship really happen?
Language affects behavior. When words champion aggression, make violence acceptable and embolden audiences to action, incidents like the insurrection at the Capitol are the result.
There are a lot of questions about the point of putting on trial someone who is no longer in office.
To repair the public’s dwindling trust in the federal government, politicians must recommit to the impartial cooperation that bolsters political institutions.
History shows that attorneys general who are picked by – and serve at the pleasure of – the president are not as independent as they may be expected to be.
An aggressive US climate policy rollout could provide a much needed dose of reality to the climate discourse in Canberra – and show Australia the transition can be done.
In such a narrowly divided chamber, the onus will be on the Biden administration not lose a single Democrat. This could limit the scope of his ambitious agenda.
A conflict scholar calls events at the U.S. Capitol ‘a messy riot where people lashed out at the heart of American democracy.’
Top contributors
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Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
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Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne
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Senior Lecturer, School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University
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Senior Lecturer, Department of Languages and Linguistics, La Trobe University
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Departmental Lecturer in Law and Public Policy, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford
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W. Lee Burge Chair in Law & Ethics; Director, National Institute for Teaching Ethics & Professionalism, Georgia State University
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Assistant Professor of Political Science, Westminster College
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Senior Lecturer, School of Social Sciences, Monash University
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Professor in The Division of Global Affairs and The Department of Political Science, Rutgers University - Newark
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Professor of Constitutional Law, University of Sydney
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Dennis Altman is a Friend of The Conversation.
Professorial Fellow in Human Security, La Trobe University
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Lecturer in Law, Murdoch University
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Associate Professor of Political Science, George Mason University
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Vice-Chancellor and President, University of Canberra
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Visiting Fellow, UNSW
