Revise & Extend Blog
Revise and Extend is a blog dedicated to providing practical and academic perspectives on congressional policy, politics, and procedure. Managed by the faculty and staff at the Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown University, and in line with our organization’s mission, we hope this blog is an important source of information for individuals wanting to know more about congressional operations, member behavior, and, more broadly, American politics.
GAI is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, conducting courses on Capitol Hill since 1965. For thirty years, GAI was part of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. In 1995 GAI was privatized by the federal government, and in 1997 it became affiliated with Georgetown University and the McCourt School of Public Policy. GAI’s mission is to provide education and training about congressional processes, organization, and practices, and about selected legislative policy issues.
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Latest Posts
Budget Dysfunction: Potential Reforms
Laura Blessing | July 11, 2018
The federal budget process, laid out in the 1974 Budget Act, is a complex, multi-stage process with many opportunities for partisanship and intra-party divisions to derail it. And derailed it has been, with workarounds like omnibus appropriations and Continuing Resolutions (CRs) becoming the new normal. The myriad challenges in the present-day process were discussed at length in
Budget Reform: Diagnosing the Problem
Laura Blessing | May 3, 2018
The federal budget process is broken. There are few things that political actors across the spectrum agree on; the deep dysfunctionality of congressional budgeting is one. This topic has received considerable attention in recent years, most recently via a joint select committee created to seek reforms. The need for such an investigation
How Dr. Ronny Jackson got Nuked.
Mark Harkins | April 30, 2018
Now that erstwhile Secretary of Veterans Affairs nominee Dr. Ronny Jackson has lost his job as the President’s personal physician, he should blame former Sen. Harry Reid for his troubles. On November 21, 2013, in the face of sustained Republican opposition to confirming President Obama’s nominees and judges, the Senate took the extraordinary step of
National Security Confirmations: Politics Beyond the Water’s Edge
Katina Slavkova | April 4, 2018
March 2018 marked a curious milestone for national security that may portend some unexpected clashes ahead for President Trump and congressional overseers. New personnel selections have dredged up divisive political memories; while the choice of Mr. Bolton (for National Security Advisor) may draw more commentary, Gina Haspel (for CIA Director) will draw the oversight that