Friday September 2, 2022
12:30-1:30 p.m.
Meeting Both In-Person and by Zoom
Dampeer Room, Second Floor of Kelvin Smith Library
Case Western Reserve University
Dear Colleagues:
After two years only on Zoom, the “Friday Lunch” returns for Fall Semester 2022 with discussions held “in-person” again.
I remain a bit nervous about this and want it to be easy for people to protect themselves and still participate. So the meetings will also be on Zoom, and participants can register for each meeting in the same way they did for the past two years. The link is posted below.
I hope and pray this all goes well. I regret that we cannot start the academic year with our traditional discussion of the Supreme Court, as one of our speakers had a conflict. So that session will be on the Friday immediately before the new Supreme Court Term begins, on September 30. I hope it’s OK that I will lead off instead, which also means I will be the speaker-victim of anything that goes wrong with the technology! And I hope people will find my topic interesting.
Suddenly, this Summer, there has been a burst of articles saying that, contrary to all the claims about systematic gridlock and President Biden’s weakness, Congress has become surprisingly effective. “A Functional Congress? Yes” wrote David Leonhardt of the New York Times on August 16. “Congress is known for being disfunctional,” he added. “Why hasn’t it been over the past two years?” “Congress is Shooting for the Moon, and Getting Close,” Times editorial writer Farah Stockman had opined on August 14. On June 14, Jonathan Chait explained in New York magazine, “Biden Is Getting More Bipartisan Laws Than Anyone Expected,” and on July 28 the Washington Post published Jonathan Bernstein’s analysis that, “The Do-Something Congress Is on a Roll.”
These articles point out that not only have the Democrats’ passed some legislation on a straight party-line basis, using the budget reconciliation process, but that a number of significant laws have passed with enough Republican support in the Senate to bypass a filibuster. Examples include the “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act” (the first gun control legislation in a long time); the “Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act,” the “Chips and Science Act,”; and an overhaul of the United States Postal Service.
So what’s going on? Is the legislative output actually so significant, compared to the average Congress? How should we assess what was passed on a purely partisan basis – as impressive unity among Democrats, or disappointing concessions to the party’s more conservative members? Why are any Senate Republicans voting for legislation most Democrats support? What does this say about how Congress may perform in later terms? Last but not least, is this success, such as it is, likely to affect the election results?
In-Person and Virtual Attendance
The discussion begins at 12:30 p.m., but the Dampeer Room should be open no later than Noon. We try to have beverages and refreshments set up soon after that. Participants should be able to sign on to Zoom also by Noon. But please remember not much will be happening online until the talk begins at 12:30.
Zoom participants will probably have trouble hearing comments made by members of the audience in the room. As moderator I will repeat and summarize such comments or questions. Zoom participants are also encouraged to submit questions through Zoom’s chat function. The chat will be monitored.
Each week we will send out this newsletter with information about the topic. It will also include a link to register (for free) for the discussion. When you register, you will automatically receive from the Zoom system the link to join the meeting. If you do not get the newsletter, you should also be able to get the information each Monday by checking http://fridaylunch.case.edu/. Then if you choose you can use the contact form on that website to request the registration link.
This week’s Zoom link for registration is:
https://cwru.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIpduCrrzorE9Nw1PlZtZvq8pjpIRCaES7w
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Please e-mail padg@case.edu if you have questions about how the Zoom version of the Friday Lunch will work or any other suggestions. Or call at 216 368-2426 and we’ll try to get back to you. We are very pleased to be partnering this semester with the Siegal Lifelong Learning Program to share information about the discussions.
Best wishes for safety and security for you and yours,
Joe White
Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies
About Our Guest
Joe White joined the CWRU faculty in 2000, serving as Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy in the Department of Political Science. As director of the Center for Policy Studies, he also organizes the Public Affairs Discussion Group. He previously was Associate Professor in the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and before that Research Associate and then Senior Fellow in Governmental Studies at the Brookings Institution. He teaches a series of courses on public policy and U.S. politics, and his research involves both health care policy and federal budgeting. As a scholar of budgeting, Professor White in 2014 received the Aaron Wildavsky Award for lifetime achievement from the Association for Budgeting and Financial Management. He testified to the congressional Joint Select Committee on Budget and Appropriations Process Reform in 2018.
Schedule of Friday Lunch Upcoming Topics and Speakers:
September 9: Race, Inequality, and the Cleveland Police Consent Decree. With Lewis R. Katz, J.D., John C. Hutchins Professor of Law Emeritus.
September 16: Russia’s War in Ukraine. With Andrew Barnes, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Director of the Program in International Relations, School of Multidisciplinary Studies, Kent State University.
September 23: Lake Erie in Bloom, and What to Do About It. With Huichun (Judy) Zhang, Ph.D., Frank H. Neff Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
September 30: Supreme Court Review and Preview. With Jonathan H. Adler, J.D., Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law, and Jonathan L. Entin, J.D., David L. Brennan Professor Emeritus of Law.
October 7: Germany and Ukraine. With Andreas Sobisch, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Political Science, John Carroll University
October 14: More Money for the IRS. With Timothy Fogarty, Ph.D., Andrew D. Braden Professor Department of Accountancy.
October 21: To Be Determined
October 28: To Be Determined
November 4: To Be Determined
November 11: To Be Determined
November 18: To Be Determined
November 25: Thanksgiving Break
December 2: To Be Determined
December 9: To Be Determined |
