Congressional research report
het9630
CongressionalResearchProject2022.docAMERICAN GOVERNMENT CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH PROJECT
OVERVIEW: For this project, you will study your U.S. House Representative and your district to determine how your district issues and interests are represented in Congress. The purpose of this exercise is to learn about the linkages between the interests and issues in your Congressional district and the policies and causes that your Representative supports. In essence, you are evaluating and explaining your Representative's performance.
Using one or more of the sources listed, write 4-5 pages that describes your district, its issues and needs, and the way that your Congressperson meets those needs by their representation in Congress. In addition, include 1-2 more pages of personal analysis and evaluation of your Representative’s performance. Finally, you are to write and send a brief email to your Congressperson, approximately 1 page or less, in which you ask a question about an issue pertinent to your district (gun control, farm policy, education reform, or whatever issue your research demonstrates as important). Attach a copy of the email to your paper along with any replies received.
Although this may sound like a daunting project, you will find that much of this information has already been written by someone else. All you have to do is find the information and organize it into the paper. In order to assist you with your research, I have listed numerous sources to help you find information. You will generally have to use more than one source to complete the assignment. Cite your sources where appropriate.
REQUIRED INFORMATION:
District Info.
1. What is your district number?
2. What are your district demographics?
a. Current and historical Ideology (liberal or conservative).
b. Ethnicity (provide ethnic breakdown of district).
c. Income (provide information related to average household income).
3. What is the partisan (party ID) makeup of your district?
4. Where do your own political beliefs, ideology, demographics and party ID fit into the larger district?
Incumbent Info.
5. Who is your Representative?
6. When was your Representative first elected?
7. What is your Representative’s party affiliation?
8. What House committees does your Representative sit on?
a. What, if any, issues in the district might explain why the Congressperson sits on said committees?
9. List your Representative’s local and Washington addresses.
10. Give a brief synopsis of your Representative’s public life history.
Campaign Info.
11. List total campaign contributions for your Representative’s most recent election.
a. Total amount contributed by PACs?
12. List the three largest PAC contributors by industry (Project Vote Smart Data Only).
a. Within each industry, who are the largest contributors?
13. Does there appear to be any relationship between your Representative’s committee assignments and PAC contributions? Explain.
Legislative Info.
14. What type of legislation has your Congressperson introduced during previous legislative
sessions?
a. Cite three bills, their titles, their bill numbers, and the Public Law numbers if the bills became law.
b. Give a brief description of each bill identified above.
15. What is your Representative’s legislative position on three issues of your choice?
(For example: Public Funding of Health Services, Gun Control, Education, etc.)
16. Identify three special interest groups that support your representative on the issues you have
identified above. Be sure to give a summary of what each interest group stands for and the issues it supports.
Personal Evaluation and Analysis.
Write 1-2 pages in which you summarize the information you obtained and provide your own thoughts, evaluation and analysis of that information. What do you think of your Representative? Is he/she representing issues that are important to you and your district? Is this someone you will vote for? What new information did you find out about your Representative and district?
FORMAT AND DIRECTIONS: For purposes of saving paper, please use single spacing and standard margins along with 12pt New Times Roman font. Other than that, there is no correct “format” for the paper. In other words, you are free to organize it the best way that makes sense to you. However, somewhere in your paper you must address every question asked above in the “Required Information” section.
In order to assist you with your research, I have also listed numerous sources to help you find information at the end of this assignment. Be sure to cite your sources when and where appropriate. When citing sources, please use footnotes! I’ve included a sample template with this assignment that follows the “Chicago Style” of footnote citation for your reference.
Finally, remember that you are being graded not only on the information you are able to research and collect, but also on how you answer the questions in which you will be required to provide your own analysis and evaluation(s). So be sure to think critically! Don’t just go through the motions. Following these directions should usually result in a 5-7 page paper, more or less, not including your email to your representative.
RESEARCH SOURCES (The Best Sources are in Bold)
Project Vote Smart (Begin Here) http://www.vote-smart.org
Open Secrets (Campaign Financing) http://www.opensecrets.org
Follow The Money http://www.followthemoney.org
Ballotpedia http://ballotpedia.org
Cook Political Report https://www.cookpolitical.com/pvi-map-and-district-list
U.S. House of Representatives http://www.house.gov
U.S. Congress https://www.congress.gov
U.S. Census Information http://www.census.gov
FEC Info. http://www.fecinfo.com
Federal Election Commission http://www.fec.gov
Statistical Atlas http://www.statisticalatlas.com
National Election Studies http://www.electionstudies.org
Fact Check http://www.factcheck.org
LEGI-SLATE http://www.legislate.com
Center for Responsive Politics http://www.crp.org
Illinois State Board of Elections http://www.state.il.us/election
National Election Studies http://www.umich.edu/~nes
Gallup News/Polls http://www.gallup.com
