introducing students to the legislative branch. As thousands of undergraduates have learned, focusing on Congress as not only a legislative body, but also as a group of reelection-minded politicians, is an extraordinarily effective way to understand the institution and the law-making process. In addition to featuring new examples and cases drawn from recent congressional politics―including the battles over health care reform, financial regulations, economic stimulus, fiscal management, and tax policy―the authors also integrate new scholarship on representation, congressional elections, lobbying influence, and the relationship between Congress and the Court.The thirteenth edition also features analysis of:• the 2010 congressional campaigns and elections; • party and leadership changes for the 112th Congress;• executive-legislative relations under President Obama;• new procedures in the House and Senate;• budgeting in an era of huge deficits; • the heightened importance of lobbyists in legislative policymaking; • public attitudes about Congress as dysfunctional, even corrupt; and• the courts and their impact on the interpretation of congressional statutes, the scope of congressional power, and the reach of statutory campaign finance regulations.

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