Spring 2003

Special Orders

The Center on Congress at Indiana University

Lee Hamilton

The Center on Congress at Indiana University was created in 1999 to help strengthen the general public's understanding of Congress and to encourage civic engagement, especially among young people. It strives to counter the cynicism and myths concerning the U.S. Congress and its members -- which are so prevalent among Americans today. The Center on Congress is non‑partisan and our goal is purely educational -- to explain the work and role of the U.S. Congress.

The Center seeks to reach the public with educational, non-technical information, using a variety of media, including syndicated columns, radio commentaries, cable television, pamphlets and books, a website, and Internet‑based learning modules. Our products and publications are aimed at different age levels, from elementary school through adult. The educational products we produce for young people use innovative and interactive formats to appeal to the new learning styles of today. Our adult publications strive to use clear language that appeals to the average citizen. Overall, our work is not aimed at the experts, Ph.D.s, practitioners, or political scientists, but at ordinary Americans.

My interest in creating the Center on Congress developed out of a recognition, during my 34 years in the House of Representatives, of the need to improve broad public understanding of Congress -- its role in our large and remarkably diverse country, its strengths and its weaknesses, its daily impact on the lives of ordinary people. During the course of literally thousands of public meetings, talks at local schools, and discussions with individuals, I became increasingly convinced that the level of public understanding about Congress was not at all proportional to the importance it plays in our country and that cynicism about Congress was reaching disturbing levels.

A primary goal of the Center is to prevent cynicism from further corroding our representative democracy. Although some cynicism is warranted, most of it is not. In establishing the Center on Congress, I was particularly interested in trying to increase the interest of young people in participating in our nation's civic life. To that end, the cornerstone of our educational products is a series of Internet‑based interactive exercises, called "e‑learning modules." On our website, the modules receive an average of 15,000 visitors a day during the school year. In addition, we have distributed large numbers of CDs containing the exercises and other Center material to teachers for classroom use. We have also made them available upon request to others interested in the legislative branch.

Five e‑learning modules have been completed to date, with three more nearing completion. We invite you to visit our website -- at http://congress.indiana.edu -- and experience the following e‑learning modules for yourself.

How a Member Decides to Vote has the user take on the persona of a member of Congress, who is faced with the challenge of voting on a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning. Through a calendar crammed with appointments with constituents and experts with opinions on the issue, the "Congressman" begins to formulate his/her own opinion. But not in peace. The process is continually interrupted with phone calls, e‑mails, and news flashes pertaining to the issue -- just as in reality.
Public Criticisms of Congress offers common criticisms of Congress via "man on the street" video segments. In response, a variety of actual congressional experts respond to the stereotypes about Congress in video segments of their own. The user calibrates his/her response on a spectrum between the two, and is led to additional readings and resources to learn more about the Congress.
Federal Budget Allocation Activity gives the user an opportunity to allocate the Federal Budget among conflicting priorities. Actual budget categories such as Defense, Welfare, and the Environment are presented in a colorful display while the user both divides up the federal budget according to how she/he would like it to be allocated among competing priorities ‑‑ and how she/he thought it was actually allocated. Their estimates are then compared to reality.
Notable Members of Congress introduces members of Congress who have stood out over the years. Some sponsored landmark legislation. Others received the Presidential Medal of Freedom or were a Profile in Courage. Many came to the Congress from a wide variety of interesting backgrounds and occupations. And a few found fame through scandal and misdeeds. Four former members of Congress are interviewed at the end in a series of video segments, describing the member of Congress they most admired and why.
The Legislative Process is not your standard how-a-bill-becomes-law chart. Instead it emphasizes the "off the chart" tactics and techniques most often employed in promoting significant legislation. A wide array of photos showing real members at work in the various stages of the legislative process accompany the user down the irregular path and side roads of the journey a bill takes to become law. Common popular perceptions about legislating are countered with explanations for the reasons behind many of its seemingly cumbersome and inefficient aspects. A former member of Congress and a political scientist are featured in video segments about legislating in the contemporary Congress.

The Center will also soon be developing materials for teachers to assist them in ways to use the e‑learning activities in the classroom.

To serve high school students and young adults, the Center on Congress reaches out through a series of cable television discussion programs, "Congress on Close Up." The Center and the Close Up Foundation have joined forces to produce these discussions about the U.S. Congress, its members, and their work, taped before an audience of high school students who pose questions to the panelists. The programs initially air on the C‑SPAN cable television network and are then edited into formats usable in high school classrooms. Program topics have included "The Role of Congress," "How Congress Affects our Daily Life," and "Achieving Bipartisanship," with guests including former Senators Robert Dole and Patrick Moynihan, former Members of the House Pat Schroeder, Robert Michel, Vin Weber, and Vic Fazio.

For the adult population, the Center on Congress distributes newspaper columns for placement in op‑ed pages nationwide through the Scripps‑Howard News Service. As Director of the Center, I have authored some 50 columns on a wide variety of topics. Drawing on my previous experience representing southern Indiana in the House of Representatives, I try to bring insight into the policy‑making process in Congress, especially as seen through the lens of local representation. Topics have included the role of money in politics, the importance of process in good legislating, what makes an effective member of Congress, the importance of dialogue between members and their constituents, and more. The entire collection of columns can be found on our website.

Another outreach to adults consists of very brief radio commentaries that are distributed to over 500 stations nationwide, including the Armed Forces Radio Network. These short spots summarize the topics and basic themes of the op‑ed columns, reworked for the format of radio, and they also can be heard on our website.

In the last year, the Center on Congress has received support from the U.S. Congress to join with the Center for Civic Education and the National Conference of State Legislatures to form the Alliance for Representative Democracy, a major project to develop comprehensive programs to encourage civic participation, promote civic education, and improve the public's understanding of democratic representation at both the federal and state levels.

The goals of the Alliance for Representative Democracy are to improve public understanding about representative democracy and encourage Americans to play a responsible role in their government. The Alliance plans are to strengthen classroom teaching about representative democracy, develop mass media programs to inform the public about its representative institutions, provide legislators and staff with resource materials to help improve public understanding of their role and work, and to support research on the public's views about Congress and state legislatures.

The Alliance has plans to produce a video series, a public television documentary, as well as publications for both adults and students about the nature of representative democracy and the process of legislation. The Alliance has, for example, completed a special supplement on representative democracy, which was distributed by TIME Magazine in the 2002 back‑to‑school issue of TIME For Kids.

The challenges facing our nation, especially now, are numerous and complex in nature. We need full‑time citizens, ready to add their voice and experience to the difficult tasks government faces. The U.S. Congress represents a large and conflicted country. It performs the task of reconciling our differences in a peaceful and civil manner, through debate and negotiation. Its work is vital to our democracy and citizen participation is also vital to ensure accurate and vibrant representation. At the Center on Congress, we are dedicated to meeting the challenge of reaching citizens with this message.

Lee H. Hamilton is currently the director of both The Center on Congress at Indiana University and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. He also serves as Vice Chairman of the President's National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. Previously, Mr. Hamilton was a member of the U.S. Congress, representing the 9th District of Indiana for 34 years. During his tenure in the House of Representatives, Mr. Hamilton was chairman, ranking member, and member of the Committee on International Relations as well as chairman, vice chairman, and member of the Joint Economic Committee and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Lee Hamilton holds a J.D. degree from Indiana University School of Law and a B.A. from DePauw University. He was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 1982.

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