1.

How might Obama successfully advance his domestic or foreign policy agenda(s) within the House and the Senate? Use a case study to explain your argument. The presidents ability to advance his domestic and foreign policy agendas within the house and senate has much to do with his ability to build relationships with key members of the Republican leadership in both houses. He must reach out to Speaker Boehner and Leader Cantor in the House of Representatives, and Leader McConnell in Senate. He must also reach out to fellow Democrats. Obviously, his rapport with members of his own party is strong; but he may need to adjust how he relates to fellow Democrats if he wishes to achieve enough bipartisan compromise to advance his agenda. That is, he may have to pressure or persuade some Democrats to readjust their positioning on certain issues. Specifically, it might be in the Presidents interest to engage Leader Pelosi as his emissary to the most leftward-leaning members of the Democratic Caucus in an effort to move them towards the center on issues like gun control, tax and revenue reform, and foreign policyto name just a few. The following hypothetical case study illustrates how the President may advance his agenda through Congress. The steps listed are also hypothetical and represent only suggestions, not a proven method for legislative victory. Step One: Immediately following the identification of the issue and the policy goal, the President should invite key members of the House and Senate leadership to the White House to discuss the proposal before it is presented to the press. The key in this step is that the President solicits input from Republicans and thus provides them with a sense that they have at least some sense of ownership in the policy. It is critical that this occurs before the proposed policy becomes public information. The President should also ask for much more than he and his team wish from the legislation. This way, when members of the opposing party ask for concessions, he can easily provide them at virtually no cost to his policy idea. Step Two: The President and White House staff should intimately involve the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office in all aspects of the funding mechanisms for the legislation. This will also assuage any concerns that the executive branch is acting unilaterally. During this step, it may be also in the best interest of the executive to send high-level White House officials to Capitol Hill to meet with individual members of Congress, especially those most likely to oppose the measure. In todays gridlock environment in Washington, it may be even the relatively smaller overtures that help to forge compromise. In the context of meetings with individual members of Congress, simply the consultation may be enough to sway an individual members opinion and thus their vote. Step Three: The President works intimately with leaders from both houses and from both parties to draft a bill. In doing so, concerns of factions within each housewhether from the left or the rightcan be addressed. This effort may help to lessen opposition and ensure that the bill is not dead on arrival in both houses. It is critical that during this and the preceding steps that the president remains intimately engaged with members of Congress, especially the leadership. Personal relations are what facilitated the passage of massive bipartisan reforms of the early 1980s. Scholars and pundits alike often refer to the warm relationship between President Ronald Reagan and House Speaker Thomas P. Tip ONeil as the lynchpin of

successful bipartisan reforms. While Reagan was a Republican and ONeil a Democrat, their gentlemanly and warn relations solidified over numerous cocktail hours cannot be underestimated as drivers of significant policy reform. Also, by drafting a bill slowly and deliberately, the advice of all parties and their expert representatives is considered, even before committee hearings on the bill following its introduction and committee referral. Step Four: The President should work to have the legislation introduced with as many prime cosponsors as possible. Thus more members have a stake in the legislations passage because they see it as their bill. Presuming that the bill does make it to committee hearings, it is advisable that the President himself testify before Congress as to the merits of the legislation. This unprecedented move may show Congress that the president respects their authority. More important, however, a presidential appearance at a committee hearing will underscore the presidents earnestness and sinceritythat he thinks the bill is extraordinarily important. Note: While a presidential appearance at a committee hearing is relatively unprecedented, this may be necessary in the current climate of hyper-partisanship and spirit of mistrust between the political parties. Step Five: The president and his emissaries should ceaselessly work the phones and use the power of the White House to persuade reluctant members to join the cause for passage. This may be more effective than the President embarking upon a national tour to sell his legislation. The voters have already voted. The votes are in Congress now.