• New Website for American Government and Politics
• CongressLink.org
• New Journal on State Politics Announced
• Research Committee of Legislative Specialists
• News from the Congressional Papers Roundtable
• Dirksen Center Makes Congressional Research Awards

     ThisNation.com is one of the most comprehensive American government and politics sites on the
Internet. It includes a free online textbook, a large documents library, a daily news briefing, a search
engine that scours more than 5,000 policy and political Websites, and several other resources for
students, teachers, and the generally curious. One of the most powerful features of the site is the
ThisNation Capitol Watch. By entering a Zip Code, site visitors can find a wealth of information about their members of Congress, including votes, election information, and e-mail addresses. The site’s Election 2000 feature also provides video clips of presidential candidates speaking about a variety of issues. 
    ThisNation.com has been recognized as a “Site of the Week” by Britannica.com, an “Incredibly
Useful Site of the Day” by ZDNet-Yahoo, and a “Cool Site of the Day” by Netscape. The Scouting
Report, a review of educational Websites published by the University of Wisconsin Library system,
observed: “This extraordinary Website bills itself as ‘the most comprehensive guide to American
government and politics on the net,’ and from an educational standpoint, it is surely a major contender for the title.”
    ThisNation.com is written and maintained by Jonathan Mott (Ph.D. in Political Science, University of Oklahoma) and his wife Kim Mott. Jonathan is a former Carl Albert Fellow who also participated in the APSA Congressional Fellowship Program. The site reflects his teaching experience at the University of Oklahoma and at Brigham Young University, where he also works as an instructional designer and technologist. 
    The site URL is http://www.thisnation.com.

    The Dirksen Congressional Center maintains a Website that is a classroom friendly service for
teachers and students in upper elementary schools through college who want to pursue the study of
Congress as a springboard for learning activities related broadly to civic education. The program seeks to facilitate student-centered and inquiry-based learning through the use of a Website and involvement in an online learning community.
    Drawing on the events of the day, CongressLink provides authentic decision-making and
problem-solving activities guided by experts on Congress, including selected members of Congress and their staffs. Features include sample lesson plans, suggested student activities, access to original
historical documentation from the Center’s collections, an annotated list of more than 75 Websites on related topics, access to subject matter experts online, and collaborative communications.
   CongressLink has been selected as one of the best Websites in the humanities by EDSITEment, a
consortium consisting of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Council of the Great City
Schools, MCI WorldCom, and the National Trust for the Humanities.
    The site URL is  http://www.congresslink.org.

New Journal on State Politics Announced

     The State Politics and Policy organized section of the APSA proudly announces the establishment of a new journal, State Politics and Policy Quarterly. SPPQ will be the official journal of the section,
published out of the Illinois Legislative Studies Center at the University of Illinois at Springfield.
Christopher Z. Mooney of the University of Illinois at Springfield will be the Editor, and Kevin B. Smith of the University of Nebraska will be the Associate Editor.
    The mission of SPPQ is to stimulate research on state politics and policy, and to provide an
institutional structure for developing a progressive and coherent research agenda for the field. SPPQ will publish high quality academic studies that develop general hypotheses of political behavior and
policymaking and test these hypotheses using the unique methodological advantages of the states.  SPPQ has begun accepting manuscripts for the first issue, which will be published in March 2001. Manuscripts on all aspects of political behavior and policy in the states are sought, with no restriction on methodological or theoretical approach. Qualitative and quantitative, single-state and multi-state studies will all be considered, but only those manuscripts that meet the most rigorous methodological and theoretical academic standards will be published in SPPQ. Studies that deal with other sub-national units of government in the U.S. and elsewhere will also be considered for publication. All manuscripts submitted for consideration will be double-blind reviewed. The editor will place a high priority on keeping review and publication turnaround time to a minimum.
    For submission, subscription and other information on SPPQ, please visit the Website at:
http://www.uis.edu/~sppq.

Research Committee of Legislative Specialists 
International Political Science Association

Invitation to join or renew membership

    The Research Committee of Legislative Specialists of the International Political Science Association is an organization of more than 150 scholars from 30 different countries of the world whose goal is to facilitate research into the comparative forms and effects of legislative institutions, processes, and politics. The resulting network of international scholars includes individuals interested in national, cross-national, and sub-national aspects of legislatures.
    The RCLS, which in 2001 will be celebrating its 30th year of scholarly activity, regularly organizes
international gatherings of parliamentary and legislative specialists. Three recent major scholarly
conferences sponsored by the Research Committee include an International Conference on “Parliaments as Agents and Subjects of Change” held in St. Petersburg, Russia in June 1999 which involved more than 70 scholars of parliaments; an International Conference on “The Significance of the Individual Parliamentary Member in Parliamentary Politics” held in Budapest, Hungary on July 1-5, 1998, which included 43 scholars from 16 countries presenting 18 papers; and an International Conference on “Opportunities and Dilemmas of Parliamentary Leadership” held in Ljubljana, Slovenia on July 6-9, 1998, which involved 50 scholars from 15 countries presenting 26 papers. Details of these and other conference, research, and publishing initiatives are sent regularly to current RCLS members world wide.
    Scholars and others interested in parliaments and legislatures are invited to join this international
network of scholars and thus facilitate communication among researchers with common interests in the comparative forms and effects of legislative institutions, processes, and politics. Membership in the Research Committee of Legislative Specialists currently runs through the year 2003 IPSA World
Congress in Durban, South Africa, and entitles international scholars to information concerning the
professional activities of the Research Committee (including program plans for sessions at the year 2000 IPSA World Congress in Québec City, Canada), receipt of the RCLS International Newsletter, and listing in the RCLS International Membership Directory and Research Register. 
    You may join by sending your name, professional address, telephone and fax numbers,
E-mail address, and current legislative research interests, together with a check or international
money order for $30 U.S. or £20 sterling to either of the following co-chairs:
Professor Lawrence D. Longley
Co-Chair, RCLS 
Department of Government 
Lawrence University
Appleton, WI 54912, U.S.A
Telephone: 1-920-832-6673
Fax: 1-920-832-6962
E-mail: PowerLDL@aol.com.
OR
Professor The Lord Norton of Louth
Co-Chair, RCLS
Dept. of Politics
The University of Hull
Hull, HU6 7RX, United Kingdom
Tel.: 44-1482-465-863
Fax: 44-1482-466-208
Email: p.norton@pol-as.hull.ac.uk

News from the Congressional Papers Roundtable

Update on House Historian
    The following is compiled from various editions of the NCC Washington Update: 
 At the 6 Dec. 1999 meeting of the Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress, Clerk of the
House Jeff Trandahl said that a proposal was being developed to reestablish the House Historical Office and that by the June 2000 meeting he hoped to have positive and specific news to report on this matter. He stated that the Legislative Resource Center, which absorbed the Historical Office, recognized the important services that had previously been provided by the Historical Office and the archival staff. He is thus recommending the reorganization of the Legislative Resource Center, which would include, among other things, the reestablishment of the Historical Office. The Advisory Committee members strongly support this development.
    After the Senate Historical Office announced its oral history project to create a record of the Clinton impeachment trial, a 17 Jan. 2000 article in the Washington Post noted that an official in the House of Representatives said that the House does not have the staff to make any special efforts to preserve the impeachment process. The article also stated that “the House has just begun the process of looking for a House historian.”
    By Feb. 2000, Rep. Bill Thomas (R-CA), the chair of the House Administration Committee, indicated that there were no plans to revive the position of House Historian. An article in the weekly publication The Hill quoted staff for the congressman as saying that new technology had rendered the old Historical Office obsolete and that the House Legislative Resource Center could document the history of the House without a historian. The House Administration Committee would have to approve any changes in the organization and staffing of the Legislative Resource Center. Despite Thomas’s opposition, there still appears to be some support in the House for reestablishing the House Historical Office.

Institutional News
    In June 1999, the University of Arkansas Libraries received the papers of U. S. Sen. Dale L.
Bumpers (D-AR). The collection is more than 1650 linear feet, and it includes correspondence,
legislative files, speeches, photographs, videotapes, sound recordings, printed matter, and memorabilia. 
    The family of former U. S. Rep. John V. Dowdy, Sr., (D-TX) has established the John Dowdy Memorial Congressional Research Endowed Fund as part of the Baylor Collections of Political Materials (BCPM), Baylor University, to encourage and enable researchers from outside Waco, TX, to utilize the resources of the BCPM. Awards will be made to qualified applicants to cover travel and/or lodging expenses while visiting Baylor. Further details regarding the application process for the annual award will be announced on the BCPM Website (http://www.baylor.edu/~Ben_Rogers/BCPM).
    On 24 Sept. 1999, Boston College’s O’Neill Library opened a new exhibit commemorating the life and legacy of Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr., (D-MA), who spent his career in public service, culminating in a record ten-year continuous tenure as Speaker of the U. S. House. 
    The Brandeis University Library’s Special Collections Department received the congressional papers of Rep. Stephen Joshua Solarz (D-NY). The congressman was elected as a Democrat to the 94th Congress and to 6 succeeding Congresses (3 Jan. 1975 - 3 Jan. 1993). Special Collections is in the process of organizing the collection. Currently, access is restricted.
    The University of Delaware Library announces the opening of the Thomas R. Carper (D-DE) Congressional Papers. The papers document Carper's career as member-at-large for DE in the U.S. House, 1983-1993. There is an illustrated online finding aid (http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/findaids/carper/index.htm).
    The Florida State University Libraries and the Claude Pepper Foundation are pleased to announce the release of the Claude Pepper Library Website and POLARIS (Pepper OnLine Archival and Retrieval Information System) at http://pepper.cpb.fsu.edu/library/default.htm. Congressman Claude Denson Pepper (D-FL) donated his collection to the Florida State University Libraries in the early 1980s. Containing 1200 linear feet, the collection includes official and personal correspondence; speeches; news clippings; legislative, committee, and campaign files; photographs; audiovisual recordings; and memorabilia. The library also houses the personal papers of Pepper’s wife and other family members.
    The Williamson Stuckey (D-GA) Congressional Collection at the Richard B. Russell Library, University of Georgia, has been processed and is available for research use. This collection spans the dates 1966-1977, with the bulk of the papers representing Stuckey’s ten years of service in the U. S. House of Representatives, 1967-1977. There are also some papers related to his business activities. Topics of interest include the environment, the Watergate affair, the Vietnamese Conflict, and the Energy Crisis, as well as agricultural, transportation and health related issues. There are materials related to his congressional campaigns, as well as his legislative work. The collection also includes photographs and audio-visual films.
    On 12 Nov. 1999, the Congressional and Political Research Center was established in Mississippi State University’s Mitchell Memorial Library. The Research Center will contain the papers of Sen. John C. Stennis (D-MS); Reps. G. V. “Sonny” Montgomery (D-MS), David Bowen (D-MS), Chip Pickering (R-MS), Charles Griffin (D-MS), Mike Espy (D-MS); and aides Wiley Carter (for Sen. Thad Cochran, R-MS) and Wayne Weidie (for Rep. Gene Taylor, D-MS). The papers of former Rep. and U. S. Sec. of Agriculture Mike Espy were officially received on 13 Dec. 1999, and the collection will be opened after it has been processed. The John C. Stennis Collection is now open to researchers, except for certain case files and other materials. 
    The Space Business Archives, whose mission is to collect, preserve, and make accessible documents that trace the development of the commercial space industry, currently holds hundreds of congressional documents in the form of correspondence, legislative calendars, testimony, and other miscellaneous reports related to the space industry. Included are legislative calendars from the Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences from 1958-1970 and Library of Congress Congressional Research Service reports and testimony concerning the development of COMSATs (communication satellites), space commercialization issues, and national space policy. Letters and correspondence include those with Sens. Robert Packwood (R-OR), Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Frank Moss (D-UT), and Lloyd Bentsen (D-TX); Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA); and Gov. Michael Dukakis, among others. The Space Business Archives collection is accessible through a keyword search of abstracts on the World Wide Web at http://www.spacearchive.org, under the section entitled “Archives Abstracts.”

Senate Historical Office
Betty K. Koed reports: 
    The Senate Historical Office continues the online distribution of its oral history series with the publication of two additional interviews: William F. Hildenbrand, administrative assistant of Senate Minority Whip Hugh Scott (R-PA), and Jesse R. Nichols, the first African American hired as a clerical staff member of the Senate. Since 1976, the Senate Historical Office has conducted a series of oral history interviews with former senators and retired members of the Senate staff. To read the interviews, click on “Senate History” at the Senate home page (http://www.senate.gov).
    The most recent publication of the Senate Historical Office, Minutes of the U. S. Senate Republican Conference, 1911-1964, edited by Wendy Wolff and Donald A. Ritchie (Washington: GPO, 1999), is now available online at the Websites of the Senate and of the GPO (http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate/index.html#senate_publications). The Senate Historical Office is offering a limited number of two free publications to scholars and others interested in the History of the Senate: United States Senate: Election, Expulsion and Censure Cases, 1793-1990 by Anne M. Butler and Wendy Wolff (U.S. Senate Historical Office, 1995) and The Senate, 1789-1989: Addresses on the History of the United States Senate (1991).
    For more information about these and other publications of the Senate Historical Office, please contact Betty K. Koed, Assistant Historian, Senate Historical Office, U. S. Senate, SH-201, Washington, DC 20510-7108, Betty_Koed@sec.senate.gov (e-mail), (202) 224-0753 (tel.).
 

Dirksen Center Makes Congressional Research Awards

    Each year, The Dirksen Congressional Center awards research grants to scholars in an effort to fund thoughtful, original study into congressional leadership and Congress. Since 1978, the Congressional Research Awards (formerly the Congressional Research Grants) program has paid out nearly $450,000 to support over 250 projects. The Caterpillar Foundation, Peoria, Illinois, has provided generous financial support in recent years. This year’s awardees include:

• Steven Balla, The George Washington University, The Delegation Decision: Congressional Creation and Organization of Bureaucratic Advisory Committees
• Colton Campbell and Nicole Rae, Florida International University, Ignoring Electoral Outcomes: House Judiciary Committee Republicans and the Clinton Impeachment
• Celia Carroll, Emory University, The Impact of Congressional Caucuses upon Deliberation in the House of Representatives
• Kevin Conway, American University, Party Defectors on Roll Call Votes in the United States House of Representatives
• Marian Currinder, University of Florida, The Institutional Effects and Political Implications of Outside Lobbying on the US House of Representatives
• Diane Duffin, University of Nebraska at Kearney, Nontraditional Career Paths to the U.S. House of Representatives
• Victoria Farrar-Myers, University of Texas at Arlington, The Money Career: The Changing Notion of Institutional Leadership in the U.S. Congress
• T. Jens Feeley, University of Washington, Partisanship and Policy Learning in the U.S. Congress, 1987-1998
• Tobin Grant, Ohio State University, Ordinary Lawmaking
• Douglas Harris, University of Texas at Dallas, Public Leadership in the US Senate, 1950-2000
• Valerie Hunt, University of Washington, Congress, Courts and Changes in US Immigration Policy
• Jeffrey Jenkins, Michigan State University, Can Party Leaders Influence Congressional Roll-Call Voting? Evidence from the Civil War Congresses
• Sean Kelly, Niagara University, Comparing Republican and Democratic Committee Requests and Assignments
• Greg Koger, University of California-Los Angeles, The Strategy of Cosponsorship
• Dean Kotlowski, Ohio University, Farewell to the Great Father: Congress and Native American Policy Since 1960
• Frederic Lee, De Montfort University, Congressional Response to the Problem of Corporate Size, Monopoly and Competition, 1945 to 1980
• Nicole Mellow, University of Texas, Reconstituting the Party: A Study of the Regional Dimensions of Party Conflict in the Post-war House of Representatives
• Elizabeth Rybicki, University of Minnesota, The Impact of Bicameralism, 1789-2000
• Brian Schaffner, Indiana University-Bloomington, Competing for Coverage: Legislators and the Local Press
• David Siemers, Colorado College, Managing Adversity: Congressional Leaders’ Responses to Catastrophic Losses
• Charles Stewart III, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Speakership Elections Before the Civil War