Congressional Fellowship Program
Founded 1950

apsanet.org/cfp

Fall/Winter 2010 Program Update

Update From the Director's Desk

As the thirty-nine 2009-2010 class of Congressional Fellows have now joined their 2,300+ former Fellow colleagues such as you, and the thirty-three members of the next class are nearing the start of their orientation, it’s time to bring you into the loop to give some sense of how the fellowship is faring. As in the past, the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies “Foreign Affairs Seminar” ran from September through October and this year included three Foreign Service Officers, two IR political scientists, one journalist, to complement the international and intelligence community Fellows. In a first of “the fellowship goes to Hollywood,” the seminar participants were specifically invited and recognized in the audience for a preview showing of the Summit Productions film starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts, “Fair Game,” which portrays the post-9/11 odyssey of former Fellow (1985-1986) and State Department Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, whose trip to Niger discredited the Bush Administration’s claims of a yellow cake uranium sale to Iraq, and whose wife Valerie Plame's intelligence operations position was leaked by the administration in a Robert Novak column.

Continued Support for CFP

Thanks to all of you for your part in continuing to make the APSA Congressional Fellowship the most respected program of its type in Congress. We have a lot to be proud of since the inception of the program in 1953 when we set out on a mission to expand knowledge and awareness of Congress. These continue to be difficult times for everyone, and we hope you are in a position to continue the generous support of the APSA Congressional Fellowship of the past. Tax-deductible contributions from CFP alumni have allowed us to absorb the extra costs of the enrichment activities that the Fellows regard as highlights of the fellowship such as the Canada-US Parliamentary Exchange now in its fourth decade. We are also contemplating expanding the one-way Mexican participation into a fuller-fledged parliamentary exchange with Mexico despite the hurdles of currently inadequate infrastructure, no comparable parliamentary fellowship program, and greater funding challenges represented by Mexican participation.

We also use these contributions to defer the tuition fee of the Johns Hopkins SAIS Foreign Affairs Seminar for internationally focused political scientist and journalist Fellows who have no outside sponsorship. As in the past, we depend heavily upon voluntary contributions from readers like you to bolster existing programs and to launch anything in a new direction. With our small contributory base of some 2,300 alumni (unfortunately we still do not have email addresses for about two thirds of that group—an ever-present challenge which we address later in this message) we are therefore truly grateful for the continued support of contributors, and hope that those who haven’t will consider giving to provide this bulwark for the fellowship. To make a tax-deductible donation, visit our website at www.apsanet.org/cfp or send your check made payable to:

APSA Congressional Fellowship Program
1527 New Hampshire Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036

The Steiger Fund: One underutilized component of the fellowship is the Steiger Fund which has been a classic case of hiding your light beneath a bushel. When the APSA Congressional Fellowship Program joined in the remembrance of Rep. William A. Steiger (R-WS), a long-time supporter of the fellowship until his untimely death in 1978, it was to become something of a family affair. His widow, Janet Steiger, became a generous supporter of the fellowship and benefactor to the Steiger Fund, went on to become chair of the Federal Trade Commission, and was a long-time member of the fellowship’s Advisory Committee. For a number of years, the outside review panel which selects the political scientists and journalists in each class of Fellows has honored a particularly promising political scientist by designating that individual as the William A. Steiger Fellow.

The inauguration of the APSA Centennial Center for Political Science and Public Affairs, located on the 3rd floor of the APSA offices, made provision for office space, phones, computers, Internet access, a fax, a printer, and a copier, and a congenial atmosphere for the presentation of ongoing research for up to 10 scholars. The Center provided a rationale to redirect the Steiger Fund to provide former Congressional Fellows the opportunity to return to the scene of their fellowship experience and to build upon research ideas that were acquired at that time. This would also be in the growing tradition of the Centennial Center as it bridges the discipline with the larger world of public affairs – an arena which has been the environment of the Fellowship now for more than 50 years. The selection panel for Steiger Fund applicants is made up of former Congressional Fellows in the DC metropolitan area and considers the merits of providing otherwise unfunded expenses a former Fellow might incur during residence.

Publicizing the Fellowship

As most of you know, we’ve made it a tradition of trying to have one or two Fellow essays in each issue of PS: Political Science & Politics with a priority on the political scientists, but also extending to the other career tracks (e.g. we’ve had essays from a former Indian senior Fulbright journalist from New Delhi, journalists, and health policy fellows). These essays hopefully bolster the Fellow’s resumes and bring the fellowship to the broader Association membership. The essays are not peer reviewed and are largely intended to provide insight into an aspect of legislative life that is not a regular focus of the discipline. For instance, in the October issue of PS we have two political scientist essays from the 2009-2010 class. One was by Lee Drutman who entered the program from the University of California-Berkeley and the Brookings Institution who was hosted by Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) whose article was “The Complexities of Lobbying: Toward a Deeper Understanding of the Profession.” The second was by Daniel K. Schill, an Assistant Professor in Corporate Communication & Public Affairs at Southern Methodist University entitled “A ‘Hill Speak’ Primer: Explaining the Legislative Jargon of Congress.” You can see other recent examples of these essays at the fellowship’s website, www.apsanet.org/cfp as well as our 7-minute video on the fellowship. Interestingly, the YouTube video has been viewed 1,495 times either thru YouTube directly or via the fellowship website between 10/18/09 and 10/18/10 and the website itself is among the more frequently “hit” spots on the overall APSA website.

Through a different medium, Jeff Biggs and Program Associate Veronica Jones collaborated on an essay for the October 2010 issue of the on-line journal The Forum: Political Science and Practical Politics entitled "Whether and Whither an Applied Career Track for Doctoral Political Scientists." Visit http://www.bepress.com/forum/vol8/iss3/art4 to download the article with a dozen brief vignettes of how former Fellows are ventured into applied politics.  As the abstract notes:

There is no surefire mechanism to mechanism to balance the incoming flow of political science doctoral candidates with the availability of tenure-track positions upon graduation. With as many as 15% of such doctoral graduates leaving academe, it would appear time for the campus to begin mentoring its students with a seasoned understanding of the non-academic career options. A sampling of former APSA Congressional Fellow political science doctorates indicates a variety of such non-academic applied political science positions for which the graduate work was a benefit.

If you take the time to read the article, we would welcome any reactions.

APSA Congressional Fellows &
the Canadian Parliamentary Interns with House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC)

Alumni Contribute to New Class Orientation

In the newsletter we named twenty-two former Fellows who had contributed to the 2008-2009 orientation. We’re battling close to the same average with twenty-one slated for the upcoming 2010-2011 orientation. That is not to say that we use the same roster of speakers every year and we’ve had to venture into new territory this year to reflect all the idiosyncrasies of the 2010 election season. Among the new presenters are:

• Scott Lilly, Senior Fellow at The Center for American Progress on “The Future for Progressive Ideas and Action”
• Sarah Binder of George Washington University and The Brookings Institution on “United We Govern: Obama and the Democratic Congress”
• Janet Hook, Congressional Correspondent for The Wall Street, on “How the Press Covered the 2010 Election Cycle”
• Paul Teller, Executive Director, House Republican Study Committee, on “How the Republicans Organize for the 112th Congress”
• The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars’ Congress Project panel discussion on “The Role of Minority Parties in Congress”
• Colleen Shogan (political scientist fellow 2005-2006), Assistant Director of the Congressional Research Service Government and Finance Division on “How the Congressional Research Service Prepares for the 112th Congressional Legislative Agenda”
• David Hawkings, Managing Editor, CQ Weekly on “How the CQ-Roll Group Covers Congress and the Government”
• former Reps. John Porter (R-IL) and Vic Fazio (D-CA) as representative of the 130 signatories to “Former Members of Congress for Common Ground”
• Chuck Ludlam, retired congressional staffer, on “Reflections of 40 Years on the Hill”
• John Sides, Political Science Professor at George Washington University on “Introduction to Blogging: The Monkey Cage, et al.”

These new additions during the three-week orientation are in addition to most of our regular staples including the CRS Legislative Institute and advanced legislative procedures in the House and the Senate and seats, through the generosity of our colleagues in the Supreme Court Fellows program, for two cases argued before the Supreme Court.
 

Mexican Senate staffers, Luis Garzon, Benito Lopez, and Karla Mendoza in Ottawa

 
Diversity within the Fellowship

This gets us into deep water because we will inevitably miss someone, but a quick glance at the 2010-2011 class of APSA Congressional Fellows illustrates the continuing diversity among the Fellows including an Ethiopian-American political scientist, a Latina-American political scientist, a political scientist who learned sign language to teach at Washington, D.C.’s Gallaudet University, a journalist representing the one-person bureau for Abu Dhabi’s The National, a Muslim Thai diplomat with a Ph.D in international relations from Northern Illinois University sponsored by the Asia Foundation, a Latina-American post-doctoral fellow in public health, a Chinese-American professor of medicine, a Nigerian-American professor of pediatrics and a Native American Hatfield Fellow. In addition to the diversity of their backgrounds and career tracks, the fellowship continues to be an intellectual bouillabaisse with little common ground other than their interest in absorbing the legislative process. Despite their differences, they are a bonded and cohesive cohort by the time they secure their congressional assignments. The following roster of this year’s 2010-2011 class of Fellows will give you a range of their expertise.

APSA Connect

Any fellowship has the always challenging task of tracking down its alumni. We have tried to do this through the class-by-class Yahoo listserv, but now we have access to APSA Connect, an online professional networking and community collaboration website for political science. With APSA Connect you can find colleagues, communicate and share documents in a secure and dedicated environment. While only a login is required to use APSA Connect, APSA members gain full access to the features and data within APSA Connect. The program is limited to those members for whom the APSA data base has available email addresses, so we hope you will enroll and encourage whatever colleagues with whom you have on-going contact to do the same. Please contact us with any questions or issues with APSA Connect.

Have a happy Thanksgiving and a joyous holiday season!

Jeff Biggs, Director
jbiggs@apsanet.org
202.483.2512 x109

Veronica Jones
vjones@apsanet.org
202.483.2512 x127

In This Issue

- Update From the Director's Desk

- Continued Support for CFP

- Publicizing the Fellowship

- Alumni Contribute to New Class Orientation

- Diversity within the Fellowship

- APSA Connect

CFP Advisory Committee
(* indicates former APSA Congressional Fellow)

MICHAEL BARONE
Senior Writer, U.S. News & World Report

DOUG BEREUTER
President, Asia Foundation; former Member, U.S. House of Representatives

DAVID BRODER
Columnist, The Washington Post; Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary, 1973

RICHARD COHEN
Chief Congress Correspondent, National Journal

CHARLES E. COOK, JR.
Editor and Publisher of The Cook Political Report; Political Analyst, National Journal Group

JOAN CLAYBROOK*
President, Public Citizen; former Administrator, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (CFP 1965-66)

THOMAS DASCHLE
Former U.S. Senator from South Dakota and former Senate Majority Leader

ROBERT DOLE
Retired U.S. Senator from Kansas from, serving part of that time as Senate Majority Leader; Republican nominee for President, 1996

SEN. RICHARD DURBIN (D-IL)
Member, U.S. Senate

RONALD D. ELVING*
Senior Washington Editor, National Public Radio; former Political Editor, Congressional Quarterly (CFP 1984-85)

EUGENE EIDENBERG*
Founder and Managing Director, Granite Ventures, LLC; former Executive Vice President, MCI; former White House Assistant under President Carter (CFP 1964-65)

VIC FAZIO
Partner, Clark & Weinstock; former Member, U.S. House of Representatives; Co-Founder of the California Journal

THOMAS FOLEY
Partner, Akin, Gump, Strauss Hauer & Feld, LLP; North American President, Trilateral Commission; former Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives; former U.S. Ambassador to Japan

MICHAEL FRANC 
Vice President, Government Relations, The Heritage Foundation 

WILLIAM FRENZEL
Visiting Scholar, Government Studies, The Brookings Institution; former Member, U.S. House of Representatives

DAVID GERGEN
Professor of Public Leadership, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; Editor-at-Large, U.S. News & World Report

ROBERT G. GILPIN, JR.*
Eisenhower Professor of International Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University;
former Vice President of the APSA (CFP 1959-60)

LEE H. HAMILTON
Director, Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars; Vice Chair, 9-11 Commission; former Member, U.S. House of Representatives

ALBERT HUNT
Executive Editor for Washington, The Wall Street Journal; Panelist, CNN's The Capital Gang

GARY HYMEL
Senior Vice President, Hill & Knowlton; former Chief-of-Staff to Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill

CHARLES O. JONES
Visiting Scholar, The Brookings Institution; former President of the APSA; Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin

GERALD KOVACH
Senior Vice President, External Affairs, NeuStar; former Senior Vice President, MCI

REP. RAY LAHOOD (R-IL)
Member, U.S. House of Representatives

RICHARD LUGAR (R-IN)
Member, U.S. Senate

ROBERT MERRY
President and Publisher, Congressional Quarterly

NORMAN ORNSTEIN*
Chair, CFP Advisory Committee; Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute; Senior Advisor, Pew Research Center (CFP 1969-70)

DAVID PRICE
Member, U.S. House of Representatives; former Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, Duke University

COKIE ROBERTS
Political Commentator and former Co-Anchor of This Week, ABC News; Senior News Analyst, National Public Radio

CATHERINE E. RUDDER*
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, School of Public Policy, George Mason University; former Executive Director of the APSA (CFP 1974-75)

BARBARA SINCLAIR*
Marvin Hoffenberg Professor of American Politics, University of California, Los Angeles (CFP 1978-79)