Congressional Caucuses: The Social Network That Serves “Special Interests”

Although it might sometimes appear that Congress is hopelessly deadlocked by partisanship and control of committees by seniority, members of Congress have created an unofficial - and often under-the-radar - network of caucuses called Congressional Member Organizations. These many special-interest groups (currently several hundred of them) often cross party lines, connect members of the House and Senate, empower junior members, serve all kinds of constituencies, and incubate legislation. We'll look at the exponential growth of caucuses and how these sometimes critical (but sometimes weird) coalitions have influenced changes in the power structure, legislative process and career paths of members of Congress.

Barry Cook is a social psychologist (Yale Ph.D.) who has worked in universities and the private sector as a market researcher and research methodologist. More recently, his source of fun is participating in the Circle of Scholars.