In addition to featuring new examples and cases drawn from recent congressional politics-including the battles over health care reform, financial regulations, economic stimulus, fiscal management, and tax policy-the authors also integrate new scholarship on representation, congressional elections, lobbying influence, and the relationship between Congress and the Court.

The thirteenth edition also features analysis of:

* the 2010 congressional campaigns and elections;

* party and leadership changes for the 112th Congress;

* executive-legislative relations under President Obama;

* new procedures in the House and Senate;

* budgeting in an era of huge deficits;

* the heightened importance of lobbyists in legislative policymaking;

* public attitudes about Congress as dysfunctional, even corrupt; and

* the courts and their impact on the interpretation of congressional statutes, the scope of congressional power, and the reach of statutory campaign finance regulations.