About Us
Congress: The Context
Subject: U.S. Government, Social Studies
Grade Level: 11-12
Introduction for Teachers
This WebQuest was developed by The Dirksen Congressional Center to introduce students to information on the Internet about how members of Congress vote on issues. By accessing the voting records of individual members, it is possible to determine who is conservative, who is liberal. This exercise uses a unique resource developed by ProgressivePunch that shows the voting performance of members within 125 different issue categories. This database can be searched in several different ways, as the ProgressivePunch Web site explains.
The Task for Learners
You are fresh out of college with a degree in hand indicating a major in political science. You have worked in local political campaigns and are now eager to move to the next level - actually working in government. Although your fellow class members questioned your sanity, you moved to the nation's capital, found an apartment, and began to search for a job. After looking through the classified ads in the Capitol Hill newspaper, The Hill, you have settled on seeking the position of legislative assistant to a member of the House of Representatives. There is one problem, however, for whom do you want to work? You have always thought of yourself as a liberal on most issues, and you think you would be most comfortable working for someone who views the issues the same way you do. But how to determine who that might be? Your task is to select the House member you want to work for.
You have the following tasks ahead of you:
Finding out what a legislative assistant to a Congress member
does Consulting a Capitol Hill newspaper to find job openings Visiting a Web site that compiles the voting records of members
of Congress Deciding how to locate a liberal House member Learning more about that member
The Process
1. Find out what a legislative assistant to a Congress member does. You may consult the following sources on CongressLink:
Write a job description for the legislative assistant position you seek.
2. Compare your job description to actual listings in the Capitol Hill newspaper, The Hill. Keep in mind that lobbying firms also employ legislative assistants, so it's ok to look at those classified ads, too, as examples of what the position encompasses. You may have to look at more than one issue of The Hill to find an example.
3. Go to the ProgressivePunch Web site. Choose the "Select by Score" for House of Representatives option for searching the database. This process will rank House members by their progressive, or liberal, score. Click on two or three links to members for details about their scores. Compare their voting records to determine (a) how their score was derived and (2) on what issues the members differ. Select the House member for whom you want to work.
4. Go to CongressLink, the 112th Congress, and find the link to the Web site of the member you've chosen. Write a letter of application to the Member indicating how you will assist him or her in their work.
5. OPTIONS. You may use this exercise for the Senate as well as the House or to identify a conservative member as well as a liberal one.
The Resources
