New Member Material
The CEL is grateful for the willingness of members of Congress to engage in public service at this crucial time. We congratulate the newly-elected members of the 118th Congress.
The materials available here offer our best advice for how new members can become effective lawmakers. We scoured all of the materials presented in previous new member orientation activities by numerous organizations, looking for their advice on effective lawmaking. We then tested the implicit hypotheses in these guides to discern which pieces of advice are likely to have the greatest impact if adopted by new lawmakers.
We distilled this information into an easy one-page checklist for members and a Venn diagram worksheet to help lawmakers define their legislative agenda and prioritize their proposals.
We continue to refine our materials for members of Congress interested in increasing effectiveness, so be sure to sign up for our email list below.
Start here: The Five Habits for Highly Effective Lawmakers.
Helpful Articles for New Members
- Does Bipartisanship even work in today’s polarized Congress? Yes. The Washington Post, February 2017
- Volden and Wiseman on the 5 habits of highly effective legislators, The Washington Post, February 2015
