Publications

“Grasstops”

an excerpt from the new book

PERSUADING CONGRESS:
A Practical Guide to Parlaying an Understanding of Congressional Folkways and Dynamics into Successful Advocacy on Capitol Hill
by Joseph Gibson
Published by TheCapitol.Net

In his new book, Persuading Congress, Joseph Gibson says that “grassroots efforts have limited utility for most issues,” due to the difficulty of mobilizing large numbers of personal responses to members of Congress. Members respond to personal stories but are numb to mass mailings, duplicate emails, or scripted phone call campaigns.

Gibson offers an alternative strategy in this excerpt. “Grasstops” refers to getting VIPs to pitch a member of Congress for you. TheCapitol.Net has made this excerpt available for free use. More information about the book, “Persuading Congress,” and author Joseph Gibson, follows the excerpt. Thank you.

See the “Grasstops” excerpt by Joseph Gibson

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New Jersey’s defined benefit pension systems are underfunded by more than $170 billion, an amount equivalent to 44 percent of gross state product (GSP) and 328 percent of the state’s explicit government debt. Depending on market conditions, the state will begin to run out of money to pay benefits between 2013 and 2019. The state’s five defined benefit pension plans cover over 770,000 workers, and more than a quarter million retirees depend on state pensions paying out almost $6 billion per year in benefits. Nationwide, state pensions are underfunded by as much as $3 trillion, approximately 20 percent of America’s annual output.
This path is not sustainable. In order to avert a fiscal crisis and ensure that future state employees have dependable retirement savings, New Jersey should follow the lead of the federal government and the private sector and move from defined benefit pensions to defined contribution pensions. While significant liabilities will remain, the first step to addressing the pension crisis is capping existing liabilities and providing new employees with more sustainable retirement options.

“The Crisis in Public Sector Pension Plans: A Blueprint for Reform in New Jersey,” by Eileen Norcross and Andrew Biggs, Mercatus Center, June 23, 2010
Also see

Underfunded Pensions, Pension Dumping, and Retirement Security

Underfunded Pensions, Pension Dumping, and Retirement Security:
Pension Funds, the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC), Bailout Risks, Impact on the Federal Budget, and the Pension Protection Act of 2006

Compiled by TheCapitol.Net

Although the PBGC’s liabilities are not explicitly backed by the full faith and credit of the federal government, Congress could face political pressure to bail out the PBGC at taxpayer expense should the agency become financially insolvent.

2009, 319 pages
ISBN: 1587331535 ISBN 13: 978-1-58733-153-4
Softcover book: $19.95
For more information, see 1534Pensions.com
RL34443, RS22650, R40171, RL34656, GAO-09-207, RL33937

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Persuading Congress

Persuading Congress
How to Spend Less and Get More from Congress: Candid Advice for Executives

By Joseph Gibson

Persuading Congress, by Joseph Gibson, is a a practical book, packed with wisdom and experience. For less than the cost of a cab ride to the airport, you can learn how to stop wasting your time when you visit Washington.
What happens in Congress affects all of our lives and extends into every corner of the economy. Because so much is at stake there, businesses and other interest groups spend billions of dollars each year trying to influence legislation.
Yet, most of these efforts are doomed to futility from the outset. Only a small percentage of the bills introduced in Congress actually become law, and most interested parties do not fully understand why those few bills succeed. More importantly, how to get Congress to do what they want remains a mystery to them.
This book will help you understand Congress. Written from the perspective of one who has helped put a lot of bills on the president’s desk and helped stop a lot more, this book explains in everyday terms why Congress behaves as it does. Then it shows you how you can best deploy whatever resources you have to move Congress in your direction.
Because you have limited time, this book sticks to the basics and its chapters are short so that it can be digested rapidly.

2010, 150 pages
Hardbound, $27
ISBN 10: 158733-173-X
ISBN 13: 978-1-58733-173-2
Softcover, $24
ISBN 10: 158733-164-0
ISBN 13: 978-1-58733-164-0
For more information, see PersuadingCongress.com

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Statutory Construction and Interpretation

Statutory Construction and Interpretation
General Principles and Recent Trends; Statutory Structure and Legislative Drafting Conventions; Drafting Federal Grants Statutes; and Tracking Current Federal Legislation and Regulations

Compiled by TheCapitol.Net

The exercise of judicial power often requires that courts construe statutes in applying them in particular cases. Judicial interpretation of the meaning of a statute is authoritative in the matter before the court. However, the methodologies and approaches taken by the courts in discerning meaning can help guide legislative drafters, legislators, agencies, and private parties.

This book reviews the primary rules courts apply to discern a statute’s meaning. However, each matter of interpretation before a court presents unique challenges, and there is no unified approach used in all cases—but all approaches start with the language and structure of the statute itself.

Still, the meaning of statutory language is not always evident. To help clarify uncertainty, judges have developed various interpretive tools in the form of canons of construction.

When drafting federal law, the most important audience is the federal courts–in particular, the Supreme Court. Fortunately, it is not difficult to get inside the mind of the Court and understand how it thinks. The Court makes this process public in its published opinions; collectively, the process is known as statutory interpretation; it is also known as statutory construction.

Also included is a chapter on drafting federal grants statutes. Several rules of drafting have special relevance to statutes in the field of federal assistance (grants), and those are set forth.

Legislation can be drafted without paying attention to statutory interpretation. But rules of interpretation are like rules of the road: Drive on the right; stop on red; signal before turning; etc. If you don’t know all the rules, sooner or later you will park in front of a fire hydrant or go the wrong way down a one-way street.

2010, 318 pages
ISBN: 1587331926 ISBN 13: 978-1-58733-192-3
Softcover book: $25
For more information, see TCNSI.com
97-589, 97589, RS20991, RL33895, 90-1

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Energy: Nuclear

Energy: Nuclear
Advanced Reactor Concepts and Fuel Cycle Technologies, 2005 Energy Policy Act (P.L. 109-58), Light Water Reactors, Small Modular Reactors, Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems, Nuclear Power 2010, Nuclear Power Plant Security, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Radioactive Waste Storage and Disposal, Yucca Mountain

Compiled by TheCapitol.Net
Authors: John Grossenbacher, Carl E. Behrens, Carol Glover, Mark Holt, Marvin S. Fertel, Thomas B. Cochran, Dale E. Klein, Phillip Finck, Anthony Andrews, Fred Sissine, and Todd Garvey

According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy, nuclear energy provides about 20 percent of U.S. electricity through the operation of 104 nuclear reactors. Combined construction and operating license applications have been submitted for 28 new U.S. nuclear power plants, with eight more expected.
Nuclear power started coming online in significant amounts in the late 1960s. By 1975, in the midst of the oil crisis, nuclear power was supplying 9 percent of total electricity generation. Increases in capital costs, construction delays, and public opposition to nuclear power following the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 curtailed expansion of the technology, and many construction projects were canceled. Continuation of some construction increased the nuclear share of generation to 20 percent in 1990, where it remains currently.
Nuclear power is now receiving renewed interest, prompted by volatile fossil fuel prices, possible carbon dioxide controls, and new federal subsidies and incentives. The 2005 Energy Policy Act (P.L. 109-58) authorized streamlined licensing that combines construction and operating permits, and tax credits for production from advanced nuclear power facilities.
All U.S. nuclear plants are currently light water reactors (LWRs), which are cooled by ordinary water. DOE’s nuclear energy research and development program includes advanced reactors, fuel cycle technology and facilities, and infrastructure support. DOE’s Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems Initiative is developing advanced reactor technologies that could be safer than LWRs and produce high-temperature heat to make hydrogen. The Nuclear Power 2010 program is a government-industry, 50-50 cost-shared initiative. It focuses on deploying Generation III+ advanced light-water reactor designs, and is managed by DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy.
Congress designated Yucca Mountain, NV as the nation’s sole candidate site for a permanent high-level nuclear waste repository in 1987 amid much controversy. To date no nuclear waste has been transported to Yucca Mountain. In March 2010, the Secretary of Energy filed to withdraw its application for a nuclear-waste repository at Yucca Mountain.
Current law provides no alternative repository site to Yucca Mountain, and it does not authorize the DOE to open temporary storage facilities without a permanent repository in operation. Without congressional action, the default alternative to Yucca Mountain would be indefinite on-site storage of nuclear waste at reactor sites and other nuclear facilities. Private central storage facilities can also be licensed under current law. Such a facility has been licensed in Utah, but its operation has been blocked by the Department of the Interior.
Nuclear energy issues facing Congress include federal incentives for new commercial reactors, radioactive waste management policy, research and development priorities, power plant safety and regulation, nuclear weapons proliferation, and security against terrorist attacks.

2010, 640 pages
ISBN: 1587331861 ISBN 13: 978-1-58733-186-2
Softcover book: $29.95
For more information, see TCNNuclear.com
R40187, RL33558, RL34579, RL33461, R40202, R40996, RL34331

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