User:Oceanflynn/sandbox/Walter J. Oleszek

Walter J. Oleszek
Born	August 28, 1941
Occupation(s)	Adjunct professor American University, Washington, DC
Known for	Senior Specialist United States Congressional Research Service
Academic work
Discipline	Political Science

Walter J. Oleszek, is a political science professor who has been a specialist in the American legislative procedures at the Congressional Research Service" He worked on the passage of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970 for over forty years. He has worked as consultant or aide in every reorganizational effort. In his publications, he writes from the perspective of a veteran Capitol Hill observer. His book, entitled Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process, first published in 2007, has been reprinted over ten times. In it, he describes the procedural changes and strategies of congressional lawmaking in the changing political landscape.

Career

In 1993, Oleszak was on the United States Congress Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress as policy director.

Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970

Oleszak was on the United States Congress Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress, created by tThe House and Senate in 1965 to make recommendations to re-organize and reform Congress. Its recommendations were sent to the House Rules Committee for floor consideration.

"Oleszek was one of the CRS staff members assigned to assist the Rules Committee with amendments and in drafting the report. That markup led to the enactment of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970 — the first in a series of reform efforts in the early 1970s that led to the transformation of Congress in what political scientists refer to as the congressional reform revolution."

Congressional Research Service

While working with the CRS Government and Finance Division, Oleszek published "The House Amendment Tree" "depicts the maximum number and types of amendments that may be offered to a measure before any amendment is voted upon."

Oleszek's research is widely cited to clarify procedural points, for example Senate hold which came into use in the 1970s. Prior to that there was a more collegial atmosphere and unanimous consent was reached more easily. In 2007 Oleszek explained how omnibus bills were increasingly used by 2007 and had become popular since the 1980s. The rank-and-file Congress members disliked them - they were lengthy - usually over 1000 pages and included separate subcommittee appropriation bills. and they were introduced to the members in the "final days of a session to debate these massive measures or to know what is in them." However, "party and appropriation committee leaders liked them because they could "package or bury controversial provisions in one massive bill to be voted up or down." Also omnibus bills were used to "veto-proof" items, by including measures that the president is expected to veto if they were submitted for signature on their own, but who is willing or pressured into signing an omnibus bill that includes those measures. omnibus bills have become more popular since the 1980s because "party and committee leaders can package or bury controversial provisions in one massive bill to be voted up or down."

Selected publications

In Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process Oleszek described omnibus measures,

"Packaging all or a number of appropriation bills together creates what are called omnibus or minibus measures. These bills appropriate money to operate the federal government and make national policy in scores of areas. These omnibus bills grant large powers to a small number of people who put these packages together - party and committee leaders and top executive officials. Omnibus measures usually arouse the irk of the rank-and-file members of Congress because typically little time is available in the final days of a session to debate these massive measures or to know what is in them. Absent enactment of annual appropriation bills or a CR, federal agencies must shut down, furloughing their employees. Moreover, "uncertainty about final appropriations leads many [federal] managers to hoard funds; in some cases, hiring and purchasing stops."

— Walter J. Oleszek. Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process. 2010

Oleszek's often-cited book entitled Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process, has been reprinted nine times and is considered to be the definitive work on the constantly changing Congressional processes and procedures that affect all aspects of federal governance. Based on his own experience as the Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress' policy director starting in 1993, and on the Congressional Research Service, this publication enhances understanding of how complex congressional procedures impact on decision-making, the delaying, defeat or passage of bills and legislation in both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate. Oleszek assesses parties settle their differences through conference committees.

In 2000 he co-authored Congress and its Members and Congress Under Fire: Reform Politics and the Republican Majority with Roger H. Davidson as well as Congress Under Fire: Reform Politics and the Republican Majority in 1997 with C. Lawrence Evans. Oleszek and co-author Roger Davidson, in their book Congress Against Itself, explain "how the recommendations of a 1973-74 bipartisan select committee on committees were sidetracked to the Democratic Caucus and then gutted by a party substitute."

"Likewise, in “Congress Under Fire,” Oleszek and C. Lawrence Evans, who had both worked on the staff of the Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress in 1993-94, recount how, in the middle of the Rules Committee markup of the panel’s recommendations, Speaker Tom Foley, D-Wash., pulled the plug on the bill to avert a revolt by his committee chairmen."

— Don Wolfensbergerger 2013

awards

CCPS Fellow Walter Oleszek was the 2013 recipient of the Walter Beach Pi Sigma Alpha Award.

"From his perch at the Congressional Research Service, Walter J. Oleszek has helped train hundreds, if not thousands, of members and staff over the past 45 years. It's not surprising that he's widely recognized, both on and off the Hill, as the pre-eminent expert on Congress — its rules and procedures, and how they have evolved over the past two and a quarter centuries."

— rollcall