The 2009-10 Matsui Lecture - How Congress Works: Lessons from the Health Care Debate

As the debate over health care reform dominates the nation's politics, former Congressman Victor H. Fazio explores the policy debate and the lessons it holds for the functioning of Congress. How has Congress changed through the years? How does it work today? And how are those changes reflected in the health care discussion?

Fazio represented a district in the Sacramento area for 20 years, from 1979 to 1999. He served as Chairman of the House Democratic caucus, the third-ranking position in the Democratic leadership, and as Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the political arm of the House Democrats. He is also a former member of the California Legislature and a former journalist who co-founded the California Journal. Fazio is now a Senior Advisor at the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld.The Matsui Lecture is delivered each year by a distinguished former Member of Congress who spends a week in residency on the Berkeley campus. The Lectureship honors the legacy of Robert T. Matsui, a Cal graduate who served in Congress for more than a quarter century, building a reputation for bipartisanship and substantive policy achievement. That legacy is also honored by the University's Robert T. Matsui Center for Politics and Public Service, which seeks to engage Cal undergraduates in public service through the presence of distinguished visitors to campus, public programs exploring important issues, and internship programs offering experiential learning. The Matsui Center is a component of the UC-Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, the state's oldest public policy research center.

Sponsored by the Matsui Center
http://politics.berkeley.edu/

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[BrandenburgConcerti]

this is incredibly boring