In today’s polarized U.S. Congress, the lack of bipartisanship often prevents opportunities to enact meaningful legislation. What can lawmakers do differently to work more effectively across the aisle? And how can voters play an active role to ensure that their voices are heard by their congressional members?
A panel of experts led by former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist will tackle these issues and more in a virtual discussion, “The Keys to Effective Lawmaking in Turbulent Times,” on Tuesday, Dec. 7, at 12:30 p.m. CT. The virtual discussion hosted by the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy is free and open to the public. Registration is required.
The panel includes:
- Dr. Bill Frist represented Tennessee as a U.S. senator from 1994 to 2006, including as Senate majority leader during his last four years in Congress. Frist helped write health legislation as a member of both the health and finance committees in the Senate. A nationally acclaimed heart and lung transplant surgeon, he serves as an adjunct professor of cardiac surgery at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and is co-chair of the Health Project at the Bipartisan Policy Center.
- Alan Wiseman is chair of the Vanderbilt political science department and co-director of the Center for Effective Lawmaking. Wiseman focuses his research on the impact of political institutions and lawmakers’ behavior and strategies on overall lawmaking success. He is writing a book on the causes and consequences of legislative effectiveness in the U.S. Congress and studying the emergence and consequences of industry self-regulation in different markets.
- Craig Volden, co-director of the Center for Effective Lawmaking, is a professor of public policy and politics, with appointments in the University of Virginia Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and the Woodrow Wilson Department of Politics. He studies legislative politics and the interaction among political institutions, with a focus on what policy choices arise from legislative–executive relations and from American federalism.
About The Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy
The Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy is a nonpartisan initiative that aims to elevate research and evidence-based reasoning into the national conversation. Drawing on original research, evidence-based papers and crucial conversations from Vanderbilt’s world-class faculty and visionary thought leaders of all political persuasions, the timely endeavor aims to give policymakers and the public the tools needed to combat conspiracy and unfounded ideology with evidence, data and respectful discourse. The Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy can make a meaningful contribution to solving society’s most pressing challenges and bridging our deepest differences.
- Visit our NEWS & EVENTS page to view other programs from the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy.
- Stay informed on compelling panels, events, news and information from the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy through the bi-weekly newsletter, On Unity.