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The Democrats won the 2006 congressional
elections in part because of Congressional
scandals. Two of Washington's senior scholarly
commentators on politics, Tom Mann and Norm
Ornstein, have called Congress, "the broken
branch." But what's really broken, and can it be
mended?
Scott Lilly has served as both Staff Director
and Minority Staff Director of the House
Appropriations Committee, as Executive Director
of the Joint Economics Committee, as Executive
Director of the Democratic Study Group (DSG),
and as Chief of Staff to Representative David
Obey. In those positions he has been a close
observer of and participant in both efforts to
reform Congress, in which the DSG and Rep. Obey
have often taken the lead, and how Congress does
its most basic work, exercising its power of the
purse. He will comment on current criticisms of
Congress, on what the Democrats did upon taking
control and on what might still be done. Then we
will have an open discussion with questions from
Professor White and the audience.
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More About Our Guest
Scott Lilly is a Senior Fellow at the Center
for American Progress who writes and does
research in wide range of areas including
governance, federal budgeting, national security
and the economy. He joined the Center in March
of 2004 after 31 years of service with the
United States Congress. He served as Clerk and
Staff Director of the House Appropriations
Committee, Minority Staff Director of that
Committee, Executive Director of the House
Democratic Study Group, Executive Director of
the Joint Economic Committee and Chief of Staff
in the Office of Congressman David Obey.
Prior to his service with the Congress, Lilly
served as Director of Campaign Services for the
Democratic National Committee, Central States
Coordinator in the McGovern Presidential
Campaign and as a bill drafter for the Missouri
legislature.
He served two years in the U.S. Army and is a
graduate of Westminster College in Fulton,
Missouri. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the
Public Policy Institute at Georgetown
University.
During his career, he has been engaged in a wide
array of policy matters ranging across the
entire spectrum of government activities. These
have included counterterrorism, homeland
security, efforts to reform American schools and
the financing of federal scientific activities.
He has worked on various efforts to reform the
legislative process in Congress and served as a
political and legislative strategist to the
Democratic members of the Appropriations
Committee and the House Democratic Leadership. |
