Summary
Contents
Congress and the Nation is the most authoritative reference on congressional trends, actions, and political and policy controversies. This award-winning series documents the most fiercely debated issues in recent American politics, providing a unique retrospective analysis of the policies the U.S. Congress. Organized by policy area, each chapter contains summaries of legislative activity, including bills passed, defeated, or postponed. No other authoritative source guides readers seamlessly through the policy output of the national legislature with the breadth, depth, and authority of Congress and the Nation.
Congress and the Nation is the most authoritative reference on congressional trends, actions, and political and policy controversies. This award-winning series documents the most fiercely debated issues in recent American politics, providing a unique retrospective analysis of the policies the U.S. Congress. Organized by policy area, each chapter contains summaries of legislative activity, including bills passed, defeated, or postponed. No other authoritative source guides readers seamlessly through the policy output of the national legislature with the breadth, depth, and authority of Congress and the Nation.
Congress and the Nation is the most authoritative reference on congressional trends, actions, and political and policy controversies. This award-winning series documents the most fiercely debated issues in recent American politics, providing a unique retrospective analysis of the policies the U.S. Congress. Organized by policy area, each chapter contains summaries of legislative activity, including bills passed, defeated, or postponed. No other authoritative source guides readers seamlessly through the policy output of the national legislature with the breadth, depth, and authority of Congress and the Nation.
General Government
General Government
Introduction
During President Reagan's second term, deepening conflicts between the White House and Congress extended to much of the legislation affecting federal officeholders, especially on matters of employee benefits and ethics in government.
Reagan's second term began in 1985 with his director of the Office of Personnel Management, Donald J. Devine, seeking the first pay cut for government employees since the Great Depression. Arguing that their pay was too generous, Devine sought to tie it more closely to performance than to seniority.
By the end of the year, Devine was out of office, the victim of his own combative style. His successor, Constance Horner, negotiated a change in the federal merit system that satisfied both the administration and congressional supporters of federal workers. The workers, for ...
