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The Waxman Report: How Congress Really Works

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"Facts are stubborn things." It's a quote variably attributed to Mark Twain, John Adams, and the French novelist Alain-Rene Lesage (if Wikipedia serves me). Whatever its origins, it is an apt phrase to describe the theme of Henry Waxman's new book, "The Waxman Report: How Congress Really Works."

Most books of this genre are notable for their cynicism about Washington, including its supposedly pervasive corruption and the power of money. Set against that backdrop, Waxman, a 34-year veteran of the House of Representatives and one of its most powerful members, must come across as hopelessly naïve. He's not.

In fact, Waxman spends most of the book describing a little known truth about Washington: that it is actually dominated by people who love their country and are trying their best to do the right thing. They may not always be good at it, they may sometimes disagree with one another, and they may choose to score points on each other. But at the end of the day most, or at least enough, are committed public servants dedicated to the common good (or at least wish to be perceived that way) that productive policies get enacted. That's why moneyed interests so often lose.

Waxman's book is basically a collection of stories describing such occasions. The stories range from reauthorizing the Clean Air Act, to regulating tobacco, to fighting the petro-chemical industry over pesticides, and more. In each case, Waxman won by researching the issues and marshalling solid evidence. Facts and good policy won the day, if not immediately, then eventually.

In each of these efforts, Waxman was aided by solid staff work, which anyone who works in Washington (I do) knows is critical. Waxman says as much himself ("I have always felt that the key to success in legislation is having the best staff possible"), though the quote is taken from the acknowledgements, not the book itself. Waxman's staff did investigative research, wrote and released reports, developed relationships with other staff inside agencies and with whistleblowers who leaked them information, and negotiated with other congressional staff to work out the details of complex bills. Waxman actually admonishes himself for "getting ahead" of his staff on an FDA bill, a mistake he says that others usually make to their own detriment.

Waxman doesn't really make this point, but values are as important as facts. Human beings are complicated because we are capable of selfless acts in pursuit of a greater good. The book describes countless occasions where his efforts were aided by such acts. His campaign against the tobacco industry was aided by people inside leaking confidential memos. His work on drug use in Major League Baseball was helped by players who outed themselves because they felt it was the right thing to do. When the Reagan administration took the wrong position on an environmental or health issue, whistleblowers from inside the agency would leak information that undermined the administration's case. Even top-level administration officials took major risks, as was the case with C. Everett Koop and AIDS.

The combined power of facts and values have made possible every important advance described in this book -- and many, many more. Without them, we would not have the environmental laws that we have today. We would not have consumer laws, or laws providing health insurance for the poor, or any other legislation that pitted powerful, moneyed special interests against the public interest. And yet those laws exist. While not perfect, their very existence is evidence of the power of the public interest and the common good.

This view is not widely shared. Robert G. Kaiser, associate editor of The Washington Post and author of "So Damn Much Money: The Triumph of Lobbying and the Corrosion of American Government," wrote the review of this book for the Post. In it, Kaiser writes, "Congress has seldom ensured that the public interest prevails over special interests -- quite the opposite." And yet, just a few sentences later, Kaiser concedes that Waxman "managed to push pesticide legislation through the Congress when it was controlled by anti-regulatory Republicans." I wonder how?

I should acknowledge that I reviewed Kaiser's own book critically because I disagreed with him on this point. It may seem sophisticated to adopt such cynical views. But anyone who has observed the incredibly long hours put in by dedicated public servants on both sides of the aisle in pursuit of good public policy knows otherwise. They are not all angels, but neither are they all rogues, and good usually does win in the end.

If I have one criticism of Waxman's book, though, it's that he fails to sufficiently acknowledge the contribution of public interest groups to the victories he describes (I work for one of them). Legislation like the Clean Air Act, consumer laws, the tobacco deal, and laws providing health care to the poor owe a lot to these groups, but they warrant barely a mention in the book. Waxman's primary observation of them is that they (we) are a bit too purist, which is actually true in many cases. But we also do a lot to push the ball down the field. Earlier in the book, Waxman talks about the importance of out-organizing the opposition. Public interest groups play an important part in that equation.

Something else worth noting is Waxman's somewhat dated view of organizing. Earlier in the book, he talks about driving across California in a battered old Buick to organize the state's Young Democrats in the 1960s. That was a long time ago. These days, a lot of organizing happens online, both among the public interest organizations and also the bloggers. These tools and tactics helped get Barack Obama elected president.

Given that Waxman is now chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and thus a major player in health care reform, he would be well served by renewing his commitment to organizing and coming up to speed on the latest tactics. But then again, his staff can probably help him with that.

Overall, Waxman's book is refreshing, both for its idealism and its realism. It is not just a tale of how Washington should work, but how it really does.

- Why did we ever believe cigarettes were safe, and when did that fallacious idea end?

- How did we end up with nutritional facts on food labels?

- What ever happen to the problem of acid rain?

- When did research and private sector creation of drugs for orphan diseases like Huntington's Disease begin to flourish?

- Why is there less smog over cities today than there was in the 1970s?

Many of these answers, to some extent or another, can be traced back to the work of Henry Waxman. In this tour de force book about Congress, Henry Waxman seeks not to celebrate personal success, but to highlight that government can be a source of good. Not to celebrate government generally, but to set out examples where government played its role effectively. Not to push a liberal agenda, but to show how many bipartisan ideas that were once controversial, are no longer considered twice.

If you are a policy wonk, a legislative watcher, or a political junkie this book is for you, but most of all this book is for citizens who want to actively understand and take part in their democracy. That is the major point of my review, but let me illustrate it with an example.

In the early 1980s Waxman's Congressional office received a call from a constituent who had a son with Tourette's Syndrome. The drug he needed was available in Canada, but not available in the United States because it was not profitable enough. As Waxman's staff received other calls and sought out other folks who were sick, they realized there were ten's if not hundreds of other "orphan diseases" that were affecting many people but were not profitable enough.

Waxman responded with legislation that credit a 50% tax credit for research costs (I could be a little off on this exact detail), that streamlined and reformed the expensive FDA approval process because of the small research pool, and expanded grants for research for these diseases. From this legislation hundreds of drugs have come forth, many many small biotechnology companies have been created, and countless lives have been saved. Was this all because of Henry Waxman and government action? No, but their actions substantially moved efforts in the right direction. And as someone who has a Father with one of those "Orphan Diseases" - Huntington's Disease, - I am thankful that this action was taken.

The moral of the story and the reason to read the book is that all of our voices matter, and that if we speak up and if we speak loud enough with enough voices, we will be heard.

One of the first things that struck me about this book is its lucidity. The prose is swift and penetrating, and a pleasure. The importance of this is that it supports such a very important message, that the US government actually can work, and it is persons of intellect, drive, and caring that are the ones who can make it work. The problem is the ever present corruption and cynicism of many of those in power, both in government and industry, and Waxman/Green do a thoroughly compelling job of spelling out how one can triumph in a cesspool. What I also find so interesting about all this, is that Waxman is called a liberal by everyone (conservatives generally despise him), but his agenda is to make government serve the people, make the lives of Americans better, and to make government, its elected officials, and industry executives accountable for their actions. So then what does the other side of the aisle want?

The Congress has become the punching bag of the U.S. Government. It's ratings are in the tank, and it appears, on the surface, to most citizens, that nothing is ever accomplished in the legislative branch. However, Representative Henry Waxman's new and incredibly insightful book on the inner workings of Congress show how issues are addressed, and eventually accomplished.

Rep. Waxman's book is part memoir, part recounting of his experiences serving the people of California for the past thirty years. His thesis, stated early n the book, is that government is a help, not a hinderance, when coming to the aid of its citizens. Waxman recounts several events that led to successful government intervention:

Don't like smoking in planes? Thank Congress.

Don't think apples should be covered with pesticides? Thank Congress.

Think that drug companies should try to find medications for all diseases? Thank Congress.

Worried that people with HIV/AIDS would lose their jobs? Thank Congress.

Think cigarette makers shouldn't market their products to children? Thank Congress.

Like food packaging labels? Thank Congress.

To be fair, Democratic Waxman does take shots at Republicans from time to time, but mostly its to show that even the minority party can be effective from time to time. One of Waxman's points, which caused me to think seriously about the current health care bill, is that no significant legislation gets passed without bipartisan support. Does this bode well for our health care?

Another interesting thing to note in the book is that corporations usually will do anything to get legislation weakened or eliminated if it's going to mean regulation on their end. In his "tobacco" chapter, it's clear how much the industry fought for years on end to delay/dismantle any governmental attempts to regulate it. It seems to me that many corporations have similar tactics to dissuade the legislation from happening; bad effects, raised costs, etc.

When all is side and written, this book is a great primer on how things can, and often do, get done in Congress. I highly recommend this.

I noticed this book at a book store and bought it on impulse. I actually expected it to be dry, maybe even dull, but hoped it would shed some light on how Congress functions. I did not expect it to be especially entertaining, compelling, or enjoyable; to my surprise, it turned out to be all of these, and I found it a very good read. A fair share of credit for this presumably belongs to Congressman Waxman's co-writer, Joshua Green.

The subtitle of the book is somewhat (but not entirely) misleading. Rather than giving us an overview of Congressional committees, subcommittees, and parliamentarian rules, Waxman has written a political autobiography that follows his career from the California Young Democrats Club to the California State Assembly to the U.S. House of Representatives. At first, I felt a bit cheated since the jacket cover had not described the book as an autobiography; however, the early material about Waxman's early career in California ultimately does become relevant when he compares how Congress functioned under different Speakers (such as Tip O'Neill and Newt Gingrich) with how the California State Assembly functioned under the top-down rule of Speaker Jesse Unruh. In the end, Waxman does convey a lot of information about how Congress works, even if this is done in the context of an autobiography. Of course, Waxman writes a lot more about the House than the Senate.

Waxman spins out his narrative in a dramatic fashion, describing how he and other members of Congress managed to pass each of the major laws that he has been most connected to. In some cases, he and his allies were able to focus attention on issues with public hearings, obtaining enough support to pass laws against the wishes of lobbyists and the majority party. In other cases, he engaged in horse trading (something that he has also done since writing the book on climate legislation). In others, he relied upon legislative tricks. The most interesting of these was done in connection with the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990 in which his staff very carefully focused the legislation on "nutrients" rather than on "ingredients", allowing Waxman to challenge the germaneness of a proposed amendment about carcinogens on the ground that carcinogens are not nutrients. Very sly.

Given the unfortunate political partisanship that currently infects our country, many readers might expect any book by a politician to be one-sided and confrontational. That is not the case with Waxman's book. While much of the legislation he focuses on was primarily promoted by Democrats, Waxman acknowledges the contributions of various Republicans. Also, when he does describe the opposition of Republicans, he is never bitter or nasty. I believe that most readers of any political persuasion could enjoy this book if they focus on the drama and legislative craftsmanship involved in each chapter irrespective of their agreement with the actual laws that Waxman helped pass.

Waxman tells us from his perspective how government is supposed to help people, and what a congressperson has to do to get things done. Each chapter focuses on a particular issue where Waxman has pushed legislation or other means of effecting change. Waxman uses these examples to show us how the rules for bringing issues into laws have changed over the years, and how bipartisan alliances come and go depending on the issue. A great read for liberals and conservatives alike, because ideology is incidental in this revealing work of how a successful congressperson operates.

The Waxman Report: How Congress Really Works

This book was recommended by one of the news magazines. I borrowed it from the library and I think learned a lot from it. In the tense atmosphere of politics today I would like to put a copy in the hands of everyone in the young generation.
The book I ordered from Amazon was a Christmas gift for one such person.

As has been commented to me by others, "It's a puff piece", I find that to be not true in the sense that one has to remember that this is an autobiography of a Congressman's experience in the Congress.

The information contained in the book is about what it can take to pass the legislation that makes a significant difference in the lives of Americans when there is large disagreements between philosophies of the political parties. When simple "horse trading" doesn't work.

Note that Henry Waxman does not claim to be the only one who has been through this, but is only explaining necessary procedures/methods to follow.

If one is really interested in how their government works, instead of sleeping through their lives, it's a must read no matter which side you are on.

Thank God for Henry Waxman. As Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce committee (and former Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee), Waxman, a three decade congressman from Southern California is one of the leading proponents of enforcing regulations on companies and agencies who might otherwise be effective at skirting laws designed to protect citizens from unethical and often times, illegal abuse.

As a career politician, Waxman sheds valuable light on the process that he oversees in Congress against often times, well-heeled opponents looking to get around measures designed to provide the public reasonable protections in regard to everything from the Clear Air Act to food labeling to U.S. energy policy. As a former California State Assemblyman and later a member of the U.S. Congress, Waxman has the experience to explain to readers the inner-workings of committees and laws and how tricky it can sometimes be to carve out legal and political solutions that will benefit those who may not have the money, organization, lobbying presence or other political clout to adequately withstand the pressures of those who have something to gain through misdeeds.

Waxman has long been viewed as the representative of the people over both government abuses and most certainly corporate powers looking to use (or abuse) the laws to increase profits at the expense of the public good. Waxman details his many battles with industries like big tobacco, big pharma and the major food suppliers and how he and his staff must remain diligent in the face of powerful pressure groups. The methods that Waxman has to employ sometimes seem like that of a political contortionist (like changing a set of hearings from `food' to `nutrients' to gain the upper hand on the food producers) but it is clear he recognizes his mission and pursues it with unwavering determination.

While "The Waxman Report" is somewhat detailed (and at times a bit wonky), it is not as arduous as a deep political tome might be and is therefore accessible to most readers, even if they may not have a deep working knowledge of the inner working of politics. The most important thing about the book itself, may very well be its source, as Waxman is on the frontline of these never-ending battles and after reading this book, we are glad he is.

I Like Mr. Waxman but a book on his active Political life from begining is a boring read and I don't like a lot of political doings he takes as just the way it's done. He never seems to want to change things just do them better than the other's. The book is not so much about how
Congress works but how Waxman did it.