Congressional Operations Seminar

Target Audience:

Open only to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees, specifically those who deal with Congressional offices and their staffs or those who, as part of their jobs, need to understand how Congress operates.

Summary and Objectives:

The Congressional Operations Seminar provides a tremendous opportunity to observe live House and Senate floor action, attend Congressional hearings, meet with Congressional members and their staffs, and gain a better understanding of the Service's authorization, appropriation, and budget processes. This course explores various aspects of Congress, Congressional processes and procedures, and how they affect daily Service operations. To give firsthand understanding of federal law making and Congressional culture, this course is conducted on Capitol Hill where participants hear from and ask questions of Congressional members and their staffs, political scientists, lobbyists, the media, and Service legislative affairs and budget office personnel.

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• Describe House and Senate floor procedures.
• Describe the procedure that is used for a bill to become a law.
• Describe the appropriations process as it relates to the Service.
• Describe the internal Service budget processes.
• Describe the role of the Office of Management and Budget in the Service's budget process.
• Describe the role lobbyists play in the legislation process as it pertains to natural resources.
• Describe the role of the Service's Congressional Affairs offices.
• Differentiate between lobbying and providing information to members of Congress.

Competency Addressed: 

Appropriations Law - Basic, Political Savvy - Basic, Organizational Awareness - Intermediate, Constitutional Law - Basic