Number: RL30301
Title: INFORMAL CONGRESSIONAL GROUPS AND MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS: SELECTED QUESTIONS AND RESPONSES
Authors: Sula P. Richardson, Government Division 
Abstract: Informal congressional groups and organizations of Members with shared interests in specific issues or philosophies have been part of the American policymaking process since colonial times. Only recently, however, have they emerged in such large numbers and in such diverse ways as to stimulate questions about their purposes, organization, operations, funding, status, and relationship with organizations and interests outside Congress. Such questions are addressed in this report, based on examination of the more than 200 such groups that now exist or have existed in the past decade.
Pages: 17
Date: Updated March 7, 2001