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I am honored to introduce the John Brademas Center for the Study of Congress at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.

The Center is one of the first of its kind to pursue a rigorous study of Congress as a policy-making institution. The Center will enhance both scholarly and public understanding of the role of Congress in writing the nation’s laws and forging its policies.

With our separation-of-powers Constitution, Congress, unlike the legislative body in a parliamentary system, exercises great power in the making of national policy. But with 100 Senators and 435 Representatives and, customarily, no strict party discipline, Congress is not an easy institution to understand, even for the well-informed.

The Brademas Center will be a place to which we shall invite Presidents, Senators and Representatives—current and former, Democrats and Republicans; Cabinet Secretaries and other Executive Branch officials; judges; Congressional staffers; parliamentarians from other countries; journalists; and scholars and students to meet to discuss both the processes by which Congress shapes policy and substantive issues facing our nation. Through an interdisciplinary approach to the study of Congress, we seek to illumine both academic and public understanding of what the Constitution designates “The First Branch” of the Federal Government.

John Brademas
President Emeritus


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The John Brademas Center for the Study of Congress is housed at
NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.