As the 2002 congressional elections approach, Vital Statistics on Congress, 2001-2002 (AEI Press, July 2002) will prove to be an indispensable resource for examining recent electoral trends and forecasting what may happen in the upcoming elections. The eleventh edition of this comprehensive reference book compares today's Congress to its predecessors. The data, description, and analysis provided by three congressional scholars--Norman J. Ornstein of AEI, Thomas E. Mann of the Brookings Institution, and Michael J. Malbin of the State University of New York--are grouped by themes: information about House and Senate members, elections and campaign finance, and the workings of Congress, including committees, staffs, expenses, bills, budget resolutions, and voting alignments.

In addition--to help readers better understand how Congress has evolved--the new introductory essay of Vital Statistics demonstrates key elements of continuity and change by focusing on three points in time spanning the past fifty years. Using data and anecdotal evidence from the 82nd Congress (1951-1952), the 94th Congress (1975-1976), and the 107th Congress (2001-2002), Ornstein, Mann, and Malbin describe and contrast the atmosphere, mood, electoral trends, membership characteristics, committee system, and voting patterns of each congressional session. 

This edition also offers new tables and charts detailing the shifts in the ideological positions of members of Congress. Using a scoring technique developed by Professor Keith Poole of the University of Houston and Professor Howard Rosenthal of Princeton University, the authors illustrate the rise of the conservative coalition and its subsequent decline, as well as the increasing polarization of the parties in the House and Senate. 

Specific data found in this reference book include information about:

• Members of Congress, party breakdown (including the number of party and Southern chairmanships); age; seniority and length of service; religious affiliations; occupations; minorities; data about reelected, retired, or defeated incumbents; primary opposition; and winning margins. In addition, the appendix includes each House and Senate member’s 1998 and 2000 voting ratings.
• Apportionment of House seats by region and state and the effect of the 2000 Census.
• Elections and, most specifically, turnout in presidential and House elections; party gains, losses and changes; and comparison between the popular vote and House seats won by parties. Also included are conditions of initial election, split tickets, votes by districts, shifts in party votes, and party-line votes.
• Campaign finance data including campaign expenditures and outcomes, funding sources, numbers of registered political action committees (PACs), distribution of the PACs' contributions, political party contributions, and soft-money disbursements.
• The inner workings of Congress through data on the expansion of congressional committees, the number of committee assignments, a detailed breakdown of staff in the congressional districts and in Washington, as well as data on legislative branch appropriations and members' allowances. The numbers of bills introduced and passed over the years in the House and Senate are provided, as are vetoes, overrides, and cloture votes.
• A thorough look at the budget process, which includes data on the adoption of budget resolutions introduced and passed in the House and Senate. In addition, tables on budgeted and actual revenues, outlays, deficits or surpluses, supplemental appropriations, continuing appropriations, and budget-related roll call votes are also included.

Voting alignments through lists of presidential victories in House and Senate votes, as well as party unity votes and conservative coalition votes.

Norman J. Ornstein is a resident scholar at AEI and a regular contributor to Roll Call. Thomas E. Mann is the W. Averell Harriman Senior Fellow in American Governance at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. Michael J. Malbin is a professor of political science at the State University of New York, Albany, and the executive director of the Campaign Finance Institute in Washington, D.C.