U.S. Representative Bice, Former Congressman Kilmer Receive Madison Award Recognizing Legislative Collaboration, Cooperation

CCPS and the School of Public Affairs held an award ceremony on April 29 to recognize the 2025 winners of the Madison Prize for Constitutional Excellence: Representative Stephanie Bice (R-OK) and former Representative Derek Kilmer (D-WA). The U.S. Capitol Historical Society hosted the ceremony at the VFW, followed by a reception in the Hart Senate Building.

Initiated by former US Representative David Skaggs (D-CO) and his wife, Laura, The Madison Prize celebrates US lawmakers (one Democrat and one Republican) who are willing to cooperate and compromise for the sake of the common good, instead of folding their arms in obstinate service to partisan interests.

Below are highlights of the awards ceremony which was attended by Bice, Kilmer, USCHS President Jane Campbell, American University President Jonathan Alger, AU School of Public Affairs Interim Dean Alison Jacknowitz, AU Professor Emeritus James Thurber, AU Adjunct Professor Ron Elving, the Honorable David Skaggs and family, the Honorable Dick Gephardt, and other invited guests. Click here for a full recording of the event.

Representatives Bice and Kilmer have been active participants in an initiative sponsored at Princeton University aimed at restoring the Constitutional powers of Congress envisioned by James Madison, the “Father of the U.S. Constitution.” Other participants included current and former members of Congress from both parties and a consortium of scholars from 19 U.S. universities. Reps. Bice and Kilmer supported and helped present the initiative’s proposals to members of the House from both parties.

Rep. Bice is a fourth-generation Oklahoman currently serving as the U.S. Representative for Oklahoma's 5th Congressional District. She was elected to Congress in 2020 and was chosen by her colleagues to serve as the 117th Republican Freshman Class President, the first female ever elected to the role. She previously served in the Oklahoma State Senate from 2014 to 2020. In the state legislature, she focused on issues including fiscal responsibility, economic development, and job growth. In the 118th Congress, she served as Class Representative to the House GOP Elected Leadership Committee, and on the powerful Appropriations Committee as well as the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, and the Committee on House Administration.

Rep. Kilmer served six terms as U.S. Representative for Washington’s Sixth District. As a native of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, he passed a landmark economic development law to help economically distressed communities, establishing a program that became the most popular in the Economic Development Administration’s history. He also served as Chairman of the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress which passed over 200 recommendations to make Congress work better and which was described in the Washington Post as a story of “shocking function.” Kilmer now serves as the senior vice president of U.S. Program and Policy for the Rockefeller Foundation.

2025 Bryce Harlow Winner

Rachel Zelicof (SPA/BA '25) was recently named winner of best essay for the Bryce Harlow Ethics and Lobbying Workshop. Every year the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies and the Bryce Harlow Foundation jointly sponsor the Bryce Harlow Workshop on Ethics and Lobbying. In conjunction with this course, students write a paper about the topic of ethics in lobbying and are encouraged to submit their papers for the workshop essay contest, which features a $250 prize for the best essay. Led by CCPS Director Emeritus James Thurber, students analyze the transcendent issues of values, the law, conflicts of interest, the foundation of ethics, and the meaning of integrity in political advocacy. Read more about the award and winners here.

Taylor-Fillmore Correspondence Project Awarded Grant

The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), the grantmaking arm of the US National Archives, has awarded CCPS $124,097 to support the Correspondence of Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore in 2025–26. This grant, part of the NHPRC’s program in Publishing Historical Records in Collaborative Digital Editions, is the largest ever awarded for the Taylor-Fillmore project. The project, led by CCPS faculty fellow Michael David Cohen and CCPS fellow Amy Larrabee Cotz, aims to locate all letters written to or from the twelfth and thirteenth presidents between 1844 and 1853, the decade leading up to and including their administrations, and to publish three print and digital volumes of selected and annotated letters. Launched in 2020 and aided by student assistants and interns at SPA, CAS, and elsewhere, it is currently funding by grants from the NHPRC and the Summerlee Foundation and has won grants from several other foundations. For more information on the project, see its website. For more information about this and other grants announced by the NHPRC, see the National Archives' press release.

Congress On Demand: A New Platform for Voters to Easily Witness Congress

We are excited to announce the release of the 2024 Senate Election Edition of Congress On Demand. As part of American University's commitment to civic engagement, the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies is proud to contribute to this innovative tool.

On November 5, 2024 - down ballot from the Presidential election - the U.S. Senate hangs in the balance. Thirty-four Senate seats are on the ballot. In those races, 25 incumbent U.S. Senators are running for re-election and eight House Representatives are running for eight of those Senate seats. In time to be of use to voters across the country, Congress On Demand streamed segmented videos of every floor appearance from this 118th Congress of the 25 U.S. Senators running for re-election and every floor appearance of the eight U.S. House Representatives running for Senate seats. Also included are floor appearances of Sen. JD Vance - the Republican Vice-Presidential nominee. Additionally, there is a link to the 2020 Presidential Election Edition where users can view all appearances made by Kamala Harris in the 116th Congress, her last as Senator.

Congress On Demand was conceived so that what is public can finally reach the public in a familiar and engaging way. Though sessions in Congress are filmed, the video has not before been segmented and delivered in the short, single-click on-demand format to which we've all grown accustomed. Congress On Demand was created by Eve Silberberg, faculty fellow at the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at AU. Email info@congressondemand.us for more information.

New Perspectives in American Governance - 2024 Grantees

The Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies, in collaboration with AU’s Washington College of Law and Purdue University’s Center for Research on Diversity and Inclusion, is proud to announce the winners of our 2024 New Perspectives in Studies of American Governance research grants. With support from Hewlett Foundation’s U.S. Democracy program, we are supporting seven new projects that stand to transform political scientists’ collective understanding of American governance and representation. This marks the second time we are awarding these grants, reaffirming our commitment to fostering innovative research that sheds new light on the intricacies of American governance.
Review Grantees & Abstracts

Global Innovations in Democracy Conference Spring 2024

The Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies hosted and co-sponsored the Global Innovations in Democracy: Parliamentary Exchange (GID), a collaborative endeavor led by the Institute for Democratic Engagement and Accountability at The Ohio State University and the Center for Democracy Innovation (now part of the National Civic League). Established in 2022, GID serves as a pivotal global forum where legislators explore cutting-edge methods and tools for gathering input, overcoming divisions, building trust, and gaining public support for public policy.

AU PhD Student Dakota Strode Awarded 2024 Gill Family Foundation Scholarship

CCPS congratulates Ph.D. candidate Dakota Strode as this year’s winner of the Gill Family Foundation scholarship. The Gill Scholarship supports dissertation work using quantitative methods in the areas of American Politics, Comparative Politics, Public Administration, or Policy Analysis at American University.

Strode's research focuses on LGBTQ politics, political behavior, campaigns and elections, and political communication. His research has been featured in journals such as Public Opinion Quarterly and the Journal of Politics.

The Gill Family Foundation was established in 1997 in Houston, Texas, to further the Gill family’s interest in support of educational philanthropy.  As a statement of philosophy, the Gill family has noted that “Education plays the critical role in providing opportunities for growth, development, success, lasting relationships and satisfaction in life.  We are committed to giving back to the system which provided us so much opportunity for success and financial independence." AU Professors Ryan T. Moore and Tongtong Zhang served on the selection committee for the Gill Scholarship.

New Perspectives in Studies of American Governance Program Awarded $150,000 Grant

In August 2023, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation awarded the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies a new $150,000 grant, which will extend the New Perspectives in Studies of American Governance Program at CCPS for two more years. The NP program, in partnership with Purdue University, incentivizes emerging scholars to broaden the range of perspectives brought to studying American governance at the federal level. 

The Principal Investigators of this program include David Barker, Professor of Government and Director of CCPS, Bettina Poirier, Director of the Program on Legislative Negotiation and Senior Affiliate for WCL, and Valeria Sinclair- Chapman, Professor of Political Science, African American Studies, and Gender & Sexuality Studies at Purdue University. She is also Director of Purdue’s Center for Research on Diversity and Inclusion as well as its Legislative Internship Program.

Seeking submissions for Congress & the Presidency Journal Entries

The Congress & the Presidency Journal is actively seeking new journal entries that aim to broaden perspectives on the executive and legislative branches. We're committed to broadly studying American governance and want your input to help shape a more inclusive future of research. Visit Congress & the Presidency for more information and to submit entries.