S030 – The Gathering Room, CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge St.
What’s the Matter with Congress?:
Understanding the Decline in Congressional Authority in the Trump Era
Join us for a conversation on the current state of the U.S. Congress with former U.S. Representative Barney Frank and Dan Carpenter, Chair of the Government Department, Harvard University. The conversation will moderated by Ryan Enos, CAPS Faculty Director.
A light lunch will be provided.
About the Speakers
Barney Frank is a former politician who served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1981–2013) and was one of the first openly gay members of Congress. Before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, Frank was a member of the Massachusetts State Legislature from 1972-1980. A Democrat, he compiled a strongly liberal legislative record over his career. He served as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee from 2007-2011 and coauthored with Sen. Chris Dodd the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (also known as the Dodd-Frank Act), a broad package of regulations and reforms of the financial services and consumer finance industries signed into law in 2010. Frank’s autobiography, “A Life in Politics from the Great Society to Same-Sex Marriage,” was published in 2015.
Frank attended Harvard University, earning a B.A. in 1962. He earned a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1977.
Dan Carpenter is Allie S. Freed Professor of Government and Chair of the Department of Government, Harvard University. Carpenter’s most recent book. Democracy by Petition: Popular Politics in Transformation, 1790-1870 (Harvard University Press, 2021), was awarded the J. David Greenstone Prize of the American Political Science Association for the best book in history and politics in the past two calendar years.