Domestic Public Policy
Essay #4 Domestic Public Policy For this essay you will pick an example of a domestic policy. This needs to be a law passed by Congress OR an executive order issued by a President since January 20, 2001. I will not accept anything that deals with International relations or foreign policy, however anything involving immigration would be acceptable for example……I will say often the policies chosen to write about are in the areas of taxes, entitlements, healthcare, energy, environment, education, etc. Good examples would be anything relating to healthcare, education, the environment, immigration, or energy, although technically anything involving entitlements, spending, taxes, and regulation are also acceptable. 1. Introduce and describe when your policy was passed/issued. Who was President, which party mainly supported it, etc. What problem/issue was the policy meant to deal with and/or improve? You can also mention what was going on in the economy/society that made this in your view come to the forefront of the policy agenda. 2. Describe how the policy came to be adopted. Track the steps in the executive order, or law. Was the policy you picked something that had never been done before, or the reform of an existing law, or an EO that had been issued in the past or an EO that was just changing how a law was being implemented…..those details help as to describing the process in how this policy came to be. You can mention the controversy over it, how the votes for it in Congress were very split between the two parties or non-partisan, if it was originally vetoed at first by a President, anything to highlight the process (and struggle) of getting this policy adopted. 3. Find sources that give us an idea of how successful (or unsuccessful) the policy has been. Has it been effective in solving the problem it set out to fix? What are some major problems the policy has faced? Has Congress (Or the White House) set out to improve the law at any point in time? Try to show an example of how the policy is working, and another example that points out a problem. 4. What’s your opinion of the policy? Do you think it’s been effective or not? What would be recommendations you would have in improving the policy? For this I’m looking for good examples based on good sources because I know that there’s always tons of material out there with ideas of how to improve laws. As always, at least 4-5 pages and 4-5 sources.
