From Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election to the looming federal budget negotiations, the 115th U.S. Congress currently has a full plate. What other challenges might today’s Congress face in the months ahead?
In this episode of Politics & Polls, Professor Sam Wang interviews Congressman Leonard Lance (R-NJ) about what’s next for the Affordable Care Act and how Rep. Lance has been handling recent (and sometimes contentious) Town Hall meetings.
A key “moderate conservative” in the Republican caucus, Rep. Lance shared his views about maintaining key payments to keep health care insurers afloat. He also talked about what it would take for him to approve an independent investigative committee to look into Russia’s role in the 2016 election and Donald Trump's taxes.
Rep. Lance is a graduate alumnus of Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in November 2008 and re-elected to a fifth term in November 2016 to represent New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District. Lance previously served on the House Financial Services Committee and is now on the Committee on Energy and Commerce, which focuses on national energy and environmental policy, health and health facilities, interstate and foreign commerce, consumer affairs and consumer protection, and travel and tourism.
Prior to being elected to Congress, Rep. Lance served as a member of the New Jersey State Senate beginning in 2002, and held the position of minority leader of the Senate from 2004 to 2008. He is the third generation of his family to serve in the New Jersey State Legislature, following his great-uncle, H. Kiefer Lance, and his father, Wesley L. Lance. In Politics & Polls, he reflects on the transition from state politics to the national scene.
ABOUT THE HOSTS
Zelizer is the Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, Class of 1941 Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He has been one of the pioneers in the revival of American political history. He is the author of several books including, most recently, "The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society." Zelizer is a frequent commentator in the international and national media on political history and contemporary politics. He has published more than 600 hundred op-eds, including his weekly column on CNN.com.
Wang is professor of neuroscience and molecular biology at Princeton University. He is known for his books "Welcome to Your Brain" and "Welcome to Your Child's Brain" and for his founding role at the Princeton Election Consortium, a blog providing U.S. election analyses. In 2004, Wang was one of the first to aggregate U.S. presidential polls using probabilistic methods. He has also developed new statistical standards for partisan gerrymandering. A neuroscientist, Wang's academic research focuses on the neuroscience of learning, the cerebellum and autism.