November 12, 2013 Creation and Passage of Dodd-Frank Is Subject of Book Discussion

A look behind the scenes of a congressional legislative negotiation is revealed through the prism of a single bill – the Dodd-Frank Act – in “Act of Congress: How America’s Essential Institution Works, and How It Doesn’t,” a new book by author and Washington Post editor Robert Kaiser.

Kaiser will discuss and sign his work on Tuesday, Nov. 19, at noon in the Montpelier Room, located on the sixth floor of the James Madison Memorial Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C. This Books & Beyond event is sponsored by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. It is free and open to the public; no tickets are required.

Named for its chief sponsors, Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut (both since retired from Congress), the law transformed the regulation of the financial sector in the wake of the Panic of 2008. Kaiser, who has worked for The Washington Post since 1963, was given extraordinary access to every step in the drafting of this 1,500-page law. The resulting book examines the influences of lobbying, congressional staff and partisanship in the legislative process.

Robert G. Kaiser, during his career at The Washington Post, has reported on Congress, was a correspondent in Saigon and Moscow and served as national editor and then managing editor. He is currently associate editor and a senior correspondent. Kaiser has written for Esquire, Foreign Affairs and The New York Review of Books, among other publications.

Since its creation by Congress in 1977 to "stimulate public interest in books and reading," the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress (www.Read.gov/cfb/) has become a major national force for reading and literacy promotion. A public-private partnership, it sponsors educational programs that reach readers of all ages, nationally and internationally. The center provides leadership for affiliated state centers for the book (including the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands) and nonprofit reading-promotion partners and plays a key role in the Library’s annual National Book Festival. It also oversees the Library’s www.Read.gov website and administers the Library’s Young Readers Center and the Poetry and Literature Center.

The Library of Congress, the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution and the largest library in the world, holds more than 155 million items in various languages, disciplines and formats. The Library serves the U.S. Congress and the nation both on-site in its reading rooms on Capitol Hill and through its award-winning website at www.loc.gov.