Roger H. Davidson is professor emeritus of government and politics at the University of Maryland, and has served as visiting professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. During the 2001—2002 academic year, he served as the John Marshall Chair in political science at the University of Debrecen, Hungary. His books include Remaking Congress: Change and Stability in the 1990s, co-edited with James A. Thurber (1995), and Understanding the Presidency, Seventh Edition, co-edited with James P. Pfiffner (2012). Davidson is co-editor with Donald C. Bacon and Morton Keller of The Encyclopedia of the United States Congress (1995).

Walter J. Oleszek is a senior specialist in the legislative process at the Congressional Research Service. He has served as either a full-time professional staff aide or consultant to every major House and Senate congressional reorganization effort beginning with passage of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970. In 1993 he served as Policy Director of the Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress. A longtime adjunct faculty member at American University, Oleszek is a frequent lecturer to various academic, governmental, and business groups. He is the author or co-author of several books, including Congress Under Fire: Reform Politics and the Republican Majority, with C. Lawrence Evans (1997) and Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process, Ninth Edition, (2013).

Frances E. Lee is professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland. She is author of Beyond Ideology: Politics, Principles, and Partisanship in the U.S. Senate (2009) and co-author of Sizing Up the Senate: The Unequal Consequences of Equal Representation (1999). Her work has received national recognition, including the Richard F. Fenno, Jr. Prize for the best book in legislative politics in 2010, and the D.B. Hardeman Prize for the best book on a congressional topic in both 1999 and 2011. Her articles have appeared in American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, Legislative Studies Quarterly, and American Journal of Political Science, among others.

Eric Schickler is Jeffrey & Ashley McDermott Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Disjointed Pluralism: Institutional Innovation and the Development of the U.S. Congress (2001), which received APSA's Richard F. Fenno Award. His second book, Partisan Hearts and Minds (co-authored with Donald Green and Bradley Palmquist), was published in 2002. He is also co-author of Filibuster: Obstruction and Lawmaking in the U.S. Senate (co-authored with Gregory Wawro, 2006), which also received APSA's Richard F. Fenno Award. He has authored or co-authored articles in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Comparative Political Studies, Polity, Public Opinion Quarterly, and Social Science History.