Senate’s August recess could be its shortest in decades
Mitch McConnell’s decision to shorten the chamber’s August recess isn’t unprecedented. But in an election year – when a third of senators are on the campaign trail – it’s unusual.
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Drew DeSilver
Senior Writer/Editor
Drew DeSilver is a senior writer at Pew Research Center.
Publications
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Q&A: Telling the difference between factual and opinion statements in the news
Read a Q&A with Amy Mitchell, director of journalism research at Pew Research Center, on a new report that explores Americans’ ability to distinguish factual news statements from opinions.
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U.S. population keeps growing, but House of Representatives is same size as in Taft era
The U.S. House of Representatives has one voting member (435 in total) for every 747,000 or so Americans. That’s by far the highest ratio of population to representatives of any industrialized democracy, and the highest it’s ever been in U.S. history.
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Women scarce at top of U.S. business – and in the jobs that lead there
Only about 5% of the chief executive officers of 1,500 companies we examined were women. Among the tier of executives just below the CEO in terms of pay and position in the corporate hierarchy, 11.5% were women.
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Proposed amendments to the U.S. Constitution seldom go anywhere
The vast majority of proposed amendments die quiet, little-mourned deaths in committees and subcommittees.
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Near-record number of House members not seeking re-election in 2018
More members of the U.S. House of Representatives are choosing not to seek re-election than at any time in the past quarter-century.
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Despite talk of ‘trade war’ with China, highest U.S. tariffs are on imports from other Asian countries
The highest U.S. tariffs aren’t on imports from its biggest trading partners, but on products from several developing South Asian nations whose exports are heavily weighted toward clothing, footwear and other products that the U.S. generally taxes highly.
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U.S. tariffs vary a lot, but the highest duties tend to be on imported clothing
Average tariff rates, while useful for comparison, can obscure the wide range of rates imposed on different classes of imports and on specific products.
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U.S. tariffs are among the lowest in the world – and in the nation’s history
The Trump administration’s plans to impose $50 billion in tariffs on Chinese imports, as well as tariffs recently placed on imported steel and aluminum and on imports of solar panels and washing machines, mark a distinct break from decades of U.S. trade policy, which long has generally favored lower tariffs and fewer restrictions on the movement of goods and services across international borders.
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Q&A: The growing use of ‘voter files’ in studying the U.S. electorate
Read a Q&A with Pew Research Center’s Ruth Igielnik and Scott Keeter about a recent study about voter files.
