The Book
Rob Bishop Shares the Stories and Experiences He Wishes He Had When He Was Teaching School
Despite decades of teaching high school history and government and 16 years in the Utah Legislature, when Rob Bishop arrived in Washington, D.C., as a newly-elected congressman, he discovered what he thought he knew about Congress differed greatly from reality. In his book, The Things I Learned In Congress They Never Taught In School, Bishop shares the insights, quirks, and pitfalls of Washington that every high school student should know about our halls of government. He explains that “I felt compelled to write down and share with readers the stories and experiences that I wish I had had when I was teaching school.”
Drawing upon his decades of teaching and public service experience, Bishop outlines our constitutional foundation, his road to Washington as teacher-turned-congressman, and his experiences inside the congressional sausage factory—ultimately offering his solutions on how to fix what is broken about D.C. politics.
U.S. Senator Mike Lee: “A veteran of 28 years in the classroom, Rob Bishop is still a master teacher, and all Americans could benefit by reading what he has written.”
Former Congressman Jason Chaffetz: “Written with Rob’s dry sense of humor, his book includes entertaining and fascinating details on what the Founders intended and contrasts that with how we have strayed away from the ideal.”
Bishop explains that “I care about procedure…to me, the procedures of Congress are as important as the policy; good procedures will produce good policy—bad procedure results in bad policy.” In the middle section of the book, he gets into details about many policies and procedures that have crept into Congress in the past few years that have hurt the country. One example is “rolled votes.” He explains: “The worst practice we have in Congress is rolled votes, which guarantees that no one is EVER THERE to hear the debates.” In other words, Bishop says that voting is moved ahead while debates take place allowing members of Congress to be somewhere else instead of learning about the issue being debated. He dissects many of Congress’s other questionable procedures that also result in bad policy. And, then finally, in the last chapter (24), he summarizes how we could fix Congress and offers “Ten Solutions for a Stronger America.”
A lifelong resident of northern Utah, Bishop served 18 years in Congress, representing Utah’s 1st Congressional District. His committee assignments included the House Rules Committee, House Armed Services Committee, and chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee. Prior to Congress, Bishop taught high school for 28 years and served 16 years in the Utah House of Representatives, the last two years as House speaker.
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