Overview: You must select a piece of legislation that either failed or that has

Overview: You must select a piece of legislation that either failed or that has been passed within the last two years and analyze how it came to be.  Analysis should focus on where the need for the bill originated, the primary authors and their political motivations, any potential special interest influence.  From there, the paper should delve into the process by which the bill was introduced and passed through committee while explaining the support and opposition it received throughout.  Finally, the paper should examine the political actors involved with the passage of the bill and why it ultimately passed or failed.  You can use a variety of source material for the assignment from congressional documents to news stories.  The assignment must be between 1000-1250 words and have at least ten (10) cited sources. 
Research Steps:
Select Legislation.  The first step to any research paper is selecting your subject.  In this case you need to select a piece of current (within the last two years) legislation that has been considered by the United States Congress.  The legislation may have been success or unsuccessful in becoming a law.  I would encrouage to look at the US Congress website as well as the Gov Track website.  Both are great resources that give you lots of options.  You can also just search for a particular issue for which you’re passionate (e.g., social issues, economic recovery, foreign policy). 
Chart the path.  Every piece of legislation has a story.  Start with where the legislation began in terms of which members of congress wrote and introduced the bill.  Then track the history of the bill through the committees to which it was assigned, which members of Congress supported it or opposed it, and discuss the final conclusion of whether the bill was defeated, still active, or became a law.  You should also focus on the political nature of the debate around the bill and perhaps integrate public opinion on the issue if the legislation touched a particularly key element of the public sentiment.
Start writing.  This is a multi-part paper.  First, discuss the reasons for why you chose the legislation and why you believe it to be important.  Then chart the path as outlined in Step 2 above.  You write the paper in terms of stages from writing to committee to voting to conclusion.  Conversely, you could write about the political struggles and debate around the legislation while not being quite as heavy on the process.  Much of that will depend on which piece of legislation you choose.  You ultimately want to conclude your paper with analysis for what the legislation was ultimately successful or not.  You can bring in issues such as election pressure, public opinion, presidential inteference, and more.
Write properly.  You all did a great job on the last writing assignment, so make sure to continue to be structured and formal in your writing style.  Use proper MLA citations.  If you are unfamiliar with MLA citations, use the Purdue Online Writing Lab.  It’s a tremendous resource and will help