Danny Glover

The debate over the Davis-Bacon Act after Hurricane Katrina has shined a spotlight on the 1931 law once again. The concept of "prevailing wages" sparked little concern when the statute was enacted but has prompted many calls for repeal since then.

Meteorologically speaking, Hurricane Katrina died days after slamming into the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, 2005. Politically speaking, it is very much alive in the nation's capital. The real test of its staying power will be the policy changes it spawns.

The political circumstances surrounding current efforts to strengthen the Freedom of Information Act resemble those when the law was first enacted in the 1950s. It took 11 years to get the concept written into law.

This year's debate over transportation spending may be decided by presidential veto. It wouldn't be a first. President Andrew Jackson vetoed the Maysville Road bill in 1830 — and for reasons similar to criticisms of the current proposal.

The current congressional debate over bankruptcy reform encompasses a classic American tug-of-war between creditors and debtors. It harks back to the late 1800s, the era of the first long-term bankruptcy statute in U.S. history.

Republicans who see personal retirement accounts as the salvation for Social Security have a new hero: Franklin Delano Roosevelt. But they don't mentioned what happened to FDR's plan for such accounts. It died for lack of support.

Serious talk of splitting Virginia surfaced as early as 1830. The Civil War gave people in the western part of the state an opportunity to achieve a political separation they long desired, and West Virginia became the 35th state.

In 1929, Congress indefinitely fixed the size of the House at 435 members and established a method for automatically reapportioning those seats among the various states every 10 years. The law eliminated a politically explosive issue.

The 1906 American Antiquities Act sparks debates about exactly how much power the president has to protect public lands. President Clinton reignited the debate by creating the Giant Sequoia National Monument.

Ever since Congress created the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in 1975, lawmakers, lobbyists and the oil-hungry American public have bickered about the best time to use it. Some historical perspective may shed light on the original strategy.

Only once — during Andrew Jackson's presidency in the 1830s — has America balanced its books and had to decide how to dispose of true budget surpluses. The experience provides some insight into the challenges of governing in a debt-free country.

Are campaign debates a good way for voters to get to know their candidates? A look at our nation’s most famous debates, the clashes over slavery just before the Civil War, may provide some answers.

American imperialism in Central America peaked with the signing of the treaty that gave the United States the right to build and control the Panama Canal “in perpetuity.” The story behind the one-sided deal is fascinating.

Whether for good or bad, Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty” in the 1960s is the milestone achievement in the federal government’s quest to feed, clothe, house and employ the nation’s poor.

The FBI’s aggressive methods have been a rallying cry of civil libertarians for decades. In the last years of Director J. Edgar Hoover, Congress finally questioned an agency that many Americans believed had overstepped its bounds in pursuing justice.

When Congress set goals of “full employment” and zero inflation in 1978, the law included so many escape hatches that no one took it seriously. It was symbolic at best, utter fantasy at worst.

Congress added “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance and made “In God We Trust” the national motto and a mandatory slogan on all U.S. coins and currency in the 1950s. All of that religious posturing happened in the early days of the Cold War.

Attacks on the U.S. Supreme Court tend to end in failure. The politically foolish mission of President Franklin D. Roosevelt to “pack” the court with justices favorable to his social policies is a perfect case study.

Congressional pay increases foment controversy and revolt at the polls, but presidential pay boosts seem to stir little public interest. The 1969 presidential pay hike was followed by raises for the legislative and judicial branches as well.

With some lawmakers contemplating a renewal of the draft, Congress may have to revisit the debate between an all-volunteer force versus an army of draftees. It’s a debate that dates back to 1917, after the United States declared war against Germany.