Through this assignment, we will explore trends concerning an individually selected area of policy and provide context on the public policy theory/theories at play. You will answer the following question: How has congressional agenda changed over time in regards to your selected policy topic?

To start, visit Policy Agendas Project (UT at Austin). Once on the UT Austin webpage, click on the "Explore Policy Trends" chart on the upper left side. Then, Click on Budgets on the upper left side. Next, select United States. For Topic, select US Budget. Then, select the specific aspect of the US budget you want to analyze. Then, in the bottom right, select Line for Chart Type.

Next, for Dates, select Year. Now, this is when you actually create a chart. You need to create two charts indicating two separate time periods (ie, not connected). They can be 5 or 10 year increments. Once you create two charts, then use export to integrate them into your paper. Then, analyze the two charts (ie, compare and contrast) in your paper.

For the purposes of this project, you'll need to pull data from at least two different time periods to show any shifts in trends/attention.

Next analyze your findings through a 3-5 page paper (excluding cover page and references). You'll want to cover the following questions:

• What is the history of this policy?
• What does the data say about the congressional focus of this issue?
• What driving forces/actors would have had an impact on the congressional attention on this issue?
• Were there other events taking place that would explain a low in congressional attention on this issue?
• What theory/theories from our text could explain the history or trends of the issue? What contexts are applicable here?

Please include your chart in your essay. Be sure to draw from our course readings and to utilize at least 3 scholarly sources. A list of good online journals is available in our online library. APA format.