'Workman proposes an important and completely novel perspective on the relations between Congress and the bureaucracy. Based on a newly collected database of every federal regulation since the 1980s, he shows that Congressional committees and federal agencies are engaged in a mutual dance in which new information coming from agencies signals to Congress that developments require more attention or activity, and that the diversity or range in sources of the regulatory activity signal which parts of the issue require congressional intervention. The book is a model of methodology, theory building, and addressing an important issue of great substantive value: how does government set its agenda, and what is the role of the regulatory apparatus of the state in doing so? It will be seen as a major contribution to the literatures on agenda setting, bureaucratic politics, and congressional policy making for years to come.' Frank R. Baumgartner, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill