Iron Triangle Essay

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The Iron Triangle is a three-sided network of policy making that includes congressional committees in a specific policy area, executive agencies with authority over that area, and private interest groups focused on influencing that area. (Duatrich) Issue networks are elements beyond the Iron Triangle that try to collectively influence a policy area they too may also be interested in. The influence of groups can effect policies and sway public opinions. Congressional committee’s roles in the Iron triangle are that they collect campaign contributions from Interest groups, they then take those contributions and put them into budgets and jurisdictions. Bureaucratic …show more content…

A more recent policy issue that came up in 2014 is gender identity being allowed in anti-discrimination laws. President Obama signed an executive order barring discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity among federal contractors. However in the Supreme Court case Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, the Supreme Court ruled that individuals do not lose their religious freedom when they open a family business. The Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) is an interest group fighting for equal rights within the community who share political and social concerns about the discrimination of sexual orientation and gender identity. Opponents of LGBTQ groups have worked equally as hard to pass laws known as Religious Freedom Restoration Acts, which allow business to deny services to LGBTQ people based on their religious beliefs. Each interest group will lobby to a political figure, or political party in order to get their voices heard. With the case involving Hobby Lobby the bureaucratic agency that help with this case was the Department of Health and Human Services, because Hobby Lobby did not want to provide medication for an employee in the health coverage plan the company provided. With future cases involving the LGBTQ they would be able to go to another regulatory agency like The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), while Hobby Lobby would be backed by religious interests groups like the Christian Coalition of America (CCA). Each interest group in this situation would be an issue network to each other, in the since they are both fighting for their voices to be heard in a similar area of

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