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  2. Committees and the Decline of Lawmaking in Congress

Committees and the Decline of Lawmaking in Congress

Jonathan Lewallen 2020
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The public, journalists, and legislators themselves have often lamented a decline in congressional lawmaking in recent years, often blaming party politics for the lack of legislative output. In Committees and the Decline of Lawmaking in Congress, Jonathan Lewallen examines the decline in lawmaking from a new, committee-centered perspective. Lewallen tests his theory against other explanations such as partisanship and an increased demand for oversight with multiple empirical tests and traces shifts in policy activity by policy area using the Policy Agendas Project coding scheme.

He finds that because party leaders have more control over the legislative agenda, committees have spent more of their time conducting oversight instead. Partisanship alone does not explain this trend; changes in institutional rules and practices that empowered party leaders have created more uncertainty for committees and contributed to a shift in their policy activities. The shift toward oversight at the committee level combined with party leader control over the voting agenda means that many members of Congress are effectively cut out of many of the institution's policy decisions. At a time when many, including Congress itself, are considering changes to modernize the institution and keep up with a stronger executive branch, the findings here suggest that strengthening Congress will require more than running different candidates or providing additional resources.

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Series
  • Legislative Politics and Policy Making
ISBN(s)
  • 978-0-472-13206-5 (hardcover)
  • 978-0-472-12699-6 (ebook)
Subject
  • Political Science:American Politics
  • Political Science:Governance
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  • Table of Contents

  • Resources

  • Stats

  • Cover
  • Title Page
  • Copyright Page
  • Contents
  • Preface and Acknowledgments
  • One. Committees and Congress in the Policy Process
  • Two. Myths and Realities of Congressional Lawmaking
  • Three. The Effects of Centralized Agenda Setting
  • Four. Partisanship and Committee Activity
  • Five. Demand for Committee Oversight
  • Six. The Stratified Congress
  • Seven. The Costs of Doing (Legislative) Business
  • Appendix
  • Notes
  • References
  • Index

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Trend in federal budget outlays as measured in billions of dollars.

Figure 5-1. Growth in Federal Budget Outlays, 1979-2016

From Chapter 5

Fig. 5.1. Growth in Federal Budget Outlays, 1979–2016. (Source: Vital Statistics on Congress, calculated by the author.)

Trends in the number of days spent under a continuing resolution in a given congress from 1981 to 2012.

Figure 5-3. Number of Days Spent Under Stopgap Budgeting, 1979-2012

From Chapter 5

Fig. 5.3. Number of Days Spent under Stopgap Budgeting, 1979–2012. (Source: Congressional Research Service 2016, calculated by the author. The number of days spent under a CR in a given congress is calculated based on the fiscal year, and so it may be greater than the number of days in two calendar years [each two-year congress includes all or part of three fiscal years].)

Predicted values for House committee legislative hearing ratios based on federal budget outlays in the prior Congress.

Figure 5-4. Predicted Values for House Legislative Hearings from Federal Outlays

From Chapter 5

Fig. 5.4. Predicted Values for House Legislative Hearings from Federal Outlays. (Note: Y-axes are on the logarithmic scale due to transforming beta regression results.)

Predicted values for Senate committee markup ratios based on federal budget outlays in the prior Congress.

Figure 5-5. Predicted Values for Senate Reported Bills from Federal Outlays

From Chapter 5

Fig. 5.5. Predicted Values for Senate Reported Bills from Federal Outlays. (Note: Y-axes are on the logarithmic scale due to transforming beta regression results.)

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