Committees and the Decline of Lawmaking in Congress

Lewallen, Jonathan

doi:doi:10.3998/mpub.11533650

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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Legislative Politics and Policy Making

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978-0-472-12699-6 (ebook)
978-0-472-13206-5 (hardcover)

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The number of laws enacted in a given congress from 1981 to 2018 separated by commemorative and non-commemorative laws.

Figure 2-1. Laws Enacted by the U.S. Congress, 1981-2018

From Chapter 2

Fig. 2.1. Laws Enacted by the U.S. Congress, 1981–2018. (Source: Policy Agendas Project, calculated by the author.)

Panel A shows trends in the count of legislative and nonlegislative hearings in each chamber. Panel B shows trends in the proportion of hearings that are legislative.

Figure 2-2. Committee Hearing Trends, 1981-2016. Panel A: Hearing Counts

From Chapter 2

Fig. 2.2. Committee Hearing Trends, 1981–2016. (Source: Policy Agendas Project Congressional Hearings dataset, which did not include a complete list of hearings from the 115th Congress as of this writing; calculated by the author.)

Figure 2-2. Committee Hearing Trends, 1981-2016. Panel B: Hearing Proportions

From Chapter 2

Panel A shows trends in the average number of bills marked up and reported in each chamber. Panel B shows trends in the proportion of marked up and reported bills in each chamber.

Figure 2-3. Committee Reported Bill Trends, 1981-2018. Panel A: Average Counts of Reported Bills

From Chapter 2

Fig. 2.3. Committee Reported Bill Trends, 1981–2018. (Source: THOMAS/Congress.gov, calculated by the author. Panel A (top) displays the data as counts, Panel B (bottom) as proportions. The points represent the averages in each congress, the gray shaded areas represent a standard deviation above and below the averages.)

Figure 2-3. Committee Reported Bill Trends, 1981-2018. Panel A: Average Proportions of Reported Bills

From Chapter 2

The left panel shows the average ratio of House hearings that were legislative by committee from 1981 to 2018, ordered from highest to lowest ratio. The right panel shows the average ratio of Senate hearings that were legislative by committee from 1981 to 2018, ordered from highest to lowest ratio.

Figure 2-4. Legislative Hearing Ratio Averages, 1981-2016

From Chapter 2

Fig. 2.4. Legislative Hearing Ratio Averages, 1981–2016. (Source: Policy Agendas Project, calculated by the author. House hearing ratios are displayed in the left panel and Senate hearing ratios in the right. House Rules Committee data throughout the book only include those bills in its original jurisdiction.)

The left panel shows the average ratio of referred bills that were marked up by each House committee from 1981 to 2018, ordered from highest to lowest ration. The right panel shows the average ratio of referred bills that were marked up by each Senate committee from 1981 to 2018, ordered from highest to lowest ratio.

Figure 2-5. Committee Markup Averages, 1981-2018

From Chapter 2

Fig. 2.5. Committee Markup Averages, 1981–2018. (Source: THOMAS/Congress.gov, calculated by the author. House markup ratios are displayed in the left panel and Senate markup ratios in the right.)

Each House committee’s trend in the ratio of hearings that are legislative from 1981 to 2016.

Figure 2-6. House Committee Legislative Hearing Trends, 1981-2016

From Chapter 2

Fig. 2.6. House Committee Legislative Hearing Trends, 1981–2016. (Source: Policy Agendas Project, calculated by the author.)

Each Senate committee’s trend in the ratio of hearings that are legislative from 1981 to 2016.

Figure 2-7. Senate Committee Legislative Hearing Trends, 1981-2016

From Chapter 2

Fig. 2.7. Senate Committee Legislative Hearing Trends, 1981–2016. (Source: Policy Agendas Project, calculated by the author.)

Each House committee’s trend in the ratio of referred bills that were marked up from 1981 to 2018.

Figure 2-8. House Committee Reported Bills Trends, 1981-2018

From Chapter 2

Fig. 2.8. House Committee Reported Bills Trends, 1981–2018. (Source: THOMAS/Congress.gov, calculated by the author.)

Each Senate committee’s trend in the ratio of referred bills that were marked up from 1981 to 2018.

Figure 2-9. Senate Committee Reported Bills Trends, 1981-2018

From Chapter 2

Fig. 2.9. Senate Committee Reported Bills Trends, 1981–2018. (Source: THOMAS/Congress.gov, calculated by the author.)

Trends in the average number of legislative committee hearing sessions, panels, and witnesses from 1981 to 2012.

Figure 2-10. Average Workload in Legislative Hearings, 1981-2012

From Chapter 2

Fig. 2.10. Average Workload in Legislative Hearings, 1981–2012. (Source: Policy Agendas Project Congressional Hearings dataset, compiled by the author. The 112th Congress was the last complete set of hearings when these data were collected.)

The trend in the percentage of bills referred to multiple House committees from 1981 to 2016.

Figure 3-1. Multiply-Referred Bills in the House of Representatives, 1981-2016

From Chapter 3

Fig. 3.1. Multiply-Referred Bills in the House of Representatives, 1981–2016. (Source: Congressional Bills Project, calculated by the author; the 114th Congress was the last set of data available as of this writing. House Rules Committee data exclude those bills it receives for the purposes of devising a debate rule.)

The average percentage of bills referred to each House committee that also were referred to at least one other committee from 1981 to 2016.

Figure 3-2. Multiply-Referred Bills Across House Committees, 1981-2016

From Chapter 3

Fig. 3.2. Multiply-Referred Bills across House Committees, 1981–2016. (Source: Congressional Bills Project, calculated by the author; the 114th Congress was the last set of data available as of this writing. House Rules Committee data exclude those bills it receives for the purposes of devising a debate rule.)

Each House committee’s trend in the percentage of referred bills that also were referred to at least one other committee from 1981 to 2016.

Figure 3-3. Multiply-Referred Bills for Each House Committee Across Time, 1981-2016

From Chapter 3

Fig. 3.3. Multiply-Referred Bills for Each House Committee across Time, 1981–2016. (Source: Congressional Bills Project and Congress.gov, calculated by the author. House Rules Committee data exclude those bills it receives for the purposes of devising a debate rule.)

The percentage of House debate rules classified as open from 1981 to 2016.

Figure 3-4. Open Debate Rules in the House of Representatives, 1981-2016

From Chapter 3

Fig. 3.4. Open Debate Rules in the House of Representatives, 1981–2016. (Source: Sinclair 2007 [97th–108th Congresses] and Congress.gov [109th–114th Congresses]; the former calculated by Donald Wolfensberger, the latter calculated by the author. The Wolfensberger calculations only refer to “restrictive” rules that include closed, modified closed, and modified open rules in the same statistic.)

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Committees and the Decline of Lawmaking in Congress

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Figure 2-1. Laws Enacted by the U.S. Congress, 1981-2018

Figure 2-2. Committee Hearing Trends, 1981-2016. Panel A: Hearing Counts

Figure 2-2. Committee Hearing Trends, 1981-2016. Panel B: Hearing Proportions

Figure 2-3. Committee Reported Bill Trends, 1981-2018. Panel A: Average Counts of Reported Bills

Figure 2-3. Committee Reported Bill Trends, 1981-2018. Panel A: Average Proportions of Reported Bills

Figure 2-4. Legislative Hearing Ratio Averages, 1981-2016

Figure 2-5. Committee Markup Averages, 1981-2018

Figure 2-6. House Committee Legislative Hearing Trends, 1981-2016

Figure 2-7. Senate Committee Legislative Hearing Trends, 1981-2016

Figure 2-8. House Committee Reported Bills Trends, 1981-2018

Figure 2-9. Senate Committee Reported Bills Trends, 1981-2018

Figure 2-10. Average Workload in Legislative Hearings, 1981-2012

Figure 3-1. Multiply-Referred Bills in the House of Representatives, 1981-2016

Figure 3-2. Multiply-Referred Bills Across House Committees, 1981-2016

Figure 3-3. Multiply-Referred Bills for Each House Committee Across Time, 1981-2016

Figure 3-4. Open Debate Rules in the House of Representatives, 1981-2016

Figure 3-5. Senate Cloture Motions and Majority Party Leader Involvement, 1981-2018

Figure 3-6. Resolving Intercameral Differences Through Conference Committee, 1981-2018

Figure 3-7. Total Subcommittees and Oversight Subcommittees in Congress, 1981-2018

Figure 3-8. Predicted Values for House Legislative Activity, Multiple vs. Primary Referral Era