Committees And The Decline Of Lawmaking In Congress
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Author |
: Jonathan Lewallen |
Publisher |
: University of Michigan Press |
Total Pages |
: 191 |
Release |
: 2020-08-04 |
ISBN-10 |
: 9780472132065 |
ISBN-13 |
: 0472132067 |
Rating |
: 4/5 (65 Downloads) |
Synopsis Committees and the Decline of Lawmaking in Congress by : Jonathan Lewallen
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.
Author |
: James L. Sundquist |
Publisher |
: Brookings Institution Press |
Total Pages |
: 513 |
Release |
: 2002-09-13 |
ISBN-10 |
: 9780815723646 |
ISBN-13 |
: 0815723644 |
Rating |
: 4/5 (46 Downloads) |
Synopsis The Decline and Resurgence of Congress by : James L. Sundquist
"Solid ground for optimism as well as cause for foreboding." So James L. Sundquist views the outcome of the struggle by the Congress in the 1970s to recapture powers and responsibilities that in preceding decades it had surrendered to a burgeoning presidency. The resurgence of the Congress began in 1973, in its historic constitutional clash with President Nixon. For half a century before that time, the Congress had acquiesced in its own decline vis-à-vis the presidency, or had even initiated it, by building the presidential office as the center of leadership and coordination in the U.S. government and organizing itself not to initiate and lead but to react and follow. But the angry confrontation with President Nixon in the winter of 1972-73 galvanized the Congress to seek to regain what it considered its proper place in the constitutional scheme. Within a short period, it had created a new congressional budget process, prohibited impoundment of appropriated funds, enacted the War Powers Resolution, intensified oversight of the executive, extended the legislative veto over a wide range of executive actions, and vastly expanded its staff resources. The Decline and Resurgence of Congress, after reviewing relations between president and Congress over two centuries, traces the long series of congressional decisions that created the modern presidency and relates these to certain weaknesses that the Congress recognized in itself. It then recounts the events that marked the years of resurgence and evaluates the results. Finally, it analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of the new Congress and appraises its potential for leadership and coordination.
Author |
: Timothy M. LaPira |
Publisher |
: University of Chicago Press |
Total Pages |
: 341 |
Release |
: 2020-12-21 |
ISBN-10 |
: 9780226702605 |
ISBN-13 |
: 022670260X |
Rating |
: 4/5 (05 Downloads) |
Synopsis Congress Overwhelmed by : Timothy M. LaPira
Congress today is falling short. Fewer bills, worse oversight, and more dysfunction. But why? In a new volume of essays, the contributors investigate an underappreciated reason Congress is struggling: it doesn’t have the internal capacity to do what our constitutional system requires of it. Leading scholars chronicle the institutional decline of Congress and the decades-long neglect of its own internal investments in the knowledge and expertise necessary to perform as a first-rate legislature. Today’s legislators and congressional committees have fewer—and less expert and experienced—staff than the executive branch or K Street. This leaves them at the mercy of lobbyists and the administrative bureaucracy. The essays in Congress Overwhelmed assess Congress’s declining capacity and explore ways to upgrade it. Some provide broad historical scope. Others evaluate the current decay and investigate how Congress manages despite the obstacles. Collectively, they undertake the most comprehensive, sophisticated appraisal of congressional capacity to date, and they offer a new analytical frame for thinking about—and improving—our underperforming first branch of government.
Author |
: Jonathan Lewallen |
Publisher |
: University of Michigan Press |
Total Pages |
: 0 |
Release |
: 2020-08-14 |
ISBN-10 |
: 0472126997 |
ISBN-13 |
: 9780472126996 |
Rating |
: 4/5 (97 Downloads) |
Synopsis Committees and the Decline of Lawmaking in Congress by : Jonathan Lewallen
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.
Author |
: Steven S. Smith |
Publisher |
: |
Total Pages |
: 276 |
Release |
: 1990 |
ISBN-10 |
: UOM:39015018527963 |
ISBN-13 |
: |
Rating |
: 4/5 (63 Downloads) |
Synopsis Committees in Congress by : Steven S. Smith
Author |
: Lauros Grant McConachie |
Publisher |
: |
Total Pages |
: 466 |
Release |
: 1898 |
ISBN-10 |
: UCAL:$B269779 |
ISBN-13 |
: |
Rating |
: 4/5 (79 Downloads) |
Synopsis Congressional Committees by : Lauros Grant McConachie
Author |
: Jonathan Lewallen |
Publisher |
: University of Michigan Press |
Total Pages |
: 191 |
Release |
: 2020-08-14 |
ISBN-10 |
: 9780472126996 |
ISBN-13 |
: 0472126997 |
Rating |
: 4/5 (96 Downloads) |
Synopsis Committees and the Decline of Lawmaking in Congress by : Jonathan Lewallen
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.
Author |
: Jonathan Daniel Lewallen |
Publisher |
: |
Total Pages |
: 292 |
Release |
: 2017 |
ISBN-10 |
: OCLC:990311462 |
ISBN-13 |
: |
Rating |
: 4/5 (62 Downloads) |
Synopsis You Better Find Something to Do by : Jonathan Daniel Lewallen
The U.S. Congress has significantly curtailed its lawmaking activities in recent years, and many commentators, scholars, and legislators themselves point to a decline in the institution’s output. Two trends blur this focus. First, the number of substantive (non-commemorative) laws enacted by Congress did not significantly decline until very recently. Second, that the roots of this decline have been growing for several decades, in the committee system. Data from 1981 to 2012 show that congressional committees have significantly shifted their activity towards oversight and other non-legislative policymaking at the expense of advancing legislation. Congressional committees act as Congress’s agenda setting capacity by determining what issues the institution can and will address and how it does so. Any explanation for a decline in congressional lawmaking, therefore, must begin with committees. I develop a theory of committee policymaking in this dissertation based on the limited agenda space decisionmakers face. Making policy through legislative or non-legislative means involves opportunity costs, and committees face uncertainty about whether their legislative work will bear fruit. With this theory as a guide, I test three explanations for the longitudinal shift in committee activity away from legislation. While current and former members of Congress, commentators, and other observers blame political gridlock and an expanding executive branch, I find that changes made to the legislative process itself have altered the incentives for committees to compete for agenda space and make policy through legislation. Members of both parties have centralized agenda setting responsibilities under party leaders over the last three decades, which has altered the contours and availability of legislative authority. My findings have important implications for Congress’s role in the policy process and how scholars and citizens evaluate the institution, including the importance of committee incentives and capacity for congressional agenda setting.
Author |
: John V. Sullivan |
Publisher |
: |
Total Pages |
: 72 |
Release |
: 2007 |
ISBN-10 |
: PURD:32754073527669 |
ISBN-13 |
: |
Rating |
: 4/5 (69 Downloads) |
Synopsis How Our Laws are Made by : John V. Sullivan
Author |
: Bryan William Marshall |
Publisher |
: University of Michigan Press |
Total Pages |
: 325 |
Release |
: 2021-09-16 |
ISBN-10 |
: 9780472038824 |
ISBN-13 |
: 0472038826 |
Rating |
: 4/5 (24 Downloads) |
Synopsis The Committee by : Bryan William Marshall
A deftly crafted insider account of how congressional committees really work, updated for 2021