104th Congress Research Articles

Domestic Support for Foreign Aid: Development Firms and Support for Foreign Aid in the US Congress

In this article, I present a theory of domestic support for foreign aid in the United States, focusing on the role played by American development firms or aid awardees in domestic politics. US Agency for International Development (USAID) delivers foreign aid to recipient countries through contracts with private for-profit development firms and non-profit organizations, most of which originate from America. This article argues that these domestic firms promote domestic support for foreign aid by creating distributional effects and disseminating information through lobbying. This information includes not only the significance of foreign aid but also its distributive benefits to legislators’ districts. Analyzing district-level USAID award data and firm-level lobby data from the 111th to the 115th Congress, I found that the district-level allocation of aid awards is positively associated with the frequency of (co)sponsorship for pro-foreign aid bills.

The Partisan Dimensions of Earmarking in the U.S. House of Representatives

Abstract Passing out federal dollars to specific projects in particular districts had been a popular way for congressional leaders to build large bipartisan majorities for major bills since the very first meeting of Congress. By matching projects to districts, scholars have been able to systematically analyze which members were successful in getting their project funded. But for one year, though, the requests members submitted were never known. Using earmark requests data during the 111th Congress, we can know both the requests and the awards. Knowing the former changes our understanding of the latter. We find that the request process is largely driven by ideology, rather than electoral vulnerability. More moderate Republicans tended to seek more earmarks than their more conservative copartisans; some of whom completely opted out of the process. The effect was the opposite for Democrats, whose moderates requested fewer earmarks. When these requests are taken into consideration, the awarding process appears to be even less partisan than the raw data would suggest, confirming the bipartisan nature of the earmarking process.

What Explains a Representative’s Staffing “Style”? Exploring the Relationship between Congressional Staffing Decisions and Electoral Considerations

Students of legislative politics are divided over the relationship between electoral vulnerability and the type of “home style” members of Congress adopt in terms of their district staffing decisions. The conventional wisdom asserts that an increase in electoral vulnerability corresponds with a legislator increasing the number of district staffers. However, another body of works implies that the inverse relationship should occur. To settle these competing claims, we explore the staffing decisions of legislators serving in the House of Representatives between the 101st and 113th Congress. We find that an increase in electoral vulnerability is associated with a decrease in district staffers. These results cast doubt on the widely held view that a legislator’s electoral vulnerability results in an increase in district attentiveness at least in terms of their district staff. Additionally, our findings provide several insights into the relationship between elections and representation.

Information Infrastructures for Black-Interest Advocacy in Congress

Information is one of the most prized commodities in the legislative decision-making process. However, gaining access to high quality information through traditional institutional means in decreasing, and institutional and interpersonal marginalization puts Black lawmakers at a distinct disadvantage. This article explains how Black lawmakers rely on extra-party institutions to fulfill the desire for information when the institution falls short. In fulfilling this responsibility as the key source of information on conditions that plague the Black community, the organization has developed an information infrastructure—a combination of internal and external mechanisms designed to improve their research and informational capacity. To highlight the utility of the information infrastructure, we examine Special Order Hour Speeches delivered from the 113th through the 115th Congress (2013–2018). We find, the CBC information infrastructure provides its members access to highly specialized information without having to sacrifice the quality of sources to account for information search costs.

Opportunities for Legislative Influence? Latinos and Committee Participation in the U.S. Congress

In this article, I look at how differences in committee participation help further explain the way Latinos are represented in Congress. I examine levels of participation in four committees in the House of Representatives for the 109th–112th Congresses. I find that Latino committee members participate at greater levels when high Latino saliency legislation is considered, but overall they do not engage in greater committee activity compared to non-Latino members. I also find that a higher percentage of Latinos in a district leads to greater levels of activity among committee members, especially when considering high Latino saliency bills. The results show that Latinos receive substantive representation in committees via district composition, but that descriptive representation is relative and not absolute. These findings may speak to the continued lack of Latino institutional power and the tradeoffs Latino members must consider when deciding where and when to invest legislative effort. Furthermore, the results underscore the importance of institutional context in assessing the link between descriptive and substantive representation.

Abstentions and Social Networks in Congress

We study the extent to which personal connections among legislators influence abstentions in the US Congress. Our analysis is conducted by observing representatives’ abstentions for the universe of roll call votes held on bills in the 109th–113th Congresses. Our results show that a legislator’s propensity to abstain increases when the majority of his or her alumni connections abstains, even after controlling for other well-known predictors of abstention choices and a large set of fixed effects. We further reveal that a legislator is more prone to abstain than to take sides when the demands from personal connections conflict with those of the legislator’s party.

Tweeting for Latinos? Legislative Communication in the 115th U.S. House of Representatives

This article explores whether legislators in the U.S. House of Representatives talk about the issues important to Latinos on Twitter. Other work has emphasized the importance of descriptive representation for the substantive advancement of the interests of minority constituents. Building on that work, I argue that Latino legislators are more likely than their non-Latino peers to discuss issues important to the Latino community. In addition, given majoritarian constraints and work showing how minority legislators are marginalized in the legislative process, I argue that minority legislators – Latinos included – are more likely to post symbolic messages than their colleagues because they are not able to change the status quo and advance the interests of their co-ethnic/racial constituents. I explore these hypotheses using data collected from the Twitter profiles of members of the 115th U.S. House of Representatives. After accounting for other factors, I find that Latino legislators are more likely to post about immigration and Hurricane Maria during the 115th Congress. I also find that Latino legislators are more likely to post symbolic messages when communicating with the public. Both of these findings corroborate the notion of minority distinctiveness and add to our understanding of Latino representation, minority behavior, and legislative communication.

The 104th Congress of the Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society

The 104th Congress of the Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society

Different Chambers, Divergent Rhetoric: Institutional Differences and Policy Representation on Social Media

For the past decade, members of both the House and Senate have increasingly used Twitter to curate a political agenda, but some are better equipped to drive digital policy conversations—even on a public platform with few constraints, low costs, and outsized user discretion. This research note explores the variable digital representation between congressional chambers, using tweets from the 115th Congress to illustrate asymmetric patterns in lawmakers’ rhetorical agendas on Twitter and the role of policy for self-presentation. Senators tweet more frequently, more often about policy, and represent a more diverse agenda on the platform. In this note, we suggest senators’ additional resources and incentives for policy expertise shape important differences in digital engagement, illustrating the prevailing importance of institutional nuance for understanding how lawmakers use Twitter to frame their political reputations.

The 104th Congress of the Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society

The 104th Congress of the Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society

Using social media to understand constituent and follower opinions: impact of “low quality” on US Senator information gathering

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to understand why some US Senators have more low-quality followers than others and the potential impact of low-quality followers on understanding constituent preferences.Design/methodology/approachFor each US Senator, data on Twitter followers was matched with demographic characteristics proven to influence behavior. An OLS regression model evaluated why some Senators attract more low-quality followers than others. Then, observations on the impact of low-quality followers were discussed along with potential effects on information gathering and constituent representation.FindingsThis study finds that total followers, ideology and length of time on Twitter are all significant predictors of whether a Senator might attract low-quality followers. Low-quality followers can have wide-ranging implications on Senator’s use of social media data to represent constituents and develop public policy.Research limitations/implicationsThe data set only includes Senators from the 115th Congress (2017–2018). As such, future research could expand the data to include additional Senators or members of the House of Representatives.Practical implicationsInformation is essential in any decision-making environment, including legislatures. Understanding why some users, particularly public opinion leaders, attract more low-quality social media followers could help decision-makers better understand where information is coming from and how they might choose to evaluates its content.Social implicationsThis study finds two practical implications for public opinion leaders, including Senators. First, accounts must be actively monitored to identify and weed-out low-quality followers. Second, users need to be wary of disinformation and misinformation and they need to develop strategies to identify and eliminate it from the collection of follower preferences.Originality/valueThis study uses a unique data set to understand why some Senators have more low-quality followers than others and the impact on information gathering. Other previous studies have not addressed this issue in the context of governmental decision-making or constituent representation.

Accommodating the "Low-Income" in a Cash-Flow or Consumed Income Tax World

I presented an outline of this paper to a meeting of the Tax Structure and Simplification Committee of the Tax Section of the American Bar Association in August, 1993, and a draft of the paper to a University of Virginia law school workshop.Copyright © 1995 by George K. Yin. All rights reserved.This article concerns a tax policy issue of keen current interest: the possible replacement of the income tax with a broad-based tax on consumption. The leadership of the new 104th Congress has promised early scrutiny of consumption tax proposals.The weak link of most consumption tax plans relates to how they would distribute the tax burden across income classes. Critics charge that consumption taxes are regressive or at least not as progressive as the existing income tax. Many theorists believe, however, that one form of broad-based consumption tax, a cash-flow or consumed income tax, is immune to such criticism because it is an individualized consumption tax and could be implemented in a manner very similar to the income tax. Supporters of the cash-flow tax assert that it is flexible enough to attain any desired degree of progressivity.In this article, I examine that proposition. Focusing on the impact of the cash-flow tax on low-income taxpayers, I conclude that it would be surprisingly difficult to fashion a cash-flow tax as redistributive at the lower end of the income scale as the current income tax system while still preserving the asserted advantages of the cash-flow tax. Although it may still be advisable to move towards a cash-flow tax system, it is important for policymakers to recognize the inherent limitations of such a system for achieving progressivity at the lower end of the income spectrum.

The 104th Congress of the Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society

The 104th Congress of the Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society

The 104th Congress of the Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society

The 104th Congress of the Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society

Biopharmaceutical patent protection vs. generic drug competition: Traversing the public policy tightrope

The Support Technology & Research for Our Nation's Growth and Economic Resilience (STRONGER) Patents Act, introduced in the 115th Congress, focuses on inter partes review (IPR) and post-grant review (PGR) proceedings that challenge patent validity at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Patent Trial and Appeals Board (PTAB). Quinn, Brachmann, Malone, and Morinville (2018) evaluated patent data for the PTAB covering the first five plus years (through 2017) of the PTAB's operations, and calculate an 82.5% defect rate, i.e., where at least one patent claim is determined invalid and thus the invention not patentable. This finding could signal serious problems either with patent examination quality at the USPTO or with an aggressive PTAB. For recommended future research, further analysis of more recent (2018–21) patent-related validity data should be undertaken, as well as investigating the impact of the recently enacted CREATES Act on the relative strength of biopharmaceutical patent protection.

Analyzing Congressional Research Service Reports on Education: How Is Information Used at Congress’s Think Tank?

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is the nonpartisan research and analytical arm of the U.S. Congress and is physically and structurally located within the Library of Congress. Despite the role of CRS as a critical information provider and technical assistant to actors crafting and implementing federal policy, CRS reports, which serve as a key mechanism of information dissemination and influence by the organization, only became widely available to the public following the adoption of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018. This study uses content analysis to examine CRS’s education-related reports from the 115th Congress to explore what sources are directly and indirectly informing federal policymaking based on references in CRS reports. Findings offer insights into research utilization in the federal education policy process and contribute to the growing literature on intermediary organizations and knowledge brokering.

Invited Perspective: How Can Studies of Chemical Mixtures and Human Health Guide Interventions and Policy?

Invited Perspective: How Can Studies of Chemical Mixtures and Human Health Guide Interventions and Policy?

Persuasive Action and Ideological Polarization in Congress

AbstractWhat drives polarized voting in Congress? This article develops a persuasive action model which argues that polarization in Congress depends on the assertive capacities of social movements, the vulnerability of political officials, and the partisanship of the environments they represent. Using multilevel analyses, I demonstrate that endorsements by the Tea Party movement influenced an increase in extreme (conservative) voting among legislators in the 112th Congress. These effects are strongest for vulnerable, freshman legislators representing amenable Republican contexts.

The Personal is Political: Reconsidering the Impact of Scandals on Congressional Incumbents

While a number of studies reveal that incumbent members of the House of Representatives are adversely affected by scandal, rarely do these studies analyze a scandal’s impact both on election outcomes and the decision to run for reelection. Studies of retirements in particular, moreover, rarely analyze separately the effects of private (i.e., sex and other moral scandals) and public (i.e., corruption and procedural) scandals or consider media coverage of the scandal. This research proposes that members of Congress involved in private and public scandals will be more likely to retire and win a smaller percentage of the vote than members not involved in a scandal, that private scandals will be more impactful than public scandals, and that the higher level of media coverage further harms an incumbent’s congressional career. Also explored is whether the consequences of sex and other scandals were greater for accused members in the 115th Congress than in past Congresses because of heighted awareness and attention to sexual assault in the workplace since the 2016 presidential election and subsequent #MeToo campaign. From data collected over 10 Congresses (106th–115th Congresses) and elections (2000 through 2018), the results show that incumbents who are involved in a sex scandal or other private scandal are substantially more likely to retire than members not involved in a scandal but that public scandals do not matter. In addition, both sex scandals and corruption scandals reduce the incumbent’s vote share in the general election but that sex scandals matter slightly more. Higher media coverage affects both the decision to retire and the share of the vote. There is no evidence of a more pronounced direct effect of sex scandals on retirement decisions in the 115th Congress and scandals more generally on the share of the vote in the 2018 elections.

The Effects of High‐Information Environments on Legislative Behavior in the US House of Representatives

I show in this article how changes in the information environment have contributed to the nationalization of legislative behavior. Access to technologies like broadband have eroded local news media resources and led to a more partisan electorate. As such, increased connectivity causes legislators to prioritize national interests over the interests of their constituencies, behavior that is traditionally seen as an electoral liability. I use data on the rollout of broadband to relate changes in the information environment faced by legislators due to the 2002 redistricting to their behavior. I find that legislators who faced more informationally connected environments post‐redistricting voted more in line with their parties, the president, and aligned interest groups. The results are robust to a specification examining within‐member changes in the 108th–111th Congresses. Taken together, these results provide strong evidence that a major contributor to the increasing nationalization of politics is the expansion of access to information.