Members Of House Research Articles

Explaining Final Term Changes in US Congressional Foreign Travel

Recent scholarship demonstrates US legislators acquire human capital (that is, contacts, knowledge, and skills) in Congress that maximises post-elective earnings because they anticipate re-entering the labour market after leaving office. This literature has not, however, addressed how legislators’ expectations of entering specific professions affect their in-office activities. This article examines this question within the context of final term, employment-particular changes in House members’ foreign travel. Representatives entering the private sector are predicted to travel more in the last period to augment their human capital in foreign affairs and signal their expertise to prospective employers, while retiring legislators are expected to travel less because they lack incentives to maintain productivity levels. Analysis supports the former but not the latter prediction.

Congressional Representation in an International Crisis: Position-Taking and Explanation on Syria Intervention

This research explores House members’ and senators’ decisions about announcing explaining positions on the president’s military intervention plans through the lens of responses to the 2013 Syria chemical-weapons crisis. Analysis of newly assembled data on members’ Syria positions shows that the parties differed sharply in their response; in addition, ideological extremism in the chamber and constituency opinion were both important predictors of members announcing opposition, while Senate membership, seniority, and centrism in the party predicted announcements of support. A supplementary analysis of the vote on arming Syrian rebels in 2014 reveals parallel patterns. Finally, members split in their approach to explaining their Syria positions, with opponents leaning heavily on arguments about the president and constituency opinion and supporters offering issue-focused explanations. Overall, the Syria case shows that choices over presidential military intervention paralleled the partisan and constituency-driven divisions in recent domestic politics, and it also sheds light on the strategic decisions about position explanation on a very salient issue.

Life before Congress: Using Precongressional Experience to Assess Competing Explanations for Political Professionalism

Scholars have extensively studied career development inside the US House. The political experiences of House members before their election to Congress have received less scrutiny. What work has been done relies on imprecise measures which suggest that members’ political experiences have changed little over time. Using original data, I show that the amount of time spent in public office during the precongressional career increased by more than 40% between 1870 and 1944. To explain this increase, I review competing explanations for career development inside the House and use matching to estimate their impact on precongressional political experience. I find that two electoral system reforms—the Australian ballot and nominating primary—were major drivers of increasing precongressional political experience. These findings indicate that political professionalism was pervasive during this period and powerfully shaped by institutions that encourage members to emphasize their personal credentials rather than party affiliation.

A longitudinal test of the gender turnover model among U.S. House and Senate members

This study builds on previous research by examining the impact of gender when predicting roll call voting behavior in the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate over several recent congresses. In order to unearth gender effects, it employs a longitudinal design based on turnover in the membership of both the House and the Senate. Through a comparison of the voting records of members of Congress representing the same geographic territory it holds constituency constantly while allowing for gender and party to vary. It does so with models including dependent variables that measure roll call ideology and support for women's issues exhibited in the voting records of members in both institutions. The results show that male and female members in each chamber representing the same constituency amass virtually indistinguishable voting records on the liberal-conservative policy dimension. However, on votes dealing with issues of concern to women, female senators tend to be more supportive than the male senators they replace and male senators tend to be less supportive than the female senators they replace.

Elections and Divisiveness: Theory and Evidence

We analyze the effort allocation choices of incumbent politicians when voters are uncertain about politician preferences. There is a pervasive incentive to posture'' by over-providing effort to pursue divisive policies, even if all voters would strictly prefer to have a consensus policy implemented. As such, the desire of politicians to convince voters that their preferences are aligned with the majority of the electorate can lead them to choose strictly pareto dominated effort allocations. Transparency over the politicians' effort choices can either mitigate or re-enforce the distortions depending on the strength of politicians' office motivation and the capacity for the holder of the office in question to effect change. When re-election concerns are paramount transparency about effort choices can be bad for both incentivizing politicians to exert effort on socially efficient tasks and for allowing voters to select congruent politicians. We take our theoretical results to the data with an empirical analysis of how U.S. Congressmen allocate time across issues. Consistent with the theory, we find evidence of political posturing due to elections (among U.S. Senators) and due to higher transparency (among U.S. House Members).

APhA names 2015 Immunization Champions

The APhA Immunization Champion Awards recognize individuals and organizations in the pharmacy profession, and friends and allies of pharmacy, who have made outstanding efforts to improve vaccination rates within their communities.

Freedom House: A Rich History and a Continuing Legacy: An Interview with George Mccary

This interview with George McCary was conducted by Associate Professor Brett Williams in 2014. I first came to learn about Freedom House from one of my US colleagues Dave Page. I guess what struck me most about this amazing story was that it seemed very little was known about the early work of Freedom House and how this played a part in the professionalisation of the US pre-hospital system. In many ways, it is these types of historical examples that are critical in understanding our discipline as we forge towards becoming a legitimate health care profession. I wonder if there are other similar examples in Australia or other parts in the world? I would like to acknowledge Dave Page for allowing me to meet a number of the original members of Freedom House and being able to arrange an interview with George McCary while I was in Pittsburgh. This interview will be followed by invited commentaries from Professor Walt Stoy, University of Pittsburgh and Professor Peter O'Meara, La Trobe University.

Leadership Styles of Oxford House Officers.

Oxford House recovery homes are unusual compared to most recovery homes in that they function entirely without the use of staff; instead members are elected to officer positions. The aim of this study was to perform preliminary analysis of the types of leadership styles utilized by members of oxford house. Twentynine house residents of five Oxford Houses were asked to rate their own leadership styles using the leader behavior description questionnaire and the multifactor leader questionnaire. Results showed that participants were more likely to use person-oriented behaviors above task-oriented actions. Transformational leadership was associated with higher outcomes than Transactional leadership. Implications for future research are discussed.

What is it to do good medical ethics? From the perspective of a practising doctor who is in Parliament

This article is a personal reflection on work as a physician with work as a member of the UK Parliament's House of Lords. Ethical thinking should underpin everything we do;...

배출자 직접 계량방식에 의한 가정계 생활폐기물 발생량 조사

Generator’s direct weighing method was applied for investigation of household waste generation. At least 28 days, each household member measured and recorded the weight of garbage discharged with plastic garbage bag, food waste, and recyclable waste. Collected garbage record books were used as input data in Microsoft Excel, and statistical analysis were done with Minitab 16 software. By generator’s direct weighing method for household waste generation, garbage discharged by plastic bag, food waste, and recyclable waste were 130.5, 98.2, and 187.9 g/capita/day, respectively. Difference in averages of per capita garbage discharge between Seoul, Gyeonggi, Incheon, and Chungbuk were no statistically significant. And as the number of house member decrease, per capita garbage discharge increase numerically, but there was no statistically significant.

Semiotika Atribut Sebagai Pesan Komunikasi: Studi Kasus Atribut Ibu Anggota DPR RI

Research aims to know denotative and connotative meaning of the attributes used by female members of House of Representatives as an integrated signifier and signified in their appeance. In terms of the research context “performance” was “sign” itself, by seeking the new structure existing in the attribute of their appearance. Attribute denotative meaning is the overall objects seemed. Connotative meaning is the meaning existing fits to the context of local culture, within it loads particular human being expression individually. The method used in the study is inductive-posteriori-explorative-qualitative, with a case study using semiotic analysis of communication led to internalization of the researcher towards the phenomenon of attributes used by the female members of the House of Representatives. The choice and use of attributes in each appearance can be used to give impressions used an anchor by the researcher to provide further interpretation of the attributes worn. This study took the paradigm theory of Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles Sanders Peirce to see through its problems in the field. The result is Saussure’s view is able to reconstruct all objects visible to the researcher. Similarly, Peirce's view has three major characteristics that are capable of being a mirror to see the reality in the field. The results showed an attempt to reconstruct the understanding of semiotics and attributes as a form of nonverbal communication message. The study concludes the denotative meaning of attributes can provide communication and connotative message over the attributes used by female members of the Parliament.

How Lame are Lame Ducks?

A lame duck session of Congress occurs when legislators meet after an election has been held but before the next Congress has taken office. Lame duck sessions are often criticized by the victorious party in the election, and a common critique is that the lame duck members — undisciplined by electoral constraints — vote irresponsibly. There are subtle but statistically significant differences between voting patterns in regular and lame duck sessions, as revealed by analysis of over 50,000 House and Senate roll call votes.During a lame duck session, members are slightly less likely to side with their own parties and less likely to vote at all. These patterns persist in very lame duck sessions — those that take place following the loss of majority status within a single house. In these sessions, however, a new pattern emerges: House members become more likely to cast bipartisan votes and Senators become less likely to do so. Beyond these voting patterns, it is difficult to say whether members vote more or less “responsibly” during lame duck sessions of Congress. Our analysis supports the primary findings of the existing literature on lame ducks. Past studies have found lame duck legislators to be less likely to indulge most special interests, but others suggest they may be more likely to indulge one particular special interest: their next employers. In this study, we explain how incentives change for lame duck legislators, briefly review past research on lame ducks, and present our statistical findings that support and add to the existing literature.

Programming in Network Exchanges

Abstract This article asks whether or not Manuel Castells's (2009) programming , or the act of setting the goals and values of a network, influences the rhetorical and compositional potential of networked writing. The author argues that as networked writing becomes more prevalent, researchers must investigate not only the ways in which traditional rhetoric and writing present themselves within networks, but also the particular features of networks that uniquely determine the rhetorical impact of the form, or, as Ian Bogost (2007) put it, “how inscription works” within networks (p. 24). The case study for answering this question is a network exchange that occurred on Twitter in July 2008 after a sitting U.S. congressman stated that the leadership of the House of Representatives was attempting to censor the use of social media by House members. The author examines the over 1,700 messages in this exchange to determine both the nature of this network's program as well as if this program affected the rhetorical and compositional features of the exchange.

Capitol Hill Fellowship Gives Resident Insider’s View of Legislative Process

Back to table of contents Previous article ViewpointsFull AccessCapitol Hill Fellowship Gives Resident Insider’s View of Legislative ProcessEllyn Johnson, M.D.Ellyn JohnsonSearch for more papers by this author, M.D.Published Online:26 Sep 2014https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2014.10a29It’s been a pleasure and a privilege to serve as the 2014 APA Jeanne Spurlock Congressional Fellow the last six months. The fellowship provides psychiatry residents, fellows, and early career psychiatrists an opportunity to work in a congressional office on federal health policy.The fellowship was created in honor of the late Jeanne Spurlock, M.D., who was an APA deputy medical director and head of the Office of Minority and National Affairs, as well as a staunch advocate for children and minorities. My fellowship experience gave me the opportunity to serve on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) Subcommittee on Personnel. The fellowship started with lots of background reading on the current reorganization of the military health system, which culminated in a hearing on this topic. I wrote the educational background material for the committee members, the opening remarks of the subcommittee chair, and many of the questions posed to the witnesses. I served as the subject-matter expert during meetings with medical special-interest groups pursuing a relationship with the Department of Defense (DoD) or seeking TRICARE coverage of specific therapeutic modalities. I was surprised at how often I was called on to review the evidence base of therapeutic modalities that had grabbed the attention of members of Congress. This showed me the importance of a well-organized political action strategy to get your issues taken seriously by elected officials. Although my recommendations weren’t always accepted, lawmakers appreciated the presence of a neutral physician able to translate the medical literature into lay terms, especially in the area of mental health treatment. In light of the committee’s oversight function, we had many briefings with DoD and the military services’ leaders around their efforts on suicide prevention, improvment of the Armed Forces’ mental health overall, sexual-assault response and prevention, the opening of combat positions to women, and more efficient collaboration with the Veterans Administration, among other topics. Each fiscal year, the HASC is responsible for passing the National Defense Authorization Act, which sets DoD policy as a companion to the annual appropriations bill that releases funding for defense spending. As the bill cycle heated up, I focused on reviewing and giving recommendations on proposed health care legislative provisions, many of which focused on military mental health. I received a priceless education in diplomacy as I discussed my concerns and recommendations with House members’ staffs and sought compromises that stayed as true as possible to the medical literature in the setting of complex political considerations. My time on the HASC really challenged my clinical and research interpretation skills in ways I did not expect. I also wrote many health-related parts of the bill, including spotlighting the forward-thinking suicide and resilience research that the Army is currently conducting. The bill recently passed the House.The mentoring and guidance I received during my fellowship was unmatched. Working under the direction of committee staff, I fully participated in all subcommittee activities and was accepted as a member of the team.Congressional staff are far more accessible and interested in their constituents then they receive credit for. We had meetings and gave professional recommendations regardless of political affiliation or personal views. My eyes were opened to how powerful special-interest lobbies can be, not from the backroom deals seen on television, but by organized grassroots efforts energized by a common issue. There is no excuse for psychiatrists, and all mental health care providers, to be politically inactive on the local, state, and national levels. Lawmakers need mental health care experts to inform policymaking, and our patients need political advocates. I challenge you to become politically active through APA, your district branch, and the APA Political Action Committee (APAPAC). I want to give special thanks to the staff in the Department of Government Relations and my subcommittee staff leader for her generous mentorship and teaching. ■Ellyn Johnson, M.D., was a resident at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University when she began her fellowship and is now on active duty in the U.S. Air Force. ISSUES NewArchived

A study of the social acceptability of a proposal to improve the thermal comfort of a traditional dwelling

Traditional dwellings in the wooded hills and mountains in the vicinity of Mexico City are wooden cabins with very little thermal insulation. A modest change in the internal roof construction was trialed in order to improve thermal comfort. Modelling showed a modest improvement in thermal comfort could be expected. The experimental cabin was used as a show house and community members were invited to stay overnight and subsequently surveyed to obtain their appreciation of the experience. Community surveys to find out attitudes to environmental issues were also carried out and the potential acceptance of the improved cabin design.

통계자료를 이용한 주택부문의 에너지소비량 원단위 산정방법 - 공동주택을 중심으로 -

Validate energy saving performance and consumption rate for residential sector, the energy consumption units is very useful to provide different ranking criteria. From this reason, energy consumption units is derived from the statistics survey data that reflected by occupant's life style and the corresponding residential appliances. Additionally, time use survey data that sequence of activities in household members are collected with time diaries providing a multi faceted material and considered to calculate for energy consumption. The overall energy consumption units found in simulation data is well described by the statistic document and the difference of electricity use was showed between 1.3% and 5.9% associated with house members. Moreover, the heating energy consumption units is reached about 88% for statistic data and literature.

Parlamentares, representação política e redes sociais digitais:

O objetivo do artigo é refletir sobre as formas de uso do Twitter por parte dos parlamentares com mandato vigente na Câmara dos Deputados durante a Legislatura 2011-2015. Pretende-se investigar que fatores levam os representantes a investirem no Twitter como parte de sua estratégia de comunicação política. São examinados os perfis públicos dos 463 deputados com registro no microblog. Tais contas foram monitoradas semanalmente (entre fevereiro e julho de 2012), a partir do software de estatística "R". Os resultados apontam correlações entre o uso da ferramenta e atributos como idade e ocupação de cargos de liderança.

Policymakers' horizon and trade reforms: The protectionist effect of elections

This paper shows that electoral incentives deter politicians from supporting trade liberalization. We focus on all major trade liberalization bills introduced since the early 1970s in the U.S. Congress, in which House and Senate members serve respectively two- and six-year terms and one third of senators face elections every two years. We show that senators are more likely to support trade liberalization than House representatives. However, this result does not hold for the last generation of senators, who face elections at the same time as House members, suggesting that inter-cameral differences are driven by term length. Considering senators alone, we find that the last generation is less likely to support trade liberalization than the previous two. This result is pervasive and holds both when comparing the behavior of different senators voting on the same bill and that of individual senators voting on different bills. The protectionist effect of election proximity disappears for senators who are retiring or hold safe seats.

Congressmen in the age of social network sites: Brazilian representatives and Twitter use

This paper investigates the factors that influence how members of the Brazilian House of Representatives adopt Twitter as part of their political communication strategy. Our intention is to understand the main variables that lead legislators to invest time and resources in microblogging. This quantitative study examined all of the 457 official congressional accounts registered on Twitter. These accounts were monitored weekly between February 2012 and February 2013. After empirically exploring the data, this work reflects on the results thanks in part to an examination of the literature on the intersection of the Internet and politics. The results indicate correlations between the use of Twitter and attributes like age and occupation of leadership positions.

The Members of The Lower House of Representatives, The Imperial Diet of Japan, and Those from Colonial Joseon in the 1910s

The Members of The Lower House of Representatives, The Imperial Diet of Japan, and Those from Colonial Joseon in the 1910s