Meeting Competing Demands: Committee Performance in the Postreform House

Abstract

Theory: A conditional model of committee behavior is proposed to explain variation in committee responsiveness to chamber and party principals. Hypotheses: Committee member behavior is consistent with the preferences of both the floor and the party caucuses; variation in salience explains differences in committee responsiveness to noncommittee colleagues. Methods: Committee-specific votes are scaled to produce spatial locations for committee, floor, party caucuses, and party committee delegations; a Monte Carlo simulation is used to assess the statistical significance of voting alignments. Results: Postreform House committees generally act in a manner acceptable to both the chamber and majority party; the Democratic caucus is frequently represented by extreme committee delegations; members of salient committees are more loyal agents of the chamber and majority party than are members of low salient committees.