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We explore the impact that precongressional careers have on the behavior of new members in the U.S. House of Representatives. Does a former doctor act differently in the House than a former state legislator, lawyer, or businesswoman? Is the former doctor more productive as a new member if assigned to a committee that utilizes his or her perceived and actual experiences in the medical field? We posit that new members who are assigned to committees that align with their career experiences are more active legislators and obtain legislative expertise more quickly than other new members of Congress (MCs), with implications for their future political ambition. To explore these claims, we collected an extensive dataset of the precongressional career experiences of first and second term MCs from the 101st-113th Congresses (1989-2014), their committee assignments, legislative activity, and political ambition. We find that MCs with career-committee congruence have a legislative advantage compared with other new MCs, influencing their transition and trajectory in Congress. Many MCs matched with the right committee are more likely to introduce legislation in their policy area. In addition, we provide some evidence that MCs obtain committee leadership positions more often than their peers without the same early advantage.

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In this study we perform the preparation and characterization of poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA)–added ionic liquid based ion conductors. The polymer electrolyte is incorporated with magnesium triflate [Mg(CF3SO3)2 or MgTf] as salt and 1–butyl–3–methylimidazolium bromide (BmImBr) as an environmental friendly ionic liquid. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) is carried out to investigate the glass transition temperature (Tg ), which is used to study the plasticizing effect of the ionic liquid. The polymer electrolyte with the lowest Tg gives the highest ionic conductivity value of (1.64±0.01) x 10-3 S cm-1 at 60 wt.% of BmImBr. This is attributed to the plasticizing effect of the ionic liquid, which increases the flexibility of the polymer backbone, hence increasing the ionic mobility and segmental motion of the ions. The highest conducting ionic liquid based polymer electrolyte is used to fabricate electrical double layer capacitors (EDLC). The electrochemical potential window is evaluated using linear sweep voltammetry (LSV). Electrochemical capacitance of the EDLC is evaluated through cyclic voltammetry (CV) and galvanostatic charge–discharge (GCD). The electrochemical potential window of ionic liquid–added polymer electrolyte is extended from 1.35 V to 2.6 V. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) proves the improvement in specific capacitance of the electrical double layer capacitors (EDLCs) containing ionic liquid–added polymer electrolyte by increasing the specific capacitance from 1.41 Fg-1 in the ionic liquid free polymer electrolyte to 45.95Fg-1 for the 60 wt% ionic liquid added polymer electrolyte. Keywords: Poly(vinyl alcohol); Ionic liquid; Mg(CF3SO3)2 , EDLC; Capacitance