11. Committee Composition in the Absence of a Strong Speaker

Hartog, Chris Den; Goodman, Craig A.

doi:10.1515/9781503626478-014

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“…Second, histories of the period have consistently identified a "partisan imperative" as the paramount force shaping legislative behavior (Silbey 1991), and a few previous studies have applied this logic to specific examples of House committee composition (Silbey 1989;Jenkins and Nokken 2000;Den Hartog and Goodman 2007). This suggests a third hypothesis: that Speakers were more likely to grant requests submitted by, or relating to, members of their own party than their opponents.…”

Section: Theory and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Evidently despite the greater turnover in Congressional membership during this period, Speakers were generally expected to be competent to judge the partisan qualifications of applicants. The fact that all three of the exceptions cited above involved requests for high-ranking committees may also suggest, as Den Hartog and Goodman (2007) have asserted, that more weight was assigned to a record of party loyalty in assignments to those committees likely to produce significant legislative outputs.…”

Section: Analysis: Success Ratementioning

confidence: 99%

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“Mr. Cobb Knows Nothing About Architecture”: Committee Assignment Requests in the Pre-Civil War US House of Representatives

Peart

2020

Congress & the Presidency

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Using letters addressed to two Speakers -James K. Polk (TN), 24 th -25 th Congresses, and Nathaniel P. Banks (MA), 34 th Congress -, this article examines committee assignment requests in the pre-Civil War House of Representatives. It begins by outlining the circumstances which concentrated enormous power over assignments in the hands of the Speaker. It then draws on existing literature on the modern House to propose several hypotheses, before explaining the challenges of applying conventional research methods to the collection and study of nineteenthcentury data. That data is then analyzed to calculate the success rate of requests, rank committees by their attractiveness, and categorize the motives which drove members to seek a particular assignment. The article finds certain basic continuities with the modern House in these three aspects of the committee allocation process, and suggests explanations for the most striking discontinuities. AcknowledgementsThe author would like to thank the editorial staff at Congress & the Presidency for their support, the six anonymous readers who provided detailed and constructive feedback on this article in various incarnations, without the benefit of which it could never have been published, and also Matthew Barnfield for sharing his knowledge of disciplinary conventions. "Mr. Cobb knows nothing about architecture": Committee assignment requests in the pre-Civil War US House of Representatives "Availing myself of your kind suggestion I take the liberty of expressing to you my desire in regard to the Committee on which I may be placed," wrote Rep. John McKeon (NY) to the newly-elected Speaker of the House of Representatives James K. Polk (TN) in December 1835. McKeon's preference was for Foreign Affairs,because his New York city constituency "has a great interest in the questions which will be brought before that Committee." Conversely, he was keen to avoid "either the P.[ost] Office committee or that on claims." McKeon acknowledged "the difficult task" which devolved upon Polk "in making out your Committees," and promised that "whatever location may be assigned to me I shall endeavour to discharge the duties of the place to the best of my ability." Nonetheless, he added, "I am aware from experience that the comfort of legislative life greatly depends on a members location on committees and while on the one hand there are positions to be desired, on the other there are many to be avoided if possible" (Weaver 1969-, 3: 381-2).Using letters like McKeon's addressed to two antebellum Speakers -Polk, 24 th -25 th Congresses, and Nathaniel P. Banks (MA), 34 th Congress -, this article examines how Congressmen, their friends, and occasionally their foes, sought to influence committee assignments in the pre-Civil War House, a subject about which we currently know very little. It begins by outlining the circumstances which concentrated power over assignments in the hands of the Speaker. It then draws on existing literature on the modern House to propose several hypotheses, before expla...

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Section: Theory and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Analysis: Success Ratementioning

confidence: 99%