Position Taking and Cosponsorship in the U.S. House

Abstract

Bill cosponsorship has become an important part of the legislative and electoral process in the modern House of Representatives. Using interviews with congressional members and staff, I explain the role of cosponsorship as a signal to agenda setters and a form of position taking for constituents. Regression analysis confirms that cosponsoring varies with a member's electoral circumstances, institutional position, and state size, but generally members have adapted slowly to the introduction of cosponsorship to the rules and practice of the House.

Candidate Selection Methods, Cooperation and Legislative Effectiveness

“…The results strengthen previous studies regarding the use of sponsorship as a way to cooperate with colleagues during the legislative process (e.g., Campbell 1982;Koger 2003;Rocca & Sanchez 2008). The cooperative strategies model posits three situations under which legislators will cooperate: to meet the demands of their constituency, to advance the goal of being re-elected or in response to social networking (Kiiver 2006;Tam-Cho & Fowler 2010).…”

“…Even though sponsoring bills has no formal effect on the legislative process, the sponsorship enables legislators to take a position (Koger, 2003;Rocca & Gordon, 2010) and can have policy implications (e.g., Kessler & Krehbiel, 1996;Koger, 2003). The sponsorship of bills gives political leaders low cost information about the political gain they can achieve from legislation (Koger, 2003). Alternatively, legislators can use the list of a bill's co-sponsors to assess its level of support, ideological stance and endorsement by reputable colleagues (Wilson & Young, 1997).…”

“…It is unique because sponsorship is not about voting on legislation. Members of Congress invest a great deal of time convincing their colleagues to sponsor their legislation (Koger, 2003;Fowler 2006). Even though sponsoring bills has no formal effect on the legislative process, the sponsorship enables legislators to take a position (Koger, 2003;Rocca & Gordon, 2010) and can have policy implications (e.g., Kessler & Krehbiel, 1996;Koger, 2003).…”

Legislative Success in a Small World: Social Network Analysis and the Dynamics of Congressional Legislation

“…Cosponsorship activity has also been used by scholars to identify leadership hierarchies in the UN (Stokman 1977), as a measure of coalition-building proclivities (Wawro 2001), and as a predictor of which sponsors are most likely to achieve success in floor votes (Fowler 2006). Koger (2003) shows that legislators increasingly cosponsor with members of the other party when they are under electoral pressure. In short, even if scholars disagree on the exact informational content of bill cosponsorship, scholars and politicians alike appear to agree that cosponsorship is a social act that is meaningful and significant.…”

Bill Sponsorship in Congress: The Moderating Effect of Agenda Positions on Legislative Proposals

“…To estimate bill locations, I rely on the observation that cosponsoring a bill, like roll-call voting, is an act of expression that signifies the degree to which a bill matches a legislator's preferences (Koger 2003;Krehbiel 1995;Goodliffe, Rothenberg, and Sanders 2005). 21 Using cosponsorship data to estimate bill locations meets two important requirements.…”