Presidential Communication During the Legislative Process

Abstract

Objective. Presidents routinely employ public statements to inform Congress about their position on pending legislation. Position-taking is strategic, with presidents choosing whether, how, how often, and when to intervene. We move beyond the traditional dichotomies of issuance and position to explore the timing and frequency of presidential position-taking during the lawmaking process. Method. We use Statements of Administration Policy (SAPs)-bill-specific messages addressed to Congress-to analyze presidential communications. Our regression analyses examine both the frequency of SAPs usage on bills and when in the process presidents communicate their position. Results. We find that presidents take positions sparingly and most often at the early stages of the lawmaking process. Conclusion. Presidential communications during the lawmaking process are more about winnowing options and bargaining over bill text than influencing pivotal votes.

Presidential Strategies in Statements of Administration Policy

“…The prevalence of SAPs at these early stages of the legislative process is likely due in part to the fact that many bills die at the earliest stages of the legislative process and never advance further. These findings are consistent with an account of SAPs being used as a tool for position taking in order to winnow legislation at the early stages of the legislative process (Ostrander and Sievert 2020). When presidents do issue a SAP later in the legislative process, they are more likely to do so when the other chamber first takes up consideration of the bill.…”

“…11 Next, we include measures for several influential bill characteristics. Prior scholarship has noted that appropriations legislation is targeted by presidential communications like SAPs (Ostrander and Sievert 2020). The main issue area addressed in the legislation has also been demonstrated to influence how presidents talk about legislation (Ostrander and Sievert 2013a).…”

“…SAPs can occur at any stage of lawmaking, from well before floor deliberation starts to moments before the final passage vote. Furthermore, presidents on rare occasions will even issue more than one SAP for the same piece of legislation as it evolves (Ostrander and Sievert 2020). As legislation often changes between the House and Senate, presidents may also direct a SAP to the chamber where the bill is, or soon will be, actively under consideration.…”

“…While presidents can make their preferences and expectations known through a variety of mechanisms, SAPs constitute a formalized, technical, and bill‐specific means of providing presidential input that makes them uniquely suited as a vehicle for interbranch communication on legislation (Kernell et al 2019; Stuessy 2016). Prior research suggests that SAPs are multifaceted and can be used for both purely rhetorical purposes, such as credit claiming (Rice 2010; Sievert and Ostrander 2017) or highlighting constitutional concerns (Ostrander and Sievert 2013b; Sievert and Ostrander 2017), as well as strategically for position taking (Kernell et al 2019; Ostrander and Sievert 2020) and veto threats (Guenther and Kernell 2021; Hassell and Kernell 2016; Lewallen 2017).…”

“…Although previous studies offer valuable insights about the use of SAPs, they have primarily studied SAPs as a means to understand other presidential tools, such as signing statements (Ostrander and Sievert 2013b; Rice 2010; Sievert and Ostrander 2017), or focused on one specific use of SAPs, such as veto threats (Guenther and Kernell 2021; Hassell and Kernell 2016; Lewallen 2017). While there is value to studying SAPs in this manner, the uses and range of presidential positions contained in SAPs are quite variable (Kernell et al 2019; Ostrander and Sievert 2020). While we know that SAPs can be used for a variety of different purposes, we do not know the relative frequency with which they are employed in their various roles or how presidents generally make use of SAPs across differing political contexts.…”