The Performance of House Committee Staff Functions: a Comparative Exploration

The Recruitment and Career Patterns of Congressional Committee Staffs: an Exploration

“…As Malbin notes, however, it is a mistake to think of committee staffs as if they were all the same (1981: 163). In a previous examination of committee staffs, we found that the way in which they perform their intelligence, integration, and innovation functions varies across committees (Sidlow and Henschen 1985). Our data also enable us to note staff variations across committee types with respect to recruitment and tenure patterns.…”

“…The study of staff has taken several directions, including examinations of the functions staff serve in the process (Patterson 1970;Manley 1968;Price 1971;Sidlow and Henschen 1985) and the impact that staff growth has had on legislative behavior (Malbin 1980;Salisbury and Shepsle 1981). Additionally, scholars have engaged in descriptive studies which are quite useful in determining fruitful future directions that research concerning congressional staff might take (Fox and Hammond 1977).…”