Committee Policy Making In The House: Comparing The Agriculture And Judiciary Committees

Abstract

This paper explores whether committees or their subcommittees dominate policy making in the standing committees of the House of Representatives. Such a research question falls within a tradition of inquiry initiated more than a century ago when Woodrow Wilson argued that Congressional government was ultimately committee government. However, more recent scholars have begun speculating that committees have declined in influence in favor of subcommittees. The most extreme dimension of this viewpoint has even maintained that congressional government has become subcommittee government.