This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (1) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Garand, J. C. Articles by Burke, K. M. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Legislative Activity and the 1994 Republican Takeover

Exploring Changing Patterns of Sponsorship and Cosponsorship in the U.S. House

Kelly M. Burke

Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge

Is sponsorship and cosponsorship behavior by U.S. House members responsive to which party controls the chamber? The Republican takeover of the U.S. House in 1995 provides an ideal natural experiment to test whether House members are more or less likely to sponsor and cosponsor legislation as a function of their majority or minority party status. We suggest that changes in control of the House created a set of institutional incentives that shifted sponsorship and cosponsorship behavior by House members. Using data on House members serving from the 102nd Congress to the 105th Congress, we consider whether Democrats and Republicans reconfigured their sponsorship and cosponsorship behavior after the shift in partisan control, controlling for the effects of other variables. We find that majority party status matters, withmembers of the majority party consistently exhibiting higher levels of sponsorship activity, though our findings on cosponsorship activity are less definitive.

Key Words: Congress • legislation • sponsorship • cosponsorship • U.S. House of Representatives • Republican Revolution • majority party

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?