Influence of Industry on Legislative Behavior toward NASA

Machay, Martin; Steinberg, Alan

doi:10.1080/14777622.2015.1083812

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…The case for supporting NASA funding is often made out of national interest, but legislators may actually be more opportunistic in their voting behavior. Congress members could be supporting space legislation based upon the relative importance of space activities within their state, in essence voting to improve the economic situations within their states through federal dollars directed to NASA (Machay and Steinberg, 2015). This follows in line with the theory that members of Congress are likely to work in the interests of particular industries when legislation directly impacts an industry with an important role within their district (Kingdon, 1989).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 80%

“…NASA centers play a financial and a "prestige" role (Machay and Steinberg, 2015) that might be important for the members of Congress. The support for the space policy legislation does not need to be directly related to financial aspects only.…”

Section: Key Variables Of Interestmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2 The percentage of employees engaged in the space industry will be used as a proxy for a relative importance of space activities within the given state. The variable was created using the NAICS codes data of the U.S. Census Bureau (2016) in a conservative approach described in Machay and Steinberg (2015). This variable measures a direct financial benefit of space related activities manifested in the state's labor market.…”

Section: Key Variables Of Interestmentioning

confidence: 99%

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NASA Funding in Congress: Money Matters

Machay¹,

Steinberg²

2020

EJOBSAT

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This paper argues that individual members of Congress engage in economic opportunism, voting in the best interests of their constituents based on economic heuristics, when considering space policy legislation. Multivariable logit analysis is conducted on five votes in the House of Representatives to test the hypotheses. The economic opportunism effect is captured in the models by the presence of NASA Centers, relative importance of space industry and NASA procurements. Findings suggest that economic benefits to a member's constituency can play an important role in legislative voting, particularly when legislation deals with federal aerospace funding, when space policy bills lack over-reaching bi-partisan support. In recent years the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has seen its funding fall prey to partisan budget battles and party line voting, but this was not historically the norm. As we move forward into a future where NASA funding may become more scrutinized and politicized, this paper supports the thesis that individual members of Congress care more about the funds for their constituents than the other aspects of space policy.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Section: Key Variables Of Interestmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Key Variables Of Interestmentioning

confidence: 99%

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