The Cost of Majority‐Party Bias: Amending Activity under Structured Rules

Abstract

All major legislation in the House necessitates a special rule from the Rules Committee before it can be brought to the chamber floor. These rules often strictly limit floor amendments to bills considered by the House. Scholars of political parties have argued that the House majority party can bias policy output away from the floor median through its usage of restrictive rules. In this article, we argue that in order to secure the passage of restrictive rules, the majority often makes concessions to centrist legislators through the amending process. We examine this theory using a newly collected data set that includes all amendments considered by the Rules Committee during the construction of structured rules in the 109th, 110th, and 111th Congresses (2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010). Our results are mixed, but they do suggest that moderate members of the majority party often receive concessions via amendments for their support of the majority party's agenda-setting regime.Despite Congress having a reputation as an institution beset by partisan gridlock, the modern day US House of Representatives is a quite efficient legislative machine. In contrast to the more deliberate Senate, cohesive majorities can and do process legislation through the House while using precious little plenary time. The primary procedural tool that allows this kind of legislative efficiency is the special rule. The House Committee on Rules issues simple, yet flexible, resolutions that allow the chamber to choose bills to be considered and establish the terms and length of debate on bills. These special rules can increase legislative efficiency by limiting the time allowed for debate and restricting the number, as well as the content, of amendments allowed to be considered. The permissiveness of rules can range from those that allow all germane amendments (i.e., open rules) to those that allow a limited set of

Majority Party Strategy and Suspension of the Rules in the House

“…allowing a member to bring a bill to the floor under suspension of the rules is just one tool in the majority party leadership toolbox-and likely not the most powerful one. sought-after committee assignments, spots in the extended party leadership network (Meinke 2016), the ability Majority Party Strategy and Suspension of the Rules in the House to offer amendments under a structured rule (Lynch, Madonna, and roberts 2016), and support from the party's campaign arm (Jenkins and Monroe 2012a) are all valuable resources that may be given or withheld by majority party leadership, and these various inducements are likely used in occasional combination with the selective granting of suspension.…”

“…The passage of restrictive rules necessary for negative agenda control can often create policy losses for ideologically moderate members of the majority party (Cox and McCubbins 2005; Jenkins and Monroe 2012a, 2012b). Scholars have demonstrated multiple avenues through which party leaders compensate these members, from allowing them to offer amendments under structured rules (Lynch, Madonna, and Roberts 2016), to contributing to their campaigns (Jenkins and Monroe 2012a), to considering more of their bills under suspension of the rules (Moffett 2016).…”

Knowledge, Expertise, and Committee Power in the Contemporary Congress

“…in the contemporary House, most bills are considered under restricted rules limiting the amendments offered to those approved by the rules Committee. generally, the majority leadership blocks challenging amendments under a restrictive rule; however, Lynch, Madonna, and roberts (2016) report that party leaders have incentives to allow lawmakers out of step with the bill and the party to offer floor amendments, meaning not all amendments are easy defeats for the committee.…”

New Directions in Legislative Research: Lessons from Inside Congress

“… 7. See Lynch, Madonna and Roberts (2016) for work on how there are more amending opportunities afforded to centrists under structured rules. …”