The Role of Connections in Congressional Lawmaking

Abstract

Understanding what makes legislators effective is a central problem in the congressional literature. However, estimating how connections impact legislative effectivenessis challenging, as unobserved factors influence lawmakers’ effectiveness and connections. I investigate the role of connections in congressional lawmaking by studying how legislators’ deaths impact their peers’ capacity to sponsor and advance bills in the U.S. House of Representatives. I focus on legislators who represent the same states as deceased legislators: these lawmakers collaborated with the deceased more closely, but otherwise they are comparable to all other lawmakers. Following the death of a legislator from the same state, lawmakers suffer a 16% decrease in their effectiveness. The impacts are concentrated in the initial stages of lawmaking when the support of key lawmakers is crucial to ensure a bill is considered in committee. Moreover, same-state legislators experience a larger decrease in effectiveness after the death of a committee chair.