U.S. Senate Committee Assignments: Preferences, Motivations, and Success

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Sat, Research into congressional committee preferences and assignments has been notably one-sided, with little attention given to the Senate. Using information from senators' letters and memos, this paper analyzes 290 committee requests made by Democrats from 1953 to 1971. The relative attractiveness of committees for freshmen and more senior members is reported along with information on the reasons behind committee desirability. The materials on member motivations permit development of a classification scheme for committees. Multivariate analyses reveal that seniority is the variable strongly related to success in getting assignments that have been requested. Seven other independent variables that have been used by scholars studying House committee assignments are not related to success among Senate competitors.

The Influence of Social Networks on the U.S. Senate Roll-Call Voting

“…For example, studies have revealed that committee assignment is influenced by party loyalty (Canon & Stewart, 2002). Bullock (1985) explains why a party prefers to give party loyalists important committee positions; "Party loyalists will promote the adoption of policies that are preferred by party's majority in the Senate…Moreover, by using slots on the most desired committees as rewards, the leadership conveys a message to junior members who want to improve their assignment" (p. 792). Committee membership also tends to be helpful for individual legislators to build their reputation.…”

“…Committee membership also tends to be helpful for individual legislators to build their reputation. As another factor, seniority also positively influences the committee assignment as it reflects more experiences and chances to show their individual capacities (Bullock, 1985).…”