Information is cheap, but filtering is costly
Congressional investment in reference resources
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6328404 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alison Craig (University of Texas Austin Texas USA), Alison W Craig (0000-0003-0525-8249, The University of Texas at Austin), Annelise Russell (0000-0002-8417-1709, University of Kentucky Lexington Kentucky USA, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 53 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 159-170 |
| Publication date | 2025-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Policy Studies Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0190-292X • E-ISSN: 1541-0072 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/psj.12561 |
| OpenAlex | W4403195073 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 26 |
Lawmakers who can supply themself with information to manage complex problems are at an advantage, but equally important is the filtering and contextualizing of applicable information. Members of Congress manage a deluge of policy and political information, and this short paper examines one strategy members of Congress use to mitigate that burden—by investing in reference material and news media to filter and summarize the policymaking environment. Using congressional disbursement data from the 116th and 117th Congress, I explain how institutional experience is associated with an office's choice to invest in more information filtering. Freshman members of the House are more likely to turn to news media or publications to provide insight into the congressional agenda, offer political context, and prioritize issues of importance. Reference investment is not tied to partisanship, ideology, lawmaking capacity, or previous office, but those junior offices who need to get up to lawmaking speed invest in external information filtering. These results illuminate how central institutional knowledge is to lawmaking in Congress, and how much an office is willing to invest to mitigate that weakness
Business · Investment (military · Political science · Politics · Law · Policy Transfer and Learning · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies
Making the News
Policy change and learning
Information and Arena
Democracy, Authoritarianism, and Policy Punctuations
The Politics of Prioritization
Using “New” Media to Get “Old” Media Coverage
The Politics of Information
Tracking the Coverage of Public Policy in Mass Media
Expertise, Networks, and Interpersonal Influence in Congress
Who Chooses Experience? Examining the Use of Veteran Staff by House Freshmen
The Deaths of Ideas in Congress
A Failure to Communicate
Policy Regime Perspectives
Putting on the Brakes or Pressing on the Gas? Media Attention and the Speed of Policymaking
Partisan Competition and the Decline in Legislative Capacity among Congressional Offices
Blackberries, Tweets, and YouTube
Media in the Policy Process
Lobbying as Legislative Subsidy
Legislative Staff and Representation in Congress
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |