Inside congressional committees : function and dysfunction in the legislative process / Maya L. Kornberg.

"Many academic studies of the last twenty years use large-N quantitative studies of roll-call voting and partisanship to make a case for why Congress is broken as a rule-making and functioning institution of governance. In Inside Congressional Committees: Function and Dysfunction in the Legislative Process, political scientist Maya L. Kornberg explores Congress beyond voting, concentrating on congressional committee hearings as the legislative concourse leading up to a vote. Committees are where lawmakers hear from expert witnesses about legislative issues, where bills are revised and discussed before they go to a vote, and are a major platform for the public to see and engage with Congressional work. Based on an original mixed-methods dataset, including sentiment analysis and language analysis software of a thousand transcripts of witness testimony, combined with dozens of interviews, Kornberg asks who Congress hears from and how listening to different perspectives influences committee members. Based on data gathered from four congressional committees-the Senate Foreign Relations, Senate Commerce, House Science, and House Agriculture Committees-she presents a theory of the different types of witnesses who testify, hearings Congress holds, and the distinct effects that different hearings have on members of Congress. She finds that congressional committees and hearings are more deliberative and productive than floor politics. In committees, Congress hears diverse and analytical testimony and still practices genuine learning and deliberation. Though voting patterns may be hyperpolarized, zooming out to include the entire legislative process reveals the many parts of Congress still work"-- Provided by publisher.