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Presenter: Ean Laundree

Faculty Sponsor: Kevin L. Young

School: UMass Amherst

Research Area: Political Science and Government

Session: Poster Session 1, 10:30 AM - 11:15 AM, Auditorium, A72

ABSTRACT

Why are certain members of congress more effective than others at passing legislation? That is the question this paper seeks to answer. This shall be done by analyzing the following: Every member of both bodies of US Congress have a publicly available Legislative Effectiveness Score (LES). This paper will showcase mean, median, and standard deviation of the LES across both houses of US Congress. It will then compare these numbers across various demographic and social groupings such as by gender, popularity with the electorate, seniority, prior experience, and attendance at an elite educational institution. The data is taken primarily from the Center for Effective Lawmaking and various other sources to fill in gaps. It will follow all members of the House and Senate from the 108th Congress beginning in 2003 up to the 118th Congress ending in January 2025. This grouping consists of roughly 1500 unique individuals. The results of this study can provide greater insight for understanding the mechanisms by which the American legislation process functions and what makes for an effective legislator.