Colin Achilles – Center for Effective Lawmaking

Center for Effective Lawmaking 2025 Annual Report

Center for Effective Lawmaking 2025 Annual Report The Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) is celebrating another successful year with the release of our annual report. Founded in 2017 as a joint venture between the University of Virginia’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and Vanderbilt University, the Center’s trusted methodology and analyses have been cited in hundreds of news articles and widely used by lawmakers and their staffs, scholars, and many others around the country who care about effective lawmaking.Highlights over the last year include:Updating our Legislative Effectiveness Scores for…

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November 24, 2025

Highlights from the New 118th Congress Interest & Legislative Effectiveness Scores

Highlights from the New 118th Congress Interest & Legislative Effectiveness Scores By Craig Volden and Alan Wiseman, Co-Directors, Center for Effective LawmakingWednesday, November 19, 2025The Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) is pleased to announce the release of the Interest & Legislative Effectiveness Scores (ILES) in each of 21 different issue areas for the 118th Congress (2023-25). These categories are based on issue area codes from the Comparative Agendas Project with bill issue codings drawn from www.congress.gov. The methodology that we employed to construct these issue-based scores is the same as…

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November 19, 2025

Center Affiliates / Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research

The Legislative Success of “Giant Killers” in the U.S. House

The Legislative Success of “Giant Killers” in the U.S. House Monday, November 3, 2025In modern congressional elections, fewer than 10% of candidates who run against sitting members of Congress win and yet they comprise as much as 30% of the House in any given congress. In this forthcoming paper in Political Science Quarterly, Sean Theriault, Professor at The University of Texas at Austin and Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) Faculty Affiliate, along with Jared Hrebenar and Isabel Reyna, examine the legislative effectiveness of those relatively rare challengers who knock off incumbents.…

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November 3, 2025

Center Affiliates / Events / Faculty Affiliates

CEL at APSA 2025

CEL at APSA 2025 Tuesday, October 21, 2025Between September 11-14, the Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) attended the annual American Political Science Association (APSA) conference in Vancouver, Canada titled “Reimagining Politics, Power, and Peoplehood in Crisis Times”. The event allowed for more than 5,000 political scientists, scholars, and experts across the discipline to participate and showcase their works to the broader audience, with panels and presentations that included the following from CEL affiliates (and others):Accountability in Darkness: The Effects of Local Media Closures on Legislators – Kisoo Kim (University of Virginia)Congressional…

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October 21, 2025

About the CEL / Board of Advisors

Meet our new Advisory Board Member: Jill Tolles

Meet our new Advisory Board Member: Jill Tolles Monday, October 13, 2025The Center for Effective Lawmaking is excited to welcome Jill Tolles to our Board of Advisors.Tolles is the Executive Director of the Kenny Guinn Center for Policy Priorities. She has taught at the University of Nevada since 2005, where she received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Communication Studies. She is also on the faculty of the National Judicial College, where she teaches courtroom management, collaborative decision-making, and procedural fairness to judges from around the nation and the world.Prior to…

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October 13, 2025

Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research

The (Sometimes Untraceable) Origins of Policy Ideas in Congress: An Analysis of Seven Landmark Laws

The (Sometimes Untraceable) Origins of Policy Ideas in Congress: An Analysis of Seven Landmark Laws Research on lawmaking suggests legislative enactments are constructed in various ways. Although multiple approaches are documented in the literature, political scientists do not conclusively know which are used more often. In this paper published in Legislative Studies Quarterly – which was supported by a small grant award from the Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) – Jeremy Gelman, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Nevada, Reno, examines how laws are created by studying seven modern…

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October 7, 2025

Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research / Video

CEL on CNN’s Smerconish

CEL on CNN's Smerconish Monday, September 29, 2025Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) Co-Director Alan Wiseman of Vanderbilt University was a guest on CNN’s Smerconish to discuss the published paper “On the Decline of Elite-Educated Republicans in Congress” and the educational divide in American politics. Professor Wiseman coauthored the paper with CEL Co-Director Craig Volden of the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia and Associate Professor Jonathan Wai of the University of Arkansas, and it was published in the academic journal Perspectives on Politics.In the segment, Professor…

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September 29, 2025

Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research / Podcast

CEL on The Smerconish Podcast

CEL on The Smerconish Podcast Monday, September 15, 2025Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) Co-Director Alan Wiseman of Vanderbilt University was a recent guest on The Smerconish Podcast to talk with host Michael Smerconish about the published paper "On the Decline of Elite-Educated Republicans in Congress" and the educational divide in American politics. Professor Wiseman coauthored the paper with CEL Co-Director Craig Volden of the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia and Associate Professor Jonathan Wai of the University of Arkansas, and it was…

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September 15, 2025

Center Affiliates / Faculty Affiliates

Meet our Faculty Affiliate: Tessa Provins

Meet our Faculty Affiliate: Tessa Provins Tuesday, September 9, 2025The Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) is pleased to announce Tessa Provins as one of our newest faculty affiliates.Provins is an Assistant Professor in the School of Government and Public Policy at the University of Arizona. Her research focuses on American legislative institutions, with particular attention to how the design of legislative rules and procedures shapes lawmaking and representation. She examines how institutional features—including committee referral practices, debate rules, and party control of the agenda—affect the ability of legislatures to produce…

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September 9, 2025

Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research

On the Decline of Elite-Educated Republicans in Congress

On the Decline of Elite-Educated Republicans in Congress Tuesday, September 2, 2025In a published paper in Perspectives on Politics, Co-Directors Craig Volden (University of Virginia) and Alan Wiseman (Vanderbilt University), and Associate Professor Jonathan Wai, (University of Arkansas) identify a rise in educational polarization among members of the U.S. Congress mirroring the educational polarization in the American mass public. Over the past half century, the percent of Republican Representatives who attended elite educational institutions declined from 40% to 15%. In the Senate, elite education among Republicans declined from 55% to 35%, while the…

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September 2, 2025