Blog – Center for Effective Lawmaking

Pivots or Partisans? Proposal-Making Strategy and Status Quo Selection in Congress (Published Paper)

Pivots or Partisans? Proposal-Making Strategy and Status Quo Selection in Congress (Published Paper) Thursday, May 15Lawmakers vary considerably in how effectively they advance their priorities through Congress. However, the actual proposal-writing strategies undergirding these differences have remained largely unexplored, due to measurement and methodological difficulties. These obstacles have included prohibitively small sample sizes, costly data requirements, and strong theoretical assumptions. In this published paper in Quarterly Journal of Political Science and based on a Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) working paper, Associate Professor Jesse Crosson of Purdue University (and CEL…

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May 15, 2025

Center Affiliates / Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research / State Legislatures

Gendered Perceptions of Legislative Influence (Published Paper)

Gendered Perceptions of Legislative Influence (Published Paper) Tuesday, May 13, 2025In this published paper in Perspectives on Politics based on a Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) working paper, Faculty Affiliate Jaclyn Kaslovsky (Washington University in St. Louis), Tabitha Koch (Rice University), and Michael P. Olson (also of Washington University) examine whether legislative and electoral accomplishments translate into perceived influence differently for women and men. Women legislators often report that they must work harder than men to achieve the same outcomes and recognition. Yet, little previous scholarship has quantitatively examined whether legislative…

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May 12, 2025

Events / Legislative Research

CEL presentation to the LEGIS Congressional Fellows 2025

CEL presentation to the LEGIS Congressional Fellows 2025 On Friday, April 25, 2025, the Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) gave our annual presentation to the LEGIS Congressional Fellowship program at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. The LEGIS program is composed of a bipartisan group of professionals from government agencies selected by offices in both chambers of Congress to learn about the lawmaking process and serve as subject-matter policy experts for legislators. Co-director Craig Volden, Professor at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of…

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May 7, 2025

State Legislative Effectiveness Scores / State Legislatures

Announcing the Release of the State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES)

Announcing the Release of the State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES) The Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) is proud to announce the release of our State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES) — a groundbreaking effort to measure the lawmaking effectiveness of individual legislators in all 99 state legislative chambers in the United States over recent decades. These scores capture the lawmaking effectiveness of the members of each legislature based on the number of bills they sponsor, how far those bills progress through the different stages of the legislative process, and the substantive…

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April 29, 2025

Conversations with Lawmakers

Discussing Effective Lawmaking with Representative Gus Bilirakis

Discussing Effective Lawmaking with Representative Gus Bilirakis Friday, April 24, 2025Representative Gus Bilirakis has represented Florida in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2007, and he currently represents Florida’s 12th congressional district. He has a well-established track record of being successful at advancing his sponsored bills through the legislative process, and he has been identified by the Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) as having one of the longest active streaks of being in our prestigious “exceeds expectations” in lawmaking effectiveness category. He has also been often recognized as being the…

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April 24, 2025

Legislative Effectiveness Scores / Legislative Research

Highlights from the New 118th Congress Legislative Effectiveness Scores

Highlights from the New 118th Congress Legislative Effectiveness Scores Tuesday, March 25, 2025The Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) is pleased to announce the release of the Legislative Effectiveness Scores (LES) for the recently completed 118th Congress (2023-25). This report, written by Co-Directors Craig Volden (of the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia) and Alan Wiseman (of the Department of Political Science at Vanderbilt University), offers highlights from our initial analyses of these scores, including:We list the top-10 lawmakers in each party in the House…

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March 25, 2025

Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research

Understanding the Policy Priorities of Republican Women in the US House of Representatives

Understanding the Policy Priorities of Republican Women in the US House of Representatives Wednesday, March 19, 2025In this published paper in Politics & Gender, Professor Michele Swers of Georgetown University and Associate Professor (and CEL Faculty Affiliate) Danielle Thomsen of the University of California, Irvine take a deep dive into the sponsorship and cosponsorship activity of Republicans in the US House of Representatives from 1993–2014 to examine how ideology and gender influence the policy priorities of Republican legislators on issues associated with women, as well as on the party-owned issue…

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March 19, 2025

Blog / Center Affiliates / Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Anaylsis

Niskanen Center: Congress at a Crossroads

Niskanen Center: Congress at a Crossroads Monday, March 10The Niskanen Center has released a series of essays for their March issue of Hypertext about the culture of the legislative body and political changes being advanced by the Trump administration, all of which pose important discussions related to effective lawmaking. As stated by David Dagan, Niskanen’s Director of Editorial and Academic Affairs:“Congress faces this moment rife with contradictions. It is outwardly deeply partisan, but below the surface, still capable of a great deal of bipartisan legislation. Authority is highly centralized with party…

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March 10, 2025

Blog / Conference / Events / State Legislatures

Advancing Our Understanding of State Legislative Effectiveness

Advancing Our Understanding of State Legislative Effectiveness Thursday, February 27th, 2025 On Friday, February 21st, the Center for Effective Lawmaking hosted the Effective Lawmaking in American State Legislatures conference at Vanderbilt University, bringing together faculty and doctoral students from across the country to explore the complexities of policymaking at the state level. With attendees presenting and discussing their latest findings, the event served as an important platform for advancing our understanding of what drives legislative success in state governments. Reflecting on the broader mission of the Center for Effective Lawmaking,…

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February 27, 2025

About the CEL / Center Affiliates

Meet our Program Director for State Legislatures: Paige Higginson-Rollins

Meet our Program Director for State Legislatures: Paige Higginson-Rollins The Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) is pleased to officially introduce Paige Higginson-Rollins as our new Program Director for State Legislatures. In this role, she is dedicated to empowering state legislatures, lawmakers, and stakeholders to improve the effectiveness of legislative institutions.Prior to joining the CEL, Paige worked on public health communications and research initiatives in Michigan and Kentucky. In 2013, she graduated summa cum laude from the University of Kentucky in international relations and economics and earned her master’s degree in public health in 2016.…

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February 24, 2025