Blog – Center for Effective Lawmaking

Advancing the Study of Effective Lawmaking: Highlights from CEL’s 7th Annual Research Conference

Group photo in the Commons Center (photo by Anne Rayner) Advancing the Study of Effective Lawmaking: Highlights from CEL’s 7th Annual Research Conference Nashville, TN – On Monday, June 2nd, 2025, the Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) hosted its 7th annual research conference at Vanderbilt University. The conference brought together researchers and practitioners from around the country to share their latest research findings and to discuss trends in effective lawmaking in congress and state legislatures. The morning opened with remarks from CEL co-director Alan Wiseman, Associate Provost of Strategic Projects…

0 Comments

June 11, 2025

About the CEL / Center Affiliates / Conference / Events / Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research

Recognizing Innovation in Legislative Research: 2025 Best Publication on Effective Lawmaking Award

Max Goplerud (R) being presented with the CEL’s Best Publication award by co-director Craig Volden (L) (Photo by Anne Rayner). Recognizing Innovation in Legislative Research: 2025 Best Publication on Effective Lawmaking Award The Center for Effective Lawmaking is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2025 Award for Best Publication on Effective Lawmaking, which was presented at our Seventh Annual Research Conference held at Vanderbilt University on Monday, June 2, 2025. This year’s award honors Fang-Yi Chiou (Academia Sinica) and Max Goplerud (University of Texas–Austin) for their article, “Effective Lawmaking…

0 Comments

June 11, 2025

Center Affiliates / Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research

Measuring Partisanship and Representation in Online Congressional Communication

Measuring Partisanship and Representation in Online Congressional Communication Social media and the internet have created new ways for representatives to communicate. How have members of Congress responded to these opportunities? This is the subject of a Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) working paper from Associate Professor (and CEL Faculty Affiliate) Michael Kistner, and Ph.D. candidates Robert Alvarez, Lucas Lothamer, and Maya Fitch (all of the University of Houston), as well as post-doctoral researcher Michael Heseltine of the University of Amsterdam and Associate Professor Elizabeth Simas of Texas A&M University. The…

0 Comments

June 5, 2025

Center Affiliates / Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research

Getting what you pay for: Resource allocations and legislative success

Getting what you pay for: Resource allocations and legislative success Thursday, May 29, 2025Members of Congress run for office with a variety of goals they hope to achieve if elected. How members go about achieving these goals is constrained by numerous institutional factors. Yet there exist two areas in which members are afforded broad discretion: the allocation of their time and budget. In this published paper in Legislative Studies Quarterly, Emily Cottle Ommundsen, Assistant Professor at the University of Mississippi (and Center for Effective Lawmaking Faculty Affiliate), assesses the personal qualities…

0 Comments

May 29, 2025

Conversations with Lawmakers

Discussing Effective Lawmaking with State Senator Mimi Stewart

Discussing Effective Lawmaking with New Mexico State Senator Mimi Stewart New Mexico State Senator Mimi Stewart has been a leader in New Mexico politics for nearly three decades. First elected to the New Mexico Senate in 2014, she previously served in the New Mexico House of Representatives from 1995 until her Senate appointment. Over the course of her legislative career, she has held several key leadership roles, including Senate Democratic Whip (2018–2021) and President Pro Tempore of the New Mexico Senate, a position she has held since 2021. She currently…

0 Comments

May 27, 2025

Center Affiliates / Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research

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…

Comments Off

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…

Comments Off

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…

Comments Off

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…

Comments Off

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…

Comments Off

April 24, 2025