Legislative Research – Center for Effective Lawmaking

Predicting Partnerships: Congressional Issue Agreement and Legislative Collaboration

Predicting Partnerships: Congressional Issue Agreement and Legislative Collaboration Thursday, October 29, 2026Congress is a collaborative institution. But how do members identify legislative partners? Past research has emphasized social ties and common traits as links by which members establish relationships. But a new Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) working paper by Colin Case, Assistant Professor at the University of Iowa, and Emily Cottle Ommundsen, Assistant Professor at the University of Mississippi (and CEL Faculty Affiliate), suggests a key connection remains overlooked: policy-level agreement. Shared policy goals provide a basis for connection…

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October 29, 2026

Center Affiliates / Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research

Checks, Balances, and Presidential Ambitions

Checks, Balances, and Presidential Ambitions Do legislators with presidential ambitions neglect Congress in pursuit of higher office, or can those ambitions actually strengthen their role within the legislature? In this Quarterly Journal of Political Science article, Christian Fong (Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins University and Center for Effective Lawmaking Faculty Affiliate), Kenneth Lowande (Associate Professor at Rice University), and Ayse Eldes (Affiliate of the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics at Princeton University) examine how running for president relates to members’ participation in the core legislative functions that shape Congress’s…

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October 22, 2026

Center Affiliates / Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research

The Legislative Effectiveness of Congressional Oversight Reports

The Legislative Effectiveness of Congressional Oversight Reports Wednesday, October 14, 2026In this published article in Legislative Studies Quarterly, Sean Theriault, Professor at the University of Texas at Austin and Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) Faculty Affiliate, examines the linkage between House and Senate oversight committee reports and subsequent legislative efforts in the same policy areas from the 106th through the 116th Congresses (1999-2020). He finds that policy topics appearing in the reports prompt the referral of bills related to such topics to the oversight committees. Topics covered in majority staff…

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October 14, 2026

Center Affiliates / Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research

Bipartisan Political Brands

Bipartisan Political Brands Wednesday, September 30, 2026 Can efforts to cultivate a bipartisan political brand meaningfully shape how lawmakers are perceived, or are such signals dismissed in an increasingly polarized political environment? In this Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) working paper, Faculty Affiliate Andrew J. Clarke, an associate professor of Government and Law at Lafayette College, and Christopher M. Byrnes, a Lafayette College alum, examine whether affiliation with the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus can influence perceptions of legislators’ ideology. Through a descriptive analysis of newly collected Problem Solvers Caucus membership…

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September 30, 2026

Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Effectiveness Scores / Legislative Research

Electable Effectiveness: How the Public Interprets Different Measures of Legislator Effectiveness

Electable Effectiveness: How the Public Interprets Different Measures of Legislator Effectiveness Thursday, September 24, 2026What does it mean to be an effective legislator in the eyes of constituents, and what kind of effectiveness do voters prefer? In this Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) working paper, Peter T. McLaughlin, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island, examines how legislative, distributive, and bipartisan effectiveness in the US Congress correlate with constituent support. Through a forced choice conjoint survey design to measure public preferences on the three forms of…

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September 24, 2026

Center Affiliates / Events / Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Research

CEL at APSA 2026

CEL affiliates during a dinner at the end of APSA CEL at APSA 2026 Thursday, September 17, 2026 Between September 2-5, the Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) attended the annual American Political Science Association (APSA) conference in Boston, Massachusetts. The event brought together political scientists, scholars, and experts from across the discipline to participate and showcase their works to a broad audience, with panels and presentations that included the following from CEL affiliates (and others): The Impact of Public-Facing Personas on Legislative Activity in Congress – SoRelle Wyckoff Gaynor (University…

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September 17, 2026

About the CEL / Legislative Research

Call for 2026-2027 Small Grant Awards

Call for 2026-2027 Small Grant Awards Proposal deadline: October 15, 2026Awards announced by: November 15, 2026The Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) welcomes applications for grants to fund research consistent with the mission of the Center. The Center advances the generation, communication, and use of new knowledge about the effectiveness of individual lawmakers and U.S. legislative institutions. See our website (www.thelawmakers.org) for more on the CEL.The research receiving support must focus on effective lawmaking and must be designed to make an original scholarly contribution, generating and communicating new knowledge. We are…

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September 15, 2026

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

Colleagues and Neighbors? Geographic Patterns of Collaboration and Legislative Effectiveness

Colleagues and Neighbors? Geographic Patterns of Collaboration and Legislative Effectiveness Tuesday, August 11, 2026Geography plays a role in shaping American legislatures, but while there is often a focus on the importance of constituency representation, its role as a source of division does not always receive as much attention. Legislative politics scholarship increasingly recognizes the importance of social relationships and networks in shaping outcomes, and within this literature, one important observation is that collaboration across difference can be especially impactful. In state legislatures, within-state regional divisions are often common knowledge but…

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August 11, 2026

Policy Agendas, Effective Lawmaking, and Women’s Issues in State Legislatures

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Center Affiliates / Faculty Affiliates / Interest & Legislative Effectiveness Scores / Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research / Policy Scores / State Legislative Effectiveness Scores / State Legislatures

Policy Agendas, Effective Lawmaking, and Women’s Issues in State Legislatures

Policy Agendas, Effective Lawmaking, and Women’s Issues in State Legislatures Tuesday, August 4, 2026 State legislatures introduce roughly 100,000 bills a year, far outpacing Congress, yet scholars have long lacked a reliable way to sort that volume into policy areas, making it hard to ask basic questions about which issues get attention, which stall, and who succeeds where. In this Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) working paper, the authors take on that challenge directly. It was written by Andrew M.O. Ballard, Associate Professor at Florida State University (and CEL Faculty…

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August 3, 2026

Legislative Research / State Legislatures

The Center for Effective Lawmaking Is Proud to Present Our New Guidebook for New State Legislators

The Center for Effective Lawmaking Is Proud to Present Our New Guidebook for New State Legislators NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) is pleased to announce the release of our new guidebook, Being An Effective Lawmaker From Day One, a resource designed to help newly elected state legislators become more effective lawmakers from the start of their legislative careers.Drawing on several years of research, the guide provides practical, research-based strategies for navigating the legislative process and building a foundation for effective lawmaking before legislators begin serving in…

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July 23, 2026