Legislative Effectiveness Scores – Center for Effective Lawmaking

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Effective Lawmaking Behind the Scenes

Effective Lawmaking Behind the Scenes In this Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) working paper, Co-Directors Craig Volden (University of Virginia) and Alan Wiseman (Vanderbilt University), and Faculty Affiliates Mary Kroeger (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill), Erinn Lauterbach (Villanova University), and Kelsey Shoub (University of Massachusetts-Amherst) demonstrate how behind-the-scenes lawmaking has become much more common in the U.S. Congress in recent years, with numerous bills embedded in must-pass legislation. Building on previous political science research, they offer a methodology to identify all bills that are substantially embedded in all laws in both…

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July 16, 2024

Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Effectiveness Scores / Legislative Research

Legislative Effectiveness: The Elements of Success

Legislative Effectiveness: The Elements of Success The Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) co-directors Craig Volden and Alan Wiseman recently wrote an essay titled “Legislative Effectiveness: The Elements of Success” which was published in the Summer 2024 issue of the quarterly political journal Democracy as part of the symposium “Revitalizing Political Leadership.” The article examines the role of state legislatures in developing effective lawmakers at both the state and federal levels, based on the analysis of the CEL’s Legislative Effectiveness Scores (which measure lawmaking effectiveness of members of Congress) and the…

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June 25, 2024

Events

CEL presentation to the Regional Reporters Association

CEL presentation to the Regional Reporters Association On May 13, 2024, the Regional Reporters Association hosted a webinar featuring Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) co-directors Craig Volden and Alan Wiseman. The Association represents local news outlets covering Washington, D.C. from their hometown perspectives, bringing insights from inside the Beltway to their local constituents and communities. Professors Volden and Wiseman offered an overview of the CEL, highlighting the Legislative Effectiveness Scores of members of Congress, how these scores undergird CEL’s larger research agenda, as well as how this research can be…

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May 21, 2024

Blog

Continuity During Chaos: Observations on International Affairs Legislative Effectiveness Scores during the 117th Congress

Continuity During Chaos: Observations on International Affairs Legislative Effectiveness Scores during the 117th Congress With the onset of the war in Ukraine in early 2022 and continued tensions between China and Taiwan, the 117th Congress faced significant foreign policy challenges. Relying on our new approach of tracking embedded legislation (legislation that was absorbed into larger proposals), the Center for Effective Lawmaking found significant congressional action to address Russia-Ukraine and China-Taiwan issues, despite high levels of policy gridlock in this issue area more generally. We identify the most effective lawmakers in…

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May 30, 2023

Legislative Effectiveness Scores / Policy Scores

Highlights from the New 117th Congress Legislative Effectiveness Scores

Highlights from the New 117th Congress Legislative Effectiveness Scores By Craig Volden and Alan Wiseman, Co-Directors, Center for Effective LawmakingThe Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) is pleased to announce the release of the Legislative Effectiveness Scores (LES) for the recently completed 117th Congress (2021-23). As in all previous releases, the scores are based on the combination of fifteen metrics regarding the bills that each member of Congress sponsors, how far they move through the lawmaking process, and how substantial their policy proposals are. The scores are normalized to an average…

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March 20, 2023

Legislative Effectiveness Scores

WATCH: A Discussion on the Most Effective Lawmakers of the 116th Congress

WATCH: A Conversation on the Most Effective Lawmakers of the 116th Congress On March 22, 2021, the Center for Effective Lawmaking's new research was the feature of the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy's Batten Hour. In this one-hour public event, Co-Director Craig Volden shared our newest legislative effectiveness scores and CEL Faculty Affiliate and UVA Professor Gerry Warburg shared his thoughts based on years of experience on The Hill.The discussion was lively, interesting and provided great insight as to how the research of the Center for Effective…

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March 31, 2021

Legislative Effectiveness Scores

Highlights from the New 116th Congress Legislative Effectiveness Scores

Highlights from the New 116th Congress Legislative Effectiveness Scores The Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) is pleased to announce the release of the Legislative Effectiveness Scores (LES) for the recently-completed 116th Congress (2019-21). As in all previous releases, the scores are based on the combination of fifteen metrics regarding the bills that each member of Congress sponsors, how far they move through the lawmaking process, and how substantial their policy proposals are. The scores are normalized to an average value of 1.0 in both the House and the Senate. More…

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March 10, 2021

Legislative Research

Elite Education and Legislative Behavior in the U.S. Congress

Elite Education and Legislative Behavior in the U.S. Congress The Center for Effective Lawmaking announces new research about the relationship between elite education on legislative behavior, particularly effective lawmaking, in the U.S. Congress.About a third of the U.S. Congress is comprised of legislators who attended elite colleges, universities, and law schools. We studied how legislative behaviors within this group have differed from those of other legislators between 1973 and 2014. Elite education is defined as having graduated from the most highly ranked colleges and universities, such as Stanford or Harvard, and…

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June 15, 2020

Legislative Research / Video

Watch: Women in Legislature

Watch: Women in Legislature (A Community Conversation) On May 1, the Center for Effective Lawmaking, along with Batten Women in Policy, hosted a discussion about the role and importance of women in legislatures.The CEL has ground-breaking research finding that congresswomen tend to build coalitions more regularly than their male counterparts. This results in minority-party women being some of the highest scoring legislators when it comes to effectiveness. But, this principle does not apply equally to all congresswoman, nor for their proposals in some important policy areas.Watch the recording as Professor…

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May 4, 2020

Legislative Research

How Effective are Party Faction Members in Congress?

How Effective are Party Faction Members in Congress? There is much discussion given today’s political climate about the rise and strength of political factions. As those who are like-minded bind more closely to push through legislation and change, the inclination is to believe that working together in a cohesive faction will wield power to move legislative changes through Congress and the larger the faction the more powerful it is. But is this true? At the Center for Effective Lawmaking, we took an in-depth look at ideological caucuses. Factions (formally referred…

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February 5, 2020