Investing in Expertise: The Role of Staff in Strengthening Congressional Capacity

Members of Congress run for office with a variety of goals they hope to achieve if elected. In this dissertation, I assess the personal qualities and institutional circumstances that motivate members' operational decisions, reflecting their representational priorities. I demonstrate that the choices members and committee chairs make in establishing and maintaining their congressional and committee offices affect both their legislative and electoral outcomes. I argue, further, that members and chairs have sufficient resources at their disposal to increase their personal capacity as a lawmaker or their committee capacity as a chair. Using data on U.S. Senate staff experience and a new measure of committee productivity, I demonstrate in my second chapter that committee chairs who invest in experienced senior staff lead more productive committees than chairs who do not prioritize experience in this way. In my third chapter, I extend this argument to personal offices in the House of Representatives. As lawmaking is a costly endeavor, I show that members who invest more resources in their legislative staff will reap the benefits in the form of legislative success. Lastly, in Chapter 4, I argue that beyond the value a staff member can bring to an office in the form of her expertise, she brings value in the form of her experience and connections to other members' offices. Using data on staff employment in the House of Representatives, I employ a network model to demonstrate that a pair of members are more likely to collaborate as legislative partners if they are connected via staff who have worked for both members. Members of Congress make strategic choices in how they divide their budget and set up their offices. I demonstrate that investing in institutional knowledge -- in the form of experienced, knowledgeable, and well-connected congressional staff -- is a wise strategy for members desiring legislative success.