This paper examines theory and evidence on party competition in the U.S. Congress in the allocation of members to committees. Parties allocate members to committees to maximize the joint utility of its members, taking into account how the committees' memberships affect the legislation adopted by...

Judicial use of legislative history in statutory interpretation has fallen out of favor. Concerns about the privileged role that committee chairs and other supposedly unrepresentative actors play in its production and an assumed inability to aggregate individual lawmakers’ intentions have cast...