Senate Committees and Turf: Do Jurisdictions Matter?

Abstract

Committee membership is valuable to members of Congress for many reasons, not the least of which is the ability to exercise disproportionate influence over policies falling within the committee's jurisdiction. Yet at times these jurisdictions are violated. Given that a member values distinct committee jurisdictions, will he or she be more likely to oppose a bill brought to a vote by a violation of jurisdictional norms? In this article, I un dertake an investigation of the politics surrounding the Senate's extension of Daylight-Saving Time in order to shed light on this question. The empirical analysis shows that while members of the committee that lost jurisdiction are affected by the jurisdictional violation, other members are not.