COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS IN THE US SENATE

Because fundamental control over the legislative process occurs not on the floor but in standing committees, and because assignment to impor tant standing committees increases members' power to control the legis lative agenda, congressional committee assignments are important in de termining the political and electoral success of incumbents. Changing membership patterns of committees over time provide some clues on the importance of seats on the committees. Using data on committee members hip for the U.S. Senate for congresses from World War II to the 103d C ongress, we measure the relative value of seats on Senate committees. We assume that senators who transfer from one committee to another are increasing their political and electoral capital. Two different measu res developed by Bullock and Sprague and Munger are employed to create an ordering of Senate committee membership prestige. Committee assign ment allocation processes in the House of Representatives and the Sena te produce similar, expected rankings of legislator preferences among seats on standing committees.