AN IN-DEPTH LOOK AT CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE JURISDICTIONS SURROUNDINGHEALTH ISSUES

Congress plays an important role in shaping U.S. health care policy, a nd within Congress, committees play the lead policy-making role. To de termine the range and extent of committee involvement on health issues , I examine nine health issue categories over a fifteen-year period (1 979-1993) to discover how both ''legislative'' and ''nonlegislative'' committee jurisdictions differ across three dimensions: congressional chambers, committees within those chambers, and specific health issue categories. Then, to capture differences across a fourth dimension, ti me, I also calculate annual measures of jurisdiction ''concentration'' for legislative and nonlegislative jurisdictions. Together, the juris diction differences across the four dimensions provide a comprehensive view of congressional committee jurisdiction arrangements surrounding health issues. I find that the differences in jurisdiction across eac h dimension follow general patterns resulting from institution-specifi c factors (e.g., rules, norms) and from issue-specific factors (e.g., salience, complexity). Recognizing these dimensions and their respecti ve patterns helps us understand the power that committees exercise ove r health issues.