The value of committee seats in the United States Senate, 1947-91

Applying a method we introduced in an earlier paper and applied to the Hous e (Groseclose and Stewart, 1998a), we estimate the value of U.S. Senate com mittees from the 81st to 102nd Congress. This method is superior to prior c ommittee-ranking methods and is particularly appropriate for ranking Senate committees. The rankings we produce conform to the distinction between imp ortant and less important committees that have been maintained in the Senat e rules and reinforced through the operation of the "Johnson Rule." High-ra nking committees tend to be those that senators associate with prestige and policy pursuits; low-ranking committees have reputations for a constituenc y orientation. After producing a rank-ordering of Senate committees for the post-war era, we examine whether the committee rankings have changed over time and whether Republicans and Democrats reveal different preference-orde rings for committees.