Information and congressional hearings

Although congressional scholars agree that hearings are an important activi ty, there is little consensus on their role in the legislative process. The traditional literature on hearings plays down their role as mechanisms of disseminating information because committee members often do not appear per suaded by the information they reveal. We explore the premise that hearings may not be informative to committees but may provide crucial information t o the floor. If hearings have some intrinsic informative content and are co stly, even extreme committees can transmit useful information to the floor. The possibility of holding hearings creates an incentive for extreme commi ttees to specialize and reveal information simply by the decision whether t o hold hearings.