CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES AND THE POLITICAL-ECONOMY OF FEDERAL OUTLAYS

The literature on the organization of the United States Congress has b een dominated by ''distributive'' and ''informational'' theory. One im portant source of disagreement between these two theories is their cha racterization of whether individual legislators can engage in pork-bar rel activities. Here we provide evidence which indicates that the pork -barrel is alive and well in the contemporary United States Congress. We focus on whether members of power and constituency committees can d irect disproportionate federal expenditures to their districts. Findin g strong and systematic evidence of pork-barrel activities by committe e members provides empirical support for distributive theories of legi slative organization.