The Legislative Recycling Bin: a Reevaluation of the Policy Process Angelina L

University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository Political Science ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations Fall 11-7-2018 The Legislative Recycling Bin: A Reevaluation of the Policy Process Angelina L. González-Aller Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/pols_etds Part of the American Politics Commons Recommended Citation González-Aller, Angelina L.. "The Legislative Recycling Bin: A Reevaluation of the Policy Process." (2018). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/pols_etds/81 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Political Science ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. i Angelina L. González-Aller Candidate Political Science Department This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Dissertation Committee: Michael S. Rocca, Chairperson Gabriel R. Sanchez Mala Htun Kate Cartwright ii THE LEGISLATIVE RECYCLING BIN: A REEVALUATION OF THE POLICY PROCESS by ANGELINA L. GONZÁLEZ-ALLER B.A. Political Science, University of New Mexico, 2008 M.A. Political Science, University of New Mexico, 2010 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Political Science The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico December 2018 iii DEDICATION Para mis hermanas. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe many people a great deal of thanks for helping me get here. I’d like to start with my committee, who continued to support me, even when the road was rocky and the years ticked by. The writing of this dissertation has followed me through four states and six homes; the road has been long and complicated, but here we are. Mike Rocca has been a trusted mentor for more years than either of us would care to count, and has encouraged me to find my own path every step of the way. It was Mike’s belief in my abilities that sent me to Washington on multiple occasions, and I’m enormously grateful for the extensive investment he has made in my education and intellectual growth. Gabe Sanchez has been a constant source of encouragement, and his work at the RWJF Center for Health Policy has played an integral goal in my education and professional development at multiple stages of my education. Mala Htun’s courses on gender politics and critical social theory were some of the most challenging and exciting of all my time at UNM. Mala’s encouragement to break out of my quantitative habits to “just go talk to people” forever changed my approach to research. I am grateful for her insights, feedback and guidance over the years. In the final months of this research runaway train, Kate Cartwright came aboard as a source of much needed positivity and support. Her helpful comments and insights are gratefully appreciated. I also want to recognize the UNM Student Health and Counseling (SHAC) center for keeping me healthy in both body and mind throughout my many years at UNM. Whether it was physical therapy for my dislocated shoulder or the many hours spent in counseling sessions: SHAC played a major role in keeping me on course. I of course, need to thank my favorite belayer and adventure partner: the one and only Wild Washburne. This dissertation would not be possible without the generous support of the “Washburne Fellowship” and Alex’s many hours spent listening to me complain or pouring over my results with me. Life is always an adventure with you, and I’m so grateful for all you have done to help me get here, it is a simple fact that I would not be here without you. I owe Anna Calasanti a great debt for being my sounding board and writing buddy, you helped me more than I can properly articulate here. Thank you Debbie Jessup for being the best Hill mentor I could have asked for, and for never failing v to pressure me “to just get the dissertation done”. As is obvious in this dissertation, my time in Lucille’s office with you has played an outsized role in my research agenda. Thank you for making my time on the Hill, such a formative and memorable experience. To my mejor amiga, Anna Santos, who has been a constant source of levity in asking “how my book report is going” and who never fails to show up for me when it’s most important, gracias, I couldn’t do it without out you. Thank you Robert Juengling, for being my confidant through this process and thanks to Hannah Stromberg for being my favorite climbing partner and for being an endless supply of “you can do it”. Maria Angeles Solis, thank you for leading as an example, showing me how to be a jefa, and constantly defying the odds to prove we have the power to change the world. I owe all my ski buds a great deal of thanks for helping me keep my head clear and reminding me that there is a big world waiting for me just behind my computer screen. To Jack the dog; thank you for your frequent interruptions of my work. Our strolls throughout the neighborhood have done me more good than I probably realize, it is likely that without you, I might not have set foot outside for multiple days at a time. I owe the greatest acknowledgement to my family. To properly thank my family would require another 200 pages, so I will simply say here: thank you to everyone who exercised patience with me throughout this process. Every time I stumbled you were there to help me find my footing. To my mother and father, the sacrifices you have made for me humble me. My father, Santiago left his home, language, and culture to build a life in the United States. His relentless work ethic and generosity have not only lifted me, but the entire extended family. I am enormously proud to be your daughter. My mother Joyce, is the most compassionate and resilient person I have ever met. Your commitment to education as a public school teacher set me on the path to college and beyond. Without you, I wouldn’t have done any of this. To my brother and sisters, I have learned more from you than possibly all my years at school. Thank you for everything. vi THE LEGISLATIVE RECYCLING BIN: A REEVALUATION OF THE POLICY PROCESS by Angelina L. González-Aller B.A. Political Science, University of New Mexico, 2008 M.A. Political Science, University of New Mexico, 2010 DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY POLITICAL SCIENCE ABSTRACT Congressional scholarship has long sought to understand the conditions under which a member of Congress is successful in converting a policy idea into a law. Two areas of this research, the bill sponsorship literature and the legislative effectiveness literature, have developed scholarly understanding on both the motivations and outcomes of bill sponsorship, as well as illuminating the conditions under which a bill is more likely to become law. The empirical approaches of these areas of study however, do not adequately capture the complexities of Congress. Most studies of the legislative process treat bill sponsorship and the policy process as a linear progression wherein an individual bill is introduced and either passes or fails in a given Congress. Using a mixed-methods research design, this study demonstrates that a substantial amount of legislation in a given Congress has either been introduced in previous Congresses, or will be reintroduced in subsequent Congresses. As a result, many bills are not independent pieces of legislation, but rather, are “recycled” throughout time. Utilizing pooled data from the 96th to 113th Congresses (1979-2015) and new variables identifying recycled bills, this study determines that legislative recycling affects the scheduling of bills from committee and the likelihood of legislative success for members of the United States House of Representatives. Across multiple levels of analysis, recycled bills are found to be negatively associated with the likelihood of success, and patterns of legislative recycling indicate that some policy areas are more likely to have repeated bill introductions than others. In a legislative case study of the Congressional vii Tri-Caucus’s Health Equity and Accountability Act (HEAA), this study reviews the historical, institutional, and internal dimensions of a recycled policy proposal, finding that motivations for the reintroduction of HEAA include, but also extend beyond, the narrow purpose of lawmaking. Taken in sum, the study of legislative recycling adds both analytical and conceptual clarity to the study of Congress, and provides a number of departure points for future research. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................ x LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................................... x LIST OF ACRONYMS AND DEFINITIONS ............................................................................ xi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1 Bill Sponsorship, Effectiveness, and the Legislative Process ................................................. 4 Legislative Recycling: Repeated Bill Introduction in Congress .................................... 5 Format of the Dissertation ....................................................................................................... 6 Conclusion ...............................................................................................................................

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