My research focuses on how institutions distribute power through formal rules and informal norms. I chiefly use the lens of the U.S. Congress, which is empowered by the Constitution to establish its own rules, without restriction.
My dissertation project, The Transformation of Congressional Policy Making in a Partisan Era, I examine how the move to a more partisan Congress has changed the institution’s formal rules, informal norms, and policy-making process. I examine changes that have taken place between the 1974 Subcommittee Bill of Rights and the present, with a particular focus on the 1994 Republican Revolution and the associated changes the party leadership made to rules and practices. I argue that committees did not fall in importance because of party dominance, but rather that the party leadership used the committees as tools to achieve their goals. The leadership induced committees to be agents of the party by altering the incentives and punishments surrounding committee assignments and chairs. In two papers, I provide new evidence on the evolution of party control of committee assignments and of the the changing legislative productivity of committee chairs and subcommittee chairs. In a third paper, I turn to the Senate by examining the decline of the reciprocity norm by analyzing the role of changing ideological context on the disappearance of the practice of paired voting.
My research extends beyond my dissertation, with a series of projects about the norms and institutions in Congress, largely regarding the Senate. With Steven Smith, I analyzed changes in public approval of filibuster reform during the tumultuous 2020 election. In the same intellectual vein, we wrote a chapter in New Directions in Congressional Politics about the capacity for congressional reform in the modern age. Additionally, I have a book project with Joshua Boston, James Spriggs, and Nicholas Waterbury about the evolution of the senatorial courtesy norm as it has evolved over the entire history of the federal judicial system. Recently, I have begun several projects on the political participation of people with disabilities, as well as a paper that suggests studying caretakers as a link for understanding the representation of of people with disability
Some of my research has received discussion in media outlets. My work on paired voting was covered by Vox during the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, which saw Senator Murkowski cast such a vote. A report I wrote with Steven Smith and William Lowry analyzing public views on the severity of climate change was discussed in The Hill. I