The Number of Hearings Is Going Down

At Vox, Jonathan Lewallen, Sean Theriault, and Bryan Jones write: 

“We should not be surprised by the lack of Senate committee hearings on the AHCA. It is the culmination of a trend that stretches back to the 1970s. The three of us have studied congressional dysfunction, as evaluated by the changing nature of how Congress conducts its hearings. Compared to the 1970s, committees in both chambers today are spending markedly less time examining proposed solutions to the major policy problems confronting us. That means committees are spending less time learning about what bills are on the agenda, which then means both that members are less informed about what they vote on and that they have fewer colleagues who they can ask…. Republicans aren’t the only villains here. Despite the number of hearings that the Democrats held on the Affordable Care Act, the decline in solution-focused hearings is fairly linear, beginning in the early 1970s when Democrats held consistent majorities in both chambers. Congress and its committee system declined just as much under Clinton, Obama, and Democratic majorities as they have under Bush, Trump, and Republican majorities.”

Read more at https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/6/21/15843352/senate-hearings-secrecy-ahca-debate-stealth