New Data and New Directions in Interbranch Lobbying: Congressional Mail Summaries of the George H.W. Bush White House

Abstract

This article analyzes a unique new set of data (compiled originally by the Bush White House) using mail written to President Bush from members of Congress during the 101st and 102nd Congresses to explore interbranch lobbying. We argue that these data illuminate the relationship between the president and Congress in a new and informative way. We use this data to inform our view of the shared power arrangements (identified as "tandem institutions") by developing a series of expectations to explore the joint roles of this interaction. Conforming to expectations, we find that requests for presidential action (especially on foreign policy) and the conveyance of congressional opinion (especially on domestic policy) are the top two categories that characterize this relationship. We also find committee chairs or party leaders, who serve as conduits for opinion of their representatives to the president, are also more likely to write the president than rank-and-file members. Further, those members who are ideologically furthest away from the president tend to write to convey information and urge specific action more frequently than those closer to the president.

We need a new engagement, too, between the Executive and the Congress. The challenges before us will be thrashed out with the House and the Senate. And we must bring the Federal budget into balance. And we must ensure that America stands before the world united, strong, at peace, and fiscally sound. But of course things may be difficult. We need to compromise; we've had dissension. We need harmony; we've had a chorus of discordant voices. To my friends–and yes, I do mean friends–in the loyal opposition–and yes, I do mean loyal: I put out my hand. I am putting out my hand to you, Mr. Speaker. lam putting out my hand to you, Mr. Majority Leader. For this is the thing: this is the age of the offered hand. And we can't turn back clocks, and I don't want to. But when our fathers were young, Mr. Speaker, our differences ended at the water's edge. And we don't wish to turn back time, but when our mothers were young, Mr. Majority Leader, the Congress and the Executive were capable of working together to produce a budget on which this nation could live. Let us negotiate soon and hard. But in the end, let us produce. The American people await action. They didn't send us here to bicker. They ask us to rise above the merely partisan. "In crucial things, unity"–and this, my friends, is crucial.

President George H.W. Bush Inaugural Address 1989¹