Truth About Congressional Hearings

Newswise — Congressional hearings following tragedies like Hurricane Katrina rarely result in new legislation, said UAB political scientist Holly Brasher, Ph.D. "Hearings generally stem from media-generated issues, party-based policy issues and issues involving routine congressional operations. Media-generated hearings often fail to produce new legislation because issues that are thrust onto the agenda by media attention usually don't have enough time on the agenda for a good policy solution to emerge. They don't follow the same routine process that smaller, technical policy programs or party-based policy initiatives follow, where there's time for a solution to develop. Media-generated momentum puts issues on the agenda that aren't associated with a solution."