The Role of Model Legislation in the U.S. Congress

• In Event: The Relationship between the Legislature and Other Political Institutions

Abstract

In recent years, researchers have explored the role that interest groups have in drafting model legislation on the state level. Model legislation is draft legislation prepared by interests external to the legislative body they seek to influence. Interest groups write these draft bills in an effort to directly influence the language used in statutes, guide the debate on specific issues, and achieve desired policy change. State legislators then utilize the model legislation produced by interest groups as a means of position-taking, to achieve uniformity, and as a legislative subsidy. State legislators frequently lack resources, staffing, and time to wholly draft their own legislation internally. As a result, these legislators turn to interest groups with the resources to produce, disseminate, and advocate for these policies. I posit that this same phenomenon occurs on the federal level; members of Congress use model legislation as a resource to provide the text for proposed legislation. I argue that while model legislation is certainly not the sole source of new legislative text, it is a significant tool that interest groups use to influence initial legislative output. As the use of federal model legislation is largely unexplored, this paper seeks to answer questions on a variety of issues to achieve a comprehensive view of this phenomenon. The underlying interest group motivations, policy scope, influence, and impact of federal model legislation are explored in this study. A mixed-methods approach, including case studies, interviews, and text analysis, is utilized to tease out the nuances of this phenomenon.

Author

• Alexander Whitford Leasure, Georgia State University