ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the legislative process in US legislatures as much research has examined the question of why legislators engage in the costly activity of legislating, the role of committees in the legislative process, and which legislators are more likely to be successful. It examines how the findings be conditioned or alternatively clarified by context as there are a number of contextual factors that raise or lower the cost of legislating or that change the cost-benefit calculus for actors within these institutions. The Give a Vote to Every Legislator (GAVEL) initiative sprang from a sense of frustration at the lack of legislative responsiveness in Colorado. But while legislating is perhaps the most the critical job of the legislature, legislators vary in their willingness to introduce policy and in their ability to see those proposals through the legislative process. The ability to author bills empower distributive committees as they seek to dole out benefits.
