ABSTRACT
Once a bill is introduced, it is almost always referred to committees in all US legislatures. Committees are typically empowered to review, alter, and even kill these bills. The Wyoming Education Committee looked fairly favorably on the 51 bills that crossed its path, reporting out over 77 percent of them; legislators on the Oregon Education Committee looked far less favorably on the 126 bills that it received, reporting out about 34 percent of them, for a report rate of about half that of the Wyoming Education Committee. Pennsylvania's committee system, seems to primed for majority party control, particularly important when the majority has a slim margin in the chamber. Before examining report rates, it is worth taking a brief detour to look at the role of committees themselves as sponsors of bills as one of the most fundamental of institutional rules that shape the role of committee in the legislative process is whether chambers allow committees themselves to sponsor bills.
