The Evolution of Committee Agenda Control in the Antebellum U.S. House of Representatives

Gatekeeping is viewed as an essential element of committee power in the U.S. Congress, but its emergence is not well understood. The House of Representatives moved to a system of standing committees by 1825. We investigated whether that move gave committees gatekeeping power prior to the Civil War or layered committees atop the earlier Jeffersonian system centering consequential legislative action on the floor. Using original data from the House Journal , we find evidence of institutional layering, with elements of gatekeeping – jurisdictional clarity, positive agenda setting, and negative agenda setting – developing unevenly and largely through changes in the behavior of members rather than formal reform of the House to empower its committees.