Going Public as a Legislative Weapon: Measuring Presidential Appeals Regarding Specific Legislation

Over the past several decades, American presidents have spoken publicly at an ever-increasing rate. This trend has been demonstrated by the work of several scholars, including Hart (1987), Kernell (1997), Ragsdale (1998), and Powell (1999). There is much about these increased rhetorical efforts that we know very little about, however. This is true concerning presidential rhetoric as a legislative weapon. How often do presidents speak in support of or in opposition to legislation? How often do presidents call for the American people to contact their congressman regarding a given proposal? How often do they appeal for legislation on national television or radio or by traveling around the country to deliver their message personally? Questions such as these have received little attention from presidential scholars. This article examines presidential appeals regarding 253 significant pieces of legislation from three presidential administrations (Carter, Reagan, and the first Bush) to determine the extent to which presidents use the going public strategy as a legislative weapon. Based on the data collected, the presidents examined averaged only a few public appeals for most bills, especially in terms of calls for public and congressional action, television and radio appeals, and appeals made outside of Washington, DC. However, these presidents were more likely to go public when they supported rather than opposed a given proposal. Moreover, they repeatedly took their case to the American people regarding a small percentage of the bills included in this analysis, especially their own initiatives. Data Collection To explore the frequency of presidential appeals regarding specific legislative proposals, I developed a sample of legislation by combining Mayhew's (1991) list of important congressional enactments and Edwards, Barrett, and Peake's (1997) list of potentially significant legislation that failed for the Carter, Reagan, and first Bush administrations, covering the years 1977-1992. Added together, these two lists total 253 bills for the time period examined. (1) Important or potentially significant legislation was chosen because these proposals are most likely to induce presidential appeals as so much is at stake both politically and in terms of policy making when these bills are debated. To identify presidential appeals regarding this sample of legislation, I used Western Standard Publishing's American Freedom Library (AFL) CD-ROM, an electronic library that includes the Public Papers of the Presidents as published by the Government Printing Office. Specifically, I conducted key word searches for each bill of the relevant years to find possible appeals. Once remarks pertinent to each bill were identified, I coded three separate measures of presidential appeals regarding specific legislation, including: (1) general appeals--remarks where the president either advocates support for or opposition to a particular piece of legislation or the basic policy or policies contained in that legislative proposal; (2) appeals for public action--statements where the president specifically calls on the public to pressure members of Congress regarding a particular bill; and (3) appeals for congressional action--remarks where the president specifically calls on members of Congress to pass or defeat a particular piece of legislation. (2) Presidential appeals were only coded during the life of each bill. In other words, I only coded appeals made between the date a given bill was first introduced in either chamber of Congress and the day it cleared both chambers, was killed during the lawmaking process, or the legislative session ended. By "killed during the lawmaking process," I am referring to circumstances under which a bill was defeated on the floor of either chamber, a bill failed a series of cloture votes in the Senate, or similar circumstances that led to a proposal receiving no more attention from a particular Congress The number of presidential appeals for each bill was divided by the number of months that bill was "alive" in Congress. …