This manuscript examines the production of policy analysis in the United States as a product of conflict between the Presidency and Congress. Each institution deploys what I label analytical bureaucracies - bureaucracies whose sole purpose is to generate policy analysis in an effort to steer policy making. In order to gauge policy analysis in each institution and compare them, I construct two original data sets from reports issued by Congress’ Government Accountability Office (GAO) and reviews by the President’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). I find that the production of policy analysis by Congress’ GAO is a product of the administrative presidency as well as the degree of conflict between the two institutions. While policy analysis is a byproduct of this conflict, the findings have broad implications for integrating policy analysis into our understanding of agenda setting.
