Competition over Issue Agendas: Presidential Signing Statements and Congressional Oversight

In this paper we code the objections in presidential signing statements by their policy content, using the standard coding themes developed by Baumgartner and Jones. Congressional reactions to signing statements are assessed by policy area as well as by committee. In earlier work, we found that congressional oversight on affected committees increased after presidential signing statements. Committees appeared to be protecting their policy turf. In this paper, we use the coding schemes from the Policy Agendas Project (Baumgartner and Jones) to code the legislation receiving a signing statement by policy topic and policy subtopic. The objections in a signing statement are then coded using the same policy topic and policy subtopic schemes. This enhanced coding procedure allows us to discern enhanced congressional oversight on committees not directly affected by a signing statement but still concerned about an affected policy area. Put more directly, signing statements spur oversight tied to the affected legislation, oversight tied to the affected policy area(s), or some combination of both.