House Agriculture Ranked Most Bipartisan Committee in Congress

(WASHINGTON, DC) Though sometimes rare, bipartisanship in Congress still exists. According to research from Joshua Ryan at R Street Institute, the House Agriculture Committee is once again the most bipartisan of all Lower Chamber committees. The committee most focused on farming and rural issues pales in comparison with the House Administration and the House Rules Committees as the most partisan. Ryan developed three measures of committee partisanship. The first measure is the percentage of all votes taken within a committee when more than 90 percent of one party votes against more than 90 percent of the other party. The second measure examines the percentage of “low” party-line votes in which more than 50 percent of one party votes against more than 50 percent of the other party. The final measure is the average percentage of majority party members voting “yea” on a roll call minus the average percentage of minority party members voting “yea”. Other committees considered to be less partisan include Veterans’ Affairs and the Permanent Intelligence Committees.