Rocky Mountain High (On the Hill)

     My brother currently serves as a Legislative Correspondent for the House of Representatives for the office of Joe Neguse, a representative from Colorado. This immediately came to mind while reading Weingast & Marshall because Representative Neguse sits on the House Committee on Natural Resources and is the ranking member of its Federal Lands subcommittee. This is interesting because over 36% of the state of Colorado is federally owned, while the average state percentage is around 15% federally owned, meaning Colorado, and its constituents, have a particularly strong stake in federal land and natural resource policy. Looking at the other states represented on this committee, many share this characteristic. The committee is largely composed of states with substantial natural resource interests, such as Oregon, which has three of its six representatives on the committee, and Alaska, which has its sole member on the committee. This pattern is consistent with Weingast & Marshall’s argument that congressional committees are composed of “preference outliers”, as representatives from states with particularly strong natural resource interests are likely to favor distinctly different policies in that realm than the median member of the House. 

    Representative Neguse likely has an incentive to serve on this committee because he has a comparative advantage in natural resource policy given its relevance to his constituents. The opportunity cost of dedicating his time to this area is relatively low, since advocating for favorable natural resource policy is likely to benefit his reelection prospects. However, this specialization extends beyond Representative Neguse himself. My brother often speaks about how most of his office spends a significant amount of time working on policy related to natural resources. This demonstrates that comparative advantage within a particular policy area is reflected not only in representatives’ respective committee assignments, but also in how they allocate staff resources within their offices.