James M. Verdier

Policy analysis for congress: Lengthening the time horizon-comments

* Timing and time horizons. Predicting well in advance when issues will reach the congressional agenda is more important for support agency than for committee staffs, and harder to do. * Choosing issues to analyze. While support-agency staffs have a greater ability to choose which issues to work on than committee staffs, the risks of making the wrong choice are greater. * Knowing the audience. Support-agency staffs usually know more about substance, and less about how to explain it to members, than do committee staffs.