Use of ‘Dear Colleague’ Letters in the US House of Representatives: A Study of Internal Communications

Abstract

Dear colleague letters — formal, written, Member-to-Member correspondence — provide a unique window into internal communications in the House of Representatives. In general, studies of congressional political communications tend to focus on external messaging by Members (candidates) to their constituents (voters) through a focus on electoral or constituent communication. Yet, these studies may or may not tell us why Members choose to engage in internal communication. To address this gap, this paper draws on the literature and presents new hypotheses about factors that increase a Member’s likelihood of using dear colleague letters. Using House dear colleague letter data from the first session of the 111th Congress (2009), a negative binomial regression tests the importance of seniority, electoral vulnerability, leadership status, and majority party status for dear colleague letter senders. The analysis demonstrates that being a rank-n-file majority party members who are electorally “safe” are more likely to use the dear colleague system.