This paper presents a simple test of one of the central assumptions in Niskanen's (1971) model of bureaucracies operating in a system of representative government. Niskanen's bureaucrats attempt to maximize their budget and in so doing are led to over supply their output. Bureau's budget requests are submitted to review committees whose membership, according to Niskanen, represent high demand constituencies:
The committees for each service are dominated by representatives of the group with the highest relative demand for the service (p. 138).
Because the review committees' members represent highest demand groups, they recommend programs to the legislature that maximize (their perception of) the net benefits accruing to the median voter in the region they represent (p. 139).
In the U.S. House of Representatives, the Appropriations Committee and its various subcommittees perform the basic budget request review process. The Appropriations Subcommittees review requests and make recommendations to the Appropriations Committee as a whole. These requests and recommendations are reviewed by the Appropriations Committee and, in turn, passed on with additional recommendations (and usually cuts) to the full House.
If Niskanen's assumption is valid, then the membership of the various subcommittees of the Appropriations Committee should consist of representatives whose constituency has a higher median level on characteristics that may be taken as indicators of demand for the services over which they have review authority. This paper compares the distributions on such characteristics for the full House, the Appropriations Committee, and selected subcommittees whose substantive areas have been linked to specific constituency 'demand' characteristics. Results are presented for members of the 89th Congress and the 94th Congress .