Engaged Hawks and Quiet Doves: Introducing the National Defense Engagement Index

Abstract

Members of Congress reveal their preferences on an issue, not only in how they vote, but also how they spend their time. I introduce and validate a new measure of Congressional engagement in national defense, based on the amount of time and legislative energy a member spends on defense issues. I demonstrate the utility of this index through the reexamination of two key puzzles in the literature on Congressional defense preferences: how veterans and members with military interests vote relative to their peers. Using the National Defense Engagement Index (NDEI) I find that both veterans and members who have military industry in their districts are much more likely to be engaged with defense than other members of Congress. These results help to resolve discrepancies in previous literature and suggest the benefit of investigating member engagement as a key part of research on Congressional behavior.