Bureaucratic Accommodation of Congress and the President: Elections and the Distribution of Federal Assistance

Abstract

This article investigates whether elections provide bureaucrats with a means for accommodating political pressure from Congress and the White House. Specifically the article tests: (1) whether bureaucrats shorten the time they take to process applications from districts important to the agency and the White House in election years, and (2) whether such preferences are reflected in the resulting geographical distribution of assistance. An analysis of the administration and distribution of federal mass transportation discretionary capital assistance grants from 1966 through 1984 finds that agency officials adapted to White House but not subcommittee pressures in this way. The article concludes that the marginal influence of the presidency in the bureaucratic allocation of federal assistance needs further theoretical consideration.