United States

Datasets

Datasets are arranged by type. Click on a dataset name to expand its description (including date range) as well as to download a .csv of current data and a .pdf codebook that documents included variables. For information on how to cite this data please visit our how to cite page.

All U.S. datasets include two sets of codes: U.S. Policy Agendas codes (PAP) and the international, Comparative Agendas Project codes (CAP).  For analysis across projects and countries, we recommend the CAP codes.

 

    Media
  • Congressional Quarterly Almanac
  • New York Times Front Page
  • New York Times Index
  • New York Times Index Weights
  • TV News Policy Agenda Data
    Parliamentary & Legislative
  • Congressional Bills
  • Congressional Hearings
  • Congressional Research Service Reports
  • Public Law Titles
  • Public Laws
  • Roll Call Votes
    Prime Minister & Executive
  • Executive Orders
  • Presidential Veto Rhetoric
  • State of the Union Speeches
    Political Parties
  • Democratic Party Platform
  • Republican Party Platform
    Judiciary
  • Supreme Court Cases
    Budget
  • Budget Authority (Adjusted)
  • Budget Authority-Policy Crosswalk
  • Budget Outlays
  • Tax Expenditures
    Public Opinion & Interest Groups
  • Encyclopedia of Associations
  • Gallup's Most Important Problem
  • Policy Moods


download master topics codebook

Research

State of the Union 2023
Using the Policy Agendas Project codebook, we can see how different presidents' State of the Union addresses differ in policy content. This year, we looked at both President Biden's 2023 State of the Union policy topics, and the average across all his State of the Union ... Read more

 

The Importance of Attention Diversity and How to Measure It
Studies of political attention often focus on attention to a single issue, such as front-page coverage of the economy. However, examining attention to a single issue without accounting for the agenda as a whole can lead to faulty assumptions. One solution is to consider the ... Read more

 

Bryan Jones Responds to CAP Criticisms in Journal of Public Policy
In the March 2016 issue of the Journal of Public Policy, Dowding, Hindmoor, and Martin offered a critique of "Comparative Policy Agendas Projects as measurement systems." In this piece, entitled "The Comparative Policy Agendas Projects as measurement systems: response to Dowding, ... Read more

 

Baumgartner and Jones' newest book: The Politics of Information
How does the government decide what’s a problem and what isn’t? And what are the consequences of that process? Like individuals, Congress is subject to the “paradox of search.” If policy makers don’t look for problems, they won’t find those that need to be addressed. But if they ... Read more

 

Staff

Bryan Jones
Title: Director
Institution(s): University of Texas at Austin

Bryan D. Jones is J.J. “Jake” Pickle Regent’s Chair in Congressional Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, and Director of the US Policy Agendas Project. His research centers on American public policy processes, including agenda-setting and decision-making. He is author or co-author of twelve books.


Frank R Baumgartner
Title: Co-Director
Institution(s): University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Frank R Baumgartner is the Richard J. Richardson Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and, with Bryan Jones, started work on the Policy Agendas Project in 1994.  They have been busy ever since.  www.unc.edu/~fbaum.


John Wilkerson
Title: Co-Director
Institution(s): University of Washington

John Wilkerson is a professor in the Political Science Department at the University of Washington. His research centers on legislative organization and decision-making. He is particularly interested how information technologies can advance political science research and teaching.


Sean Theriault
Title: Associate Director
Institution(s): University of Texas at Austin

Professor Sean Theriault is a Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin.  In addition to being an award-winning teacher, he is the author or co-author of 5 books on Congress, none more relevant to the Comparative Agendas Project than The Great Broadeninc (co-authored by Bryan Jones and Michelle Whyman).


Derek Epp
Title: Associate Director
Institution(s): University of Texas at Austin

Derek Epp is an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. His research centers on policy processes, a topic on which he has published The Structure of Policy Change (Chicago, 2018) and various articles. He also studies race and policing. (https://derek-epp.com/)


Christopher Wlezien
Title: Faculty Associate
Institution(s): University of Texas at Austin

Christopher Wlezien is Hogg Professor of Government at the University of Texas at Austin. His primary policy-related research develops and tests a “thermostatic” model of public opinion and policy, on which he has published a book titled Degrees of Democracy and numerous journal articles.


Samuel Workman
Title: Faculty Associate—Bureaucracy and Regulatory Politics Expert
Institution(s): University of Oklahoma

Samuel Workman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Oklahoma. He is the author of The Dynamics of Bureaucracy in the U.S. Government (Cambridge, 2015). His research addresses bureaucracy, public policy, and regulatory politics.


Chris Koski
Title: Faculty Associate
Institution(s): Reed College

Chris Koski is Associate Professor of Political Science and Environmental Studies at Reed College in Portland, Oregon.  Chris, along with co-author Christian Breunig from the University of Konstanz, has written a number of articles investigating punctuated equilibrium in state budgets.  Chris also works with co-authors on projects related to information processing in rulemaking, the structure and implementation of collaborative governance, and subnational climate policy.  Chris can occasionally be found in his home state of Montana, but don't look too hard.


Christopher Faricy
Title: Faculty Associate
Institution(s): Syracuse University

Christopher Faricy is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. He is author of Welfare for the Wealthy: Parties, Social Spending, and Inequality in the United States (Cambridge University Press).


Amber Boydstun
Title: Faculty Associate
Institution(s): University of California, Davis

Amber E. Boydstun is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Davis. Her research focuses on media coverage and issue framing. She is author of Making the News: Politics, the Media, and Agenda Setting (University of Chicago Press) and co-author of The Decline of the Death Penalty and the Discovery of Innocence (Cambridge University Press).


Herschel Thomas
Title: Faculty Associate
Institution(s): University of Texas at Arlington

Herschel is an Assistant Professor at UT-Arlington and recently completed his Ph.D. at UT-Austin.  His research focuses on the policy process, agenda-setting, organized interests, and lobbying.  He previously managed the US Project from 2011-2014.


JoBeth Shafran
Title: Faculty Associate
Institution(s): Western Carolina University

JoBeth Shafran is an Assistant Professor in the Political Science and Public Affairs Department at Western Carolina University.  Her research focuses on information processing in subsystems and the effects of information on problem definitions and the policy process. 


Jonathan Lewallen
Title: Faculty Associate
Institution(s): University of Tampa

Jonathan Lewallen is an assistant professor at the University of Tampa studying agenda setting in U.S. political institutions and the use of expertise and analysis in policymaking. His work has been published in Regulation & Governance and PS: Political Science and Politics. More information can be found at www.jonathanlewallen.com.


Michelle Whyman
Title: Faculty Associate
Institution(s): Duke University

Michelle is a Postdoctoral Associate and Visiting Assistant Professor with the Political Institutions and Public Choice Program at Duke University. Her research focuses on United States lawmaking, with an emphasis on the durability of legislative enactments.


Rebecca Eissler
Title: Faculty Associate
Institution(s): San Francisco State University

Rebecca Eissler is an Assistant Professor in the Political Science Department at San Francisco State University. Her research focused on agenda setting and information processing dynamics in the presidency.  More information can be found at www.rebeccaeissler.com. 


Annelise Russell
Title: Faculty Associate
Institution(s): University of Kentucky

Annelise Russell is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the University of Kentucky.


Alison Craig
Title: Faculty Associate
Institution(s): University of Texas at Austin

Alison Craig is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Government at the University of Texas at Austin.  Her research focuses on policymaking in the United States Congress with an emphasis on interactions between members and navigating the legislative process.  She is currently writing a book on collaboration in the U.S. House of Representatives.


E.J. Fagan
Title: Faculty Associate
Institution(s): University of Texas at Austin

E.J. Fagan is an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His research focuses on the policy agenda of political parties in the United States, think tanks, and policy disasters.


Brooke Shannon
Title: Research Associate
Institution(s): University of Texas at Austin

Brooke Shannon is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Government at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research interests include local and state government, institutional reform, and Latino politics. Brooke received her B.A. in political science from The University of Colorado Denver and her M.A. in political science from the University of Memphis.


Connor Dye
Title: Director of Undergraduate Research
Institution(s): University of Texas at Austin

Connor Dye is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Government at the University of Texas at Austin. His research interests include the bureaucracy, policy process, agenda setting and government responsiveness to public participation . He received his B.A. in Political Science and Economics from Randolph College.


Christine Bird
Title: Faculty Associate
Institution(s): University of Texas at Austin

Christine Bird is a PhD Student at the University of Texas at Austin. Christine studies courts and judicial politics. Christine holds a JD from the Oklahoma City University, a MA from the University of Texas at Austin, and a BA from the University of Oklahoma. She is licensed to practice law in her home state of Oklahoma.


Ross Buchanan
Title: Research Associate
Institution(s): University of Texas at Austin

My research focuses on environmental policy and government responsiveness to public participation.  I am interested in differences in responsiveness between democratic and authoritarian regimes.


Guy Freedman
Title: Research Associate
Institution(s): University of Texas at Austin

Guy Freedman is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Government at the University of Texas at Austin. His research interests include public opinion, the public agenda and policy responsiveness. He received his B.A. and M.A. in Political Science from the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya.  His M.A. thesis examines the American public mood toward Israel, and he previously worked as a statistical consultant at the IDC.


Katie Madel
Title: Research Associate
Institution(s): University of Texas at Austin

Katie Madel is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Government at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research interests include education policy, gender policy, and political rhetoric. She received her B.A. in Political Science and English from North Central College.


Zachary McGee
Title: Faculty Associate
Institution(s): University of Texas at Austin

Zachary McGee is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Government at the University of Texas at Austin. His research interests include the U.S. Congress, political parties, policy process, and agenda setting. He received his B.S. in Political Science from Towson University


Laura Quaglia
Title: Research Associate
Institution(s): University of Texas at Austin

Laura Quaglia is a PhD student at  the University of Texas at Austin. Her research interests include national security policymaking and agenda-setting from a comparative perspective. Laura received her B.A. in International Relations and her M.A in International Strategic Studies from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in Brazil.


Explore Policy Trends

Click to explore policy trends with United States pre-selected. The Trends tool allows for policy comparisons across governing institutions and countries.

The U.S. Policy Agendas Project collects and organizes data from various archived sources to trace changes in the national policy agenda and public policy outcomes of the United States since the Second World War.

Principal Investigator: Bryan Jones
Location: Department of Government, University of Texas at Austin
Email: policyagendas@gmail.com
Downloadable Data Series: 19
Time Span: 1940-2023
Total Observations: 912,186

US Policy Agendas

Featured Research:
State of the Union 2023

Using the Policy Agendas Project codebook, we can see how different presidents' State of the Union addresses differ in policy content. This year, we looked at both President Biden's 2023 State of the Union policy topics, and the average across all his State of the Union addresses.  Download the PDF to look at the differences in more detail.  Read more

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