Good Governance and the Partisan Wars: The Effects of Divided Government on Administrative Problem Solving and Oversight Agenda Setting in Congress.

This article examines how partisanship, particularly divided government, influences Congress’s oversight and legislative responses to federal agencies and programs identified as high risk by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Using GAO’s biennial high-risk lists from 1990 to 2018 as a benchmark for urgent administrative problems, the study finds that Congress is more likely to hold oversight hearings and enact legislation addressing these issues when the presidency and at least one chamber of Congress are controlled by opposing parties. Notably, House committees prioritize GAO-flagged problems more under divided government, suggesting that partisan incentives may increase attention to administrative vulnerabilities rather than detract from them. The findings highlight a complex relationship between partisanship and oversight, where political motivations coexist with substantive responses to nonpartisan assessments of bureaucratic waste, fraud, and abuse.