Measuring legislative collaboration: The Senate press events network

• We introduce a new network dataset, the Senate press events network.
• We present press event collaboration as a measure of legislative collaboration between senators.
• We show that the agendas of joint press events address topics central to the legislative process.
• We show that the structure of press event networks is less partisan than cosponsorship networks.
• Press event collaboration predicts correlation in roll call voting.

Scholarship regarding the causes and consequences of legislative collaboration has drawn several insights through the application of network analysis. Previously used measures of legislative relationships may be heavily driven by non-relational factors such as ideological or policy-area preferences. We introduce participation in joint press events held by U.S. Senators as records of collaboration and the networks they comprise. This measure captures intentional relationships between legislators along the full timeline of collaboration. We show that there is substantial community structure underlying press event networks that goes beyond political party affiliation, and that press event collaboration predicts overlap in roll call voting.