Scenario 1 Part B.1: Rise and Decline of Subtopics Attention in Congress
Detailed Example

Here we provide a detailed example of building a custom analysis for select subtopics within Defense. As Part A shows, defense issues are one of the declining issues in Congress. The question is: are all defense issues declining at the same rate.

The final chart produced using the Policy Analysis Tool:

(Click on the thumbnails to view the larger picture.)

Step 1

Following the link "Level II: Query" above will open up the query form.

Step 2

First, select the dataset of interest. In this case, "Congressional Hearings" is already selected, since it is set as the default dataset.

Step 3

In the Major Topic area of Defense, select the following subtopics: "Arms Control and Nuclear Nonproliferation", "Civil Defense", "Manpower, Military Personnel", "Military Intelligence", Military Procurement", Military Readiness", and "Oversight of Defense Contracts." Next, select the option for "Congressional Sessions". Select "80" from the "From" drop-down list and "102" from the "To" drop-down list. Since we want to see the results as a percent of all hearings, select the option to analyze the data as a "percent of all activity." We do not need to select any other filters, so click the "Search" button.

Step 4

	Clicking the "Submit Search" button, produces a chart showing the percent of hearings dedicated to each of the defense subtopics we selected.
	Additionally, below the chart is a table of the results (Drill Down Table). Clicking on the values in the table will produce of list of the hearings for that particular subtopic in that particular congress.

Step 5 (Optional)

You can alter the appearance of the chart by right-clicking anywhere on the chart. This will produce an menu of options. In this case we have selected "Legend" from the menu options. When the legend appears, right-click in the legend box and select "Float" from the options. Also, we have edited the title by selecting "Edit Title" from the main menu options. For more information on altering the chart appearance, please see the Chart Tutorial.

The final chart shows that Manpower and Military Personnel issues dominated the defense agenda shortly after the War. However, attention to those issues declines rapidly in the subsequent congresses. On the other hand, attention to Military Procurement issues and Arms Control issues have remained relatively stable over time.