“With this book, Rosenstiel fills a major gap in our understanding of federal spending. Using rigorous theoretical and empirical tools, she demonstrates how Congressional Republicans and Democrats use their committee positions to set rates of federal funding that favor their own constituents. The result is a massive federal system of spending that produces unequal benefits and burdens across states. Politics by Formula is the blueprint we all need to make our government more accountable.”

Wendy Schiller | Brown University

"In the contemporary fog of polarization and gridlock, it can be easy to forget that Congress is, at its heart, an institution that makes policy choices that affect Americans’ access to health care, education, housing, safe roads, and more. Rosenstiel’s innovative and groundbreaking book documents how trillions of dollars of federal funding are allocated by Congress and explains how the congressional politics behind these decisions affect the day-to-day lives of millions of Americans.”

Molly E. Reynolds | The Brookings Institution

“While many may be unsurprised that politics plays a significant role in grant programs, the new insights Politics by Formula deploys go far beyond what has been previously understood and established. Readers will come away with a clear grasp of the incentives that politicians face in devising and revising grant formulas—and see these incentives playing out in one policy area after another.”

Craig Volden | coauthor of "Why Bad Policies Spread (and Good Ones Don’t)"