Institutional factors that constrain the Congress's use of evaluation research are illustrated by a case history of congressional deliberations about the Professional Standards Review Organization program. Guidelines for researchers who would like to make their work more useful in the policymaking process are proposed. (Author/BW)

The nine articles of this theme issue provide overviews of legislative program evaluation and demonstrate the tensions caused by the conflict between utility and rigor in such evaluations. Legislative evaluation is concerned with evaluation utilization because legislators commission evaluations they expect to use. (SLD)

Efforts of the 96th Congress to use evaluation data in considering whether to change policies about reimbursement for psychotherapy services. (Author/BW)