Congress

Congress and the Constitution• Bicameral

– Great Compromise– Pluralism

• Differences between House and Senate– Qualifications and Terms– Filibuster

• Cloture Rule• 60 Votes

– Rules Committee• Only significant in the House

– Apportionment, the census, redistricting, and Gerrymandering• Changes

– Civil War Amendments– 17th Amendment– 19th Amendment– 26th Amendment– 27th Amendment– 1965 Voting Rights Act

Qualifications and Terms

• Constitution sets out requirements for membership in the House and Senate– House – 25 years of age; reside in U.S. at least 7

years; serve 2 year terms• Directly elected, thus more responsible to the people

– Senate – 30 years of age; reside in U.S. at least 9 years; serve 6 year terms

– Congressional members must be legal residents of their states

Differences and Changes

How many women and minorities serve in Congress?

What is a typical day like for a member of Congress?

Reelection

What are the advantages of incumbency?

Apportionment and Redistricting

• Apportionment• Proportional process of allotting congressional seats to

each state following the ten year census

• Redistricting• Redrawing of congressional districts to reflect increases

or decreases in seats allotted to the states, as well as population shifts within a state

• 1929: House size fixed at 435

Redistricting and Gerrymandering

Virginia’s Third and Seventh Districts

Virginia’s Congressional Districts

Helping Constituents

• Casework• Pork Barrel Legislation– Logrolling

• Stages of a congressperson’s career– Reelection– Increase power in institution– Policy maker

Congressional Powers

Constitutional Powers of Congress

• The authority to make laws is shared by both chambers of Congress– Bill

• A proposed law– No bill can become a law

without the consent of both houses

– Each chamber also has special, exclusive powers as well.

• Other shared powers– Declare war – Raise an army and navy – Coin money – Regulate commerce– Establish the federal courts and their jurisdiction – Establish rules of immigration and naturalization – Make laws necessary and proper to carrying out the

powers previously listed• Special powers

– House – origination of revenue bills• Mandate has blurred over time• Impeachment authority (but Senate tries; 2/3 vote)

– Senate – treaties, presidential appointments

Powers of Congress

How a Bill Becomes A Law

• Only members of the House or Senate can submit a bill.

• Once a bill is introduced: usually a dead end– Of about 9,000 or so bills introduced during a

session of Congress, fewer than 10 percent make it into law.

– System of multiple vetoes; power is dispersed as the Framers intended.

Lawmaking Power• Committee referral

– Markups• Floor debate

– Holds– Filibusters

• Cloture• Final approval

– Vetoes– Pocket vetoes

How a Bill Becomes a Law: The Textbook Version

• Introduction (sponsorship)• Sent to clerk of chamber

– Bill printed, distributed, and sent to appropriate committee or committees (referred by Speaker in House)

• Committee refers bill to one of its subcommittees• Subcommittee researches bill and decides on hearings

– Hearings provide opportunity for both sides of issue to voice their opinions

• Bill then revised in subcommittee and vote is taken• If vote is positive, the bill is returned to full committee

– Markup• Full committee either rejects bill or sends it to House or Senate floor

with a recommendation

How a Bill Becomes a Law: Textbook Version

• Next stage of action takes place on the floor• In House, goes to Rules Committee, given a rule, placed on calendar

(but not budget bills)– Rules limit debate and determine what kind, if any, amendments are

allowed• House may choose to form a Committee of the Whole

– Allows for deliberation with only 100 members present• On the floor, bill debated, amendments offered, and a vote taken• If bill survives, it is sent to the Senate for consideration—if it was not

considered there simultaneously.

How a Bill Becomes a Law: Textbook Version

• In the Senate, bill may be held up by:– A hold – a tactic by which a senator asks to be

informed before a particular bill is brought to the floor

– A filibuster – a formal way of halting action on a bill by means of long speeches or unlimited debate on the Senate• Cloture: Mechanism requiring sixty senators to vote to

cut off debate

How a Bill Becomes a Law: Textbook Version

• Third state of action takes place when the two chambers of Congress approve different versions of the SAME bill

• Conference committee• Returns to each chamber for final vote. If it does not pass

in each chamber it dies• If the bill passes, it is sent to the president.

How a Bill Becomes a Law: Textbook Version

• President can either sign it or veto it.• The president has 10 days to consider a bill.• Four options:

– Can sign the bill, at which point it becomes law– Can veto the bill; congress can override the veto with a 2/3 vote in

each chamber– Can wait the full ten days, at the end of which time the bill becomes

law without his signature IF Congress is still in session– If Congress adjourns before the ten days are up, the president can

choose not to sign the bill. The bill is then pocket-vetoed.• Bill would have to be reintroduced and go through the entire process

again in order to become a law

How a Bill Becomes a Law

Budgetary Power

• Congressional Budget Act of 1974– Reconciliation– Timeline on budget

process• Pork and earmarks

Oversight Power

• War Powers Act (1973)• Congressional review• Confirmation of presidential

appointments– Senatorial courtesy

• Impeachment

Organization of Congress

How Congress is Organized• New Congress is seated every two years

– Elect new leaders• Each house has a hierarchical leadership structure

• Political Parties– Organization of both houses of Congress closely tied to political

parties and their strength in each chamber.– Majority Party– Minority Party– Role in the committee system

• Controlled by the majority party– Party caucus or conference

• Variety of roles and specialized committees

The House• Always the larger of the two chambers

– Organized more tightly; increased role for party leadership• Speaker

– Presides over House– Official spokesperson for the House– Second in line of presidential succession– House liaison with president– Great political influence within the chamber

• Henry Clay, first powerful speaker (1810)• Joe Cannon (1903-1910), was so powerful, that a revolt emerged to reduce powers

of the speakership.• Newt Gingrich (1995)• Dennis Hastert – replaced Gingrich; wrestling coach and social studies teacher;

largely unknown Republican• With Democrats taking control of the House, Nancy Pelosi (CA), became the first

woman Speaker of the House.

Other House Leaders• Majority Leader

– Elected leader of the party controlling the most seats in the House or the Senate

– Second in authority to the Speaker—in the Senate, is the most powerful member

• Minority Leader– Elected leader of the party with the second highest number of elected

representatives in the House of Representatives or the Senate• Whips

– Keep close contact with all members and take nose counts on key votes, prepare summaries of bills, etc.

• Party caucus or conference– A formal gathering of all party members

The Senate• The Constitution specifies the vice president as the

presiding officer of the Senate.– He votes only in case of a tie.

• Official chair of the Senate is the president pro tempore (pro tem).– Primarily honorific– Generally goes to the most senior senator of the majority party– Actual presiding duties rotate among junior members of the

chamber– True leader is the majority leader, but not as powerful as

Speaker is in the House

The Senate

• Senate rules give tremendous power to individual senators– Offering any kind of amendment– filibuster

• Because Senate is smaller in size organization and formal rules have not played the same role as in the House

How Congress is Organized

Committee System• Organization and specialization of committees is very

important in the House due to size– Subcommittees allow for even greater specialization

• Institutionalized system created in 1816– More committees added over time

• 1995 Republican committee system reform– Result may have weakened the committee system

• How chairs are appointed• Devaluation of seniority• Shift of power from chairs to party leaders• Reduction in resources to subcommittee chairs• Imposition of term limits on committee chairs

Kinds of Committees

• Standing– Ways and Means– Appropriations– Rules

• Subcommittees• Select – Select Intelligence

• Joint• Conference

Committee Membership

• Members often seek assignments to committees based on– Their own interests or expertise– A committee’s ability to help their prospects for reelection

• Pork/earmarks: legislation that allows representatives to bring home the “bacon” to their districts in the form of public works programs, military bases, or other programs designed to benefit their districts directly

• Access to large campaign contributors

Choosing Committee Members

• Party• Seniority– Changes

• Role of the Chair– Make key decisions about the work of the committee– Decide when hearings will be held and which witnesses

will be called– Hire staff and control the budget– Manage floor debates on bills coming from their

committee

Committee Chairs• These individuals have tremendous power and prestige.

– Authorized to select all subcommittee chairs– Call meetings– Recommend majority members to sit on conference

committees– Can kill a bill by not scheduling hearings on it– Have staff at their disposal

• Seniority still important in the Senate

Committees in Congress

Purposes of Committees

• Purposes of Committees– Allows members to divide their work and become

specialists– Sort through numerous bills– Educate the public through hearings and investigations

• Purposes of Committees– Allows members to divide their work and become

specialists– Sort through numerous bills– Educate the public through hearings and investigations

The Members of Congress

• Find the job exciting• Relish the work• Recent impact of partisanship

– Makes work more stressful, intense

• Can make more money in private sector• Must work to appease two constituencies

– Home– Washington

Running for Office and Staying in Office

• Incumbency– The fact that being in office helps a person stay in office because

of a variety of benefits that go with the position• Name recognition• Access to free media• Inside track on fund-raising• District drawn to favor incumbent

– 1980 to 1990, an average of 95 percent of incumbents who sought reelection won their primary and general election races.

Congressional Demographics• Members tend to be:

– Better educated than the population in general• All but three are college graduates; over 2/3’s have advanced degrees.

– Richer• Nearly 200 are millionaires; 21 Senators are worth at least 3.1 million. 29 House

members worth that much as well.– Male– White– Average age is 60 for Senators; 54 for House members.– Adam Putnam (R-FL) elected in 2000 at age of 25. Still the youngest member

of Congress.– John Sununu (R-NH) is the youngest Senator (41)– Minorities in the House and Senate– Occupations

• No longer overwhelmingly lawyers

Theories of Representation• Trustee

– Role played by elected representatives who listen to constituent’s opinions and then use their best judgment to make final decisions

• Delegate– Role played by elected representatives who vote the way their

constituents would want them to, regardless of their own opinions

• Politico– Role played by elected representatives who act as trustees or as

delegates, depending on the issue

Influences on Lawmakers

• Whether or Not Issue Affects Constituents• Delegate or Trustee• Voters– Incumbent Candidates Must Defend Record– “All politics is local”

• Staff and Support Agencies• Political Parties• Interest Groups and Political Action Committees

– Iron Triangles and Issue Networks

• The President

What are the congressional support agencies?

Back

Congress and the Other Branches

• Congress and the executive– Balance of power has shifted to executive

• Congress and the judiciary– Judicial review

Congress and the President• Constitution envisioned that Congress and the president

would have: – Discrete powers– One branch would be able to hold the other in check– Since the 1930s, the president has had the upper hand

• But Congress still has ultimate legislative authority to question executive actions and

• Congress can impeach and even remove him from office

Shifting Balance of Power• Congressional Oversight

– Congressional review of the activities of an agency, department, or office

• Foreign Policy and National Security– War Powers Act

• Passed by Congress in 1973: Limits the president in the deployment of troops overseas to a sixty day period in peacetime unless Congress explicitly gives its approval for a longer period

• Confirmation of Presidential Appointments• The Impeachment Process

Congress and the Judiciary• Congress exercises its control over the judiciary in

several ways.– Can establish the size of the Supreme Court, its appellate

jurisdiction, and the structure of the federal court system– Senate also has the authority to accept or reject presidential

nominees for the federal courts• Senatorial courtesy: process by which presidents, when

selecting district court judges, defer to the senator in whose state the vacancy occurs