Congress, The First Branch American Federal Government.
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Transcript of Congress, The First Branch American Federal Government.
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Congress, The First Branch
American Federal Government
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You should remember from earlier
• Bicameral institution– 435 seats in the House of Representatives
• approximately 650,000 persons in each district
• Elected every 2 years
– 100 seats in the Senate• Elected every 6 years
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So, how does Congress accomplish anything?
• Committees and Subcommittees– Senate Committee of Energy and Natural
Resources• Subcommittee on Energy• Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests• Subcommittee on National Parks• Subcommittee on Water and Power
• They have them in both the House and the Senate
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Matthew, please tell me we don’t have to write all these down
• Committee of Agriculture
• Committee of Appropriations
• Committee of Armed Services
• Committee of the Budget
• Committee on Energy and Commerce
• Committee on Education and Labor
• Committee of Financial Services
• Committee on Gov’t Reform
• Committee of Homeland Security
• Committee on Foreign Affairs
• Committee of Rules
• Committee of the Judiciary
• Committee on House Administration
• Committee on Natural Resources
• Committee on Science and Technology
• Committee on Small Business
• Committee on Veteran Affairs
• Committee on Ways and Means
• Committee on Housing and Urban Affairs
• Committee on Commerce and Transportation
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So how many of these things do we have?
• The House of Representatives– Committees: 22– Subcommittees: 106
• The Senate– Committees: 20– Subcommittees: 73
• Committees have 9 members and subcommittees have 5-9 members (depending on rules)– Average congressperson sits on 3 sub/committees
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Are all committees the same?
• Committees and Subcommittees have a number of different structures
• Standing Committees: Permanent• Foreign Affairs, Ways and Means, Agriculture
• Select Committees: Permanent or Temporary• Ethics, Aging, Global Warming
• Joint Committees: Permanent from both chambers• Joint Committee of Printing
• Conference Committees: Temporary• Iron out issues if the House and Senate can’t agree
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How a Bill Becomes Law
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How a Bill Becomes Law
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How a Bill Becomes Law
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Believe it or not, there are rules
• Floor Proceedings– House: Rules are run by majority party
• quorum
• closed rules
• open rules
• The importance of the Rules Committee
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I wanna talk for 24 hours…go for it!
• Floor Proceedings – Senate
• no rules limiting debate
• filibuster
• cloture = 60 votes
• unanimous consent agreements– the way much business gets conducted
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So has congress always been the same?
• 19th Century Congress– High Turnover (30-60%)– Strong Party Leadership
• Speaker controlled Rule Committee
– Parties control nomination process and dominate electoral process
– Presidential/Congressional Power: One-sided
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REVOLT!!!
• Transition Period (Revolt of 1910)– Speaker Joseph Cannon (Rep. IL) had both
Republicans and Democrats demand reforms to the system
• Speaker removed from Rule Committee
• “Seniority System” for chair placement
• Party can no longer punish individual members by skipping them over
• Decrease in turnover rates (beginning of “career politicians”)
• Insult to injury: Direct Election of Senators
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And they lived happily ever after…not so much
• Congress became more difficult to control– Increased Presidential Power– Committee chairs become just as dictatorial as
the former Speakers of the House– Problem arises with “Seniority System”
• Southern Democrats through “Seniority System” managed to take over most chairs, but they don’t agree with the rest of the Democratic Party
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Well, maybe those reforms weren’t such a good idea
• Starting in the 1970’s there comes a new wave of reform to congress– Liberal Democrats overhaul system to get
conservative Southern Democrats out of the committee chairs
• Reversed “Seniority” System (still largely followed)
• Proceedings became more visible (C-SPAN)
• Speaker could appoint Rules Committee
• Speaker can send bill to more than 1 committee