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Congress is both a representative assembly and a powerful decision-making agency of government. |
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Congress has the authority to use military force and controls how the nation's money will be spent. |
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During the first hundred years of the U.S. government, Congress was the dominant institution. Beginning with New Deal, Congress has allowed the executive to wield increasingly greater powers, making the presidency the more influential branch of U.S. government. |
| 1) Representation |
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Members are responsible only to their constituents |
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Delegate vs. Trustee model of representation |
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Representatives act as agents and are held accountable for properly representing their constituency by frequent competitive elections. |
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A) House and Senate: Differences in Representation |
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House members represent districts while Senators represent states. |
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House districts tend to be more homogeneous than states. |
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The Senate is the more deliberative body, less centralized and with less powerful leadership. |
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The Senate has longer, staggered terms and more strenuous requirements for office. |
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Recently, the House has become increasingly partisan whereas the Senate has made more efforts towards compromise. |
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B) The Electoral System |
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Members of Congress are motivated by re-election. |
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Who runs matters |
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Incumbency advantage: Once in office, members provide services to their constituents in an effort to secure their future votes. Pork-barrel politics and casework are two methods of keeping voters happy. |
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Redistricting matters and gerrymandering can give an unfair advantage to one political party. |
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| 2) Problems of Legislative Organization |
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A) Cooperation in Congress |
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Legislators are motivated by policy goals as well as by a desire to please those who control their political futures. |
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The priorities of legislators vary a great deal and the diverse preferences make compromise difficult. |
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Institutional procedures help facilitate cooperation. |
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B) Underlying Problems and Challenges |
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Matching influence and interest is challenging as legislators have only a single vote on any bill regardless of how important that issue is to them. |
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Members must understand how the issues they vote on are connected in order to vote intelligently and yet, because of the enormous number of topics discussed, no single member can possibly understand the complexities of every issue. |
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Compliance with new laws is often difficult to control as implementation of laws is done by the executive bureaucracy. |
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| 3) The Organization of Congress |
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A) Party Leadership and Organization in the House and Senate |
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Unofficial organizations that foster cooperation, coalitions, and compromise |
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Caucus selects leaders |
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Leaders have many formal and informal powers, including agenda setting |
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Recent years have seen increased external strategies, including fund-raising. |
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B) The Committee System: The Core of Congress |
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The committees are the core of Congress; they receive proposals for legislation and process them into official bills. |
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Congressional division of labor is achieved through committees |
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Committees allow members to specialize in policy areas and become experts |
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Committee chairs act as "gatekeepers," deciding whether or not bills will be voted on by the full chamber. |
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Standing committees have fixed membership, officers, rules, staff, and offices. |
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Committees often provide oversight for federal programs. |
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The majority party sets rules and chooses officers, including the chairs of each committee. |
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Jurisdiction is defined by subject matter of legislation. |
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C) The Staff System: Staffers and Agencies |
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Second in importance to committees |
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Both personal and committee staffs are influential |
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Handle constituency requests |
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Deal with legislative details |
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Formulate and draft proposals |
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Negotiate with lobbyists |
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D) Informal Organization: The Caucuses |
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Groups of legislators who share opinions, interests, or social characteristics |
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Congressional interest groups, including Steel Caucus, Black Caucus |
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| 4) Rules of Lawmaking: How A Bill Becomes A Law |
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Before a bill can become a law, it must pass through the legislative process, a complex set of organizations and procedures in Congress. |
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A) Committee Deliberation |
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Hearings, markups, and reports to the Chamber |
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Roughly 90% of bills die here. |
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Rules Committee sets debate ground rules in House. |
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B) Debate |
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The role of party leaders is significant. |
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Filibusters in the Senate can derail a bill that would otherwise pass. |
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Amendments and "holds" are also influential, allowing members to delay the passage of a piece of legislation or force changes on it. |
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C) Conference Committee: Reconciling House and Senate Versions of a Bill |
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Reconciles differences by compromising when chambers disagree |
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Final hurdle prior to going to President for signature |
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D) Presidential Action |
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President receives the bill and can do one of three things: |
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i) Sign the bill into law |
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ii) Veto: return bill within ten days with explanation |
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iii) Pocket veto: president takes no action before Congress adjourns and bill is effectively vetoed. |
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E) Normal and Abnormal Procedures in Congress |
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There are regular procedures that the government follows but politicians can use creative measures to achieve the results they want. |
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F) The Distributive Tendency in Congress |
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Authorization differs from appropriation because appropriation actually spends the money granted in the authorization. |
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Distributive policies spread benefits across many states to increase the odds of a bill passing. |
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| 5) How Congress Decides |
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The legislative process is driven by six sets of political forces: political parties, committees, staffs, caucuses, rules of lawmaking, and the president. |
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Constituency is important to members of Congress; because they wish to be re-elected, they consider carefully how their votes will be perceived by future voters. |
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Interest Groups provide information and fund-raising in exchange for access and influence. |
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Party discipline involves enticements from leadership to sway a member's vote |
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Weighing diverse influences is difficult when getting conflicting messages. |
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| 6) Beyond Legislation: Additional Congressional Powers |
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A) Advice and Consent: Special Senate Powers |
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Treaties require 2/3 majority in the Senate. |
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All appointments require a majority. |
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B) Impeachment |
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House accuses, and Senate tries the case |
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Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were impeached. However, in both cases the Senate did not find them guilty of the charges, therefore they were not removed from office. |
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| 7) Power and Representation |
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The power of Congress is a function of its capacity to effectively represent important groups and forces in society. |
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Congressional preeminence has receded as the presidency has gathered strength. |
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Congress and the president are often at odds, particularly with divided government. |
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