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| Chapter 12: Congress |
| What Government Does and Why It Matters |
| Congress maintains Web sites at http://clerk.house.gov/ and http://thomas.loc.gov/home/abt_thom.html, which list all of the votes of Congress over the past several years. The Washington Post also lists important roll call votes by Congressmen (http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/). Select a member of Congress and search for his or her recent votes. |
| 1. List which votes you examined and how the representative voted. |
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| 2. Was this issue important in this person’s district or state or of personal interest to you? |
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| 3. Were you surprised by how he or she voted? Did you agree with his or her votes? |
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| 4. Does this person appear to represent the interests of the constituency? |
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| 5. What is agency representation? Is this person a good example of agency representation on this issue? Explain. |
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| 6. What is a party unity vote? Pick a bill and look at the final vote taking in consideration the political party of the members. How many Democrats and how many Republicans voted for and against the piece of legislation? |
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