Outline: Chapter 7 – Congress

 

Intro (p222)

  • Congress’ capacity to get things done decreased as individual representative work towards their constituent’s goals
  • Opinion of Congress hurt for two reasons:

1) People have high expectations for Congress

2) It is difficult to balance the role of representative with that as a lawmaker

 

Roots of the Legislative Branch (p223)

  • Colonists adopted a bicameral legislatures
    • One house elected by the people, one appointed by the Crown
    • Originally only advisory boards, but later set taxes, spending, and quality standards for goods in each colony
  • First national legislature – 1st Continental Congress (all but Georgia had a rep)
    • Met to respond to the Coercive Acts
    • Organized boycott of British goods
    • Asked colonies to each establish a militia
  • 2nd Continental Congress
    • Occurred after fighting at Lexington and Concord
    • Organized the war effort, raised an army, and adopted the Declaration of Independence
    • Little money or stability; had to constantly move
    • Adopted Articles of Confederation
  • Constitutional Convention called because the Articles of Confederation could not hold together the states

 

The Constitution and the Legislative Branch of Government (p223)

  • All states formed bicameral legislatures except Nebraska
  • Great Compromise – same # of senators from each state; representatives based on population
  • House Membership – 25 years old, resided in US for 7 years, legal resident of the state they represent, 2 year term
    • Expected to be more democratic - directly elected and had to be reelected every two years
  • Senate Membership – 30 years old, resided in US for 9 years, legal resident of the state they represent, 6 year term
    • Expected to represent state’s interests; this lost with the 17th Amendment

      Apportionment and Redistricting (p224)

  • In 1790, one representative per 37,000 people (65 reps)
  • Fixed at 435 members in 1929
  • Redistricting - districts have to be redrawn so that each represents about the same number of people

      Constitutional Powers of Congress (p224)

  • Constitution gives Congress the authority to make laws
  • Bills (proposed law) must pass both houses
  • Powers of Congress listed in table 7.1 on page 225
  • Shared powers (between houses) – war declaration, raise army, coin money, regulate commerce, etc
  • House specific powers:
    • House – revenue bills, impeaching, charge “civil officers” (Pres, judges, etc)
    • Senate – conducts impeachment trials (requires 2/3 vote to pass), approves Pres appointments and treaties
  • Impeached presidents (both acquitted by the Senate) – Johnson, Clinton

 

 

 

Members of Congress (p226)

  • The House was considered a short-term, miserable, stepping-stone prior to World War I
  • Casework – constituents bring their problems to their reps who delegate them to interns and staff members

      Running for Office and Staying in Office (p228)

  • Almost a requirement to be in one of the two major parties
  • Money is key to victory
  • Incumbency factor – factors that help a politician stay in office once in office (advantages listed on table 7.4 include name recognition, access to media, etc)
    • Reelection of incumbents averaged 95% from 1980 to 1995, and 98% in 2002

Term Limits (p229) – restrictions in some states to the maximum term lengths of state/local offices

  • Framers considered limiting reps to one term
  • States voted to put term limits on their national, state, local reps but the national limit was overturned by the Sup Court

What does Congress look like? (p230)

  • Better educated, whiter, more male, and richer than the average American
  • Minority poorly represented by Congress

Representational Role of Members of Congress (p231)

  • Trustee – rep who listens to constituents but makes what he believes to be the best decision
    • Developed by British philosopher Burke (1797)
  • Delegate – vote the way their constituents want
  • Politico – rep who acts as a trustee and delegate
  • Typically, minorities represent their groups interest or special interests (women’s interests by women, black interests by blacks, etc)

 

How Congress is Organized (p235)

      The House of Representatives – more domestically focussed

  • Speaker of the House – head officer; only officer of the House in the Constitution
    • Elected at the beginning of each Congress by a majority vote (Committee chairs elected the same way)
    • Speakers:
      • 1st powerful speaker: Henry Clay
      • Formal powers given to speaker between 1896 to 1910; ended after Joseph Cannon
      • Some powers restored by Newt Gingrich, first Repub speaker in 40 years
  • House Majority and Minority Leaders
    • Party caucus or conference – formal gathering of party members (elects maj / min leaders)
    • Whip – keep “nose counts” on key votes and prepare summaries of bills
      • Est. in 1899 (House), 1913 (Senate)
      • Try to “whip” party members into line on partisan issues
      • Ex: Clinton’s impeachment: Republican’s threatened to face Republican challengers, etc

      Senate (p238) – more internationally focussed

  • Presiding Officer of the Senate: Vice President (Cheney first to preside over 50-50 Senate since 1881) (in Constitution)
  • Pro Tempore: official chair of the Senate; selected by majority party; presides in absence of VP
    • Honorific office going to most senior senator of majority party
    • Perfunctory duty usually delegated / rotated among junior members except during key votes
  • Majority Leader: true leader of Senate; not too much power as the Senate has much fewer formal rules than the House
  • Individual have much power – can propose any amendment to any legislation, filibusters require 3/5 vote to be cut off
  • Referred to as a “Gentleman’s Club” in the 60s – many unwritten rules of behavior
    • If you disliked another senator, you called him the “able, learned, and distinguished senator”, etc
    • This ended with the 70s

      The Role of Political Parties in Organizing Congress (p241)

  • Majority parties often set congressional agendas
  • Each party has a committee to help members get reelected

 

 

The Committee System (p242)

a.        Types (p242)

1.        Standing Committees

·         Committee to which proposed bills are referred

·         First and Last place where bills must go

·         So-called because they continue from one Congress to the next

2.        Joint committees

·         Set up to expedite business between the House and the Senate and focus public attention on major matters (economy, taxation, scandals)

·         Members from both chambers

·         Conduct investigations or special studies (i.e. U.S. Intelligence’s Response to Terrorism)

3.       Conference Committee

1.        Joint committees created to iron out differences between Senate and House versions of a specific piece of legislation

2.        Made up of members of House and Senate who originally considered the bill

4.        Ad hoc, special, or select committees

1.        Temporary, appointed for specific purposes

2.        (i.e.) Conduct special investigations or studies and report back to chamber that established them

b.       Other

·         Parallel to Departments in President’s cabinet, other house committees

·         House Rule Committee

o        No Senate counterpart

o        Majority party members appointed directly by speaker

o        Reviews bills after they come from a committee and before they go to the full chamber for consideration

o        “Traffic cop” – Gives each bill a rule

a.        Date bill will come up for debate

b.       Time allotted for discussion

c.        Specific kinds of amendments that can be offered

·         Discharge Petition

o        Forces bill out of House committee

o        Petition  that give a majority (216/435) of the HoR the authority to bring an issue to the floor in the face of committee inaction

o        Used to be secret, now made public weekly in Congressional Record

·         Senate Legislation – likely to be written on the floor

 

Committee Membership (p244)

·         Pork Barrel Legislation – Legislation that allows reps 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 in the form of public works programs, military bases, or other programs designed to benefit their districts directly

o        Armed Service Committee  - Lucrative defense contracts to his/her district

o        Kind of attachment to bills

o        Improve members’ chances for reelection, but most criticized by public

·         Committees give members influence over decisions that affect large campaign contributors (i.e. Energy and Commerce)

·         Committees that give house members Power and influence within Chamber (The Appropriations and Budget Com.)

·         Committee membership reflects party distribution

o        Except, Rule Com. Regulates access to the floor for legislation, majority makes up 2/3 of that com.

 

Committee Chairs (p245)

·         House Speaker

o        Used to have more power

o        Can choose not to schedule hearing on a bill to kill it

o        Power to draft legislation, manage million dollar plus staff budget, and “here pleas from lobbyists, cabinet secretaries, and even presidents who need something only a com. can provide”

o        Convenes, adjoins meetings

·         Cannot serve more than six years

·         Selects subcommittee chairs, calls meetings, strategize, and recommends majority members to sit on conference committees

·         Senate: chairs by seniority

 

Law-Making Function of Congress (p246)

                (see picture at the end)

 

      Another Way of Looking at Law-Making Function of Congress:

          Stage 1

·         Introduced by a member or list of members (shows early support) of Congress

·         Clerk of chamber gives it a # (HR1 or S1)

·         Bill printed, distributed, sent to appropriate committees and subcommittees

·         Committee refers it to subcommittee

·         Subcommittee researches and decides whether to hold hearings on it

·         Hearings – both sides of the issue are presented

·         Bill revised

·         Subcommittee votes to approve/defeat the bill

·         Committee rejects or sends it to the Floor (revisions incorporated into bill; not amendments until it gets to the floor)

Notes: 1) Committee of the Whole – allows House to deliberate w/only 100 members present to expedite consideration of bill

            2) Less than 10% of the 9000 bills ever written become laws

 

          Stage 2

·         Hold – Senator asks to be informed before a bill is brought to the floor; stops bill from going to the floor until the hold is removed

o        Nearly a veto

o        March ‘99: To place a hold, written notification must first be submitted to the sponsor and committee

·         Filibusters – formal way of halting action by means of long speeches or unlimited debate in the Senate

o        Stalling tactic; can force changes if bill is urgent (can continue for 30 hours after cloture)

·         Cloture – Motion requiring 60 senators to cut off debate (end a filibuster)

 

          Stage 3

·         2 Versions of bill sent to conference com.

·         Sent to President

·         President has 10 days to consider a bill and four options:

1.        Sign a bill into law

2.        Veto a bill

3.        Wait 10 days à Bill becomes a law (as long as Congress is still in session)

4.        Pocket Veto – Congress adjourns during the 10 days the president has to consider a bill passed by both houses of Congress, without the president’s signature, the bill is considered vetoed.

5.        Line Item Veto – delete part of a bill that involves taxing or spending. Veto can be overridden w/ a 2/3 majority of each chamber

·         1998 Supreme Court ruling on Clinton’s line-item veto:

-          Violates constitutional provision that legislation passed by both is sent in its entirety for his signature or veto

-          Framers did not want president to be able to “enact, to amend, or to repeal statutes”

 

How Members Make Decisions (p253)

1.        Constituents – those who live and vote in the home district or state

o        Vote with them on welfare, domestic policy, and highly significant issues (civil rights, abortion, war)

o        Vote against them due to strong personal preference or the topic is from their own committee

o        Congress passes laws that reflect public opinion about 2/3 of the time

o        Go to colleagues or party members on unimportant issues or ones the member knows little about

2.        Colleagues (p254) – get advice from colleagues on the committees; Logrolling or vote trading

3.        Party (p254)

o        Whips reinforce party cohesion (41-75% of roll call votes are along party lines)

o        Divided Government – political condition in which different parties control the White House and Congress

o        There is an obligation to party and president of same party

o        Candidates w/successful primaries go to committees to receive campaign assistance of their party

4.        Caucuses (p255)

o        Facilitate member communications across party lines

o        Compliment and counterbalance the committee system

o        Special interest conference

o        State and Regional Caucuses – source of information exchange

5.        Interest Groups and Lobbyists  (p255)

o        Info and substantial research on feasibility and impact of legislation

o        Direct campaign contributions, volunteers, and publicity to members seeking reelection

6.        Political Action Committee (PAC) (p255)

o        ~21,000 organized by interest groups, source of most members’ campaign funding

o        If issue unimportant to constituency then member votes w/PAC’s interests

7.        Staff and Support Agencies (p256) – over 14,000 staff

o        Provide info on pending legislation, relied on especially in the Senate

o        Prepare summaries of bills and brief senator/rep on research and research, draft bills members wish to introduce

 

Congress and the President (p256)

A.       The Shifting and Balancing of Power (p257)

a.        Strong president in hard times (i.e. 1930s), Congress willingly give up power but still has final word

b.       Strong (Lincoln, TR, FDR, LBJ) vs. Weak (Andrew Johnson, etc.)

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

C.       Congressional Review – The process by which Congress can nullify an executive branch regulation by a resolution jointly passed in both houses within 60 days of announcement of the regulation and accepted by the president

D.       Legislative Veto – A procedure by which one or both houses of Congress can disallow an act of the president or executive agency by a simple majority vote; ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court

E.       War Powers Act – Passed by Congress in 1973; the president is limited in the deployment of troops overseas to a 60 day period in peacetime (which can be extended for an extra 30 days to permit withdrawal) unless Congress specifically gives its approval for a longer period.

F.       Senatorial Courtesy – A process by which presidents, when selecting district court judges, defer to the senator in whose state the vacancy occurs.

G.       The Impeachment Process – allows Congress oversight of the President (p263)

    1. Can impeach for treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors
    2. Resolutions against Presidents

1)       Tyler (1843) – corruption, misconduct (charges rejected)

2)       Johnson (1868) – serious misconduct (acquitted by Senate by a single vote)

3)       Nixon (1974) – obstruction, abuse of power (resigned)

4)       Clinton (1998) – impeached on two of four charges (Senate finds him not guilty of either)

    1. Stages of Impeachment Process

1)       Resolution – inquiry of impeachment sent to House Judiciary Committee

2)       Committee Vote – after evidence is considered, a vote is taken; positive indicates enough evidence to impeach

3)       House Vote – if Committee Vote is positive, then House decides whether to have full-blown hearings

4)       Hearings – evidentiary hearings by Judiciary Committee

5)       Report – committee votes on one or more articles of impeachment; basis of decision sent to the House

6)       House Vote – the House votes on each article (majority vote needed to send it to the Senate)

7)       Senate Trial – House Judiciary Committee presents the case on the Senate floor

a.    Chief Justice presides; Senate is the jury; President is represented by private attorneys

8)       Senate Vote – 2/3 vote on any articles removes the President from office

 

 

Law-Making Function of Congress (p246)

 

House Rules Committee

  • Types of rules
    • Closed rules
    • Open rules
    • Modified rules
  • Can limit debate time length, amendments allowed, vote time, and date of vote