Chapter Thirteen

Congress

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Congress• If progress is defined as moving forward and achieving gradual betterment, what is congress?

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The Evolution of Congress

• The intent of the Framers:–To oppose the concentration of

power in a single institution–To balance large and small states

• Bicameralism

• They expected Congress to be the dominant institution.

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House, Senate, or Both?

• 100 Members• Must be a resident of the state

they represent• Popularly elected• Must be a US citizen for 9 years• More women (percentage wise)• Provide “advice and consent”

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House, Senate, or Both?

• Can attach non germane riders onto bills.

• More policy-specific• Higher cost of election• 2 year term• More rules that govern the

chamber’s collective behavior

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House, Senate, or Both?

• More elite• Fewer members of color

(percentage wise)• More foreign affairs power• VPOTUS• Represent a larger constituency• Power to remove federal judges

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House, Senate, or Both?

• Filibuster• Could have 100% turnover on

election day• More likely to be re-elected• Fewer staff members• Democrat• Revenue bills must originate here

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House, Senate, or Both?

• Rank and file members earn $174,000 per year

• Franking privilege• Must be 25

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Organization of the House

• Historically, power struggles have occurred between members and leadership

• 1994 brought changes:–Committee chairs hold positions for only 6 years

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Organization of the House

• Reduced the number of committees and subcommittees

• The Speaker dominated the selection of committee chairs

• The Speaker set the agenda (Contract with America) and sustained high Republican discipline in 1995

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Evolution of the Senate

• The Senate escaped many of the tensions encountered by the House

• The major struggle in the Senate was about how its members should be chosen; 17th amendment (1913)

• The filibuster is another major issue: restricted by Rule 22 (1917), which allows a vote of cloture

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Who is in Congress?• The House has become less

male and less white• Membership in Congress

became a career• Incumbents still have a great

electoral advantage• But in 1994, voters opposed incumbents

due to budget deficits, various policies, legislative-executive bickering, and scandal

• In 2010, voters opposed incumbents due to.........

COMPARING THE HOUSE & SENATE

HOUSE SENATE435 Number of Members 100

2 Years Length of Term 6 Years

25 Years Minimum Age 30 Years

By Population Representation /States EqualMany Rules Organization Few

Rules - Formal - Less Formal

Grassley Harkin

4th - Steve King (R)

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Table 13.1: Blacks, Hispanics, and Women in Congress, 1971-2002

HOUSE SENATE112th Congress

56.7 Years Average Age 62.2 Years

Aaron Schock, R-IL 29 Youngest

Oldest Ralph Hall, R - TX 87

EDUCATION LEVELS -

112th Congress Law Degree - 237

Medical Degree - 16Doctoral Degree - 22

Master's Degree - 143Bachelor's Degree - 499

Quick Facts on the

112th Congress 17 Women in the Senate - The most ever!

13 Jews in the Senate0 African American in the Senate44 African American in the House

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The Incumbency Advantage

• Media coverage is higher for incumbents• Incumbents have greater name recognition

due to franking, travel to the district, news coverage

• Members secure policies and programs for voters

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Figure 13.2: Percentage of Incumbents Reelected to Congress

Harold W. Stanley and Richard G. Niemi, Vital Statistics on American Politics, 1999-2000 (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press, 2000), table 1-18; 2004 updated by Marc Siegal.

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Member Behavior

• Representational view: members vote to please their constituents, in order to secure re-election

• Organizational view: where constituency interests are not vitally at stake, members primarily respond to cues from colleagues

• Attitudinal view: the member’s ideology determines her/his vote

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Party Structure in the Senate

• President pro tempore presides; this is the member with most seniority in majority party (a largely honorific office)

• Leaders are the majority leader and the minority leader, elected by their respective party members

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Party Structure in the Senate

• Party whips: keep leaders informed, round up votes, count noses

• Each party has a policy committee: schedules Senate business, prioritizes bills

• Committee assignments are handled by a group of Senators, each for their own party

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Party Structure in the House

• Speaker of the House is leader of majority party and presides over House

• Majority leader and minority leader: leaders on the floor

• Party whips keep leaders informed and round up votes

• Committee assignments and legislative schedule are set by each party

Speaker of the House

John Boehner

House Minority Leader

Nancy Pelosi

President of the Senate

Joe Biden

Senate Majority Leader

Harry Reid

Senate Minority Leader

Mitch McConnell

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Congressional Caucuses

• Caucus: an association of members of Congress created to advocate a political ideology or a regional or economic interest

• Intra-party caucuses: members share a similar ideology

• Personal interest caucuses: members share an interest in an issue

• Constituency caucuses: established to represent groups, regions or both

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Committees

• Committees are the most important organizational feature of Congress

• Consider bills or legislative proposals

• Maintain oversight of executive agencies

• Conduct investigations

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Types of Committees

• Standing committees: basically permanent bodies with specified legislative responsibilities

• Select committees: groups appointed for a limited purpose and limited duration

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Types of Committees

• Joint committees: those on which both representatives and senators serve

• Conference committee: a joint committee appointed to resolve differences in Senate and House versions of the same piece of legislation before final passage

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Committee Practices

• The number of committees has varied; significant cuts in number of House committees in 1995, and in the number of House and Senate subcommittees

• Majority party has majority of seats on the committees and names the chair

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Congressional Staff

• Constituency service is a major task of members’ staff

• Legislative functions of staff include devising proposals, negotiating agreements, organizing hearings, and meeting with lobbyists and administrators

• Members’ staff consider themselves advocates of their employers

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Figure 13.4: The Growth in Staffs of Members and Committees in Congress,

1930-2000

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How a Bill Becomes a Law

• Bill must be introduced by a member of Congress

• Bill is referred to a committee for consideration by either Speaker or presiding officer of the Senate

• Revenue bills must originate in the House

• Most bills die in committee

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How a Bill Becomes a Law

• After hearings and mark-up sessions, the committee reports a bill out to the House or Senate

• Bill must be placed on a calendar to come for a vote before either house

• House Rules Committee sets the rules for consideration

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How a Bill Becomes a Law

• Bills are debated on the floor of the House or Senate

• If there are major differences in the bill as passed by the House and Senate, a conference committee is appointed

• The bill goes to the president

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How a Bill Becomes Law

• The president may sign it• If the president vetoes it, it

returns to house of origin• Both houses must support the

bill, with a two-thirds vote, in order to override the president’s veto

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Post 9-11 Congress

• 9-11 Commission recommended Congress make fundamental changes in how it oversees agencies involved in intelligence-gathering and counter-terrorism

• Congress passed some of those proposals after some opposition in both parties

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Reapportionment & Redistricting• Decennial census occurs and the

official population of each state is determined.

• Pretend the 435 Representatives are a deck of cards.–Each state gets dealt 1 card–States get additional cards in

proportion to their population.–The dealing of the deck is called

reapportionment.

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Redistricting• The next step is for each state to

redraw the congressional districts inside this state so the population is equal in each district. This is called redistricting.

• Westberry v. Sanders (1964) affirmed that legislative districts must be redrawn to best reflect one-person, one-vote principle.

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Texas Two StepGerrymandering Southern Style

• DeLay’s PAC helped the GOP with the Texas Statehouse for the first time in 130 years.

• The newly Republican Legislature redrew the lines to the R’s benefit.

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Texas Redistricting Plan 2002

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Powers of Congress

• Expressed Powers vs. Implied Powers• McCulloch V. Maryland• Marshall and the SCOTUS judged that

the BOTUS was “necessary and proper”• Elastic Clause - A.1, S.8, C. 18• You should know major Congressional

Powers - A theme has been to know formal vs. informal powers of the Institutions of Government.