copyright © 2011 pearson education, inc. publishing as longman · 2019. 8. 26. · copyright ©...


Chapter 12: Congress

• The Representatives and Senators

• Congressional Elections

• How Congress Is Organized to Make

Policy

• The Congressional Process

• Understanding Congress

• Summary


Chapter Outline and Learning

Objectives


• LO 12.1: Characterize the backgrounds of

members of Congress and assess their

impact on the ability of members of

Congress to represent average Americans.


• LO 12.2: Identify the principal factors

influencing the outcomes in congressional

elections.



Objectives

• How Congress Is Organized to Make Policy

• LO 12.3: Compare and contrast the House and Senate, and describe the roles of congressional leaders, committees, caucuses, and staff.


• LO 12.4: Outline the path of bills to passage and explain the influences on congressional decision making.



Objectives


• LO 12.5: Assess Congress’s role as a representative body and the impact of

representation on the scope of government.

The Representatives and SenatorsLO 12.1: Characterize the backgrounds of

members of Congress and assess their

impact on the ability of members of

Congress to represent average Americans.

• The Members

• Why Aren’t There More Women in

Congress?

To Learning ObjectivesCopyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Longman


The Representatives and Senators

• The Members

• 535 Members – 100 Senators and 435

Representatives.

• House members – At least age 25 and

U.S. citizens for 7 years.

• Senators – At least age 30 and U.S.

citizens for 9 years.

• All members must reside in state from

which they are elected.

LO 12.1

To Learning Objectives


LO 12.1



• The Members (cont.)

• African Americans make up about 10% of

the House members and 13% of the total

population, and 1 Senator is African

American.

• Hispanics make up 5.5% of the House

members and 15% of the total population,

and 3 Senators are Hispanics.


LO 12.1




• Asian Americans – 4 House members

and 2 senators.

• Native Americans – 1 House member.

• Females make up more than 50% of the

population, but only 17% of the members

of Congress with 72 in the House and 17

senators.


LO 12.1




• Descriptive representation is representing

constituents by mirroring their personal,

politically relevant characteristics.

• Substantive representation is representing

the interests of groups.


LO 12.1


LO 12.1



• Why Aren’t There More Women in Congress?

• Fewer women than men become major party nominees for office.

• Women with children run for office less than men because of child care responsibilities.

• Women are less likely than are men to run when they perceive their odds to be poor.


LO 12.1


LO 12.1

Congressional ElectionsLO 12.2: Identify the principal factors

influencing the outcomes in congressional

elections.

• Who Wins Elections?

• The Advantages of Incumbency

• The Role of Party Identification

• Defeating Incumbents

• Open Seats

• Stability and Change



Congressional Elections

• Who Wins Elections?

• Incumbents – Those already holding

office.

• In congressional elections, incumbents

usually win.

• House elections – 90% of the incumbents

seeking reelection win and most of them

win with more than 60% of the vote.

LO 12.2



LO 12.2




• Advertising – Ads in newspapers and on

television.

• Credit Claiming – Servicing the

constituency through casework and pork

barrel.

• Position Taking – Voting and responding

to constituents’ questions.


LO 12.2


LO 12.2




(cont.)

• Weak Opponents – Not well known or well

qualified and lack experience and

organizational and financial backing.

• Campaign Spending – The typical

incumbent outspent the typical challenger

by a ratio of more than 3 to 1 in

Congressional races in 2008.


LO 12.2



• Role of Party Identification

• Most Congress members represent

constituencies in which their party is in the

clear majority.

• Most people identify with a party, and they

reliably vote for their party’s candidates.

• About 90% of voters who identify with a

party vote for the House candidates of their

party.


LO 12.2



• Defeating Incumbents

• One tarnished by scandal or corruption

becomes vulnerable to a challenger.

• Redistricting may weaken the incumbency

advantage.

• Major political tidal wave may defeat

incumbents.


LO 12.2



• Open Seats

• Greater likelihood of competition.

• Most turnover occurs in open seats.


LO 12.2



• Stability and Change

• Incumbents provide stability in Congress.

• Change in Congress occurs less frequently

through elections.


LO 12.2

How Congress Is Organized to Make

PolicyLO 12.3: Compare and contrast the House

and Senate, and describe the roles of

congressional leaders, committees,

caucuses, and staff.

• American Bicameralism

• Congressional Leadership

• The Committees and Subcommittees

• Caucuses: The Informal Organization

of Congress

• Congressional StaffTo Learning Objectives




Policy

• American Bicameralism

• Bicameral Legislature – A legislature

divided into two houses.

• The U.S. Congress and all state

legislatures except Nebraska’s are bicameral.

LO 12.3



LO 12.3



Policy

• American Bicameralism (cont.)

• House Rules Committee – The

committee in the House that reviews most

bills coming from a House committee

before they go to the full House.

• Rules Committee is responsive to the

House leadership because the Speaker of

the House appoints the committee’s

members.


LO 12.3



Policy

• American Bicameralism (cont.)

• Filibuster – A strategy unique to the

Senate whereby opponents of a piece of

legislation use their right to unlimited

debate to prevent the Senate from ever

voting on a bill.

• Sixty members present and voting can halt

a filibuster.


LO 12.3



Policy

• Congressional Leadership

• Speaker of the House – An office

mandated by the Constitution and chosen

by the majority party.

• Majority leader – The principal partisan

ally of the Speaker of the House, or the

party’s manager in the Senate.


LO 12.3


LO 12.3



Policy

• Congressional Leadership (cont.)

• Whips – Party leaders work with the

majority leader or minority leader to count

votes beforehand and lean on waverers for

votes on bills favored by the party.

• Minority Leader – The principal leader of

the minority party in the House of

Representatives or in the Senate.


LO 12.3



Policy


• President of the Senate – The United

States Vice President.

• Vice presidents can vote to break a tie.

• Modern vice presidents are active in

representing the president’s views to senators.


LO 12.3



Policy


• Despite their stature and power,

congressional leaders cannot always move

their troops.

• Power in both houses of Congress is

decentralized.

• Leaders are elected by their party

members and must remain responsive to

them.


LO 12.3



Policy

• Committees and Subcommittees

• Standing committees – Subject matter

committees that handle bills in different

policy areas.

• Joint committees – Few subject matter

areas with membership drawn from House

and Senate


LO 12.3


LO 12.3



Policy


(cont.)

• Conference committees – Formed when

the Senate and the House pass a bill in

different forms to iron out the differences

and bring back a single bill.

• Select committees – Created for a

specific purpose, such as the Watergate

investigation.


LO 12.3



Policy


(cont.)

• More than 9,000 bills are submitted by

members in the course of a two-year

period.

• Every bill goes to a committee, which has

virtually the power of life and death over it.

• Legislative oversight – How the

Congress monitors bureaucracy.To Learning Objectives

LO 12.3



Policy

• Committees and Subcommittees (cont.)

• Committee assignments help members get reelected, gain influence, and make policy.

• New members express committee preferences to party leaders.

• Those who have supported their party’s leadership are favored in the selection process as parties try to grant committee preferences.


LO 12.3



Policy


(cont.)

• Committee Chair – Dominant role in

scheduling hearings, hiring staff,

appointing subcommittees, and managing

committee bills on the floor.

• Seniority System – Members who have

served on the committee the longest and

whose party is the chamber majority

become chair. To Learning Objectives

LO 12.3



Policy

• Caucuses: The Informal Organization

of Congress

• Caucus (congressional) – A group of

members of Congress sharing some

interest or characteristic.

• Caucuses are composed of members from

both parties and from both houses and

their goal is to promote the interests

around which they are formed.


LO 12.3


LO 12.3



Policy

• Congressional Staff

• Personal staff – They provide constituent

service and help with legislation.

• Committee staff – They organize

hearings, and research and write

legislation.

• Staff Agencies – CRS, GAO, and CBO

provide specific information to Congress.


LO 12.3

The Congressional ProcessLO 12.4: Outline the path of bills to passage

and explain the influences on congressional

decision making.

• Presidents and Congress: Partners

and Protagonists

• Party, Constituency, and Ideology

• Lobbyists and Interest Groups



The Congressional Process

• Bills

• About 9,000 bills are introduced in each

Congress.

• A bill is a proposed law, drafted in legal

language.

• Anyone can draft a bill, but only a member

of the Congress can introduce a bill.

LO 12.4




• How a Bill Becomes a Law

• Bill Introduction – By a member.

• Committee Action – Subcommittee hearings and committee rewrites.

• Floor Action – Votes, debates, and amendments offered.

• Conference Action – Compromise bill to iron out differences.

• Presidential Decision – Sign bill into law or veto bill.


LO 12.4


LO 12.4



• Presidents and Congress: Partners and Protagonists

• Presidents attempt to persuade Congress that what they want is what Congress wants.

• Presidents have many resources to influence Congress.

• Presidents must win at least 10 times and their leadership of Congress is at the margins.


LO 12.4




• Party Influence – Party leaders cannot

force party members to vote a particular

way, but many do vote along party lines.

• Polarized Politics – Differences between

Democrats and Republicans in Congress

have grown considerably since 1980.


LO 12.4


LO 12.4




• Constituency Opinion – On the

controversial issues, members are wise to

vote based their constituency opinion.

• Member Ideology – The dominant

determinant of member’s vote on most issues is their ideology.


LO 12.4



• Lobbyists and Interest Groups

• 35,000 registered lobbyists represent

12,000 organizations seeking to influence

Congress.

• The bigger the issue, the more lobbyists

will be working on it.

• Lobbyists try to influence legislators’ votes.

• Congress can ignore, reject, and regulate

the lobbyists.


LO 12.4

Understanding CongressLO 12.5: Assess Congress’s role as a representative body and the impact of

representation on the scope of government.

• Congress and Democracy

• Congress and the Scope of

Government



Understanding Congress


• Not representative – Leadership and

committee assignments.

• Congress does try to respond to what the

people want, but some argue it could do a

better job.

• The 535 members of Congress are

responsive to the people, if the people

make clear what they want.

LO 12.5





• The central legislative dilemma for

Congress is combining the faithful

representation of constituents with making

effective public policy.

• Congress tries to be both a representative

and an objective policymaking institution.


LO 12.5



• Congress and the Scope of

Government

• More policies by Congress means more

service to constituencies.

• More programs that get created, the bigger

the government gets.

• Contradictory – Everybody wants

government programs cut, but just not their

programs.To Learning Objectives

LO 12.5


LO 12.1Summary


• Congress has proportionately more whites and

males than the general population, and

members of Congress are wealthier and better

educated than the average American.

• Although they are not descriptively

representative of Americans, they may engage

in substantive representation.



Descriptive representation is

representing the

A. constituents by mirroring their

personal, politically relevant

characteristics.

B. interests of groups.

C. party platform and ideology.

D. none of the above.

LO 12.1



Descriptive representation is

representing the

A. constituents by mirroring their

personal, politically relevant

characteristics.

B. interests of groups.

C. party platform and ideology.

D. none of the above.


LO 12.1


LO 12.2Summary


• Incumbents usually win reelection, because

they usually draw weak opponents, are usually

better known and better funded than their

opponents, typically represent constituencies

where a clear majority share their party

affiliation, and can claim credit for aiding their

constituents.



LO 12.2Summary

• Congressional Elections (cont.)

• However, incumbents can lose if they are

involved in a scandal, if their policy positions

are substantially out of line with their

constituents, or if the boundaries of their

districts are redrawn to reduce the percentage

of their constituents identifying with their party.



All of following are true of incumbents

in Congress EXCEPT

A. Most incumbents decide to run for reelection.

B. Most incumbents’ views on policy are well known to their constituents.

C. Most incumbents win reelection with more than 60 percent of the vote.

D. Most incumbents have more campaign contributions to spend than their opponents.

LO 12.2



All of following are true of incumbents

in Congress EXCEPT

A. Most incumbents decide to run for reelection.

B. Most incumbents’ views on policy are well known to their constituents.

C. Most incumbents win reelection with more than 60 percent of the vote.

D. Most incumbents have more campaign contributions to spend than their opponents.


LO 12.2


LO 12.3Summary


Policy

• House is larger, characterized by greater

centralization of power in the party leadership,

and has more party discipline than the Senate.

• Senators are more equal in power and may

exercise the option of the filibuster to stop a

majority from passing a bill.



LO 12.3Summary


Policy (cont.)

• Congressional leaders are elected by their

party members and must remain responsive to

them.

• Congressional leaders cannot always depend

on the votes of the members of their party.

• Committees consider legislation and oversee

administration of policy.



LO 12.3Summary


Policy (cont.)

• Committees chairs have the power to set their

committees’ agendas.

• Congressional Caucuses are composed of

members of Congress who have a shared

interest or characteristic.

• Personal, committee, and agency staff provide

policy expertise and constituency service.



When the House and the Senate pass

different versions of a bill, these

versions are to be reconciled by a

A. Joint Committee.

B. Conference Committee.

C. Select Committee.

D. Reconciliation Committee.

LO 12.3



When the House and the Senate pass

different versions of a bill, these

versions are to be reconciled by a

A. Joint Committee.

B. Conference Committee.

C. Select Committee.

D. Reconciliation Committee.


LO 12.3


LO 12.4Summary


• The process for considering a bill has many

stages.

• Presidents try to persuade Congress to

support their policies, which usually earn space

on the congressional agenda.

• Parties are more homogeneous and polarized

and provide an important pull on members on

most issues.



LO 12.4Summary

• The Congressional Process (cont.)

• Constituencies have influence on

congressional decision making on a few visible

issues, while members’ own ideologies exert more influence on less visible issues.

• Interest groups play a key role in informing

Congress and sometimes the threat of their

opposition influences vote outcomes.



Only a member of the can

officially propose a bill.

A. House

B. Senate

C. House or Senate

D. staff

LO 12.4



LO 12.5Summary


• Congress is an elite institution and responsive

to the public when the public makes its wishes

clear.

• Congress is open to influence, which makes it

responsive to many interests but also may

reduce its ability to make good public policy.



LO 12.5Summary

• Understanding Congress (cont.)

• Members of Congress often support expanding

government to aid their constituents, generally

in response to public demands for policy, but

many also fight to limit the scope of

government.



Congress tries to be both a

and an objective policymaking

institution.

A. representative

B. disposition

C. direct

D. fragmented

LO 12.5



Congress tries to be both a

and an objective policymaking

institution.

A. representative

B. disposition

C. direct

D. fragmented


LO 12.5


Text Credits

• David Samuels and Richard Snyder, “The Value of a Vote:

Malapportionment in Comparative Perspective,” British Journal of

Political Science, v. 31, n. 4, October 2001, p. 662. Copyright 2001

Cambridge University Press. Reprinted with the permission of

Cambridge University Press.

• “Incumbency Factor in Congressional Elections” adapted from

Harold W. Stanley and Richard G. Neimi, Vital Statistics on

American Politics, 2007-2008, CQ Press, 2008. Used with

permission.

• “Incumbency Factor in Congressional Elections” adapted from Vital

Statistics On Congress by Norman J. Ornstein, Thomas E. Mann,

and Michael J. Malbin. Copyright 1998 by American Enterprise Inst

For Public Policy Res. Reproduced with permission of American

Enterprise Inst For Public Policy Res in the format Other book via

Copyright Clearance Center.


Photo Credits

• 332: Jewel Sanad/Getty

• 333T: Gunther/Sipa Press

• 333TB: Lifetime TV

• 333B: Getty Images

• 335: Gunther/Sipa Press

• 336: Lifetime TV

• 344: David Horsey

• 345L: AP Photo

• 345C: Brendan Hoffman/Getty

• 345R: Alex Wong/Getty Images

• 349: Jack Ziegler/The New Yorker collection/www.cartoonbank.com

• 350: Getty Images

• 358: J.B. Handlesman/The New Yorker Cartoon/www.cartoonbank.com

copyright © 2011 pearson education, inc. publishing as longman · 2019. 8. 26. · copyright ©...

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