US GOVERNMENT 2 - CONGRESS

What are congressional elections?

What else would take place here?

-Elections that occur every 2 years in which all the seats of the House of Representatives are up for grabs and 1/3 of all the seats in the senate

-The Presidential ‘Midterm’ Election( between the 4 year term)

What system do they use for these elections?

A First Past The Post System

What does it mean to be incumbent?

To already to be instated in office at the time of the election

What are the 3 main advantages of being incumbent?

-Name recognition/Funding

-Congressional Advantages( letters)

-Reshaping congressional districts

How does name recognition create increased advantages for the incumbents?

More people are aware of the actions you’ve made in the past and so it shows your competence.

Also the more known you are the easier it is to gain trust from investors in order to raise funds

What evidence could you use for name recognition?

In 2022 the total sum spent on the election was 14.4 billion and the average cost for campaign to win a senate seat was 11.5 million which was a 30% increase from 2014

How do congressional advantages work for incumbents?

They are given a website by their house in which they can expand on their political beliefs and gain contacts with constituents

-They also have franking privileges whereby they can send mail to constituents

What evidence is there for congressional priviledges?

Between 2011 and 2022 franking costs accounted for 0.002% of all expenditure across House representatives with their being a positive correlation coefficient of approximately 0.41 between tenure length and franking expenditures

How does redrawing congressional districts work?

Every 10 years ( after a census) the party that controls the state’s legislature has the ability to redraw the district boundaries in order to give one party sway over another.

Give evidence of this working?

In the 2012 congressional elections, Democrats won 51% of the statewide popular vote but secured only 5 out of 18 seats in the U.S. House due to district boundaries heavily favoring Republican candidates.

-This happened because of the Republicans 2010 REDMAP STRATEGY

Give 3 ways in which the powers held by congress( HOR/Senate) are the same?

-Congress’ ability to create legislation

-Oversight of the executive

-Override of the President’s veto

What is an example for the legislative power of congress?

In 2017 Trump asked congress to pass legislation that would repeal Obamacare due to it being seen as an overreach of federal power into the healthcare market but with all the senate democrats and 9 republicans voting against it did not pass

What is Congress’ oversight of the executive power?

Give an example

Through Article 1 Section 8 ( elastic clause) congress is able to launch investigations into any subject that is within the scope of its legislative powers

-House select Commitee investigation into Donald Trump storming of the capital

What is the Congress Overriding Veto power?

The ability of congress to override the blocking of legislation by the president via a 2/3 majority in both the house and senate

-Water Resources Development Act Veto

What are 3 ways in which powers differ between the Senate and the House of Representatives?

-The impeachment Process

-The power to confirm nominees

-Appropriation Bills

What is the power of impeachment?

Give an example?

-A two step process in which an individual is impeached by the HOR and acquitted by the senate in order to remove them from their political role

-Trump was impeached in 2019 after a whistle blower complaint was made which alleged that Donald trump had made a phone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on in which he pressured Zelensky to investigate his political rival, Joe Biden, and Biden’s son, Hunter Biden and that if he didn’t they would withhold funding from them which was seen as an abuse of power

What is an example of the Senate Confirmation Power?

In 2013 Obama had to get the approval of the senate to appoint John Kerry after Hilary Clinton stepped down from the position as part of a customary practice for high ranking officials after the president’s first term. He was confirmed 94-3

What is the appropriation bill power of the HOR?

The HOR is given the power to begin appropriation of the budget created by the president which gets sent to the House Budget Committee for approval process

What is an example where this is used?

In 2018 President Trump requested that the Budget for the Environmental Protection Agency gets cut by 1/3rd but the House proposed cutting it by only 6%.

Why is this power limited?

The senate still has the power to amend and has to approve the bill

What are the 3 main powerful figures of congress?

-The speaker of the House of representatives

-The Senate majority Leader

-Committee Chairs

How are speakers elected?

They must win an overall majority of all the members in the House of Representatives which is 218 out of 435

-If no one receives the majority needed to be elected then the elections continue until someone is

What are the main roles of the speaker?

-Managing Communications

-Managing Legislative Processes

-Appointing Committee Chairs

What does it mean for the speaker to manage communications?

The speaker is the primary spokesperson for congress and so will negotiate with both the senate and the HOR as well as the president in certain cases

What is an example where this happended?

Speaker Pelosi championed the America Rescue Act 2021 in which President Biden spent 1.9 trillion dollars as a recovery package for Covid-19 . Pelosi held press conferences in order to reassure Americans that this was for their benefit.

What does it mean for the speaker to manage the legislative process?

They are able to manage legislation as it passes through congress by deciding what House committee considers a bill and have the power to allow members of the House to speak during a debate aswell as the power to schedule the debate

What is an example of this power being excercised?

In 2017 Speaker Ryan passed the tax cuts and Jobs Act by using his power as the speaker to designate the bill as a budget reconciliation bill and to allow limited time for discussion and amendments

What do committee chairs and select committees do?

Committee chairs consider bills and write them while select committees oversee the actions of the executive

What is an example of where the speaker appoints Committee chairs?

In 2019 Pelosi appointed Adam Schiff as the chair of the House Intelligence Committee known for his role as the lead prosecutor during Trump’s impeachment trial,he played a critical role in overseeing intelligence and national security issues during a tumultuous period.

Why are the Speaker’s powers important?

They able to use these powers to manipulate the US political process in order to benefit their party.

What is the difference between the vice president and the senate majority leader?

-The vice president casts tie breaking votes and is the President of the senate but since they aren’t a senator they have limited involvement in the activities of the senate

-The Senate Majority Leader is a Senator elected by their party's members in the Senate to lead the majority party in the senate

What are three roles of the senate majority leader?

-They determine the bills and resolutions that are considered on the senate floor

-They control the debate on the floor

-’Filling the Tree’

Give an example of where the SML blocks a bill from reaching the floor

In 2020, McConnell refused to bring forward the HEROES Act, a COVID-19 relief bill passed by the House of Representatives, stating it was not aligned with Republican priorities.

Give an example of where the SML controls the timing of debates

-In 2017 McConnell timed debates on repealing the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) on the grounds that the Medicaid expansion and subsidies were unsustainable and contributed to rising federal deficits. during periods when Republican support was strong, though the repeal ultimately failed.

What does ‘filling the amendment tree’ mean

When the SML has the power to choose amendments to legislation and can choose those which align with the political agender of the party

Give an example of where the SML use the ‘filling the amendment tree’ method

Reid filled the bill(ACA) with agreed upon democratic amendments that blocked any proposed Republican amendments on issues such as abortion etc.

What are Committee Chairs?

-The heads of the committees that control large legislative processes in congress like:

-Rules Committee( Length of debate/ Number of Amendments)

-House ways and Means Committee( Tax Policy)

What roles do Committee Chairs have?

-They determine what bills are considered for discussion and propose possible amendments( this can help to further a party’s political agender depending on what bills they choose to advance)

-They hold confirmation hearings to confirm the nomination of individuals eg. Presidential Nominee for SCOTUS( Brett Kavanagh)

What is the First Stage of the legislative process in congress?

A bill can originate in either house and is then customarily announced as an issue to be considered by a member of congress

What is the Second stage of the legislative process?

What takes place here?

-The committee stage

-A standing committee(chosen by the SML or the speaker) conduct hearings on the Bill to decide whether or not they’ll accept it and propose possible amendments , a vote is then done to decide the fate of the bill

-They can also ignore the bill which is known as pigeonholing

Give an example of the committee stage in practice?

For the passing of the ACA 2009 the senate finance committee chaired by senator Max Baucus held weeks of hearings and votes including the review of the funding for the ACA especially the ‘Cadillac tax’ on high cost employer sponsored health plans

What is the next stage of the legislative process?

What happens here?

-The Timetabling Stage

-The leadership in the House or senate timetable the bill for a floor debate as well as set rules for what amendments can be set and the rules for the debate( done by the House Rules committee for the HOR / Unanimous Consent Agreement in the Senate)

Give an example of the timetabling stage in practice

In 2017 the senate majority leader mitch mcconell passed the tax cuts and Jobs Act by using his power to designate the bill as a budget reconciliation bill and to allow limited time for discussion and amendments this process allowed the bill to pass with a simple majority (51 votes) in the Senate, bypassing the usual 60-vote threshold to avoid a filibuster.

What is the next stage of the Legislative Process?

What happens here?

-Floor Debate

-This is where the debate takes place and tactics like the filibuster and applying the previous question rules takes place. Also amendments are voted on via a simple majority

What is the previous question rule?

What is the filibuster?

-Where after a member moves on from the previous question all further debate is cut off and the bill goes straight to a vote

-When a member of the house continuously speaks until the end of the debate

What is an example of the floor debate in practice?

In 2010, as the House prepared to vote on the final version of the ACA, the Previous Question Rule was used by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to end debate and prevent further amendments which ensured that the bill reached a final vote quickly, which was crucial for passing the ACA before the Easter recess

What is the next stage?

What happens here?

-The conference Stage

-This is where if the Bill is passed in the senate and then not passed in the House a conference report is produced by a conference committee which produced a modified version of the legislation that is agreed on by both houses

What is the final stage of the legislative process?

The president receives the final form of the bill and can choose to veto it , sign the bill or or do nothing which after 10 sitting days means the bill will just get automatically passed unless congress adjourns while it hasn’t been signed

Give an example of this in practice

Water Resources Act Veto by President Bush

Why may congress be ineffective?

-There are too many bills being introduced

-Some legislation is useless

-The process of passing a bill is too long and complex

-No Bipartisan agreement to pass bills

-Pork Barrel politics is used

Why may congress be effective?

-Increased scrutiny of legislation ensures an increased quality of bills being passed

-Bills can still get passed

What is pork barrelling?

Where politicians direct government spending toward projects that benefit their own constituencies, often to gain political support

Give an example of pork barelling?

In 2005, Congress earmarked $223 million for a bridge in Alaska to connect the small town of Ketchikan (population ~8,000) to Gravina Island (population ~50).The project was pushed by Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, a powerful Republican, who argued it would improve infrastructure.

What example could you give to show bills are hard to pass?

In order for Barack Obama to pass his healthcare reform legislation of 2010 there had to be 7 separate votes with 4 in the house of representatives and 3 in the senate.

What demonstrates the ability of the US government to pass lots of legislation?

What shows to many bill are getting introduced?

-Between Jan 2015 and March 2016 congress passed 139 bills

-In 2023-2024 15,201 bills were introduced

What could limit the effectiveness of the 139 bills being passed?

-Under this Republican congress 22 acts were passed which simply renamed a local facility after a distinguished person and many of their objectives eg. Obama care repeal was vetoed in 2016

What issues do checks and balances on congress create for passing legislation?

-The need for a supermajority in different stages of the legislative process eg. in order to override a presidential veto or to override a filibuster makes it difficult to pass a bill with bipartisan support

Give an example where this happened

The Dream Act which was meant to give conditional permanent residency to immigrants of good moral character who have been brought to the US by their parents when they were young and lived there for 5 years was blocked by the republicans in 2007, 2009 and 2010 with a maximum of 56 senators supporting it which allowed the republicans to filibuster it every time

How are the rules of debate an issue?

The manipulation of the voting time on the floor in order to enhance a party’s chances of pushing forward their agender is limiting the independence of congress and making it seem more like a dominant party machine

Give an example?

In the vote on the House Floor on the 23rd November 2003 on whether to provide prescription drug benefits under Medicaid the vote was held open for 2 hrs and 52 mins when it was meant to be for 15 mins in order to allow Jeffrey Smith to change his vote

Comparatively speaking what is the main difference between the two Houses in America and the UK?

-In America both houses have equal power and bills need to passed in both houses in order to be written into law and because one house cannot override the decision of the other , it makes it hard for legislation to pass

How can this be made worse?

When one party controls the senate and the other controls the house it makes this even harder

What is the one and only case in which a confirmation hearing was not accepted?

John Tower 1989 was nominated as defence secretary under Bush but this was rejected due to claims of womanising and drinking etc

What oversight/ investigative power do congress have that is less well known?

Who does these?

Congress can subpoena documents and testimony which means you legally have to hand over documents , data or perform witness testimonies

-The congressional select committees

What happens if the subpoena is ignored?

The congressional committee can hold that person in contempt of congress which could result in serious punishments depending on the degree( criminal statutory/ civil and inherent

Give an example of this

Criminal statutory contempt was attempted in 2012 whereby the House voted (255 for , 67 against) to hold former attorney general Eric Holder in contempt of congress for refusing to give details on operation Fast And Furious( a failed firearms operation which allowed 2000 weapons to reach Mexican gangs)

Why was this ineffective?

Obama used his executive privilege to keep this topic confidential and within the executive branch hence removing all wrongdoing from Mr Holder

What limits the effectiveness of congressional oversight?

-Whether or not congress is controlled by the Presidents party( members of congress will be loyal to President and so won’t investigate them/ Weaker investigations/ Committee Chairs don’t investigate things related to President)

-Presidential Popularity( Investigating a popular president harms chances of re-election)

-Policy area that is considered( Congress has less of an effect on foreign policy as compared to domestic policy as foreign policy is not accountable to public opinion etc)

Give an example for presidential majority

While Special Counsel Robert Mueller was conducting his investigation, Republican-led congressional committees were reluctant to pursue aggressive oversight. The House Intelligence Committee ended its investigation early in 2018 and downplayed Russian interference, contrary to U.S. intelligence findings.

Give an example for presidential popularity

Republicans in Congress aggressively investigated the 2012 Benghazi attack in which Islamist militants attacked U.S. diplomatic compounds in Benghazi, Libya which resulted in the deaths of four Americans but due to Obama’s popularity ( just won re-election) the public saw it as politically motivated.

Give an example for policy area

Post 9/11(War on Terror) Congress struggled to effectively oversee U.S. drone strikes and surveillance programs conducted by Obama following the expansion as a way to counter terrorism due to classified intelligence and national security concerns.