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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
