2. Congress 🏦

when was the 117th Congress? 

Jan 21 - Jan 23 → Biden’s first Congress 

Unified Government

50/50 senate (48 dems + 2 independents)

222 - 211 House

3 Acts that Biden was able to pass in his first term:

1. American Rescue Plan Act (2021)

2. Inflation Reduction Act (2022)

3. Consolidated Appropriations Act (2022) and (2023) 

Congressional votes for Inflation Reduction Act (2022)

• passed House November 2021 → 220-207

• passed Senate August 2022 → 51-50

• sponsored by Chuck Schumer + Joe Manchin

• Harris tie-breaking vote!

• includes funding for the Environment Protection Agency

American Rescue Plan (2021) votes:

• House: 219-212

• Senate: 50-49

• $1.9 trillion economic stimulus

• Harris tie-breaking vote in March 2021!

• $350 billion to state governments

NATO expansion act (2022)

passed 96-1 in the Senate → added Sweden and Finland to NATO

bipartisan bill!

118th Congress

Jan 23 → Jan 2025

Senate: 51 - 50 (Dems 48 + 3 independents) 

House: 222 v 212 

Divided Government

what percentage of bills passed in the 118th Congress?

3.3% → only 636/19,300!

Securing the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Act (2023) passed

Protecting Hunting Heritage and Education Act (2023) passed

119th Congress → Jan 25 to Jan 27

House: 220 - 215 (smallest rep maj. since 1930s!)

Senate: 53 - 47

who is the current Senate President, House Speaker, and House Minority Speaker?

Senate President → JD Vance

House Speaker → Mike Johnson

House Minority Speaker → Hakeem Jeffries

major legislation passed in the 119th Congress:

One Big Beautiful Bill → July 2025

• boosts border security

• tax cuts + reforms

• permanently extends the individual tax rate Trump signed into law in 2017

• ‘Trump Accounts’ → parents can create tax-deferred accounts for children

• phases out some clean energy tax credits introduced in Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act

• House → 218 v 214

• Senate → 51 v 50

Rescissions Act (July 2025) 

• rescinds $7.9 billion in funding from international assistance programs + $1.1 billion in funding from the corporation for Public Broadcasting 

• mostly cut from the United States Agency for International Development 

• President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief also saw funding cuts 

Rescissions Act (August 2025) illegal update

August 2025 → Trump announced he was using the pocket rescission to cancel an additional $4.9 billion in foreign aid funding

pocket rescissions were deemed illegal by SCOTUS in 2018!

John Roberts (SCOTUS) granted emergency permission letting Trump do it anyway 🤩

what is the difference between state + federal law?

state law is made by individual state legislatures

federal laws are made by Congress, applying to all states

New Jersey Plan, Virginia Plan, and Connecticut Compromise:

NJP → all states have the same number of seats in legislature

VP → population determines no. of reps

CC → agreement, creating the Senate and the HoR

California population + number of congresspeople in House 

40 million → 52 congresspeople 

how many states qualify for just 1 HoR?

7 → Massachusetts, Vermont, Delaware, Alaska, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota → some of these are geographically large → Alaska

3 roles of Congress 

1. pass legislation 

2. represent the people 

3. oversee the executive 

10th Amendment

states’ power clause → any power not mentioned in the Constitution must be a state-level power

Supremacy Clause in the Constitution:

federal law beats state law → Brown v Board of Education (1954) beat the state laws allowing segregated schools

what is a pocket veto?

A bill has 10 days to automatically become federal law. If Congress adjourns before this 10-day period, the bill is dissolved with Congress.

last used in 2007 → Bush pocket vetoed a Defence Bill that would allow lawsuits against Iraqi governments, harming US-Iraq international relations

what does a veto need to be overturned? 

a 2/3 majority in each House

when was the last veto overridden?

2020 → final days of Trumps’ presidency → Trump’s Defence Bill

Successful ratification of treaty from the Senate:

2016 → Paris Climate Accord under Obama

Trump using ‘commander-in-chief’ role: 

strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June 2025 → some in Congress tried to reassert the War Powers Act (1973) but it didn’t work, and Trump did this anyway 

January 6th select committee:

The United States Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol

• mid 2021 to early 2023

• held 10 public hearings

• December 2022, published an 850 page report + executive summary

• Trump “disseminated false allegations of fraud”

• recommended 2 criminal referrals for Trump

• set up by Nancy Pelosi

October 1st 2025 gov shutdown → after a failure to pass a federal budget

• 800,000 federal employees furloughed

• 700,000 federal employees working without pay

• failure to reach the 60% pass on the federal budget

• Stopgap did not pass the Senate

  • House → passed 217 - 212

  • Senate → failed 48 - 44

• $15 billion weekly in lost GDP if shutdown continues 🤩

first Cabinet-level impeachment in over 150 years:

Secretary of Homeland Security → Alejandro Majorkas (2024)

House Impeachment → 214 - 213 → 3 republicans crossed party lines to vote against the impeachment

Senate Outcome → dismissed the impeachment

legislative bill process: (I swear david votes Conservates br (o))

Introduction of legislation

Standing committee

Debates in main chamber

Votes in the main chamber

Conference committee → made of Senators and House Reps meet to resolve any differences between the House + Senate version of the bill

Both chambers vote on bill 

Role of President (sign, veto, leave on the desk, pocket veto) 

how many pocket vetoes did Ronal Reagan use?

39! and 39 regular vetoes

9 were overridden

how many vetoes did Biden have overridden? this hasn’t happened since LBJ!

none!

Senate votes 81 - 13 to overturn Trump’s veto of the National Defense Authorisation Act (NDAA) 

1st January 2021 

Biden issued 0 presidential vetoes up until September 2022 → this is certainly linked to…

a unified government! all 12 vetoes were issued in the 118th Congress

average age of US senator

64 → increased from 2017, when the average age was 62

average age of a HoR rep 

58 

how many congresswomen are there in 2025? 

151/535

26% of Senate 

29% of House 

50.4% of population are women 

percentage of Congress with a degree v percentage of population:

House - 96%

Senate - 99%

population - 38%

119th Congress is the most racial and ethnically diverse in history: 

66 black congresspeople 

5 senators 

61 HoR 

14.4% of country’s population

what % of congress are LGBTQ+?

4.3%

what percentage of Congress are people of colour? what percentage of US?

Congress → 28%

US → 42.4%

2025 → how many Latinx members of Congress are there?

61 → risen from 56

who are in the Squad? 

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib

why are minorities often better represented in the House than the Senate?

1. ‘majority-minority’ districts → the majority of voters in a district are from the same minority ethnic groups

2. there are more seats

Tammy Duckworth:

first senator to have a baby while in office in 2018 → convinced the Senate to change its rules to allow young children in the chamber

Congresspeople serve: 

2 years 

Senators serve:

6 years

last independent in the House? 

Justin Amash (2019-2021) 

which 2 independents have been in the Senate consecutively since the 115th?

Angus King + Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders’s symbolic filibuster:

December 2010 - speaking for 8 hours 34 minutes against tax cut legislation → did not delay the bill’s passage! the vote passed in the Senate a week → Tax Relief, Unemployment, Insurance Reauthorisation, and Job Creation Act (2010)

February 2025 → what % of people disprove of the way Congress handles its role?

65%

what is ‘cloture’? 

three-fifths majority of senators must vote for cloture → filibustering senator must then stop talking so the Senate can move to voting 

what % of bills become law in the US? how does this compare to the 1980s?

2-3% → was 6-7% in the 80s

how many times have Republicans tried to overturn Medicare?

200 times → including the OBBB (successfully reduced federal funding!)

Affordable Care Act (2010): 

219 in favour, 212 against → HoR 

60-39 → Senate, December 24th 2009 → all 58 Dems + 2 independents 

unified government

112th Congress - Obama’s 2011-2013

House = Republicans

Senate = Dems

283 public laws → lowest since WWII

Congressional approval fell to 10%, according to Gallup

repeated budget crises, 2011 debt ceiling showdown, minimal partisan cooperation

First Step Act (2018)

bipartisan bill 🥳

House → 358 - 36

Senate → 87 - 12

as of January 2023, 29,946 individuals have been earlier

what percentage of the 442 bills passed during the 115th Congress were ceremonial? 

1/3rd → e.g. renaming a courthouse 

what are ‘closed rules’?

amendments are not allowed to be made by Congress

118th Congress → Republicans brough 106 closed rule pieces of legislation → blocked 68% of all proposed amendments → they were in charge of the House Rules Committee

2023 → House Oversight Committee investigate Biden family finances 

• led to a 2024 report summarising alleged ‘impeachable conduct’

• no formal impeachment articles were made 

Biden’s student loan plan:

August 2022 → cancels student debt for 50% of Latino borrowers + 25% of black borrowers

JD Vance uses his deciding vote:

Senate → 51-50 One Big Beautiful Bill

federal investigative agencies being cut down:  

Government Accountability Office (GAO), Congressional Research Service, and Congressional Budget Office are cut down by 45% between 1975 - 2015 

5 judicial nominees in 2023 are not re-submitted in front of the Senate

Superior Court Judge Charnelle Bjeklengren and Colleen Holland of Rochester were 2 of 5 nominees who were not submitted to the Senate for confirmation

Biden’s own administration withdrew these nominations → Republicans controlled the Senate, and they didn’t want to lose

2 treaties the Senate has rejected:

1. The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (1999)

2. The Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2012) → UN treaty

George W. Bush’s presidency (2001 - 2007) → unified government are reluctant to investigate their own party’s president: 

Bush administration’s handling of the Iraq war, enhanced interrogation techniques, flawed intelligence about WMDs were delayed 

Whitewater/Lewinsky investigation (1994-1998):

• cost $70 million

• originally about a failed Arkansas land deal → became about Clinton + Lewinsky

• led to an impeachment in 1998, but was acquitted by the Senate

February 5th, 2020 → Senate voting against Trump’s 2nd impeachment

• abuse of power: 52 - 48 (all Republicans except Mitt Romney voted to acquit), obstruction of Congress: 53 - 47 (all Republicans voted to acquit)

• Every Democrat voted to convict + almost every Republican voted to acquit. Party loyalty is the decisive factor

example of a ratified treaty:

New START treaty (nuclear arms treaty with Russia) → limiting the number of deployed nuclear weapons each country can have → originally signed in 2011 (Obama + Medvedev), extended by Biden and Putin for 5 more years in 2021

only remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the US and Russia

Amy Coney Barrett confirmation process: 

confirmed on Halloween 2020 → took only 28 days 

average is 70 days 

White House staff reduction:

Committees → 70s were 7,800. Now there are 4,000

Gov Accountability Office → 1992 (5,300) to 3,000 in 2015

Office of Technology Assessment created in 1972 and abolished entirely!

how much did the 2018-2019 government shutdown cost?

$2.3 billion - over a dispute for funding the border wall between the US and Mexico

what was Obama’s 16 day gov. shutdown about in 2013?

medicare → D senate, R house

what is ‘pork barrelling’?

congresspeople lobby for funding that will benefit their constituents → federal government may allocate funding for states to secure their support, not because key funding is necessary.

2005 pork barrelling: 

‘bridge to nowhere’ → $400 million bridge that would have joined Alaska to Gravina Island 

Omnibus spending bill (2022) 🐖

omnibus = single, massive piece of legislation that packages together lots of smaller spending bills

$1.7 trillion federal spending, attaching ‘earmarks’ for more than 7,200 local projects → worth $15.3 billion in total

• $3 million to help Oregon mitigate beaver-related flood damage

• $2 million for a pickleball complex in Rhode Island

• $1 million for an ‘electric bus charging depot’ in Vermont

bipartisan → passed Senate 68-29 and House 225-201 to prevent a government shutdown!

Congress reintroduces earmarks as ‘community project funding’

2023

when was earmarking banned?

2011 → this kind of worked. ‘Citizens Against Government Waste’ found much lower levels of pork from 2012 - 2017

between 2018 - 2018, what was the average pork spend a year?

$15 billion

4 main party caucuses:

House Republican Caucus

Senate Republican Caucus

House Democrat Caucus

Senate Democrat Caucus

House Freedom Caucus 🔦

31 conservative Republicans with a commitment to limited government 

formed in Jan 2015 by Tea Party Movement 

sought to repeal ACA multiple times 

led the charge in demanding the Attorney General to investigate alleged voter fraud in November 2020

Congressional Progressive Caucus:

• nearly 100 progressive Dems

• 94 seats in the House

• led the charge in the ‘Raise the Wage Act’ in 2019

• Congresswoman Judy Chu introduced the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), expanding abortion rights + codifying Roe v Wade

climate solutions caucus (bipartisan!)

• launched in 2016

• ‘Noah’s Ark membership’ → people join in pairs: one R and one D

• April 2024 → announced 29 bills that its members are championing for inclusion in the upcoming Farm Bill

• 58 members in the House (equal R and D)

who is the speaker of the House of Representatives?

Mike Johnson

chairs the debates in the House, and can make them as biased as he likes

more high-profile leadership position in Congress

who are the current House + Senate Majority/Minority speakers? 

House Majority Speaker = Mike Johnson

House Minority Speaker = Hakeem Jeffries 

Senate Majority Speaker = John Thune 

Senate Minority Speaker = Chuck Schumer 

who is Nancy Pelosi?

first speaker of the House of Representatives from 2007 - 2011

re-elected in 2019

Pelosi led the House Democrats in the impeachment of Donald Trump in 2019

• also worked with the Reps to pass bipartisan legislation → Trump’s revised trade deal with Canada and Mexico

Served on the Dems National Committee

3 ways that party leaders have control:

1. choose who sits on the House Rules Committee

2. choose which Senators sit on which committee

3. can use their powered to convince members of Congress to support the party’s agenda

who did Mike Johnson choose to be on the House Rules Committee: 

kept Thomas Massie + Chip Roy → right wing 

in this session, the committee debated Ukraine aid + gov. funding 

Chuck Schumer (2022 Majority Senate Leader) curates committees:

after the 2022 midterms, majority leader Chuck Schumer kept Joe Manchin on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee

Democratic issues with party discipline (2021)

Senators Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema did not approve of halving the BBB plan

did not approve an exclusively Democratic maternity leave - it should come out of bipartisan bill

number of competitive congressional district reducing: 

1990s → 164 

2020 → just 91

bipartisan caucus (not the eco one!)

The Problem Solvers Caucus → created in 2017

50 members from each party

integral part in First Step Act 2018

CARES Act (March 2020)

Coronavirus Aid, Relief, Economic Security

unanimous vote → 96-0 in favour! = bipartisan!

largest-ever economic stimulus in US history

House vote was nearly unanimous

are standing committees temporary? how many are there? 

no - long-term membership

20 House 

16 Senate 

represented in the same proportions as their Congressional chamber 

what do standing committees do?

1. hold hearing during committee stages of bills

2. lead investigations + oversight of executive

House Committee on Oversight and Accountability:

• standing committee (permanent)

• investigated federal response to COVID-19 pandemic + Dep. of Justice policies

• as of 2023, held over 20 hearings + issued 15 subpoenas

• Rep. James Comer (R)

• Rep. Jamie Raskin (D)

House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis → now disbanded!

2023 - 2024:

• collected testimony from federal agencies + industry representatives

• was chaired by Kathy Castor

House Select Committee on Bengzhai (2014-2016):

• investigated the 2012 terrorist attack on the US embassy in Bengzhai

• more than 100 witnesses

• 2 years → $7 million

• questioned former secretary of state Hillary Clinton for 11 hours in 2015

• 800 page report in 2016 that found no new evidence against Clinton + focused on military leadership in Washington

why was setting up the Jan 6th select committee so hard? 

Dems wanted an independent commission (like with 9/11), which was agreed in the House of Representatives. This was filibustered by Republicans in the Senate 

how many members are in the House Rules Committee?

13 → weighted in favour of the majority party 2:1

what % of bills in the 118th Congress were closed rules?

57%

Jim McGovern → powerful figure in the House Rules Committee:

Chair during the 118th Congress

Farm Bill 2023 was closed rule + maintained that certain food assistance programs were protected