Chapter 4: Congress

Requirements/structure/purpose of the House of Representatives

Minimum age: 25

Minimum years of citizenship: 7

Residence: state they represent

Terms of service: 2 year terms, unlimited number of terms

Constituency: district, apportioned to states by population

Organization: more governed by rules, formally structured. More power to leadership positions

Purpose: more closely represent their voters’ preferences

Requirements/structure/purpose of the Senate

Minimum age: 30

Minimum years of citizenship: 9

Residence: state they represent

Terms of service: 6 year terms, split into 3 classes, unlimited terms

Constituency: entire state

Organization: less governed by rules, more power to individual members, more informal

Purpose: more insulated from voters’ preferences

Enumerated powers of House and Senate

1. Create and collect taxes, coin money, borrow money, regulate the value of currency, and regulate interstate/foreign commerce

2. regulate trade with other nations

3. declare war, raise and support armies and a naval force, call up the military to “execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions”, define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas.

4. Create levels of the judicial branch below the Supreme Court and establish the number of Supreme Court justices (Art III, Sec 1)

Implied powers of the House and Senate

Make laws “necessary and proper” to carry out enumerated powers (Art I, Sec 8, Clause 18)

Powers of House and Senate through amendents

Enforce, by appropriate legislation, amendments. (Such as 13-15th amendment)

Enumerated powers of the House

1. Start bills to raise revenue

2. Issue articles of impeachment against executive branch officials (Art I, Sec 2, Art II, Sec 4)

3. Issue articles of impeachment against members of the federal judiciary (Art I, Sec 2)

Enumerated powers of the Senate

1. Propose budgetary amendments. In practice, the Senate and the House have equal roles in setting national revenue policy

2. Confirm ambassadors with a majority vote, and ratify treaties entered into by a president through 2/3 vote

3. Confirm presidential nominations of executive branch officers with a majority vote (Art II, Sec 2) and try impeached officials, convicting and removing from office with a 2/3 vote. (Art I, Sec 2)

4. Confirm nominations to the federal judiciary by majority vote (Art II, Sec 2), try members of the federal judiciary who have been impeached (Art I, Sec 3)

Pork barrel spending

Legislation in appropriations bills that funds projects within districts or states (benefits a since district/state, not so much the whole nation)

Logrolling

Combining several different bills into a single bill to get enough votes for the legislation to pass

OR
Representatives exchanging votes on each others’ bills

Oversight

The power of Congress to review and investigate actions by executive branch agencies, bureaus, and cabinet departments, as well as their officials, to ensure that they are acting legally and in accordance with congressional goals.

Constituent

Citizens in a district or state who elect a representative or senator

Apportionment

The process that occurs every 10 years after the census of determining the number of representatives for each state using census data

Redistricting

States’ redrawing of boundaries of electoral districts for the House of Representatives following each census

Malapportionment

The uneven distribution of the population among legislative district (Unconstitutional due to the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment)

Gerrymandering

The intentional use of redistricting to benefit a specific group, usually a political party. (Partisan gerrymandering is ok, but racial and ethnic gerrymandering is not ok)

Baker v. Carr (1962)

Facts: Baker (registered Republican), challenged the boundaries of Tennessee state legislative districts, which had not been redrawn since 1901, some containing 10x the population of others

Issue: Does the Supreme Court have the authority to review district boundaries created by state legislatures?

Decision and holding: Baker won. SCOTUS has the authority to review boundaries created by state legislatures.