GOV CH 4 - CONGRESS

Legislative - Congress

• Law making

• Overseeing the Bureaucracy (see if their laws are being processed)

• Representation - The House of Reps (435 reps) is one of two chambers that make up Congress

  • Bicameral Legislature= HOR & Senate (100)

  • Senate: ability to confirm president appointees & ratify treaties

• Consensus Building (win people over)

• Policy Clarification (identify and publicize issues)

• Investigating the operation of gov agencies (can open impeachment hearings)

Bicameral Legislature - 2 Houses

1. House of Reps (435)

2. Senate (100)

The House of Representatives

• Proportional to state size

• More rules for procedure

• Limited Debate (no filibuster)

• More Policy Specialist (on 1-2 committees)

• Less Media coverage/seen as less prestigious than Senate

• Less staff per House Member

• HOR Committee Leaders more powerful than Senate

• 20 Major Committees

• Entire body of 435 elected every 2 years.

• HOR people usually stay for like 18 years ish

• Emphasize tax and revenue policy in this house

• If a bill doesn’t pass in the 2 year term at start to end date the bill simply dies and must restart

• Requirements:

  • 25+ years old

• Originates all tax bills & brings impeachments charges (but Senate decides whether or not to remove person after impeachment charge placed)

Reapportionment

• Every 10 years = census occurs

• Congressional seats get redesigned to account for population changes

• When a state gains/loses a seat, their state legislature will redistrict their US House of Reps district

• State legislature is important when representing on national level.

• Gerrymandering: redraw district line that gives advantage to a party of candidate

• Creation of “safe seats” (safe district)

• Representation of minority interests

  • Cracking: dilute area

  • Packing: combine area (Illinois)

House of Reps Leadership

• Speaker of House (3rd in line of presidency)

  • Elected from majority party

  • Assign where bills go (which committee)

  • Calendar: gets to schedule when bill gets voted in big chamber

  • formal duties

• Majority Party

  • More seats in committees

  • Majority Party leader: 2nd to speaker

  • Majority Whip

• Minority Party

  • Minority Leader

  • Minority Whip

• Dean

  • Served longest but doesn’t get much power than Senate

Whips

• Elected by party members

• Named after British House of Commons (whipper in keeps the hounds together in a fox hunt)

• Duties: Keep party peoples together in same direction, keep counts on votes, prepare summaries for bills

Rules Committee

• Only in the HOR (not senate)

• Regulates time the floor debate of a bill (decides how long it goes into debate)

• Sets limitations on amendments (when bill goes through committee it will be edited)

• 2 types:

  • Closed Rule (most bills goes into this, only people on committee can debate; restricted rule)

  • Open Rule (anyone can debate openly and edit it…Frankenstein rules)

How a Bill Becomes a Law

HOR Side:

1. Drafted bill

2. Introduce to Clerk & assigned HR #_

3. Referred to Committee and sub-committee (4-5)

4. Committee hearing (meeting) can “table” a bill they dgaf

5. Sub Committee to Full Committee mark up (edit) a bill they like

6. Reported Out to Speaker → Speaker will calendar it

7. Floor reading Debate

8. Full Vote → Engrossed Bill

Senate

1. Drafted bill

2. Introduced to Clerk & assigned S S#_

3. Referred to Committee and Sub Committee

4. Committee hearing (table or not)

5. Sub Committee to Full Committee Mark Up

6. Reported out → Senator Majority leader can calendar it to debate on floor

7. Senate can add as much on floor

8. Filibuster (minority keep yapping to frustrate majority to accept it to make them shut up)

9. Majority Vote (60-vote supremacy) → Engrossed Bill

Both HOR & Senate engrossed bill → Conference Committee discuss it and chooses or combines both engrossed bills→ bill created by Committee (Enrolled bill) → Enrolled bill goes back to Senate & HOR for one more vote

If HOR votes yes → Senate needs to vote yes → President → Signed or veto (goes back to bicameral chambers for voting) → 2/3 vote = yes veto override president’s choice

Senate

• 100 members (2 ea state)

• 6 year term (institutional memory)

• Age Requirement: 30+

• 1/3 up to every 2 years

• Named “Continual Body” their session never ends (33, 33, 34)

• More individualistic

• More personal staff (44 ea)

• Policy Generalist

• More media coverage/more prestigious

• Rely on staff more

• More equal distribution of power

• Less important Committees

• Emphasize foreign policy

• Special powers: ratify treaties from president, confirm/reject presidential appointees, impeachment trial can remove power (while HOR brings charges to impeachment)

Senate Leadership

• President of the Senate: Vice President of US

  • Kamala Harris

• President Pro Tempore (Temporary President of Senate - 4th in line of presidency) is the majority party member with the longest continuous service in Senate

  • “Ceremonial Job”; always from majority side

    • Patty Murray (democrat)

• Senate Majority Leader: assignments of bills to committees (similar to speaker job)

  • Chuck Schumer (democrat)

• Minority Leader (Republican)

  • Mitch McConnell

• Whips

  • Majority Whip: Dick Durbin (democrat)

  • Minority Whip: John Thune (republican)

Unique things to Senate

• Filibuster (a way opponent - minority, to legislature can yap on a floor a bill to death upon the tradition of unlimited debate)

  • Clogs up the 2 year term deadline for HOR bills

• Cloture: shuts up filibuster by 60 votes. Nobody can speak for 1+ hour and final vote has to be taken after 30 hours.

• Confirmation Power: confirm/reject presidential appointees

  • Senatorial Courtesy: President puts in names in certain parts of the country that are approved by the senators representing those regions

• Unanimous Consent: everybody agrees to it (tedious small potato things)

• Hold: block bills

Legislature

• Delegate: represent the views of their constituents even if his views are different.

• Trustee: “Trust me” votes independently based on their own judgement.

• Politico: Not fully delegate or trustee. Really strong opinion → delegate; don’t care as much → trustee

• Casework: What members of Congress spend time on → solving constituent problems

• Constituents: People in those areas

• Constituencies: Regions that are represented

Incumbents - Person currently in the job

• In the seat

• Incumbents frequently win elections

• Open Seat Ex: 2018 when Obama was not running for re-election

• Advantages Incumbents have over challengers

  • Incumbents have more media and presence

  • Franking Privilege: glazing themselves in mail

  • Can raise money easily

  • Pork Barrel: ‘fat’; extra stuff - stuffed into a bill

  • Earmarks: ‘folded corner- attachment‘; federally funded local projects attached to bills

  • Log Rolling: temporarily working together; cooperating both political parties to succeed.

Organizing Congress

• Clubs:

  • Party Caucus: get together to make decisions about their parties

  • Caucus/Conference

• Republicans Conference

  • House Republican Conference

  • Senate Republican Conference

• Democrats Caucus

  • House Democratic Caucus

  • Senate Democratic Caucus

• Committee System

  • where the real work occurs

The Committee System

• Dominate policy making in all stages

  • Committee do markups on bills

• New bills usually go straight to subcommittee

• Hold hearings

• Investigate problems and wrongdoings

• Control congressional agenda

• Guide legislation

• HOR has a discharge petition → forces a bill from committee → drops to the floor if majority (218) of HOR members votes on it (HOR really wants it and committee tries to gatekeep it)

4 Types of Committees

• Standing: main committee regulating bills

  • Subcommittees

• Select: temporary committee that investigates problems but does not deal with bills

• Joint: Congressional committees on some subject matters where membership comes from both chambers (HOR & Senate)

  • Library of Congress

  • Joint Budget Committee: huge budget bill that both parties oversee (gets passed yearly)

• Conference: When the chambers pass a bill and iron out the differences to make it a single bill

  • Takes engrossed bills from both parties before its sent to president → creates enrolled bill → bill goes back to HOR & Senate for one more vote, if both says yes → goes to president; yes or no → if no = veto, it goes back to HOR & Senate for a final vote if 2/3 = veto override; if it doesn’t get 2/3 votes it simply dies.

Powers in Committee

• Chair: depends on which party is in power

• Ranking member: would’ve been chair if its party was in power

• Each member is ranked in committee

Tricks in Congress

• Omnibus Legislation

  • Take little bills and turn them into a big bill → votes on 1 bill (saves time during the 2 year HOR session) but you can sneak a few questionable bills in it.

• Continuing Resolution

  • Government Shut down → if budget bill doesn’t get passed before ending date

  • Keep government running by agreeing to operate on last years budget on the current year until new budget is passed.

Presidential - Congressional Relations

• Presidential Veto: official disapproval of a bill

  • Goes back to chambers for a 2/3 majority vote

• Override: veto bill becomes law after 2/3 vote

  • President can get mad after lol

  • More common if presidential party is different than both chambers parties

  • Veto threat: ‘ima veto that twin'

• Pocket Veto: In the last 10 days of session (2 years) and president still hasn’t acknowledged bill → quietly vetoed

• Oversight: Congress has the right to investigate the executive branch to make sure things are running.