Congress test

Responsibilities of a member of Congress:

• Represent the constituents (The people)

• Set Federal Budget

• Make Laws

• Overseeing executive actions/Congressional Oversight

House of Representatives:

• Proportional representation

• Known as “lower house,” less prestigious

• “Closer to the people”

• More rules & structure due to size

• Limited debate & quorum needed to do business

• Powerful Leadership: Determines which bills get attention & who gets to speak

• Orderly (Robert’s rules of order)

• More partisan (operate along party lines)

• Members specialize in policy areas

Senate

• Less rules due to ⅓ switching every two years

• Vice president in charge

• 17th amendments allowed for people to vote for senators

• Unlimited debate

• To break a filibuster, you need to vote super majority (60)

Legislative Powers of Congress

• Power of the Purse: Budget, Bills, Borrow Money/Pay Debts, Appropriate Money (Or refuse to fund, make sure money is approved)

  • Pork Barrel Spending & LogRolling (Combining bills into one bill)

• Power of the Sword: Raise armies/declare war

• Commerce Power: Regulate interstate trade and business

• Denied powers: Spending public money without releasing a public budget, placing a tax on state to state commerce, creating nobility

Non-Legislative Powers:

• Impeachment Power

• Confirmation Power

• Ratification Power

• Presidential Selection

• Oversight: Power to review the policies, programs, and activities of the exec branch on an ongoing basis

• Investigation: Gathering evidence, witness testimony, public hearing, produce new legislation to fix problem

Purpose of Comimitees

• Divide workload

• Connection between public and Congress

Standing Commitee

• Permanent, large

• Groups that oversee bills covering a variety of major, permanent topics

Sub commitee

• Smaller part of standing committee, more specific topic

• Ex: Education & the Workforce Committee in House of Representatives

Conference commitee

• Known as the “3rd” House

• Formed only if different versions of the same bill pass

• Members from the house & Senate standing committees that wrote it

• Settle difference to produce a final verison of the bill

• Compromise

# of Representatives determined by 3 step process

• Step 1 -Census (Every 10 Years)

• Step 2 -Reapportionment

• Step 3 -Redistricting

The reapportionment Act of 1929

• Automatic reapportionment

• Creates 435 permanent seats

• Each house representative represents 760,000 people

Gerrymandered

• District lines drawn to the advantage of the political party to control the State legislature

• Legal

• Packing & Cracking

Baker v. Carr 1962

Supreme Court can rule on constitutionality of districts

Gray v. Sanders (163) & Reynolds v. Sims (1964)

• “One Person One Vote”

Shaw v. Reno (1993)

• Cannot redistrict with Race as primary factor (Packing). Minority-Majority Districts IF RACE is the primary factor. Strict scrutiny, can be allowed if done to prevent minority vote distribution

A representative has an established record of helping constituents, receives attention from local news organizations, and has an organized campaign. These advantages make it easier to defeat a challenger. This is an example of:

Incumbency advantage

Members of the House want to bring a bill out of committee because the committee chair refuses to schedule it for consideration. Which procedure may help them do this?

Discharge petition

A representative votes for a bill because most of the representative’s constituents support it, even though the representative personally disagrees. Which model of representation does this best illustrate?

Delegate

A senator studies an issue carefully and votes according to personal judgment, even when public opinion in the senator’s state favors a different position. Which model of representation does this best illustrate?

Trustee

A representative sometimes follows constituents’ preferences but sometimes uses personal judgment when making difficult decisions. Which model of representation does this describe?

Politico

The president is a Democrat, while Republicans control both chambers of Congress. What is this arrangement called?

divided government

Congress increases federal spending on roads and bridges while cutting individual income taxes during a recession. What is the likely economic goal?

Encourage spending and economic activity to help stimulate growth.

Mandatory Spending

Spending that is required by law, congress has already set the rules for how much money is spent each year based off of eligibility and benefit formulas.

Examples: Social security, medicare and medicaid, unemployment benefits, interest on the national debt

Discretionary spending

Spending that Congress must approve each year through the appropriations process

Examples: Defense spending, Education funding, transportation and infrastructure, environmental protection, foreign aid

Congress has to vote to do this

Expansion

economic growth, low unemployment, business prosperity, increasing GDP (value of everything made in a year), inflation

Peak

GDP stops growing, height of economic expansion

Contraction

Falling GDP, unemployment numbrs go up (more unemployed); deflation

Recession

GDP falls for two consecutive quarters. Generally lasts 6-18 months, 6-10% unemployment in 2008 recession

Expansionary Fiscal Policy

• to raise the level of output in the economy when the economy is in a recession 

• To expand aggregate demand

• to prevent a recession.

• To encourage growth of the economy

When in contraction, 2 options: Cut taxes or spend money (Social services, buy companies, writing checks)

Contractionary Fiscal Policy

When too high of expansion and inflation, slow down economy: Stop spending money and raise taxes