POLS 1101 - EXAM III

Exam III study guide chapter 10/ Legislative Branch

What are the advantages and disadvantages of bicameral legislatures?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of bicameral legislatures?

ADVANTAGES:

• Reduces the likelihood of passing flawed/reckless legislation

• Greater diversity of constituents b/c there’s more # of seats

DISADVANTAGES:

• slower to act

• unequal/disproportionate representation/malapportionment

• difficulty in holding representative accountable (more representatives to monitor; each chamber blames the other for mistakes)

Be able to compare the five ways the House and Senate differ.

Size, seats, term lengths, citizenship and age requirements, and constitutional powers.

HOUSE:

• 435 representatives, seats based on population size of state (GA:14, CA:52), Two-year terms, US citizen of 7 years and at least 25 years old

• Revenue/tax bills can only be introduced by the house, only the house plays a role in certifying winners of presidential elections. deals with impeachment (votes for the articles of impeachment)

  SENATE:

• 100 senators, two per state, Six-year terms, US citizen of 9 years and at least 30 years old. Confirms presidential appointments, ratifies treaties, and conducts impeachment trials.

Standing Committee

Permanent congressional committees with responsibility for a particular area of public policy.

Joint Committee

Congressional committees composed of members of both houses/chambers that perform advisory functions

Select Committee

A small legislative committee appointed for a special purpose. Can be permanent (covers issues that cut across many jurisdictions) or temporary

Conference committee

Temporary committees that are formed to resolve differences between House and Senate versions of a bill

Party Conferences/Caucuses

A group that consists of a party’s members in the House or Senate and that serves to elect the party’s leadership, set policy goals, and determine party strategy.

Which committees are the core committees in both the House and Senate?

Standing Communities

How is the party balance on a committee determined?

Direct result of the party balance of its legislative chamber. If 45% of seats in house are republican, then committees in house are also 45% republican.

Be able to describe the responsibilities of and rank the relative power of each of the following positions: House Majority Leader, Speaker of the House, Senate president pro tempore, Senate Majority Leader

House Majority Leader: Second Most influential leader of the majority party in the house.

• majority leader tends to be in the best position to assume speakership when the current speaker of the house steps down

Speaker of the House: Powerful presiding officer of the house selected by majority vote.

• Authority to assign bills to committees, decide when a bill will be presented to the floor for a vote, make rulings on house procedures, delegate authority for certain duties to other members, appoint members and chairs of committees, and create special temporary committees. Can also select a member to be speaker pro tempore (someone who acts as speaker when they are absent)

Senate president pro tempore: Person in charge of formally presiding over the senate in the absence of the president of the senate/vice president

• Honorary and powerless position assigned to the most senior senator of the majority party

Senate Majority Leader: Powerful senate leader who formally serves as head of the majority party.

• Closest thing to a senate version of the house’s speaker

• Chief spokesperson for the majority party, but does not run the floor alone, they work with the senate minority leader.

Speaker of the house —> House majority leader

senate majority leader (works with senate minority leader)—> senate president pro tempore

Traditional/classical legislative process

Traditional process by which a bill becomes a law. Consists of six stages: bill drafting and introduction, committee work, floor debate, conference committee reconciliation, president decision, and veto override vote.

Traditional filibuster

A procedural tactic in the US senate whereby a minority of Senators prevents a bill from coming to a vote by holding the floor and talking until the majority gives in and the bill is withdrawn from consideration.

cloture vote

A legislative maneuver that, if a three-fifths majority votes for it, limits Senate debate to thirty hours and has the effect of defeating a filibuster

Modern Filibuster

A warping of the original intent of the cloture rules where Senators can request a cloture before any bill can get a vote even if no one is actually filibustering. Increasing the number of votes needed for a bill to advance from a simple majority to a super majority, thus allowing the senate minority to obstruct legislation.

Contemporary legislative process

(a new but unorthodox legislative process. Helps accomplish policy changes that would have taken many votes and the expending of great political capital over a long period of time by voting for just one omnibus spending bill. Gave party leaders more power and influence over the control of bills. Also applied modern filibuster so minority party also has power)

Congress can force an up or down vote on the whole package/omnibus spending bill. Budget process became a common problem-solving mechanism in the legislature, party leadership has expanded power and influence over the control of bills, and the application of the modern filibuster.

Omnibus Spending bill

Type of bill that combines smaller ordinary appropriations (spending) bills into one larger single bill that can be passed at once. Twelve different ordinary appropriation bills need to be passed each year, and an omnibus spending bill combines two or more of those bills into a single bill

Budget reconciliation process

A process by which the federal budget can be amended through a simple majority vote. This has increasingly been used to circumvent the filibuster to enact major policy changes but is limited to only policies that directly impact the federal budget.

In the traditional/classic legislative process, what are the six stages before a bill can become a law?

1. Bill drafting and introduction 2. Committee work 3. Floor debate 4. Conference committee, 5. President decision 6. Veto override vote.

How can a bill become law even if the President vetoes the legislation?

Congress can override it by a two-thirds vote in both chambers

Bills that raise revenue must begin in which chamber?

Must begin in HOUSE

What do committees do with bills that are sent to them?

Committees hold a hearing, which provides an opportunity for the committee to hear and evaluate expert opinions on the bill or aspects of it. Then committees will markup the bill, then committee or subcommittee will vote, if not to vote, it's tabled (dead), but there is still an option to bring it back up for a vote again. If the committee decides to advance the bill, it goes to the floor of chambers.

How has the balance of power between congressional committees and political parties shifted since the 1980s?

The balance of power between congressional committees and political parties shifted since the 1980s due to the heightened partisanship, with chambers reluctant to allow committees to work things out on their own.

How many votes are needed to end a filibuster?

60 votes/three-fifths

How do traditional and modern filibusters differ?

• Traditional filibuster: Senator takes the floor and holds it for as long as possible. 

• Modern filibuster: A warping of the original intent of the cloture rules, where senators can request cloture before any bill can get a vote even if no one is actually filibustering. Number of votes goes from simple majority → supermajority.

Apportionment

The process of distributing the 435 memberships, or seats, in the US House of Representatives among the 50 states

The one-person, one-vote standard

Rule created by the US Supreme Court in 1964 holding that if a state holds elections using single member districts, there must be roughly equal number of voters in each district.

Redistricting

The redrawing of congressional and other legislative district lines following the census, to accommodate population shifts and keep districts as equal as possible in population.

uncompetitive Congressional elections

Most contemporary congressional elections are not competitive, meaning it is known ahead of time which party’s candidate is sure to win. One reason for this is that the election takes place in a district in which a strong majority of voters support only one of the two major parties.

The Big sort

The trend of the last forty years in which Americans who are similar in educational level, lifestyle, and political orientation increasingly choose to live close to each other

Gerrymandering

The manipulation of legislative district boundaries as a way of favoring candidates from a particular party, group, or socio-economic class.

Who is in charge of conducting reapportionment?

Congress

What is the one-person, one-vote standard? Which institution established the one-person, one-vote standard?

The one-person, one-vote standard is a rule created by the US Supreme Court in 1964 holding that if a state holds elections using single member districts, there must be a roughly equal number of voters in each district. States solve this by redrawing their district lines to fit this law. 

Which level of government (national or state) is in charge of redistricting?

state

What percentage of 2022 House district elections were genuinely competitive “toss up” races that could go either way?

8%, meaning only 33 districts.

What percentage of House elections in the year 2000 were genuinely competitive “toss up” races that could have gone either way?

Over 40% of districts were thought to be toss ups.

Has gerrymandering or the “Big Sort” had more impact on the decline of competitive congressional elections?

“The big sort” had more impact on the decline of competitive congressional elections as Americans who are similar in educational level, lifestyle, and political orientation increasingly choose to live close to each other.

What are the effects of uncompetitive elections on voters and civic health?

• Disengaged voters as campaigns are lethargic. 

• Voters have less interest in public affairs

• citizens/voters are less likely to volunteer and participate in non-political community affairs electoral units due to divergent ratios of voters to representatives.

descriptive representation

A legislature is descriptively representative to the extent that its demographic composition is proportional to the demographic composition of the population served by the legislature.

Constituent service

A wide array of non-legislative activities – from helping with issues with federal agencies to providing learning opportunities for students – undertaken by members of congress or congressional staff that are aimed at helping and/or honoring constituents

“Pork-barrel politics”

Federal spending on projects designed to benefit a particular district or set of constituents. (Also known as “bringing home the bacon”)

Are the U.S. House of Representatives and the  U.S. Senate among the most or least malapportioned legislative chambers in the world?

The US senate is one of the most malapportionment legislative chambers in the world.

How many people does each elected member of the House represent? Why do some political scientists think this number is far too high?

• Each voting member of the house represents a district with a population size of approximately 764,000. 

• Members of the house should have fewer constituents so that they can better understand their interests and values. It would also allow people to more easily monitor the performance of their representative and hold them accountable. 

What are two reasons descriptive representation is beneficial?

It helps assure that all those who are affected by public policies have their rights, interests and perspectives adequately represented in the policymaking process. Second, it promotes a widespread sense of trust in the democratic process and perceptions that decisions are fair and legitimate.

In what ways is the Congress most descriptively representative? In what ways is the Congress most descriptively unrepresentative?

• Most descriptively representative: white, male, affluent, college educated, baby boomer/silent

• Most descriptively unrepresentative: women, nonwhites