Chapter 11 Reading -Congress

Congress

Article I of the Constitution grants several key powers to Congress, which include?

overseeing the budget and all financial matters, introducing legislation, confirming or rejecting judicial and executive nominations, and even declaring war

The Connecticut Compromise, also called theGreat Compromise, proposed a?

bicameral congress with members apportioned differently in each house.

The upper house, the Senate, was to have two members from each state. In the lower house

the House of Representatives, membership would be proportional to the population in each state

The bicameral Congress established by the convention of 1787 was given a number of powers and limitations. These are outlined in Article I, this article describes the?

minimum age of congresspersons (Section 2), requires that Congress meet at least once a year (Section 4), guarantees members’ pay (Section 6), and gives Congress the power to levy taxes, borrow money, and regulate commerce (Section 8). These powers and limitations were the Constitutional Convention’s response to the failings of the Articles of Confederation

The bicameral legislature established by the convention did not emerge from thin air. The concept had existed?

in Europe as far back as the medieval era. At that time, the two chambers of a legislature were divided based on class and designed to reflect different types of representation. The names of the two houses in the United Kingdom’s bicameral parliament still reflect this older distinction today: the House of Lords and the House of Commons

those at the Constitutional Convention purposely structured the U.S. Senate differently from the House of Representatives in the hopes of?

encouraging different representative memberships in the two houses. Initially, for example, the power to elect senators was given to the state legislatures instead of to the voting public as it is now

The bicameral system established at the Constitutional Convention and still followed today requires the two houses to?

pass identical bills, or proposed items of legislation. This ensures that after all amending and modifying has occurred, the two houses ultimately reach an agreement about the legislation they send to the president

The constitution specifies that every state will have two?

senators who each serve a 6 year term

Senators were originally appointed by state legislatures but in 1913 the 17th amendment was approved which allowed?

for senators to be elected by popular vote in each state

Seats in the House of Representatives are distributed among the states based on?

each state’s population and each member of the House is elected by voters in a specific congressional district. Each state is guaranteed at least one seat in the House

what is the total number of members in the House of Representatives?

435 members

how long do House of Representatives members serve for?

2 years

Congressional apportionment today is achieved through the?

equal proportions method

what is the equal proportions method?

uses a mathematical formula to allocate seats based on U.S. Census Bureau population data, gathered every ten years as required by the Constitution

what is apportionment?

the process by which seats in the House of Representatives are distributed among the fifty states

the roster of the House of Representatives continued to grow until it

reached?

435 members after the 1910 census

what happened in 1929 due to the reapportion membership of the house of representatives?

an agreement was reached to permanently cap the number of seats in the House at 435

what is redistricting?

occurs every ten years, after the U.S. Census has established how many persons live in the United States and where. The boundaries of legislative districts are redrawn as needed to maintain similar numbers of voters in each while still maintaining a total number of 435 districts

what is one of the problems in the House of Representatives?

the size of each representative’s constituency—the body of voters who elect the representative—and the challenge of Washington, DC. First, the average number of citizens in a congressional district now tops 700,000. This is arguably too many for House members to remain very close to the people

what is another problem in the House of Representatives?

the approximately 675,000 residents of the federal district of Washington (District of Columbia) do not have voting representation. Like those living in the U.S. territories, they merely have a non-voting delegate

after the voting rights act of 1965, many democrats led the charge to create?

congressional districts that would enhance the power of African American voters. The idea was to create majority-minority districts within states, districts in which African Americans became the majority and thus gained the electoral power to send representatives to Congress

what is gerrymandering?

is the manipulation of legislative district boundaries as a way of favoring a particular candidate

what is the history behind the term gerrymandering?

term combines the word salamander, a reference to the strange shape of these districts, with the name of Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry, who in 1812, signed a redistricting plan designed to benefit his party

when can gerrymandering be controversial?

It is only when political redistricting appears to dilute the votes of racial minorities that gerrymandering efforts can be challenged under the Voting Rights Act

other forms of gerrymandering are frequently employed in states where?

a dominant party seeks to maintain that domination. Gerrymandering can be a tactic to draw district lines in a way that creates “safe seats” for a particular political party.

While the strategy of creating majority-minority districts has been a success for minorities’ representation in Congress, its long-term effect has revealed?

a disturbing paradox: Congress as a whole has become less enthusiastic about minority-specific issues. The problem is that by creating districts with high percentages of minority constituents, strategists have made the other districts less diverse. The representatives in those districts are under very little pressure to consider the interests of minority groups.

How many types of powers does congress have?

congressional powers can be divided into three types: enumerated, implied, and inherent

what is an enumerated power?

is a power explicitly stated in the Constitution

what is an implied power?

is one not specifically detailed in the Constitution but inferred as necessary to achieve the objectives of the national government

what is an inherent power?

while not enumerated or implied, must be assumed to exist as a direct

result of the country’s existence

where in the U.S constitution are the details of the enumerated powers?

Article I, Section 8, of the U.S. Constitution details the enumerated powers of the legislature

what are some of the enumerated powers?

These include the power to levy and collect taxes, declare war, raise an army and navy, coin money, borrow money, regulate commerce among the states and with foreign nations, establish federal courts and bankruptcy rules, establish rules for immigration and naturalization, and issue patents and copyrights

the power of Congress to establish federal courts below the Supreme Court, are found elsewhere?

in the constitution (article III, section 1)

which is the most important power that congress possesses?

The first of these enumerated powers - to levy taxes

The power to levy and collect taxes, along with the appropriations power, gives Congress what is typically referred to?

as the “power of the purse”

this means congress controls the money

Some enumerated powers invested in the Congress were included specifically to?

serve as checks on the other powerful branches of government.

what powers of congress serve as checks on the other branches of government?

These include Congress’s sole power to introduce legislation, the Senate’s final say on many presidential nominations and treaties signed by the president, and the House’s ability to impeach or formally accuse the president or other federal officials of wrongdoing (the first step in removing the person from office; the second step, trial and removal, takes place in the U.S. Senate). Each of these powers also grants Congress oversight of the actions of the president and the administration—that is, the right to review and monitor other bodies such as the executive branch. The fact that Congress has the sole power to introduce legislation effectively limits the power of the president to develop the same laws the president is empowered to enforce. The Senate’s exclusive power to give final approval for many of the president’s nominees, including cabinet members and judicial appointments, compels the president to consider the needs and desires of Congress when selecting top government officials. Finally, removing a president from office who has been elected by the entire country should never be done lightly. Giving this responsibility to a large deliberative body of elected officials ensures it will occur only very rarely

The “necessary and proper clause” directs Congress?

“to make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.”

Laws that regulate banks, establish a minimum wage, and allow for the construction and maintenance of interstate highways are all possible because of the implied powers granted by the necessary and proper clause. Today, the overwhelming portion of Congress’s work is tied to the necessary and proper clause

Despite the fact that the Constitution outlines specific enumerated powers, most of the actions Congress takes on a day-to-day basis are?

not actually included in this list. The reason is that the Constitution not only gives Congress the power to make laws but also gives it some general direction as to what those laws should accomplish

how are inherent powers interpreted?

Inherent powers are not only not mentioned in the Constitution, but they do not even have a convenient clause in the Constitution to provide for them. Instead, they are powers Congress has determined it must assume if the government is going to work at all. The general assumption is that these powers were deemed so essential to any functioning government that the framers saw no need to spell them out.

Such powers include the power to control borders of the state, the power to expand the territory of the state, and the power to defend itself from internal revolution or coups. These powers are not granted to the Congress, or to any other branch of the government for that matter, but they exist because the country exists.

why did the modern tussle over power between Congress and the president began?

There are two primary reasons this struggle emerged.

First, as the country grew larger and more complex, the need for the government to assert its regulatory power grew. The executive branch, because of its hierarchical organization with the president at the top, is naturally seen as a more smoothly run governmental machine than the cumbersome Congress. This gives the president advantages in the struggle for power and indeed gives Congress an incentive to delegate authority to the president on processes, such as trade agreements and national monument designations, that would be difficult for the legislature to carry out.

The second reason has to do with the president’s powers as commander-in-chief in the realm of foreign policy. The twin disasters of the Great Depression in the 1930s and World War II, which lasted until the mid-1940s, provided President Franklin D. Roosevelt with a powerful platform from which to expand presidential power. His popularity and his ability to be elected four times allowed him to greatly overshadow Congress. As a result, Congress attempted to restrain the power of the presidency by proposing the Twenty-Second Amendment to the Constitution, which limited a president to only two full terms in office. Although this limitation is a significant one, it has not held back the tendency for the presidency to assume increased power

the seemingly endless bickering between the president and the Congress is a reminder of the ongoing struggle?

for power between the branches, and indeed between the parties, in Washington, DC. Presidential use of executive orders on domestic policy, and executive agreements on foreign policy, allowed in areas in which Congress has delegated authority to the president, have furthered this trend. When used, they replace legislation and treaties

what are the requirements for becoming a member of the house of representatives?

A House member must be a U.S. citizen of at least seven years’ standing and at least twenty-five years old

what are the requirements for becoming a Senator?

Senators are required to have nine years’ standing as citizens and be at least thirty years old when sworn in

Per the Supreme Court decision in U.S. Term Limits v. Thornton(1995), there are?

currently no term limits for either senators or representatives

how are house members elected and how many members are there?

There are currently 435 congressional districts in the United States and thus 435 House members, and each state has a number of House districts roughly proportional to its share of the total U.S. population, with states guaranteed at least one House member

how is the structure of the House of Representatives?

The House of Representatives has developed a stronger and more structured leadership than the Senate. Because its members serve short, two-year terms, they must regularly answer to the demands of their constituency when they run for election or reelection. Even House members of the same party in the same state will occasionally disagree on issues because of the different interests of their specific districts. Thus, the House can be highly partisan at times

how is the structure of the senate?

members of the Senate are furthest from the demands and scrutiny of their constituents. Because of their longer six-year terms, they will see every member of the House face constituents multiple times before they themselves are forced to seek reelection. Also, unlike members of the House who can seek the narrower interests of their district, senators must maintain a broader appeal in order to earn a majority of the votes across their entire state. In addition, the rules of the Senate allow individual members to slow down or stop legislation they dislike

where does the money for campaign contributions come from?

the lion’s share of direct campaign contributions in congressional elections comes from individual donors, who are less influential than the political action committees (PAC’s) that contribute the remainder

a presentation for incoming Democratic representatives suggested a daily Washington schedule of?

five hours reaching out to donors, while only three or four were to be used for actual congressional work.

As this advice reveals, raising money for reelection constitutes a large proportion of the work a congressperson does. This has caused many to wonder whether the amount of money in politics has truly become a corrupting influence.

in the early 1970s, the Federal Election Campaign act was passed which created the?

Federal Election Commission (FEC), required candidates to disclose where their money was coming from and where they were spending it, limited individual contributions, and provided for public financing of presidential campaigns.

in 2002, senator John McCain and Russell Feingold drafted a reform and congress passed the?

Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act(BCRA), also referred to as theMcCain-Feingold Act. The purpose of this law was to limit the use of “soft money,” which is raised for purposes like party-building efforts, get-out-the-vote efforts, and issue-advocacy ads.

Unlike “hard money” contributed directly to a candidate, which is heavily regulated and limited, soft money had almost no regulations or limits. It had never been a problem before the mid-1990s, when a number of very imaginative political operatives developed a great many ways to spend this money.

After that, soft-money donations skyrocketed. But the McCain-Feingold bill greatly limited this type of fundraising. McCain-Feingold placed limits on total contributions to political parties, prohibited coordination between candidates and PAC campaigns, and required candidates to include personal endorsements on their political ads. Until 2010, it also limited advertisements run by unions and corporations thirty days before a primary and sixty days before a general election

The FEC’s enforcement of the BCRA law spurred numerous court cases challenging it. The most controversial decision was handed down by the Supreme Court in 2010, whose ruling on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission led to the?

removal of spending limits on corporations. Justices in the majority argued that the BCRA violated a corporation’s free-speech rights.

The Citizens United case began as a lawsuit against the FEC filed by Citizens United, a nonprofit organization that wanted to advertise a documentary critical of former senator and Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton on the eve of the 2008 Democratic primaries. Advertising or showing the film during this time window was prohibited by the McCain-Feingold Act. But the Court found that this type of restriction violated the organization’s First Amendment right to free speech. As critics of the decision predicted at the time, the Court thus opened the floodgates to private soft money flowing into campaigns again

In the wake of the Citizens United decision, a new type of advocacy group emerged?

the super PAC

what is a traditional PAC?

is an organization designed to raise hard money to elect or defeat candidates. Such PACs tended to be run by businesses and other groups, like the Teamsters Union and the National Rifle Association, to support their special interests. They are highly regulated in regard to the amount of money they can take in and spend

what is a super PAC?

super PACS are not bound by the regulations of a traditional PAC. While they cannot give money directly to a candidate or a candidate’s party, they can raise and spend unlimited funds, and they can spend independently of a campaign or party

what are the limits that are put on campaign contributions which have been upheld by the courts?

Individuals may contribute up to $2900 per candidate per election.

Individuals may also give $5000 to PACs and $36,500 to a national party committee.

PACs that contribute to more than one candidate are permitted to contribute $5000 per candidate per election, and up to $15,000 to a national party.

PACs created to give money to only one candidate are limited to only $2900 per candidate, however. The amounts are adjusted every two years, based on inflation.

These limits are intended to create a more equal playing field for the candidates, so that candidates must raise their campaign funds from a broad pool of contributors

The jungle of campaign financing regulations and loopholes is more easily navigated by?

incumbents in Congress than by newcomers

who are incumbents?

are elected officials who currently hold an office

The amount of money a incumbent raises against their challengers demonstrates?

their advantage

This is one of the many reasons incumbents win a large majority of congressional races each electoral cycle. Incumbents attract more money because people want to give to a winner. Incumbents are most likely to win reelection

The historical difficulty of unseating an incumbent in the House or Senate is often referred to as the?

incumbent advantage or the incumbency effect

what are some of the factors in the incumbent advantage or the incumbency effect?

The advantage in financing is a huge part of this effect, but it is not the only important part. Incumbents often have a much higher level of name recognition

• voters are far more likely to select the name of the person they recall seeing on television and hearing on the radio for the last few years than the name of a person they hardly know. And donors are more likely to want to give to a proven winner

But more important is the way the party system itself privileges incumbents.

• A large percentage of congressional districts across the country are “safe seats” in uncompetitive districts, meaning candidates from a particular party are highly likely to consistently win the seat. This means the functional decision in these elections occurs during the primary, not in the general election. Political parties in general prefer to support incumbents in elections, because the general consensus is that incumbents are better candidates, and their record of success lends support to this conclusion. That said, while the political parties themselves to a degree control and regulate the primaries, popular individual candidates and challengers sometimes rule the day.

Another reason incumbents wield a great advantage over their challengers is the state power they have at their disposal

• One of the many responsibilities of a sitting congressperson is constituent casework. Constituents routinely reach out to their congressperson for powerful support to solve complex problems, such as applying for and tracking federal benefits or resolving immigration and citizenship challenges. Incumbent members of Congress have paid staff, influence, and access to specialized information that can help their constituents in ways other persons cannot. And congresspersons are hardly reticent about their efforts to support their constituents. Often, they will publicize their casework on their websites or, in some cases, create television advertisements that boast of their helpfulness

The importance of airing positive constituent casework during campaigns is a testament to the accuracy of saying, “All politics is local.” This phrase, attributed to former Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill (D-MA), essentially means that?

the most important motivations directing voters are rooted in local concerns. In general, this is true. People naturally feel more driven by the things that affect them on a daily basis

Good senators and representatives understand this and will seek to use their influence and power in office to affect these issues for the better. This is an age-old strategy for success in office and elections.

in 1960, political scientist Angus Campbell proposed the surge-and-decline theory to?

explain the voting patterns that appear to challenge the common assumption of the most important motivations directing voters are rooted in local concerns

what is the surge and decline theory?

a theory proposing that the surge of stimulation occurring during presidential elections subsides during midterm elections, accounting for the differences we observe in turnouts and results

Political scientist Angus Campbell noticed that since the civil war, with the exception of 1934?

the president’s party has consistently lost seats in Congress during the midterm elections. He proposed that the reason was a surge in political stimulation during presidential elections, which contributes to greater turnout and brings in voters who are ordinarily less interested in politics. These voters, Campbell argued, tend to favor the party holding the presidency. In contrast, midterm elections witness the opposite effect. They are less stimulating and have lower turnout because less-interested voters stay home. This shift, in Campbell’s theory, provides an advantage to the party not currently occupying the presidency

• the pattern of midterm elections benefiting the president’s opposition has persisted

The evidence does suggest that national concerns, rather than local ones, can function as?

powerful motivators at the polls

Congressional elections may be increasingly driven by?

national issues

Voters who favor a particular party in a presidential election are now much more ?

likely to also support that same party in House and Senate elections than was the case just a few decades ago

Representation is a complex concept, it can mean?

paying careful attention to the concerns of constituents, understanding that representatives must act as they see fit based on what they feel best for the constituency, or relying on the particular ethnic, racial, or gender diversity of those in office

how many models of representation are there and what are they?

there are three models of representation

1) delegate model of representation

2) trustee model of representation

3) politico model of representation

Senators and house members are representatives, this means?

they are intended to be drawn from local populations around the country so they can speak for and make decisions for those local populations, their constituents, while serving in their respective legislative houses

what is representation?

representation refers to an elected leader’s looking out for constituents while carrying out the duties of the office

what is the delegate model of representation?

Representatives who see themselves as delegates believe they are empowered merely to enact the wishes of constituents. Delegates must employ some means to identify the views of their constituents and then vote accordingly. They are not permitted the liberty of employing their own reason and judgment while acting as representatives in Congress

what is the trustee model of representation?

a representative who understands their role to be that of a trustee believes they are entrusted by the constituents with the power to use good judgment to make decisions on the constituents’ behalf. In the words of the eighteenth-century British philosopher Edmund Burke, who championed the trustee model of representation, “Parliament is not a congress of ambassadors from different and hostile interests . . . [it is rather] a deliberative assembly of one nation, with one interest, that of the whole. ”In the modern setting, trustee representatives will look to party consensus, party leadership, powerful interests, the member’s own personal views, and national trends to better identify the voting choices they should make

what is the politico model of representation?

few if any representatives adhere strictly to one model or the other. Instead, most find themselves attempting to balance the important principles embedded in each. Political scientists call this the politico model of representation. In it, members of Congress act as either trustee or delegate based on rational political calculations about who is best served, the constituency or the nation

what is descriptive representation?

representation can seem to have very little to do with the substantive issues representatives in Congress tend to debate. Instead, proper representation for some is rooted in the racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, gender, and sexual identity of the representatives themselves. This form of representation is called descriptive representation

Many advances in women’s rights have been the result of women’s greater engagement in politics and representation in the halls of government especially since the?

founding of the National Organization for Women in 1966 and the National Women’s Political Caucus (NWPC) in 1971.

The NWPC was formed by Bella Abzug, Gloria Steinem, Shirley Chisholm, and other leading feminists to encourage women’s participation in political parties, elect women to office, and raise money for their campaigns. For example, Patsy Mink(D-HI) the first Asian American woman elected to Congress, was the coauthor the of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, Title IX of which prohibits sex discrimination in education

Like Mink, many other women sought and won political office, many with the help of the NWPC. Today, EMILY’s List, a PAC founded in 1985 to help elect pro-choice Democratic women to office, plays a major role in fundraising for female candidates. In the 2018 midterm elections, thirty-four women endorsed by EMILY's List won election to the U.S. House

It is a representative’s actions in Congress that ultimately?

reflect their understanding of representation. Congress members’ most important function as lawmakers is writing, supporting, and passing bills. And as representatives of their constituents, they are charged with addressing those constituents’ interests

what are pork barrel politics?

As a term and a practice, pork-barrel politics—federal spending on projects designed to benefit a particular district or set of constituents—has been around since the nineteenth century, when barrels of salt pork were both a sign of wealth and a system of reward. While pork-barrel politics are often deplored during election campaigns, and earmarks—funds appropriated for specific projects—are no longer permitted in Congress, legislative control of local appropriations nevertheless still exists. In more formal language, allocation, or the influencing of the national budget in ways that help the district or state, can mean securing funds for a specific district’s project like an airport, or getting tax breaks for certain types of agriculture or manufacturing

what is an earmark?

an earmark is a small cut on the ear of a cow or other animal to denote ownership. Similarly, in Congress, an earmark is a mark in a bill that directs some of the bill’s funds to be spent on specific projects or for specific tax exemptions. Since the 1980s, the earmark has become a common vehicle for sending money to various projects around the country. Many a road, hospital, and airport can trace its origins back to a few skillfully drafted earmarks

what is the concept of collective representation?

describes the relationship between Congress and the United States as a whole. That is, it considers whether the institution itself represents the American people, not just whether a particular member of Congress represents their district. Predictably, it is far more difficult for Congress to maintain a level of collective representation than it is for individual members of Congress to represent their own constituents. Not only is Congress a mixture of different ideologies, interests, and party affiliations, but the collective constituency of the United States has an even-greater level of diversity

The national perception of Congress has tended to run under?

20 percent approval in recent years, with large majorities disapproving. Through mid-2021, the Congress, narrowly under Democratic control, was receiving higher approval ratings, above 30 percent. However, congressional approval still lags public approval of the presidency and Supreme Court by a considerable margin

Yet, incumbent reelections have remained largely unaffected. The reason has to do with the remarkable ability of many in the United States to separate their distaste for Congress from their appreciation for their own representative

Few events push congressional approval ratings above 50 percent, what events?

general satisfaction with the state of the country and the economy

War has the power to bring majorities of voters to view their Congress and president in an overwhelmingly positive way

Nevertheless, all things being equal, citizens tend to rate Congress more highly when things get done and more poorly when things do not get done

One of the events that began the approval rating’s downward trend was Congress’s divisive debate over?

national deficits

A deficit is what results when Congress spends more than it has available. It then conducts additional deficit spending by increasing the national debt. Many modern economists contend that during periods of economic decline, the nation should run deficits, because additional government spending has a stimulative effect that can help restart a sluggish economy. Despite this benefit, voters rarely appreciate deficits. They see Congress as spending wastefully during a time when they themselves are cutting costs to get by

The party leadership in Congress controls the?

actions of Congress

Leaders are elected by the two-party conferences in each chamber. In the House of Representatives, these are the House Democratic Conference and the House Republican Conference.

These conferences meet regularly and separately not only to elect their leaders but also to discuss important issues and strategies for moving policy forward. Based on the number of members in each conference, one conference becomes the majority conference and the other becomes the minority conference. Independents like Senator Bernie Sanders will typically join one or the other major party conference, as a matter of practicality and often based on ideological affinity

The most important leadership position in the House is actually elected by the entire body of representatives. This position is called the?

Speaker of the House and is the only House officer mentioned in the Constitution

• The Constitution does not require the Speaker to be a member of the House, although to date, all fifty-four Speakers have been

who is the Speaker of the House?

The Speaker is the presiding officer, the administrative head of the House, the partisan leader of the majority party in the House, and an elected representative of a single congressional district. As a testament to the importance of the Speaker, since 1947, the holder of this position has been second in line to succeed the president in an emergency, after the vice president. The Speaker serves until their party loses, or until the Speaker is voted out of the position or chooses to step down

what are the roles of the speaker of the house?

The Speaker is invested with quite a bit of power, such as the ability to assign bills to committees and decide when a bill will be presented to the floor for a vote. The Speaker also rules on House procedures, often delegating authority for certain duties to other members. He or she appoints members and chairs to committees, creates select committees to fulfill a specific purpose and then disband, and can even select a member to be speaker pro tempore, who acts as Speaker in the Speaker’s absence. Finally, when the Senate joins the House in a joint session, the Speaker presides over these sessions, because they are usually held in the House of Representatives

Below the speaker are the majority and minority leaders, who are they?

Below the Speaker, the majority and minority conferences each elect two leadership positions arranged in hierarchical order. At the top of the hierarchy are the floor leaders of each party. These are generally referred to as the majority and minority leaders. The minority leader has a visible if not always a powerful position. As the official leader of the opposition, they technically hold the rank closest to that of the Speaker, makes strategy decisions, and attempts to keep order within the minority. However, the majority rules the day in the House, like a cartel. On the majority side, because it holds the speakership, the majority leader also has considerable power. Historically, moreover, the majority leader tends to be in the best position to assume the speakership when the current Speaker steps down

Below the minority and majority leader are the whips, who are they?

Below these leaders are the two party’s respective whips. A whip’s job, as the name suggests, is to whip up votes and otherwise enforce party discipline. Whips make the rounds in Congress, telling members the position of the leadership and the collective voting strategy, and sometimes they wave various carrots and sticks in front of recalcitrant members to bring them in line. The remainder of the leadership positions in the House include a handful of chairs and assistantships

the Senate also has majority and minority leaders and whips, each with duties very similar to those of their counterparts in the House. Unlike the House, however?

the Senate doesn’t have a Speaker. The duties and powers held by the Speaker in the House fall to the majority leader in the Senate. Another difference is that, according to the U.S. Constitution, the Senate’s president is actually the elected vice president of the United States, but may vote only in case of a tie. Apart from this and very few other exceptions, the president of the Senate does not actually operate in the Senate.

Instead, the Constitution allows for the Senate to choose a president pro tempore—usually the most senior senator of the majority party—who presides over the Senate. Despite the title, the job is largely a formal and powerless role. The real power in the Senate is in the hands of the majority leader and the minority leader. Like the Speaker of the House, the majority leader is the chief spokesperson for the majority party, but, unlike in the House, does not run the floor alone. Because of the traditions of unlimited debate and the filibuster, the majority and minority leaders often occupy the floor together in an attempt to keep things moving along. At times, their interactions are intense and partisan, but for the Senate to get things done, they must cooperate to get the sixty votes needed to run this super-majority legislative institution

535 members in Congress and a seemingly infinite number of domestic, international, economic, agricultural, regulatory, criminal, and military issues to deal with at any given moment, the two chambers must?

divide their work based on specialization.

Congress does this through the committee system. Specialized committees (or subcommittees) in both the House and the Senate are where bills originate and most of the work that sets the congressional agenda takes place. Committees are roughly approximate to a bureaucratic department in the executive branch. There are well over two hundred committees, subcommittees, select committees, and joint committees in the Congress

what are standing committees?

The core committees are called standing committees. There are twenty standing committees in the House and sixteen in the Senate

how are members elected to be chaired for committees?

Members of both parties compete for positions on various committees. These positions are typically filled by majority and minority members to roughly approximate the ratio of majority to minority members in the respective chambers, although committees are chaired by members of the majority party

what are the steps to develop legislation?

Committees and their chairs have a lot of power in the legislative process, including the ability to stop a bill from going to the floor (the full chamber) for a vote. Indeed, most bills die in committee. But when a committee is eager to develop legislation, it takes a number of methodical steps. It will reach out to relevant agencies for comment on resolutions to the problem at hand, such as by holding hearings with experts to collect information. In the Senate, committee hearings are also held to confirm presidential appointments. After the information has been collected, the committee meets to discuss amendments and legislative language. Finally, the committee will send the bill to the full chamber along with a committee report. The report provides the majority opinion about why the bill should be passed, a minority view to the contrary, and estimates of the proposed law’s cost and impact.

what are the four types of committees that exist in the House and the Senate?

1) standing or permanent committee

2) joint committee

3) conference committee

4) ad hoc, special or select committee

what is a standing or permanent committee?

This committee is the first call for proposed bills, fewer than 10 percent of which are reported out of committee to the floor

what is a joint committee?

Joint committee members are appointed from both the House and the Senate, and are charged with exploring a few key issues, such as the economy and taxation. However, joint committees have no bill-referral authority whatsoever—they are informational only

what is a conference committee?

is used to reconcile different bills passed in both the House and the Senate. The conference committees are appointed on an ad hoc basis as necessary when a bill passes the House and Senate in different forms. Conference committees are sometimes skipped in the interest of expedience, in which one of the chambers relents to the other chamber. For example, the House demurred to the Senate over the Affordable Care Act instead of going to battle in a conference committee. Still, conference committees are the norm on most major pieces of legislation

what is an ad hoc, special or select committee?

Finally, ad hoc, special, or select committees are temporary committees set up to address specific topics. These types of committees often conduct special investigations, such as on aging or ethics