House of Representatives:
435 total membership
Number per state is reflective of population size i.e. Cali has 53
Congressional districts drawn by state govt.
Whole House is up every 2 years
Speaker - Mike Johnson rn
MAE - Powers
M - Money - Power of the Purse
A - Accuse President of Impeachment
E - Elect President in times of Electoral College Gridlock
Senate:
100
2 per state
1/3 of them up for elections every 2 years
Vice President - JD Vance
Filibuster.
Senators have the ability
to literally not stop
talking to prevent a vote
on a bill from happening.
The longest filibuster on
record is over 24 hours.
To cloture a filibuster
(shut it down) ⅗ of
senators have to vote.
RATE - Powers
R - Ratify treaties
A - Appointment confirmation
T - Try impeachment
E - Elect VP
SHARED - LOAD
L - Legislation creation
O - Override President Veto
A - Amendments to the constitution
D - Declare war
Remember: LOAD MAE RATE
Congress has the same 3 functions as the UK parliament 😀 :
Represent
Scrutinise through checks and balances
Legislate
‘Evlt the View that Congress is Representative’
Congress represents in 3 ways:
The people i.e. constituents
Party wishes/platforms
Representation of socio-economic status - ‘functional representation’
In this essay I will evlt how well congress carries out its 3 representative functions
A - It could be argued that congress poorly represents its constituencies well due to its continued reliance on gerrymandering and incumbency - which allow for representative to act how they please
B - This can be seen 2021 Ted Cruz who was Texas incumbent senator - caught a flight to Cancun amongst awful weather crisis
Therefore, providing compelling evidence that representatives act how they please as they know their people will not hold them to account
C - However, it is far stronger to argue that this trend is declining as of recent.
2020 7 incumbent House members were replaced in primary elections - the most since 1974
Because of this, it is far stringer to argue that constituencies are represented.
Regular mid terms constituents get more checks than UK
Pork Barell Politics - bringing benefits to constituencies - ‘bring home the bacon’ - This is best seen with Dianne Black whos district covered bits of Nashville - big on country music - ensured that copywrited songs were subject to lower tax rates 2018
D - Therefore, in more modern times Congressmen are definitely less reliant on incumbency / gerrymandering as people are starting to hold them to account. As well as this, the natural expectation to ‘represent the folks back home’ through PBP to represent and ensure re-election
A - It could be argued that Congress fails to represent its individual parties efficiently - this is due to the fact there is only 2 parties
B - The US system of FPTP brings about the same shortcomings of the UK - yet 3rd party representation is even more are. With only very few independents such as Bernie Sanders and he can always be relied to vote in favour of the Democrats - not really an indepedent
Therefore, limiting voter choice and therefore democratic efficiency
C - However, despite the ingrained nature of partisanship in US politics it can be seen where Congress men stray away from their parties - work more bipartisan - which ultimately betters representation
I.e. Joe Manchin who is a member of the democrat party actually voted in favour for the appointment of Brett Kavanugh to the SCOTUS
Susan Collins - dissented to Amy Coney Barrat
D - Therefore, in order to actually better representation we can see moderate members of both parties moving more central in order to legislate/pass appointments which they deem beneficial to their constituency/the country. Trustee Model is very much still apparent and because of this may act perhaps against their party in order to better representation.
A - It could be argued that Congress fails to provide functional representation and there is still work to make congress ‘Look like America’ - Clinton and Obama
B - In 2020 - it can be seen that women had the largest disproportion of representation with 50.8% of society being female yet less than 28% of Congress being female
These disparities fail to make Congress functionally representative of US society - Congressional men can never truely understand the oppression faced by women
C - However, it is far stronger to argue that Congress is progressively becoming more functionally representative.
The rise of Majority - Minority districts - through gerrymandering - which is a distrcit which a minority group dominates in order for representation in Congress - at one point there was 122/435 districts like this in the US before they were redrawn in 2020
Caucuses - a group of congressmen with a particular interest - they say bipartisanship is the key to caucus success
Women’s Caucus - The Violence Act Against Women 1994, The Family and Medical leave Act 1993
Foreign - they have championed womens rights across the globe from Iraq to Afghanistan and represented the US at UN conferences on policies regarding women
Black Caucus - Previous House speaker called their work ‘truly remarkable’
Obama was in that Caucus !
D - Therefore, it is far stronger to argue that recent efforts in functional representation has improved Congress’ representation on things that truly matter - legislation ! However, alebit there still does need to be work on getting women inti politics which may be due to indirect causes such as lack of childcare provision rather than discrimination.
Lobbyists - same as in the UK
BUT in contrast they are diminishing representation
For instance, US Chambers of Commerce - donated almost 70 million in 2023
This is in order to buy representation
Hope that they will get legislatively payed back !
A - It could be argued that the biggest limitation to congressional power is electoral cycles due to the divided nature of govt. it creates
B - With both houses up for some sort of election every 2 years the control of Congress is usually split - resulting in a divided govt. Since 1969 70% of all govt. has been divided.
This coincided with the partisan nature of US politics has resulted in grave limitations to Congress due to advisory politics
Which can be seen by The Democrat Senate who called for a shutdown in 2018 for a historic 35 days due to legislative gridlock
So. election cycles hold significance in the events of a divided govt. - which is usually the case
C - However, this argument may be undermined through the practices of incumbency and gerrymandering
This limits the representation of election cycles in holding congressmen to account
I.e. Texas Senator Ted Cruz
Because of this historic reliance it prevents congress acting efficiently how it is supposed to in representing the people/ accountability
D - Rather than election cycles - significance should be placed on the partisan nature of Congress as its biggest limitation.