2 US Congress

Structure and the Makeup of Congress

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 !

Evlt the View that Electoral Cycles is the Biggest Limitation of the Power of Congress

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.