Unit 2

Congress basics (friendly encounter and hostile encounter)

• Article 1 of the Constitution

  • Longest article

  • Most in depth

• Bicameral → two chambers

  • House of Representatives (lower)

  • Senate (upper)

  • (additional layer of checks and balances)

• Based on British Parliament

  • House of Commons (lower)

  • House of Lords (upper)

• House of Representatives

  • Powers ONLY for house 

    • Taxation

    • Impeachment 

      • Having enough evidence for a trial

      • Can impeach executive or judicial 

  • Leadership → speaker of the house

    • Majority leader

    • Minority leader

      • Picks how democrats vote

    • Majority whip

    • Minority whip

      • Enforcers (tattletales/peer pressure)

Apportionment

• Redistribution of reps to the states 

• Some states lose some, while others gain them

Redistricting

• Redraw congressional districts based on changes in population

Gerrymandering 

• Redrawing of district/states to promote one political party over another

• States do it

• Partisan (party) is ok, not racial

Incumbency 

• People running for reelection

• 90% reelection rate in House, 60-80% in Senate

Senate

• Reflect and look similar to House of Lords

• 6 year terms

• ⅓ up to election every 2 years

• Originally → chosen by state legislatures

• Now → directly elected → 17th amendment

• State representation → equal

  • Each state gets 2 regardless of population size

  • Senators represent the ENTIRE state

    • Not just a portion

• Requirements

  • At least 30 years old

  • Citizen for 9 years

  • Resident of state representing

• Powers ONLY for senate

  • Holding trial when someone is impeached

  • Senators act like jury, vote, and ban

  • Advise and Consent

    • Power over president

    • Advise president, give consent or lack of consent

    • Senate has to approve or reject any presidential nominations

      • Committee hearings

  • Leadership → 

    • President of Senate = Vice President

    • President pro tempore

      • Oldest

      • Who served longest

    • Majority Leader/Whip

      • In charge of whichever political party has more seats

      • Leader tells how to vote

      • Whip makes sure they vote

    • Minority Leader/Whip

      • Whichever political party has less seats

      • Leader tells how to vote

      • Whip makes sure they vote

General powers of congress

• Lawmaking

  • Legislative authority

    • Ability to make laws

• Budgeting 

  • Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

    • Work with President

  • Creates the federal budget

  • Discretionary Spending

    • We can change

    • Military spending 

  • Mandatory spending

    • Required by law

    • 70% of budget

    • Interests we pay to national debt

    • Paying people working for federal government

    • Entitlement programs

  • Appropriation of funds 

    • This much money we give to each person (appropriating money)

    • Gives $ to agencies/programs

      • Congress shows support by how much money they give

• Oversight 

  • Impeachment 

  • Over the executive branch

    • Agencies, bureaus

  • Makes sure laws are carried out how they’re intended to

  • Makes sure everything is in check

Congress: Committees

• Specialized groups of people work o n specialized issues

• Types

  • Standing

    • Permanent

    • On specialized topics

    • Majority of legislative process happens

  • Conference

    • Temporary

    • Created whenever there's a difference in bill passed

    • Even if a single word is changed, it goes here for revision

    • Talk through differences

    • Make sure it's passed in both chambers

  • Joint

    • Permanent

    • Senate and house members

    • Only 4

  • Select 

    • Temporary

    • Created for a specific amount of time and reason

• Leadership

  • Majority party

    • Committee chair

    • From majority party

    • Organize proportionally with political parties

    • Identify which item they will debate, vote on

    • How much support this bill would get

    • They can kill/ignore bills or not do anything to it

  • Influence agenda

  • Decide whether to vote on items

  • Term limits

  • With political parties in chambers

• House 

  • Appointed by speaker

  • 20 standing committees

  • 2 standing committees, 4 subcommittees

  • Most important committees in REPS ONLY:

    • Rules committee

      • When a bill is ready to leave and be voted on, it has to go to this committee

      • Decide how long can we vote on this?

      • How many amendments can we add to this?

      • Limitations are placed

    • Ways and means committee 

      • Taxes

      • What an increase/decrease in taxes can do to society

      • Tariffs, bonded debt, etc

• Senate

  • Appointed by majority leader, minority leader

  • 18 standing committees

  • 3 standing committees, 5 subcommittees

  • Most important committee:

    • Judiciary committee

      • Interrogating justices before appointed

      • Overseeing department of justice

How a bill becomes a law

• 1. Needs to get proposed

  • Any member of congress can propose a law

  • President can’t

  • Citizens can only give suggestions/ideas

• 2. Needs to go to standing committee

  • Speaker decides if they want to send it to a committee or not

  • Speaker can either kill it directly or send it

• 3. Committee chair has to make decisions

  • Are we gonna debate it?

    • No = kill

  • Committee votes

    • No = kill

• 4. Rules committee decides what to do on bill

  • Establish rules

    • Some rules can kill it

• 5. Passed to Floor of house

  • If they don’t like it = kill

• 6. Goes to senate

  • Majority leader decides what to do on it

    • Can kill it

• 7. Debate?

  • No = kill

  • Yes = vote

    • Voting can kill

• 8. Passed to Floor of Senate

  • Voting can kill

• 9. Conference committee

  • Makes sure it’s written in a way that is accepted by both chambers

• 10. Starts over and goes to speaker

• 11. Eventually goes to President

  • Veto = kill

• 12. BECOMES A LAW!

  • Unless someone challenges it

    • Could potentially die

Bill becomes a law

• Step 1: introduction

  • Only a member of congress can introduce bill

  • President cannot introduce

    • If they have an idea, they can propose it

  • Either chamber, any member

• Step 2: Referral to a Committee…or not

  • First step where we can kill

  • House → Speaker

  • Senate → Majority leader

  • NOT required to send to a committee (DEAD)

• Step 3: Committees and Subcommittees

  • Most likely for a bill to die

  • Committee chair decides what to do 

    • Talk about it?

    • Ignore it?

  • Hold public hearings and debates

  • Get info from experts and witnesses

    • Most times compelled

    • In trouble for not telling your view/what you saw

    • Those impacted by issue

  • Senate → stay indefinitely

    • Once chair says no, they can’t do anything about it but keep it

  • House → discharge petition

    • Can throw a bill out to be voted on after 30 days

• Step 3: Committees and Subcommittees

  • Could be sent to subcommittee 

    • They vote

    • Same steps as main committee

  • Voted on in subcommittee AND committee

  • Must pass to go to floor or DEAD

• Step 4: Floor Consideration

  • House ONLY → Rules Committee first

    • How long will we debate?

    • Any amendments to the bill?

  • Senate ONLY → Filibuster and Cloture

    • Filibuster: Trying to talk a bill to death

      • Someone who doesn’t want a bill to pass

      • Only a minority group does it

        • Quorum: a minimum number of Senators present during the filibuster

    • Cloture: being able to vote and end it 

      • Rider: individual bill by itself, but so unpopular that they added it to a bill that WILL pass

  • Types of Voting:

    • Roll call

      • Call out names

      • That person says yea or nay

      • They keep track of what each person voted

      • Record helps them determine if they want to reelect someone

    • Electronic

      • Specific number of yea or nays

      • Doesn’t matter who said what

    • yea/nay 

      • Completely unimportant things

      • Whichever one yelled is louder (yea or nay)

• Step 5: Passes, moves to other chambers

  • WHOLE process all over again in other chamber

• Step 6: Presidential Action

  • Sign into law

    • Presidents cannot cross things out (line item veto)

    • Only governors can do line item veto

  • Veto 

    • Reject all and veto

    • Send to congress and explain their reasoning

  • Pocket veto

    • 10 days

Voting Behavior (AP EXAM)

• Organizational = politico (same meaning)

  • Members of congress will vote how their party votes

• Attitudinal = trustee (same meaning)

  • Member of congress vote based on personal opinion

  • Regardless of how party votes

• Representational = delegate (same meaning)

  • Congress listen to constituents

    • They follow the people they represent

Budgetmaking

• Making the budget

  • President proposes

  • Congress creates

  • Office of Management and Budget

    • Can go against president

    • Don’t have to follow president’s proposed budget

• Fiscal year → Oct 1 - Sept 30

• Revenue

  • How they’re making money

  • Taxes → income taxes (16th amendment)

    • Payroll taxes (ssn, medicare)

    • corporations

  • Tariffs

  • Excise/Sin taxes

    • On individual items

    • Ex: gas

• Budget surplus (gov spends less than what it earns in a year) vs budget deficit (gov spends more than it earns) vs national debt

• Mandatory vs discretionary spending

President basics

• Article 2 of the constitution

• Terms

  • 4 years

  • Maximum 2 year terms

    • 22nd amendment

      • People only did 2 terms because it was made tradition when washington stopped after 2 terms

      • Eventually became an amendment

  • Presidents can serve up to 10 years

    • 22nd amendment

      • If the president dies for less than 2 years, then it does count as one of the vp terms

      • If the president dies for more than 2 years, then it does not count 

• Requirements

  • 35 years old

  • Natural born citizen

    • Regardless of parents citizenship 

  • 14 years a resident

• Only official that represent entire country 

  • Trying to appeal to everyone, not like senators who are only trying to get their people

  • Due to this, they are more looked into by the public

  • Not directly elected -> Electoral college

• Traditions by Washington

  • Oath on bible

    • Don’t have to do it on a bible but it's a tradition Washington set

    • “So help me god” was also added by Washington 

  • 2 terms only

  • Wearing more civilian clothing 

  • How a president should act 

• Five key roles

  • Chief executive

  • Chief diplomat

  • Party leader

  • Chief legislator

  • Commander in chief

• Actions for the president ONLY

  • Allowed to order pardons/reprieves/amnesty

    • When one is accused and found guilty of a crime

    • President has authority to release accused from legal consequences or set aside their punishment 

    • FEDERAL, NOT STATE LEVEL CRIMES

    • Can’t pardon themselves

    • Can pardon family members

    • Person is still guilty, but legal consequence is what’s altered

    • Cancellation or postponement of punishment

    • Person is still guilty

    • If punishment was too extreme or harsh

    • Convicted of political offenses

  • Executive privilege 

    • We believe president has info too sensitive for public

    • They don’t need to disclose to public

    • Are there things that the president should know that congress should not?

  • Executive agreements

    • Agreements between heads of 2 countries

    • Force of law

    • Changes between president to president

  • Singing statement

    • No force of law

    • Not obligated to follow

    • President’s opinion about a law they just signed

  • Executive order

    • Law a president is making by themselves

    • Only go to bureaucracy

    • They can do so much, but can’t do everything

    • Ex: Emancipation Proclamation

Checks and balances

• Checks on the president

  • Congress

    • Advise and consent (Senate)

      • Senate has to approve

      • Many presidential powers come from this

    • Override veto

      • ⅔ of BOTH house and senate have to agree to override

    • Declare war, fund military

    • President is commander in chief

    • Can also withhold funding

      • War powers resolution act

        • Limits presidents ability to send troops into active combat WITHOUT congressional approval

        • Some ways they CAN are:

          • Declaration of war

          • National emergency

          • With congressional approval

        • President has 10 days to tell congress 

        • Congress has 60 days to approve or reject decision

    • Ratify treaties

    • Impeach president

  • Judicial Branch

    • Declare actions unconstitutional (judicial review)

Evolution of presidency

• Early presidents

  • George Wahsington

    • 1st one

    • Established so much of presidency

    • Not associated with a political party

    • 1st to have a cabinet

    • Fitness of character for being President

      • Moral quality

      • Personality and character traits 

  • Andrew Jackson

    • 7th 

    • Dem

    • First to be associated with a political party

    • 1st to do actions based on political party ideologies

    • 1st to push back on other 2 branches

  • Abraham Lincoln

    • Most impactful

    • Felt like it was his duty to preserve Union

    • Suspended habeas corpus

      • Ability to know what you’re being charged with

      • This action put people in prison without a trial

    • Emancipation proclamation

• Modern Presidency

  • FDR-present

  • FDR

    • Permanently altered powers and roles of president

    • Democrat

      • Because there were more opening in NY for Dem

    • Idolized Teddy Roosevelt

    • 1932 elected - Great Depression

    • Made legislation to ease pain of GD

    • Commerce clause used for first time

    • Used ability to speak to people and be influential

      • Radio, television

    • Attempt at court packing

  • Richard Nixon

    • Inherited a country in turmoil

    • Expanded power of presidency

    • Watergate scandal

      • Vice president resigned 

        • For taking bribes

        • And getting in trouble

    • Resigned after watergate scandal

Modern presidency

• Vice president

  • Constitutional roles: 

    • President of Senate

      • Not powerful

      • Ceremonial

      • Tie-breaking vote

    • 1st in line to become president

      • 25th Amendment: established order of succession

      • 18 people on list

      • Establishes what would happen if president is under anesthesia 

        • VP can act like president

  • John Tyler 

    • 1st VP to become president

    • Set basis for how future VPs would act

    • 8 VPs have become president

    • 25th Amendment

  • First Ladies

    • Important part of president’s ___

    • When white house was being burnt down, one woman went in and grabbed all important documents

    • Woodrow Wilson’s wife: 

      • He had a stroke 

      • His wife took his position and ran over the country

    • Eleanor Roosevelt:

      • FDR’s wife

      • Influenced his policies

      • Primary author of Universal Declaration of rights

      • Nancy Reagan:

        • Just Say No campaign to stop drug use in children

      • Hillary Clinton

      • Michelle Obama

      • Joe Biden’s wife is first to have an actual career while being first lady

  • Executive office of the President

    • Offices in white house

    • People who work gather info for president

      • Monitoring news, info needed to keep president updated

• Management styles

  • Pyramid structure

    • President at top of pyramid

    • Set chain of command

    • Can’t go directly to president

      • Boss gives to boss, etc

    • Pro: Clear organization is helpful

    • Cons: President is isolated, and some things are filtered out

  • Circular structure

    • No matter who you are, you can directly take info to president

      • Including lower level staff

    • Pro: not a lot of info being filtered

    • Con: can be inefficient

  • Ad hoc structure

    • Presidents rely on informal group of advisors rather than official group of advisors

    • Ex: Personal relationships 

    • Pro: flexibility and creativity

    • Con: isolation of officials and their jobs

• Communication

  • President is only one who represents entirety of country

  • Voice and communication ability os powerful

  • Presidents have Power of persuasion 

    • Who they can persuade: 

      • Fellow politicians within Washington DC

      • Party activists living outside Washington DC

      • Us as public

  • Bully pulpit

    • President’s ability to use visibility and prestigious, as being president, to get us to listen to them

    • Getting us to put pressure on congress

      • Since we can call congress and tell them to vote on legislation

  • State of the Union address

    • Typically done in Jan, but gone to April bc of covid

    • President is outlining agenda for next year

      • What laws they want passed

      • Member of congress will propose laws

• Approval ratings

  • Honeymoon period

    • 1st 100 days in office (highest approval ratings, lowest during midterm elections)

Elections

• Electoral college: 

  • 270 needed to win

  • Total electoral college votes: 538

  • Each state = number of reps + 2 senators

  • Washington DC = 3 electoral college votes (23rd amendment)

• Popular vote vs electoral college vote

  • 1876

  • 2000

  • 2016

• If NO candidate gets the majority of electoral college votes, the House picks

• 22nd amendment: limited to 2 terms

  • VPs: 

    • less than 2 years → NOT a term

    • More than 2 years → one of the terms

  • FDR → elected 4 times

• Swing states:

  • Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Arizona, Minnesota, Georgia, Virginia, Florida, Michigan, Nevada, Colorado, North Carolina, Maine

• Cost: 

  • $4.1 Billion by candidates in 2020

Bureaucracy Basics

• Article 2 of the Constitution

  • Congress creates funds

  • PART OF EXECUTIVE BRANCH

  • Under control of president

    • Some aspects are independent or controlled by congress

  • President nominations, Senate approves

    • Some positions, NOT all

    • Most positions based on merit

• The cabinet

  • Experts in what they’re in charge of

  • Heads of 15 executive departments

    • President nominates

    • Senate confirms

    • Secretary of …

      • (Treasury, State, Education, etc)

      • Vice president

        • Sometimes also add members of executive office of president and heads of military

• History of bureaucracy

  • History of cabinet

    • Washington’s cabinet

  • Changes from Andrew Jackson 

    • Political patronage

      • Gave people jobs in bureaucracy in return for votes

    • Merit-based system

      • Congress funds

    • Assassination of James Garfield

      • Creation of Civil Service Commission

        • In response to assassination

        • Established merit based system of people having jobs in bureaucracy 

        • On skills and merit

      • Pendleton Civil Service Act

        • Determines rules for firing/firing people

• Types of bureaucracies

  • Executive departments

  • Independent agencies

    • Things NOT under direct control of president

    • They still have little control

    • Bipartisan 

    • Independent executive agencies

      • Some control by president

      • Autonomous 

      • Nominates board members

    • Government corporations

      • Entities 

      • Make a profit or pay for themselves

      • Post office

    • Independent regulatory commissions

      • Very little control

      • Created by congress

        • Whenever something needs additional regulation

        • Nasa

        • FCC

          • Put regulations on what we can/cannot say on television

Accountability

• Iron triangles

  • Interdependent relationship

  • Congress, interest groups, bureaucracy

  • Not really looked at by media and public

• Issue networks

  • Different players involved

  • Like tobacco, etc

  • More looked at by media and public

• President

  • Formally controls bureaucracy

  • Appoints, remove officials

• Judicial branch

  • Declares actions unconstitutional

  • Can say other branches are doing something unconstitutional

• Congress

  • Oversight power

    • approves/rejects presidential appointments 

    • Creates laws specifically for bureaucracy

    • Providing, taking away funds

    • Force bureaucrats to speak before committees

Actions of the bureaucracy

• Implementation policy

  • 1. Define a problem → Congress

    • Congress passes a law

    • Congress has to fund it 

    • If they can’t give money, they can’t do anything

  • 2. Actual implementation → bureaucracy

    • Congress only gives GENERAL directions/goals*

  • Bureaucratic discretion

    • They figure out what congress means in some areas

    • Interpret it however they want

  • Bureaucratic adjudication

    • Way that bureaucracy establishes regulations and settling disputes when violations happen

    • Ability to fine people or give penalties for violating a rule

Judicial basics

• RECORDING FOR ALEXA: 2025.alexa.mohr@my.caslv.org

• Article 3 of Constitution

  • ONLY created the Supreme court, chief justice

  • Did NOT establish, left up to congress

    • Federal courts

    • # Of Supreme court justices

    • Judicial review (Established by Fed 78)

      • Judicial branch can determine laws to be unconstitutional 

      • Least powerful

  • NOT elected AT ALL

    • Nominated by President

    • Approved by senate

    • SERVE FOR LIFE

• Supreme Court:

  • 8 supreme court justices

  • Chief justice (John Roberts)

  • Federal courts have most power

  • 2 different powers of jurisdiction 

    • Original Jurisdiction

      • Court hears case first

    • Appellate Jurisdiction

      • Hear things on appeal 

      • Not acting like a typical, brand new trial

      • Just reading facts of what happened in lower trial

  • Meet for 9 months a year

• Checks by Congress

  • Most of judicial branch established by

    • Judiciary Act of 1789

      • Congress established number of supreme court justices

      • Organized dif levels of courts

  • Approves presidential nominations

  • Can expand any time they want

• Checks by the President

  • Nominates federal judges, supreme court justices

• Early Supreme Court

  • John Marshall

    • 1st to make name for himself

    • Chief justice during →

  • Marbury v Madison → Judicial Review

    • Presidential election 1800

    • First name is plaintiff, second is defendant

    • Marbury was supposed to get position 

    • Madison never sent it, left it on his desk

    • John Marshall was federalist

    • Writ of Mandamus

      • Federal judge or supreme court justice can force an inferior federal officer to do what they want

    • They said it wasn’t allowed/unconstitutional

    • Legalized ability of courts to use judicial review

• Types of Judicial Review

  • Judicial activism vs judicial restraint

    • Courts believe they can create public policy with their decision making

      • By declaring actions unconstitutional 

    • Believes that judicial review should be used seldom

      • Not be willing to make policies

      • Have strict views on ???

• Types of laws

  • Civil Law

    • Divorce

    • Custody of children

    • Can’t be put in prison, can only get money

    • Just have to be MOSTLY sure

  • Criminal Law

    • When there is harm done to a community

    • Punishments revolve around life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness

    • To be enforced, they need to be as sure as possible that person is guilty

      • As close to 100% as possible

• Organization of the Federal Courts

  • District Courts

    • Lowest level

    • Where trial is happening

  • Circuit Courts

    • 13 circuits

    • 12 regional

    • 1 for federal circuit

    • Not holding new trial

    • New evidence is shown

  • Supreme Court

    • Hard to get them to listen to case

    • Gets to pick what cases they hear

    • Required to hear those with original jurisdiction

• Operations on the Supreme Court

  • Original Jurisdiction

    • They have to hear

  • Appellate jurisdiction

    • They can pick 

  • Rule of four

    • Only 4 need to agree to listen

  • Stare decisis

  • Writ of Certiorari

    • Asking lower courts to send documents and info on case

    • 9 justices read what already took place and ask lawyers from each side to speak

    • Not bringing up new witnesses or evidence

    • 30 mins to speak

  • Amicus Curiae

    • People from both sides speak about what they know

• Opinions 

  • Majority opinions

    • Legal weight

    • Saying which side they chose and why they think it’s legally correct

  • Dissenting opinions

    • Justices that don’t agree 

  • Concurrent opinions

    • Don’t have to listen to this