AP US Gov
Congress’s constitutional design shapes how it makes policy.
Elected lawmakers work to improve the United States
while representing people of unique views across the nation
House and Senate differ overall
within each are chamber-specific roles and rules that impact the law and policy making process
Congress is organized into leadership roles, committees, and procedures
Strong personalities and skilled politicians
work their way into the leadership hierarchy
wielding great influence in running the nation’s government
The way in which ideas become law, or more often, fail to become law, are essential to understanding the structures, powers, and functions of Congress.
Policymaking Structures and Processes
Design of Congress and the Powers the framers bestowed on the 2 chambers within that institution have shaped how the legislative branch makes policy
Elected lawmakers work to improve the United States while representing people of unique views across the nation
Formal groups and informal factions operate differently in the House and Senate
Congress is organized by house, political party, leadership, and committee
The parties create leadership positions to:
Guide their own party members
move legislation
carry out party goals
The party with the most members is the majority party and is in a strong position to set the agenda through its leaders and committee chairpersons
Standing committees are where the real work gets done, especially in the more structured House
Some of the powerful committees are institutions unto themselves, especially in the House
Congress’s formalized groups include both lawmaking committees and partisan or ideological groups
Leadership
The ONLY official congressional leaders named in the Constitution are:
Speaker of the House
President of the Senate
President pro tempore of the Senate
The document states that the House and Senate “shall choose their other Officers.”
At the start of each congressional term in early January on odd years
First order of business in each house is to elect leaders
The four party caucuses— the entire party membership within each house—gather privately after elections, but days before Congress opens, to determine their choices for Speaker and the other leadership positions
The actual public vote for leadership positions takes place when Congress opens and is invariably a party-line vote
Once the leaders are elected, they:
oversee the organization of Congress
help form committees
proceed with the legislative agenda
House Leaders
Atop the power pyramid in the House of Representatives is the Speaker of the House
only House leadership position mentioned in the Constitution
de facto leader of the majority party in the House, the Speaker wields significant power
2007 - Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) became the first female Speaker of the House/reelected in 2019
Paul Ryan (R-WI) presided as Speaker over the Republican-controlled House before Democrats regained the majority in 2018 midterm elections
The Speaker:
Recognizes members for floor speeches and comments
Organizes members for conference committees
Has great influence in most matters of lawmaking
On the next rung down in the House are the majority and minority leaders
These floor leaders direct debate from among their party’s members and guide the discussion from their side of the aisle
They are the first members recognized in debate
Party leaders have also become spokespersons for the party
They offer their party messages through news conferences and in interviews on cable networks and Sunday talk shows
Below the floor leader is the deputy leader, or whip, who is in charge of party discipline
Whips:
keeps a rough tally of votes among his or her party members
Aids in determining the optimum time for a vote
Communicate leadership views to members & will strong-arm party members to vote with the party
Political favors or even party endorsements during a primary election can change the mind of representatives contemplating an independent or cross-party vote
Assures party members remain in good standing & act in an ethical & professional way
When scandals or missteps occur, the whip may insist a member step down from serving as a committee chair or leave Congress entirely
Senate Leaders
In the Senate, a similar structure exists
The Constitution names the vice president as the nonvoting President of the Senate
Vice presidents in the modern era are rarely present
In lieu of the vice president as the presiding officer
senators in the majority party will share presiding duties
In case of a tie vote, the Constitution enables the vice president to break it
Article I also provides for the president pro tempore, or temporary president
“Pro tem” is mostly a ceremonial position held by the most senior member of the majority party
Tasks involved with the role include:
Presiding over the Senate in the absence of the vice president
Signing legislation
Issuing the oath of office to new senators
Role of the president pro tem in presidential succession addressed with 25 Amendment
President pro tem assumes the position of vice president if a vacancy in the office occurs
Senate majority leader wields much more power in the Senate than the vice president and pro tem
Senate majority leader is, in reality
the chief legislator
the first person the chair recognizes in debate
the leader who sets the legislative calendar
determines which bills reach the floor for debate and which ones do not
Senate majority leader also guides the party caucus on issues and party strategy
Senate leaders do not have final say in the decisions of individual party members
Each makes his or her own independent choice
Senate’s less formal rules for debate enable members to address their colleagues and the public more easily than in the House
Senate whips serve much the same purpose as their House counterparts
They keep a tally of party members’ voting intentions and try to maintain party discipline
Conference/Caucus Chair also serves the same function in the Senate as in the House, overseeing party matters
Committees
Committees are not mentioned in the Constitution
Fixtures in Congress since it first met
Smaller groups can tackle tough issues and draft more precise laws
than entire House or Senate can
Committees allow lawmakers to put their expertise to use
Make the process of moving a bill to a law manageable
Intricate committee system handles a vast amount of legislation
Committees dealing with finance, foreign relations, the judiciary, and other common topics have become permanent, public law making groups
Conduct hearings and debate bills under consideration, playing key roles in the legislative process in both houses
Standing Committees
Permanent committees focused on a particular policy area are called standing committees
Members of Congress can specialize in a few topics and become experts in these areas
House Energy and Commerce Committee has wide authority on utilities and gasoline, as well as almost any business matter
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure oversees the creation and maintenance of U.S. highways, regulates airports, and delivers billions in grants
Committee chairpersons are invariably senior members in the majority party experienced on that committee
The vice chair or “ranking member” is the senior committee member from the minority party
The majority party always holds the majority of seats on each committee
therefore controls the flow of legislation because a bill must first clear committee with a majority vote before it can move to the House or Senate floor for a vote
Senate’s advice and consent role
Standing committees in this body hold confirmation hearings for presidential nominations
A nominated secretary of defense must appear before the Armed Services Committee to answer individual senators’ questions. After this hearing, a majority can recommend the nominee to the full Senate for approval
Standing committees have a number of other vital roles.
For example
House Judiciary Committee drafts crime bills that define illegal behavior and outline appropriate punishments
It also handles impeachments.
In 1974, the House Judiciary Committee voted 27 to 11 to recommend impeachment of President Richard Nixon. He resigned before the entire House took a vote
On December 13, 2019, this committee voted for articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump
The full House voted to impeach him five days later
Members want to serve on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, a committee exclusive to the House that determines tax policy
Ways and Means Committee is the first to outline details when proposals are put forward to raise or lower income taxes
Other members want to serve on the Appropriations Committees, which are found in both houses
These two committees influence or control the “purse strings.”
Lawmakers also seek committee appointments in fields in which they have expertise, or that have special interest for their state or district
For example, nearly 100 members of Congress have served in the Armed Forces; these members are well qualified to shape Congress’s military policy.
Some lawmakers have high-level business experience and will influence commerce regulations or international trade law
Democrats’ Steering and Policy Committee and Republicans’ Committee on Committees recommend certain members for committee assignments, but ultimately each full house votes to approve committee membership
Congress has a few permanent joint committees that unite members from the House and Senate,
one to manage the Library of Congress
Joint Committee on Taxation
Members of these committees do mostly routine management and research
Both houses form temporary or select committees periodically for some particular and typically short-lived purpose
A select or special committee is established “for a limited time period to perform a particular study or investigation,” according to the U.S. Senate’s online glossary
“These committees might be given or denied authority to report legislation to the Senate”
Select committees can be exclusive to one house or can also have joint committee status
Notable select committees have investigated major scandals and events
These groups also investigate issues to determine if further congressional action is necessary
Recently the House created a select committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming
When a bill passes both houses but in slightly different forms, a temporary conference committee is created to iron out differences on the bill
It is rare that legislation on a particular issue will be identical when approved by both the House and Senate
When two similar bills pass each house, usually a compromise can be reached
Members from both houses gather in a conference committee for a markup session, a process by which the bill is edited, or marked up
Final draft must pass both houses before going on to possibly receive the president’s signature
In addition to creating bills and confirming presidential appointments
Committees also oversee how the executive agencies administer the laws Congress creates
Through its committees, Congress conducts congressional oversight to ensure that executive branch agencies, such as the FBI or the TSA, are carrying out the policy or program as defined by Congress
When corruption or incompetence is suspected, committees call agency directors to testify
Oversight hearings also may simply be fact-finding exchanges between lawmakers and Cabinet secretaries or agency directors about congressional funding, efficiency, or just general updates
(See Topic 2.14 for more on congressional oversight.)
Committees and Rules Unique to the House
Both the House and Senate follow parliamentary procedure outlined in Robert’s Rules of Order, guidelines for conducting discussion and reaching decisions in a group.
With so many members representing so many legislative districts, however, the House has rules that limit debate
A member may not speak for more than an hour and typically speaks for less
can offer only germane amendments to a bill, those directly related to the legislation under consideration
In the House, amendments to bills typically must first be approved by the committee overseeing the bill
The presiding officer—the Speaker of the House or someone he or she appoints—controls chamber debate
House members address all their remarks to “Madam Speaker” or “Mister Speaker” and refer to their colleagues by the state they represent, as in “my distinguished colleague from Iowa.”
The control the presiding officer enjoys, time limits, and other structural practices help make the large House of Representatives function with some efficiency
The House Rules Committee is very powerful
It can easily dispose of a bill or define the guidelines for debate because it acts as a traffic cop to the House floor
Nothing reaches the floor unless the Rules Committee allows it
This committee generally reflects the will and sentiment of House leadership and the majority caucus
It impacts every House bill because it:
Assigns bills to the appropriate standing committees
schedules bills for debate
decides when votes take place
The entire House must vote to make a law, but the Rules Committee wields great power in determining what issues or bills other members will vote on
Committee of the Whole is also unique to the House
It includes but does not require all representatives
However, the Committee of the Whole is more of a state of operation in which the House rules are relaxed than an actual committee
Created to allow longer debate among fewer people and to allow members to vote as a group rather than in an individual roll call
The otherwise nonvoting delegates from U.S. territories—Puerto Rico, Guam, and others—can vote when the House operates in the Committee of the Whole
Only 100 members must be present for the Committee of the Whole to act
When it has finished examining or shaping a bill, the Committee “rises and reports” the bill to the House
At that point the more formal rules of procedure and voting resume, and, if a quorum is present
The entire House will vote on final passage of the bill
A modern device that functions as a step toward transparency and democracy in the House is the discharge petition
The discharge petition can bring a bill out of a reluctant committee
The petition’s required number of signatures has changed over the years
It now stands at a simple majority to discharge a bill out of committee and onto the House floor
Thus, if 218 members sign, no chairperson or reluctant committee can prevent the majority’s desire to publicly discuss the bill
This measure may or may not lead to the bill’s passage, but it prevents a minority from stopping a majority from advancing the bill and is a way to circumvent leadership
Rules and Procedures Unique to the Senate
smaller Senate is much less centralized and hierarchical than the House with fewer restrictions on debate.
Senators can speak longer
However, the presiding officer has little control over who speaks when, since he or she must recognize anyone who stands to speak, giving priority to the leaders of the parties
Like representatives, senators are not allowed to directly address anyone but the presiding officer
They refer to other senators in the third person (“the senior senator from Illinois,” for example). Senators can propose nongermane amendments.
They can add amendments on any subject they want
Senators also have strategic ways to use their debate time
For example, they may try to stall or even kill a bill by speaking for an extremely long time, a tactic known as the filibuster, to block a nomination or to let the time run out on a deadline for voting on a bill
Filibusters are a Senate procedure (not a constitutional power) that any senator may invoke
use to wear down the opposition
extract a deal from the Senate leadership
In contrast, the only House members who are allowed to speak as long as they want are the
Speaker of the House
majority leader
minority leader
The Senate also uses measures that require higher thresholds for action than the House and that slow it down or speed it up.
These include
unanimous consent—the approval of all senators
hold, a measure to stall a bill
Before the Senate takes action, the acting Senate president requests unanimous consent to suspend debate
If anyone objects, the motion is put on hold or at least stalled for discussion
For years, senators abused this privilege, since a few senators, even one, could stop popular legislation.
Then and now, senators will place a hold on a motion or on a presidential appointment as a bargaining tool. Such delays in the past have brought about changes in the rules.
Rule 22, or the cloture rule
enabled and required a two-thirds supermajority to stop debate on a bill, thus, stopping a filibuster and allowing for a vote
1975, Senate lowered the standard to three-fifths, or 60 of 100 senators
Once cloture is reached, each senator has the privilege of speaking for up to one hour on that bill or topic
Foreign Policy Functions
While both houses have a Foreign Affairs Committee, the Senate has more foreign relations duties
The framers gave the upper house the power to ratify or deny treaties with other countries
The Senate also confirms U.S. ambassadors
Because the Senate is smaller and originally served as agents of the states, the framers gave it more foreign policy power than the House
The chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee works closely and often with the president and secretary of state to forge U.S. foreign policy.
The Legislative Process
Law Making procedures in each house have been developed to guide policymaking and legislative customs. Both bodies have defined additional leaders that guide floor debate, assure party discipline, and serve as liaisons to the opposing party, the president, and the media. The framers declared in Article I that each house would determine its own rules as further assurance of a bicameral system.
Introducing and Amending Bills
Only House or Senate members can introduce a bill
Today, however, the actual authors of legislation are more often staffers with expertise, lobbyists, White House liaisons, or outside professionals
When a bill’s sponsor (the member who introduces it and typically assumes authorship) presents it, the bill is officially numbered
Numbering starts at S.1 in the Senate or H.R.1 in the House at the beginning of each biennial Congress
Several events take place in the process, creating opportunities for a bill to drastically change along the way
Additional ideas and programs can become attached to the original bill
The nongermane amendments, or riders, are often added to benefit a member’s own agenda or programs or to enhance the political chances of the bill
In a typical two-year period, thousands of bills are introduced and only a small portion are enacted into law
In the 115th Congress (January 2017–January 2019), representatives and senators introduced more than 13,000 bills and resolutions
About 9 percent, or 1,150, were enacted
An omnibus bill includes multiple areas of law and/or addresses multiple programs
A long string of riders will earn it the nickname “Christmas Tree bill” because it often delivers gifts in the form of special projects a legislator can take home and, like the ornaments and tinsel on a Christmas tree, the “decorations” so many legislators added to the bill give it an entirely different look
Pork-Barrel Spending
One product of these legislative add-ons is pork barrel spending—funds earmarked for specific purposes in a legislator’s district
Federal dollars are spent all across the nation to fund construction projects, highway repair, new bridges, national museums and parks, university research grants, and other federal-to-state programs
Members of Congress try to “bring home the bacon” so to speak
Riders are sometimes inserted onto bills literally in the dark of night by a powerful leader or chair, sometimes within days or hours before a final vote to avoid debate on them
Constituents who benefit from pork barrel spending obviously appreciate it
Yet, in recent years the competition for federal dollars has tarnished Congress’s reputation
Citizens Against Government Waste reported an explosion of earmarks from 1994 to 2004
Congress passed more than five times as many earmarked projects, and such spending rose from $10 billion to $22.9 billion
The most egregious example of pork barrel politics came when Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) added a rider to a bill primarily meant to provide armor for U.S. troops in Iraq
The rider called for spending more than $400 million to connect a small community of about 50 residents and a regional airport to the Alaska mainland
Critics dubbed the construction project “The Bridge to Nowhere
Assigning Bills to Committee
The Senate majority leader and the House Rules Committee assign bills to committees in their respective chambers
Sometimes multiple committees have overlapping jurisdiction
A military spending bill may be examined by both the Armed Services Committee and the Appropriations Committee
In that case, the bill may be given multiple referral status, allowing both committees to address it simultaneously
Or it might have sequential referral status, giving one committee priority to review it before others
Frequently, subcommittees with a narrower scope are involved
In committee, a bill goes through three stages: hearings, markup, and reporting out
If the committee “orders the bill,” then hearings, expert testimony, and thorough discussions follow
The chair will call for a published summary and analysis of the proposal with views from other participants, perhaps testimony from members of the executive branch or interest groups
Then the bill goes through markup, where committee members amend the bill until they are satisfied
Once the bill passes committee vote, it is “reported out” on the House or Senate floor for debate
The ratio of “yeas” to “nays” often speaks to the bill’s chances there
Further amendments are likely added
From this point, many factors can lead to passage and many more can lead to the bill’s failure
The committee chair can also “pigeonhole” a bill—decide not to move it forward for debate until a later time, if at all
Voting on Bills
Many lawmakers say one of their hardest jobs is voting
Determining exactly what most citizens want in their home state is nearly impossible
Legislators hold town hall meetings, examine public opinion polls, and read stacks of mail and emails to get an idea of their constituents’ desires
Members also consider a variety of other factors in deciding how to vote
Logrolling
Another factor affecting lawmaking is logrolling, or trading votes to gain support for a bill
By agreeing to back someone else’s bill, members can secure a vote in return for a bill of their own
Generating a Budget
One of the most important votes congressional members take is on the question of how to pay government costs
The budgeting process is a complicated, multistep, and often year-long process that begins with a budget proposal from the executive branch and includes both houses of Congress, a handful of agencies, and interest groups
In the 1970s, Congress created the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and established the budgeting process with the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act (1974)
OMB is the president’s budgeting arm
Headed by a director who is essentially the president’s accountant
OMB considers the needs and wants of all the federal departments and agencies, the fiscal and economic philosophy of the president, federal revenues, and other factors to arrange the annual budget
1974 act also defines the stages in reconciling the budget—passing changes to either revenue or spending by a simple majority in both houses with only limited time for debate—a process that can be used only once a year
It calls for Congress to set:
Overall levels of revenues and expenditures
the size of the budget surplus or deficit
spending priorities
Each chamber also has an appropriations committee
allots the money to federal projects
Senate Finance Committee is a particularly strong entity in federal spending
Congress also created a congressional agency made of nonpartisan accountants called the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
This professional staff of experts examines and analyzes the budget proposal and serves as a check on the president’s OMB
Every year, government revenue comes from five main sources:
Individual income taxes
taxes paid by workers on the income they made during the calendar year
People pay different tax rates depending on their income level
Corporate taxes
taxes paid by businesses on the profits they made during the calendar year
Social insurance taxes (sometimes called payroll taxes)
taxes paid by both employees and employers to fund such programs as Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment insurance
Tariffs and excise taxes
taxes paid on certain imports or products. The tariff on imports is meant to raise their price so U.S.-made goods will be more affordable and competitive
Excise taxes are levied on:
specific products—luxury products
products associated with health risks, such as cigarettes
certain activities, such as gambling
Other sources
taxes that include interest on
government holdings or investments
estate taxes paid by people who inherit a large amount of money
Each year spending falls into three categories:
mandatory spending,
discretionary spending, and
interest on debt
Mandatory Spending
Mandatory spending is payment required by law, or mandated, for certain programs
These programs include Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment insurance, and other special funds for people in temporary need of help
Congress has passed laws determining the eligibility for these programs and the level of payments, so on the basis of those laws mandatory spending happens automatically
Of the $4.4 trillion, mandatory spending for 2019 was expected to be $2.7 trillion, more than 60 percent of the federal budget
You may have noticed that the expected revenue for 2019 was $3.4 trillion, while the expected outlay was $4.4 trillion
The difference between spending and revenue, close to a trillion dollars in 2019, is the deficit
As in previous years, the government has to borrow money to pay that deficit, and each year’s loans add to the already large national debt of $20 trillion
The interest payments on the national debt are massive and must be a part of the annual budget.
In 2020, the interest will be more than $400 billion, or about 10 percent of the federal budget, and must also be paid out of each year’s revenue
Some consider interest on debt as mandatory spending, since the government must pay its creditors or risk default, which would result in a serious financial crisis
Discretionary Spending
Discretionary spending is funding that congressional committees debate and decide how to divide up
This spending—about 38 percent of the 2019 budget—pays for everything else not required under mandatory spending
The chart below shows the percentage of government spending from 1950 to 2020 in various categories.
Human resources spending is the largest category of discretionary spending
In 2020 it will account for more than half of discretionary spending
The rest of discretionary spending needs must be met by what remains
Between 1950 and 2020, government spending in the Human Resources category, most of which is mandatory, has grown from about 30 percent of revenue to about 70 percent
That increase needs to be balanced with a decrease in discretionary spending or an increase in revenue or national debt
Conservatives tend to argue that people’s tax burden is already significant and that instead of raising taxes or increasing debt, the government should pass laws that reduce the social programs that are responsible for most mandatory spending
Liberals tend to argue that rich people can bear a burden of higher taxes—historically the rich have paid taxes at a higher rate than they do today—and that the mandated social programs serve a vital function in an economy with a vastly unequal distribution of wealth
These principles, as well as pressures from a variety of interest groups (see Topic 5.6), are behind the annual push and pull of budget negotiations in Congress.