legislative branch
●What are the advantages and disadvantages of bicameral legislatures?
Advantages: more diverse constituency, reducing the likelihood of passing flawed and reckless legislation
Disadvantages: slower to act and less accountability.
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●Be able to compare the 5 ways the House and Senate differ.
Size: the house has 435 voting representatives; senate has 100 senators
Seats per state: each state has two representing senators regardless of population; the house bases their seats relative to population size
Term lengths: house serve 2 year terms; senate serves 6 year terms
Citizenships and age requirements: A House member must be a U.S. citizen of at least seven years’ standing and at least twenty-five years old. Senators are required to have nine years’ standing as citizens and be at least thirty years old.
Constitutional powers: For any new bill to become a law, both chambers must concur, and, with only one exception, either chamber may introduce legislation. The exception is for revenue bills (e.g., new taxes), which can only be introduced in the House. The two chambers differ in their constitutional powers in only a few additional respects. First, the Senate is given special authority over the ratification of treaties and the confirmation of federal judges and certain high-level executive appointments. Second, only the House plays a role in certifying winners of presidential contests. Finally, the two chambers play different roles in impeachment, which is a procedure through which officials can be formally removed from office
Section 3: House and Senate Organization
●Vocabulary to know:
○standing committee: permanent congressional committees with responsibility for a particular area of public policy.
○joint committee: congressional committees composed of members of both houses and that perform advisory functions
○select committee: permanent- perform functions nearly identical to standing committees, but these committees cover issues that cut across the jurisdiction of multiple standing committees. Temporary- formed to serve a specific purpose for a limited amount of time.
○conference committee: temporary committees that are formed to resolve differences between House and Senate versions of a bill.
○party conferences: a meeting of or organization of all party members in the House
●Which committees are the core committees in both the House and Senate?
Standing committees (20 in the House, 16 in the Senate)
●How is the party balance on a committee determined?
The party balance on a committee is a direct result of the party balance of its legislative chamber. If Republicans control 55% of the seats in the House and Democrats control 45%, then committees in the House will be composed of approximately 55% Republican members and 45% Democrat members.
●Be able to describe the responsibilities of and rank the relative power of each of the following positions:
oSpeaker of the House: most powerful position; They are the presiding officer and the administrative head of the House. They have authority to assign bills to committees, decide when a bill will be presented to the floor for a vote, make rulings on House procedures, delegate authority for certain duties to other members, appoint members and chairs of committees, and create special temporary committees. The Speaker can even select a member to be speaker pro tempore: i.e., someone who acts as Speaker in the Speaker’s absence.
oHouse Majority Leader: second powerful; the majority leader tends to be in the best position to assume the speakership when the current Speaker of the House steps down.
oSenate Majority Leader: The Senate Majority Leader is the chief spokesperson for the majority party, but, unlike the Speaker of the House, does not run the floor alone.
oSenate president pro tempore: usually the most senior senator of the majority party—who presides over the Senate. The president pro tempore is largely an honorary and powerless role.
Section 4. Legislative Process: Old and New
●Vocabulary to know:
○traditional/classic legislative process: The traditional process by which a bill becomes a law, sometimes called the "classic legislative process," consists of six stages: bill drafting and introduction, committee work, floor debate, conference committee reconciliation (if needed), president decision, and veto override vote (if applicable).
○traditional filibuster: a procedural tactic in the senate whereby a minority of senators prevents a bill from coming to a vote by holding the floor and talking until the majority gives in and the bill is withdrawn from consideration. (it can only be stopped through a cloture vote)
○cloture vote: limits Senate debate to thirty hours and has the effect of defeating a filibuster. Initially, a cloture vote required a two-thirds majority vote, but this was reduced to three-fifths (60 votes) in 1975, where it remains today.
○modern filibuster: Unlike the traditional filibuster, in which a senator took the floor and held it for as long as possible, the modern filibuster is actually a warping of the original intent of the cloture rules adopted to control the filibuster.
○contemporary legislative process: In the years that followed, the budget process gradually became the vehicle for creating comprehensive policy changes. One large step in this transformation occurred in 1981 when President Ronald Reagan’s administration suggested using the budget to push through his economic reforms.
○omnibus spending bill: type of bills that combine smaller ordinary appropriations bills into one larger single bill that can be passed at once. There are twelve different ordinary appropriations bills that need to be passed each year, and an omnibus spending bill combines two or more of those bills into a single bill.
○budget reconciliation process: process that has developed over time, beginning in the early 1970s, through which the federal budget can be amended through a simple majority vote
●In the traditional/classic legislative process, what are the six stages before a bill can become a law?
Bill drafting and introduction
Committee work
Floor debate and voting
Conference committee work (if needed)
Presidential; decision
Veto override votes (if needed)
●How can a bill become law even if the President vetoes the legislation?
A bill can become law despite a presidential veto if both the House of Representatives and the Senate override the veto with a two-thirds majority vote in each chamber. This is a constitutional mechanism that allows Congress to check the President's power.
●Bills that raise revenue must begin in which chamber?
Bills that raise revenue must originate in the House of Representatives. This is specified in Article I, Section 7 of the U.S. Constitution.
●What do committees do with bills that are sent to them?
Committees review, study, and amend bills. They hold hearings, gather evidence, and debate the merits of the proposed legislation. A committee can either approve the bill (often with amendments) and send it to the full chamber for consideration, or it can "table" the bill, effectively halting its progress.
●How has the balance of power between congressional committees and political parties shifted since the 1980s?
Since the 1980s, there has been a shift of power away from congressional committees to political party leadership. Party leaders, particularly the Speaker of the House and Senate Majority Leader, have gained greater control over the legislative agenda and the allocation of resources, often at the expense of committee independence.
●How many votes are needed to end a filibuster?
To end a filibuster in the Senate, 60 votes are needed. This is known as invoking cloture, a procedure under Senate Rule XXII.
●How do traditional and modern filibusters differ?
Traditional Filibusters: Senators had to physically stand on the Senate floor and speak continuously to delay a vote on legislation. They needed to maintain the floor and could speak on almost any topic.
Modern Filibusters: Filibusters are more procedural. Senators can signal their intention to filibuster, and unless 60 votes for cloture are secured, the legislation is effectively blocked without the need for extended speeches. This shift has made filibusters more common and less labor-intensive.
Section 5. Congressional Elections: The Decline in Competitive Districts and States
●Vocabulary to know:
○apportionment: redistribution of seats in the House based on changes in state population as revealed by the census.
○the one-person, one-vote standard: rule created by the supreme court holding that if a state holds elections using single-member districts, there must be roughly equal number of voters in each district
○redistricting: redrawing congressional and legislative district lines following the census, to accommodate population shifts and keep districts as equal as possible in population
○uncompetitive Congressional elections: Noncompetitive districts with lethargic campaigns also tend to result in disengaged voters. Voters in the minority feel they cannot do anything to help their favored party win, and so they have little reason to invest time and energy in voting in primaries or the general election. Those in the majority expect to see a member of their favored party win, and so that can be a source of satisfaction, but they also do not feel a pressing need to participate in the general election.
○The Big Sort: This is the trend over the past forty years in which Americans who are similar in educational level, lifestyle, and political orientation increasingly choose to live close to each other. Politically, this means Democratic Party voters with more liberal views and college educations are clustered in a relatively small number of densely populated counties and cities, while Republican Party voters with more conservative views are spread out in a large number of sparsely populated areas
○gerrymandering: the manipulation of legislative district boundaries as a way of favoring candidates from a particular party, group, or socio-economic class.
●Who is in charge of conducting reapportionment?
Reapportionment is conducted by the federal government, specifically the U.S. Census Bureau. After the decennial census, the Census Bureau determines how many seats in the House of Representatives each state will have based on population changes.
●What is the one-person, one-vote standard? Which institution established the one-person, one-vote standard?
The one-person, one-vote standard ensures that legislative districts are roughly equal in population, so every individual's vote carries equal weight. This standard was established by the U.S. Supreme Court in landmark cases such as Baker v. Carr (1962) and Reynolds v. Sims (1964).
●Which level of government (national or state) is in charge of redistricting?
State governments are in charge of redistricting. This process involves redrawing legislative and congressional district boundaries, typically handled by state legislatures, though some states use independent or bipartisan commissions.
●What percentage of 2022 House district elections were genuinely competitive “toss up” races that could go either way?
Approximately 7% of House district elections in 2022 were considered genuinely competitive or “toss-up” races, according to nonpartisan analyses like those from the Cook Political Report.
●What percentage of House elections in the year 2000 were genuinely competitive “toss up” races that could have gone either way?
In the year 2000, approximately 16% of House elections were considered genuinely competitive “toss-up” races.
●Has gerrymandering or the “Big Sort” had more impact on the decline of competitive congressional elections?
Both have contributed, but gerrymandering has had a more direct and measurable impact on the decline of competitive congressional elections. Gerrymandering involves deliberately drawing district boundaries to favor one party, creating "safe" seats for that party and reducing competition. The “Big Sort,” which refers to Americans clustering in ideologically similar communities, also reinforces this trend but is more a societal phenomenon than a deliberate political strategy.
●What are the effects of uncompetitive elections on voters and civic health?
Voter disengagement: Lack of competition can discourage voter turnout as many feel their votes do not matter in predetermined outcomes.
Polarization: Safe districts often lead to more ideologically extreme candidates, as the primary election becomes the decisive contest.
Reduced accountability: Incumbents in uncompetitive districts face less pressure to respond to constituents' needs or moderate their positions.
Erosion of trust: Voters may lose confidence in the electoral process and democratic institutions, undermining civic health.
Section 6. Congressional Representation
●Vocabulary to know:
○malapportionment: an unequal distribution of voting power per citizen across geographic electoral units due to divergent ratios of voters to representatives.
○descriptive representation: a legislature is descriptively representative to the extent that its demographic composition is proportional to the demographic composition of the population served by the legislature
○constituent service: a wide array of non-legislative activities undertaken by members of congress or congressional staff that are aimed at helping and/or honoring constituents.
○“pork-barrel politics”: federal spending on projects designed to benefit a particular district or set of constituents.
●Are the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate among the most or least malapportioned legislative chambers in the world?
The U.S. Senate is one of the most malapportioned legislative chambers in the world because each state, regardless of population, has two senators. This results in unequal representation, with smaller states having disproportionately more influence compared to larger states. The U.S. House of Representatives, while less malapportioned than the Senate, still exhibits some malapportionment due to disparities in district sizes caused by uneven population growth and gerrymandering.
●How many people does each elected member of the House represent? Why do some political scientists think this number is far too high?
Each member of the House represents approximately 750,000 people, though this number can vary slightly depending on population changes. Some political scientists think this number is far too high because:
It reduces the ability of representatives to meaningfully connect with and respond to their constituents' needs.
It limits the diversity of perspectives and voices in Congress by keeping the chamber's size fixed at 435 members, even as the U.S. population continues to grow.
●What are two reasons descriptive representation is beneficial?
Increased legitimacy and trust: When legislative bodies reflect the demographics of the population, people are more likely to perceive them as legitimate and trust the democratic process.
Broader perspectives: Diverse representation brings varied experiences and viewpoints to policy-making, potentially leading to better-informed decisions that address the needs of underrepresented groups.
●In what ways is the Congress most descriptively representative? In what ways is the Congress most descriptively unrepresentative?
Most descriptively representative: Congress has become more representative in terms of gender, racial, and ethnic diversity in recent decades. For example, there has been a significant increase in women, Black, Latino, Asian American, and Native American members, reflecting the growing diversity of the U.S. population.
Most descriptively unrepresentative: Congress remains unrepresentative in terms of socioeconomic status and occupational background. Wealthy individuals and those with professional careers, particularly in law and business, dominate Congress, while working-class people and those with blue-collar backgrounds are underrepresented. Additionally, Congress still lags in fully representing gender and racial parity proportional to the U.S. population.