AP GOV Congressional powers

How often are house members chosen?

  • they are elected every 2 years

What are the requirements for House members?

  • must be 25 years old, live in that state they want to represent and be a U.S citizen of 7 years.

How are the House members per state determined? What is the minimum number?

  • Population of state. 1 per state

What is the process of drawing up districts?

  1. Census,

  2. (reapportionment) determining how many house reps a state has

  3. redistricting - gerrymandering

Who is the Leader of the House of Representatives? How are they chosen?

  • speaker of the house and they are chosen by a vote of all the representatives.

If a House member dies, quits, or is removed, who choses their replacement?

  • state governor appoints a replacement.

What is the historical reason the Senate has equal representation? How many senators per state? How many overall today?

  • 2 per state, 100 overall. The great compromise of 1787

How long do they serve? what does it mean that they serve in three classes

  • 6 years, 1/3 of the senate is up for election every two years.

Who is the president of the senate? who takes their place when they aren’t there?

  • the vice president, the president pro temp takes over.

Who presides over the Senate when the president is tried for impeachment? Why not the Vice President or President pro temp

  • Chief justices of the supreme court, vp will become president if they are impeached, president temp is a regular senator and cant be the judge and jury in court.

What is the maximum punishment the senate can levy for an impeachment guilty verdict? Can an impeached official be prosecuted further?

  • removal from office, yes in criminal court.

Congressional Privileges

  • Privileged from arrest while congress is in session, except for treason, Felony and Breach of Peace

  • Cannot be sued for libel or slander for anything said on the congressional floor

    • members is removed by other members of congress

Powers of Congress

  • The law making function

  • the budgetary function ( power of the purse )

  • the oversight function ( see what the bureaucracy doing )

How a bill becomes a law (MEMORIZE)

  1. Bill introduced or proposed in both the house and senate

  2. Bill referred to committee where they debate, mark up ( revise, add remove things), and vote on the bill

  3. Floor action, entire house and senate debate and vote on bill.

  4. Conference committee, differences of house and senate bill ironed out.

  5. Floor action ( again )

  6. President signature or veto

  7. if vetoed, 2/3 of house AND senate must vote to override ( the veto ).

The budgetary function

Congressional budget act of 1974

  • Establishes levels of spending

  • reconciliation process to limit debates

Pork and Programmatic requests

Timeline of the budget

  1. First Monday of February, president submits his version of the budget

  2. April 15 : Congress submits budget

  3. October 1st : budget is due

The oversight function

War Power resolutions

  • passed over president Nixon veto

  • requires Congressional approval to commit troops

  • limits power of president as commander in chief

Congressional review

  • Congressional review allows congress to overrule regulations for federal agencies

  • senate confirms supreme court, federal district court, and cabinet nominations.

Impeachment

  • power to remove from official office

  • house votes to impeach

  • senate conducts trial

16th amendment

  1. What is a graduated income tax

    • the more money you make the higher percentage in taxes you pay

  2. Was there a constitution basis for taxing before the 16th amendment?

    • yes, article one 1 congresses ability to tax

  3. Before the 16th amendment, when income taxes were low or non-existent, how did the federal government largely bring in money

    • Tariffs and property taxes

  4. What interest groups or political parties push for an income tax before the 16th amendment?

    • the progressives

  5. How is an amendment proposed? Ratified?

    • 2/3 of house and senate to propose, ¾ of state legislatures

  6. What is a “flat tax”. Which is better, a flat tax or a graduated tax?

    • when everyone pays the same percentage. Graduated because the poor aren’t taxed unreasonably

  7. During WW2, what was the percentage of the top tax bracket? Would you support that? Why or why not?

    • 95%, no?

  8. What happened after Ronald Reagan with income taxes?

    • he cut them in half to 30/35% for the top bracket to pay in taxes

  9. Why would tax rates drop during the Great depression?

    • because people were poor

  10. Why would the 14th amendment potentially make the 16th amendment unconstitutional?

    • taxing richer people at a higher percentage is not equal.

Amendment process

  1. How many amendments have been proposed? How many have been ratified?

    11,000, 27 ( 2016 being the last )

  2. Why is it difficult, but not impossible, to amend the Constitution

to create a more stable country

  1. How much an amendment be proposed?

2/3 in both houses of congress or 2/3 of state legislators request a convention.

  1. How must an amendment be ratified?

¾ of all states legislators, or ¾ of state conventions

  1. When was our most recent amendment?

1992

  1. Why was the Bill of Rights ratified?

Resolve conflict from the or constitutional convention.

  1. Why is it increasing more difficult to amend the Constitution?

Country is larger and more diverse.

  1. List two suggested amendments that have not passed?

out lawing the burning the the American flag, banning the 2nd amendment.

  1. How would we lower the threshold to pass an amendment?

pass an amendment to lower the threshold (2%)

  1. What is an easier way to change the meaning of the constitution?

supreme court decision

  1. Why did Jefferson want laws to expire?

the earth belongs to the living not the dead. ( expires every 19 years )

Gerrymandering and Incumbency Factors

Gerrymandering - the deliberate rearrangement of the boundaries of congressional districts to influence the outcomes of election.

  • Original gerrymander was created in 1812 by Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry, who craft a district for political purpose that looked like a salamander

  • Used to concentrate opposition votes into a few districts to gain more seats for the majority party in surrounding district ( PACKING ) or diffuse minority strength across many district (CRACKING)

Effects

  • Reduced election competition and vote turnout

  • Increased incumbent advantage and campaign costs

  • Less descriptive representation

    • Gerrymandering ins designed to increase “wasted votes” of the opposing party

Incumbency Advantage

  • Advertising ( more money )

  • Credit Claiming

    • Casework: Specifically helping constituents get what they think they have a right to.

    • Pork Barrel: Federal projects, grants, etc. made available in a congressional district or state

  • Position Taking

  • Weak Opponents

  • Campaign Spending

    • Challengers need to raise large sums to defeat an incumbent.

    • PACs give most of their money incumbents

    • Does PAC money “ buy “ votes in Congress

Stability and Change

  • Incumbents winning provides stability in Congress

    • But, it makes it more difficult to change Congress through elections

    • Are term limits an answer?

  • Defeating incumbents

    • scandals

    • redistricting

    • Voter retaliation

Civil Rights Act 1964

After the civil War, the ex-confederate states relapsed into racial segregations- Jim Crow Laws

  • Furthered by Plessy v. Ferguson’s “separate but equal” doctrine

  • Passed during the heart of the civil Rights movement

  • Further advanced the law by SCOTUS ruling in Brown v. Board

  • This act prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

  • Ended the legality of Jim Crow

It secured African Americans equal access to restaurants, transportation, and other public facilities. It enabled blacks, women, and other minorities to break down barriers in the work place.

  • Federal government now had the legal authority to enforce the end of Jim Crow Laws.

  • Federal government now had the legal authority to enforce the end of De Facto or De Jure segregation anywhere in the United States

    • De Facto segregation: By fact/ custom

      • housing state discrimination

    • De Jure segregation: by law

Voting Rights Act 1965

Abolished literacy tests and poll taxes

  • Gave the federal government the legal authority to enforce voting laws in the states, ensuring discrimination in voting was not occurring

  • Federal government had legal authority to register voters in the states

  • strengthened the end of legal ( De Jure ) segregation in the south

  • Resulted in Millions of new African American ( and other races ) registered voters

The budget

Fiscal Policy : government taxing and spending policies

Monetary Policy : the control of the quantity of money available in an economy and the channels by which new money is supplied

  • the federal reservers bank

fewer loans = less inflation

DEBT : the total amount that is owed

Deficit : when money spent exceeds revenue brought in from taxes

Discretionary : Money in the budget that can be changed from year to year within a budget. The below budget is money in billions

  1. defense

Mandatory: Money that is allocated based on a formula on a past law passed by Congress. Would take another act of Congress to change and THAT WILL NOT HAPPEN.

  1. Social Security

  2. medicare

  3. medicaid

Congressional decision making

Iron triangle

congrss ( pass laws

SIGS ( lobby )

Bureavtacy ( reg