Unit 2 - The Legislative Branch

Congress

  • the most powerful branch
  • bicameral system
    • 2 parts

House of Representatives

Majority and Minority parties
Constituants
  • person whom a member of congress has been elected to represent
Caucus
  • private party meeting
  • to select representative
House
  • stronger leadership than the senate
  • because 4x members
  • Speaker of the House is most powerful
    • elected by congress
    • current speaker is Nancy Pelosi
    • Democrat, Congresswoman from California
    • each party has floor leader elected by party
  • majority leader
    • Steny Hoyer
    • Assistant to speaker
  • Also has a minority party leader
    • Kevin McCarthy
    • from California
  • Whips
    • work to keep their party members in line
    • demand members to vote according to parties’ beliefs
    • majority and minority whips
    • Majority
    • Jim Clyburn
    • from SC
    • Minority
    • Steve Scalise
    • Republican from Louisiana
  • Concurrent Jurisdiction
    • authority shared by two or more committees
    • whips
  • \

Senate

  • more informal
  • Unanimous consent
  • VP only votes to break a tie
  • president pro tempore
  • Number of Senators: 100
  • Representation equal (2 per State)
  • Filibuster (unlimited debate) unless cloture is invoked.
  • Emphasizes foreign policy
  • Special Powers
    • Approves all treaties
    • Approves all appointments
    • Chooses the Vice President in an Electoral College tie
    • Acts as the jury in all trials of impeachment
  • Committees
    • Select committees are temporary committees that study one specific issue and report their findings to the Senate or the House.
    • Joint committees are committees that are made up of members from both the House and the Senate.
    • Conference committees are temporary committees that are set up when the House and Senate have passed different versions of a bill.

Both Houses

  • must keep a journal
    • The Congressional Record
  • Must hold sessions at the same time:
    • Sessions begin January 3rd each year
    • Must have a quorum to do business
    • 51% of members present on the floor
  • Both houses make their own rules for behavior and punishments
    • Censure: formally reprimand, written in the record
    • Fines and penalties may be set for some offenses
    • Expulsion: members with gross misconduct may be thrown     out of office
    • (requires 2/3 vote)
Benefits for congress members
  • Salary $174,200 per year (Leadership:$223,500)
  • Medical and dental benefits
  • Free office, parking, and trips to home state
  • Staff budget
  • Tax break on second home
  • Franking privilege
    • free postage on all mail to constituents
Powers of congress
  • Raise and collect taxes
  • Borrow money
  • Regulate commerce
  • Set laws for Naturalization and Bankruptcy
  • Coin Money
  • Punish counterfeiting
  • Post office
  • Copyrights and patents
  • Set up courts
  • Declare war
  • Establish the military and National guard
  • Make rules and allot funds for the military and National guard
  • Punish pirates
  • Run Washington D.C. and all federal property
  • Elastic clause- implied power
    • The necessary and proper clause gives Congress     the power to make laws “necessary and proper” to     carry out the delegated duties
Powers congress does not have
  • Congress cannot make laws concerning slave trade until 1808
  • Cannot suspend the writ of Habeas Corpus
    • must show cause for holding a suspect except in wartime
  • No ex post facto laws
    • cannot punish a person for an act committed before there was a law against it.
  • No bills of attainder
    • laws that punish people without a trial
  • No direct tax
    • the 16th amendment allows income tax
  • No tax on exports
  • All states must be treated the same
  • Congress must approve all expenditures of the President through laws
  • No titles of nobility

Congress and the President

The Power to Investigate

  • The ability to investigate social and economic misconduct and to oversee the performance of government agencies is a critical power of Congress
  • Congressional Investigations – A standing or select committee may conduct investigations, which can last for days or go on for months
  • Committee staffers often travel around the country to collect evidence and schedule witnesses

Rights of Congressional Witnesses

  • Congress has several powers that help committees collect evidence.
  • They have the right to subpoena witnesses.
  • Subpoena
    • legal order that requires a person to appear or produce requested documents.
  • Congressional Committees can require witnesses to testify under oath
  • Perjury
    • when witnesses do not tell the truth and can be criminally prosecuted.
  • Contempt Committees may also punish those who refuse to testify or otherwise will not cooperate by holding them in contempt of Congress – meaning that they are willfully obstructing their work.
  • Immunity
    • One way congressional committees have gotten around the requirement to observe Fifth Amendment rights is by giving witnesses immunity. This is freedom from prosecution for witnesses whose testimony ties them to illegal acts.

Congress and the President

Legislative oversight – power of the legislative branch to review the policies, programs and activities of the executive branch on an ongoing basis.

Oversight and Checks and Balances

  • Congress makes the laws, the executive carries them out
  • The executive interprets what the laws mean in a practical sense
  • Later Congress can check how the executive branch has administered the law and decide whether it met the law’s goals

How Congress Limits the Executive

  • It requires executive agencies to report to it
  • It can study an agency’s work through one of its support agencies like the Government Accountability Office
  • Congress used to use the legislative veto
    • A provision that Congress wrote into some laws that allowed it to review and cancel actions of executive agencies. SCOTUS in 1983 found this unconstitutional

Sources of Tension

  • Checks and Balances
    • This gives the president and Congress several tools to counteract each other.
  • Different Constituencies
    • The president represents all Americans, Congress represents only people in their district or state thus they have a more narrow view on issues than the President.
  • Party Politics
    • If one party controls the White House and the other the House and Senate, this is divided government and leads to increased conflict and gridlock.
  • Organization of Congress
    • Committee chair people and the filibuster in the Senate are some ways Congress can go against the President’s agenda to delay, revise or defeat it.
  • Different Political timetables
    • Congress members have a much longer timetable to accomplish their goals because of unlimited number of terms they can serve. A president has 4-8 years to accomplish his or hers

How a Bill becomes a Law

Types of Bills and Resolutions
  • Private bills
    • deal with individual people or places
  • public bills
    • involve general matters and apply to the entire nation.
  • Riders are often attached to bills that are likely to pass.
  • Citizens can track bills and resolutions through public and private Internet sites.
Introducing a bill
  • A bill may come from many sources, but it must be introduced by a member of Congress.
  • After introduction, a bill is assigned to a committee for action.
  • The committee holds hearings to act on the bill.
  • Following a markup session, the committee votes whether to report or kill the bill

Floor action

  • amendments can be added during the floor debate
  • voting requires a quorum
    • 51%
    • requires majority vote

Final steps

  • both houses have to produce identical versions of the bill
  • sent to president for signing or veto
  • congress can override veto with a 2/3 vote
  • after signed, registered with national archives and records service

Taxing and spending bills

  • House of Representatives have to start these
  • closed rule
    • no amendments can be made by congress
    • only house of ways and means committee have a direct hand in writing a tax bill

Spending money

  • power belongs to congress
  • authorizations and appropriations bill
  • continuing resolution
    • keeps government open when appropriations cannot be decided on

Helping Constituents

What influences lawmakers

  • voter expectations
    • needs of district > nationwide needs
    • frequent district visits
    • send out surveys
  • key supporters
    • regularly help campaign
    • time money and talents
  • interest of political parties
    • usually vote along party lines
  • influence of the president
    • bullypopet (not sure the word)
  • interest groups
    • lobbyists
  • political action committees
    • PACs are political fundraising organizations established by corporations, unions, or special interest groups
    • donate money to candidates and party organization
    • Super PACs have no limit to fundraising

Helping constituents

  • handling problems
    • casework
    • congress people advocate for constituents’ problems
    • caseworkers usually live in the district
  • Many different requests
    • any issues with the executive branch

Helping district or state

  • Public Works Legislation
    • post offices, dams, highways, hospitals, etc
    • pork barrel legislation
    • criticism because it uses federal money
    • when 2 lawmakers agree to support each others’ bills, it is called logrolling
  • grants and contracts
    • congress people do not vote on these