U.S. Congress – Structure, Party Leadership, Committees & Democratic Implications

Transitioning focus from California state/local government to the national (federal) level.
Key goals of this module:
- Understand the structure of the U.S. Congress (House of Representatives & Senate).
- Examine core functions (elections, leadership selection, lawmaking, committee work).
- Evaluate "How democratic is the U.S. Congress?" by linking structure/process with democratic ideals.
Instructor explicitly references the Revel text for deeper factual tables—encouraged supplemental reading.

Two‐chamber (bicameral) legislature:
- House of Representatives
- 435 voting members (fixed by statute).
- Seat allocation based on population (apportioned after each census).
- Entire chamber faces election every 2 years.
- Senate
- 100 seats: 2 per state, regardless of size.
- Staggered elections: $\tfrac{1}{3}$ of seats contested every 2 years → full term length $6\text{ years}$ .
- Two senators from a single state rarely appear on the same ballot (maintains continuity).
Additional “informal” differences—culture, debate rules, prestige—highlighted in textbook charts (revisit Revel for details).

Election Year (Even-numbered Year)
- All 435 House seats + ~ $33$ Senate seats contested.
Following January: A new Congress convenes (e.g., 2022 elections → 118th Congress in Jan 2023).
Pre-session time = party strategy period: elected members of each major party (Democrats, Republicans) meet separately in both chambers to set tactics.

Because the U.S. is effectively a two-party system, one party will always hold more than $50\%$ of seats in each chamber → becomes the majority party; the other = minority party.
Key leadership positions chosen internally before formal session begins:
- House of Representatives
- Speaker of the House (formally elected by the whole chamber, but in practice the majority party’s preferred candidate wins).
- Majority Leader & Minority Leader.
- Majority Whip & Minority Whip.
- Senate
- Majority Leader & Minority Leader (chief day-to-day leaders; Senate has no equivalent to Speaker with identical powers).
- Majority Whip & Minority Whip.
Leadership selections influence:
- Agenda‐setting (which bills reach the floor, calendar control).
- Committee chair assignments.
- Party messaging to public & media.

Whip = “vote counter / enforcer.”
- Maintains direct contact with every member of their party.
- Tasks:
- Gauge vote intentions.
- Pressure members to align with party position (carrots & sticks: campaign support, committee assignments, fundraising help, or withholding these benefits).
Example scenario provided by instructor:
- Democratic Whip phones a member: “Vote with us on Bill X if you want party backing in your upcoming reelection and support for your personal legislative priorities.”
Net effect: High party loyalty during floor votes.

Instructor displays chart (red = Republicans, blue = Democrats):
- Present-day loyalty rate ≈Very high (often $\ge 90\%$ ) → members vote with party leadership nearly all the time.
- Early 1970s: loyalty only ~ $60\%$ .
Implications:
- Bipartisanship was easier in the 1970s because defections were common.
- Today’s ideological polarization + disciplined whipping ⇒ rare cross-party voting, making bipartisan coalitions more difficult.

After leadership elections, parties draft a legislative agenda for the term.
- Goals adjusted by:
- Whether the President shares their party (unified vs. divided government).
- Whether they control both chambers or only one.

Committees = “workhorses” of Congress; every bill must pass through them before floor consideration.
Instructor’s abbreviated list of key standing committees (complete rosters available on official House/Senate websites):
- Appropriations
- Ways & Means (House) / Finance (Senate)
- Armed Services
- Judiciary
- Energy & Commerce (House)/ Energy & Natural Resources (Senate)
- Education & the Workforce (House)/ Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (Senate)
- Foreign Affairs / Foreign Relations
- Agriculture, Transportation, Homeland Security, etc.
Subcommittees drill further into niches (e.g., within Education & Workforce: Higher Education, K-12, Student Loan Financing).
Majority party automatically receives a majority of seats on every committee → extends chamber dominance into committee stage.

How a bill becomes a law (macro overview):
1. Bill introduced → referred to topical committee.
2. Committee holds hearings, markup (editing), internal debate.
3. Committee vote: report out (advances) or “dies in committee.”
4. Only after positive report → bill hits chamber floor for debate/amendments.
5. Floor vote → if passes both chambers in identical form, sent to President.
Therefore, majority control of committees = ability to bottleneck or fast-track legislation.

Concentration of power: narrow majorities can steer entire legislative agenda via leadership posts & committee chairs.
Whip pressure + fundraising leverage blurs line between representative autonomy and party loyalty.
Ideological polarization decreases capacity for cross-party cooperation, challenging Madisonian hopes for deliberative compromise.
Raises evaluative question: Is modern Congress sufficiently democratic if intra-party hierarchy overrides local constituent preferences?

Instructor links a classic “Schoolhouse Rock!” video ("I'm Just a Bill") to illustrate the sequential, sometimes convoluted, legislative path.

Revisit earlier modules on state legislatures for comparative insight (e.g., term limits, size, professionalization).
Compare California’s committee structures with Congressional ones to better grasp scale and procedural parallels.
Look ahead to modules on interest groups & lobbying—party leadership/committee chairs are prime lobbying targets.

House term length: $2\text{ years}$
Senate term length: $6\text{ years}$ (staggered so that $\tfrac{1}{3}$ ≈ $33$ or $34$ seats contested each cycle).
1970s party-loyal voting rate: $\approx 60\%$ .
Recent party-loyal voting rate: $\ge 90\%$ .
Speaker selected by simple majority: needs >!50\% of House votes (majority party advantage).