Congress

- # Powers Given to [[Congress]]

[[Article I]], Section 8 of the [[U.S. Constitution]] establishes Congress as they key policy-making figure.

- [[Enumerated Powers]]

- The founders explicitly identified [[Congress]], the [[national legislature]], as the most politically prominent branch. They established a representative republican government to promote popular sovereignty and aimed to eliminate the collective dilemmas which occurred under the [[Articles of Confederation]]

- Establishes federal supremacy over the States

- [[Implied Powers]]

- Powers not explicitly stated in the constitution but are deemed necessary to enforce the powers that are explicitly stated

- Implied powers include:

- [[necessary and proper clause]] (i.e.. the [[elastic clause]])

- [[commerce clause]]

-grants authority to regulate commercial activity between states and establish national bank

- The ambiguity of implied powers were a source of anxiety for [[antifederalist]]s

- # Congress and the Constitution: Eligibility to Serve in Congress

- The public elects members of [[Congress]] to serve on their behalf in government.

- This establishes a [[principal-agent]] relationship between the two parties

- public=principals

- Congress members=agents

- Frequent competitive elections give constituents the means to select representatives, hold them to account, and keep them responsive to their own views and preferences

- [[Bicameral Legislature]] divides Congress into two #chambers: the Senate and the House of Representatives

- The [[Senate]]

- The 'elitist' chamber

- Senators serve staggered six-year terms, with one third of the Senate coming up for reelection every two years.

- Senators must be at least 30 years old, and they must be a United States citizen for at least nine years.

- The [[House of Representatives]]

- The 'public' chamber

- House members must seek reelection every two years

- Must be at least 25 years of age and a citizen for seven years

- # House and Senate: Differences in Representation

- ## House:

- Focuses on people

- All [[money bills]] (bills authorizing new taxes or government spending) must originate in the House

- A more centralized body-- better equipped to facilitate gov't processes

- More control over legislative processes and allows members to specialize in certain areas

- ## Senate:

- Focuses on property

- A more deliberative body-- structured to allow thorough airing of ideas through discussion

- has comparatively less power and discourages member specialization

- In his work, Congress: The Electoral Connection, David Mayhew argues that members of Congress serve as “single-minded seekers of reelection,” (Mayhew, 5)

- #reelection pressures compel members of Congress to pay attention to the wants and needs of their constituents

- Assuming he is correct, Congress will devote time and effort to three activities: credit-claiming, position-taking, and advertising.

- Credit Claiming

- a tactic for members of Congress to alert their constituents that they can translate the majority opinion into effective public policies

- Congress members highlight casework they have pursued as well as their support of pork barrel legislation, or bills that benefits their particular district and not necessarily the country as a whole

- Position-Taking

- congress members engage in position-taking to demonstrate their commitment to supporting the views of their constituents on specific issues.

- signals to prospective voters that their voices will be heard in future legislative sessions

- Advertising

- allows members of Congress to promote their candidacy and remind voters why they should continue serving as a representative

- Incumbents, current members of Congress who are seeking reelection, have an advantage over their first-time challengers

- Incumbents enjoy franking privilege, which allows them to send mail without a postage stamp

- # [[Congressional Elections]]: Key Concepts

- electoral institutions contribute to the prominence of individualism among politicians, meaning they perceive their political fate in terms of their own endeavors as opposed to the efforts of the political parties to which they belong

- can produce collective dilemmas amongst congress and with #constituents

- - Running for Office:

- 3 factors that influence who gets elected and what the winners do in office:

- Running for office

- Incumbency

- Can serve on committees-- an effective way of establishing and tracking casework and patronage

- franking privilege-- members receive about $100,000 in free postage for mailing to their constituents

- Congressional Districts

- Gerrymandering-- District lines are redrawn after every decennial census once the new number of districts is determined

- Generally shaped to give majority party an advantage

- Primary Elections

- direct primaries give voters the power to select a candidate to serve as a political party’s nominee in the general election

- before, party elites selected nominees

- promoted individualism among members of Congress

- # [[Congressional Districts]]

- Single-member districts typically place two candidates against one another in the [[general election]]

- Voters select a single representative to serve on their behalf in the [[House of Representatives]]

- candidates need only more votes than their opponent to win, called plurality rule

- ## Two-Party System

- The combination of [[single-member districts]] and[[ plurality rule]] perpetuates the two-party system

- [[Duverger’s Law]] explains that two-party systems result from these institutions, as the electoral contest reduces the possibility of a quality challenger emerging from a third party to take votes from the two major parties

- Plurality rule also serves as a challenge for third parties as the better-known major parties only need a plurality of votes to win

- Representation in the [[House of Representatives]] is based on [[population]], the larger the population the more [[House districts]] the state will have, with no state having fewer than one

- In 1911, the number of House seats was fixed at 435

- Every 10 years, the country conducts a census to determine how many House districts will occupy each state, and most states redraw [[district lines]] following every census

- ## Redistricting

- Two landmark rulings by the [[Supreme Court]] in the 1960's established guidelines on drawing districts: Baker v. Carr (1962) and Wesberry v. Sanders (1964)

- [[Baker v. Carr]] established the Court’s authority in this issue domain

- [[Wesberry v. Sanders]] relied on the Court’s authority to force districts to maintain the “one person, one vote” standard, meaning districts must contain equal populations

- This causes votes in some districts to be more influential than votes in others

- #Gerrymandering is when states redraw district lines with the intention of assisting one of the major parties

- There are many ways parties use gerrymandering to their advantage when they serve as the majority party in a state legislature

- Two common geryymandering techniques are #packing and #cracking

- packing is here the majority party packs members of the minority party into separate districts

- cracking allows the majority to split the minority party voters into separate districts.

- ![[Pasted image 20250602183736.png]]

- # Incumbency Advantage

- [[incumbency advantage]] refers to the fact that incumbent members of Congress are re-elected at remarkable rates

- [[franking privilege]] allow incumbents to more easily market themselves to the public by providing them with free mail

- voters are more likely to recognize names of incumbents

- Gerrymandering has produced less competitive districts

- campaign finance laws allow incumbents to collect large sums of money

- evident by high rates of reelection

- # Models of Representation

- Each member's primary responsibility is to the constituency of their district

- Once individual members of Congress are elected to serve in either the House or the Senate, they translate their campaign messages into a concrete policy agenda

- ## Delegate Model

- focuses on on the concerns of their respective constituencies, an "agent of the people"

- ## Trustee Model

- Regardless of their constituencies’ preferences, trustee-style representatives vote based on their own convictions.

- Because of their longer terms, Senators more frequently behave in this manner than their counterparts in the House.

- # Congressional Organization:

- the basic building blocks of congressional organization: political parties, the committee system, congressional staff, the caucuses, and the parliamentary rules of the House and Senate

- ## Party Leadership and Organization in the House and Senate:

- Political parties are organizations that foster cooperation, coalition, and compromise

- party leadership constitute a hierarchy-of-power system

- Every two years at the start of a new congress, parties in each chamber congregate to choose leaders

- called "party caucus" by democrats and "party conference" by republicans

- #### House of Representatives:

- the elected leader of the majority party is automatically selected as [[Speaker of the House]]

- The House Majority caucus also elects a majority leader, while the minority elects a minority leader

- Both parties elect "whips" who encourage cohesiveness throughout the party to accomplish its goals

- #### Senate:

- president pro tempore exercises mainly ceremonial leadership

- real power is in the hands of majority and minority leaders, each elected by their respective party

- senators from each party selects a whip

- Party leaders often reach outside of their chambers and in recent years have established their own PACs

- Party leader strength depends on circumstances, particularly the degree to which party members share goals

- Since the Voting Rights Act, parties have homogenized and there is now little overlap of agreement between parties, causing polarization, undermining cooperation and compromise

- ## The Committee System: The Core of Congress

- A division-of-labor and specialization-of-labor system

- the congressional committee system consists of a set of [[standing committees]] that are given a permanent status by the official rules

- standing committees have fixed membership, officers, rules, a staff, offices, and jurisdiction that is recognized by all other committees

- ### Jurisdiction:

- The partitioning of responsibilities to specific committees

- Legislators often have disproportionate influence over bills within their respective committee because of their specialized knowledge and their various forms of agenda power

- delegation of authority provides the advantages of division and specialization, but risks jeopardizing collective objectives

- ### Authority:

- Before-the-fact powers: [[Gatekeeping authority]] and [[Proposal powers]]

- Normally, any member of the legislature can submit a bill calling for change in some policy area, the bill is then assigned to the corresponding committee

- because of their #gatekeeping authority these committees then determine if the bill is worth their attention. Members exercise their proposal power when they decide to allow the bill through to the floor for a vote

- Committee stop the bill, but cannot change it in any way

- After-the-fact authority: #Bargaining and #Oversight

- If one chamber passes a bill, the other may consider it. If the other chamber passes a different bill from the first, they must compromise through discussion and bargaining

- oversight of policy implementation via techniques which exercise control over the activities of executive agencies

- ### Subcommittees

- Standing Committees in the house are broken down into about 100 subcommittees

- ### Hierarchy

- the committee chair, along with party leaders, determine the committee's agenda

- ### Decisiveness

- Any proposal made by the chair must secure majority support of committee members

- Determined by the [[median voter theorem]]

- if the alternatives under consideration can be represented as points on a line (for example, the rate at which income can be taxed ranges from 0 percent to 100 percent)

- (2) if individuals have a preferred point

- (3) if their preferences decrease steadily for points farther away, then the preferred point of the median (middle) voter can defeat any other point in a majority contest

- ### Committee Monitoring:

- To avoid exploitation, the parent legislature utilizes various instruments:

- committees do not make final decisions-- only recommendation

- reliance on the committee's wish to preserve its own reputation

- the ability to push a petition to discharge the committee of responsibility of the bill should they deny the chamber the chance to take it up

- ## The Staff System:

- every member of congress employs a large number of staffers

- Communication typically occurs through these staffers

- Three staff agencies provide resources and expertise independent of the executive branch

- Congressional Research Service

- Government Accountability Office

- Congressional Budget Office

- ## Informal organization: Caucuses

- Congressional Caucuses are associations of members of congress based on interest, party, or social characteristics

- # The Legislative Process

- ![[{48BEC17F-C3F2-4FD3-A1C5-978FC2BEEF57}.png]]

- ![[Pasted image 20250602185937.png]]

- ## 1. Bill is Created

- A current member of the House of Representatives or the Senate can introduce a bill in their respective chamber

- Many bills are proposed in a single session. To avoid coordination problems, party leaders narrow their focus to a small amount of bills they perceive would translate into effective legislation while a nonpartisan parliamentarian refers most bills to their respective committees

- ## 2. Bill goes to Committee

- Congressional committees are designed to specialize in a particular policy realm

- allows members of Congress to garner experience in a particular field

- organizes the lawmaking process by dividing the many proposals into categories and assigning a select group of legislators the task of improving the quality of the bill

- Large committees can have more specialized subcommittees

- Multiple types of committees exist in Congress

- Standing committees function as permanent institutions designed to handle particular policy areas

- Special (or select) committees form to accomplish a goal and cease to exist once the members reach a solution

- Joint committees contain members of both the House and the Senate

- conference committees adjust the language of the bill to accommodate the interests of both chambers with hopes of passing the bill on the floor

- ## 3. Bill Arrives on the Floor

- If a committee approves of a bill it sends the bill to the floor of the respective chamber.

- The House of Representatives and Senate use different institutions to organize the floor proceedings

- ### House Rules

- [[The House Rules Committee]] wields considerable authority in controlling the bills that arrive on the floor, controlling the bills the chamber will consider and will determine if and how members can amend and debate the selected bills

- If the Rules Committee employs [[open rule]], House members can offer any amendments to the proposed bill.

- If they implement [[closed rule]], members must consider the bill in its existing state without the possibility of adding any amendments.

- If they enforce [[restricted rule]] (i.e. modified rule), then House members are to propose only specific types of amendments

- ### Senate Rules

- In theory, Senators have the freedom to offer any amendment and to debate endlessly bills that come before the chamber.

- In reality, the Senate employs [[unanimous consent agreements]] to prevent collective dilemmas from arising among its one hundred individual members.

- This process refers to the rules for debate and amendments upon which all Senators agree to implement when considering a bill.

- Senators can employ the #filibuster, which refers to the process of holding an unlimited discussion on the floor of the Senate in an attempt to stall the vote on a bill

- Senators need 60 votes to invoke #cloture(3/5ths members of senate), a motion to limit or end debate in order to proceed on the floor vote.

- ## 4. Final Votes and Approvals

- When either the House or Senate considers, amends, and approves of a bill, they assemble a conference committee to amend and consider the bill prior to sending it to both chambers for a vote

- When both chambers approve of a bill, it travels to the desk of the president for final approval

- The president can sign the bill, which then transforms it into a law.

- If the president veto's the bill, it returns to Congress.

- If two-thirds of the members of both chambers approve of the bill, it can override a presidential veto and become a law

- If two-thirds of the chambers do not vote for the bill, it dies

- # Parties in Congress

- ## Functions

- The party who possesses the most seats in a Congressional chamber functions as the [[majority party]], while the party who occupies the remaining seats functions as the [[minority party]]

- ## Party Roles

- ### [[House of Representatives]]

- [[Speaker of the House]] oversees the lawmaking process and serves as third in command of the nation following the president and vice president

- the [[majority leader]] assists the Speaker in accomplishing party goals and promoting progress in the chamber

- [[majority whip]] serves third in command under the Speaker and majority leader, promoting party unity by persuading members to vote in unison

- ### [[Senate]]

- The Senate does not select a speaker, so the Senate [[majority leader]] serves as key legislator in the chamber

- [[majority whip]] serves second in command under the majority leader, promoting party unity by persuading members to vote in unison

- ## Minority Parties

- the minority party in both chambers select a minority leader and minority whip

- do not have power to assign members to committee or decide the rules of debate for key pieces of legislation

- # Problems of Legislative organization

- To maintain legitimacy, congress must develop a division of labor, set an agenda, maintain order through rules and procedures, and place limits on discussion

- to facilitates this, congress must cooperate, coalesce, and make compromises

- ## Cooperation:

- Because most politicians wish to be reelected they know who they must please to do so:

- those who can supply resources for next campaign

- the categories of voters who supported them and may support them again

- themselves and their personal agenda

- owing to different constituencies gives priority to different realms of public policy

- members opinions are diverse

- ## Underlying Problems:

- ### Matching Influence and Interest:

- legislators often have an area of priorities that do not coincide. Because there is one vote for each motion before the assembly, egalitarian arrangements force legislatures to make deals with one another. "You scratch my back & I'll scratch yours"

- ### Information:

- legislators vote on instruments which produce outcomes

- they must know the connection between the instruments they vote for and their desired outcome

- ### Compliance:

- to ensure compliance, #oversight must be institutionalized

- # Additional Congressional Powers

- The president has the power to make treaties and appoint top executive officers, ambassadors, and federal judges but only with the "Advice and Consent of the Senate"

- oftentimes resort to executive agreements with foreign powers if Senate consent and advice is unlikely

- Impeachment-- congress can charge a gov't official "treason, bribery, or high crimes and Misdemeanors" and determine guilt before congress