The Congress

Design of Congress:

  • very complex; most misunderstood and criticized branch of government

  • How does Capitol Hill Operate?

  • What are the different structures and powers of the HOR and the Senate?

  • How are members of Congress elected?


House of Representatives

Senate

Total Number of Members

435

100

Number of Members per State

1 or more, based on population

2

Length of Term of Office

2 years

6 years

Minimum Age Requirement

25

30

Why have people moved from the north?

  • The weather.

  • The rust belt; lessening of jobs.

Issues:

  • size of representatives’s constituency

    • too many people for little representatives

  • challenge of Washington D.C.

    • 675,000 people who live in Washington D.C. cannot vote.

The Gerrymander:

  • adjusting districts for representation in a certain way.

  • to keep someone in office or take their votes

why is gerrymandering not respectable?

congressional powers: divided into 3

  1. enumerated - power is explicitly stated in the constitution

  2. implied - power is one not specifically detailed

  3. inherit

The house is more responsive to the people; elected every 2 years; they have specific districts; local offices easy to find; may disagree with other house members because of their specific district.

The senate is elected once every 6 years; originally chosen by the state legilatures; elected state-wide and not by district so their constituiton are the same. ; make decisions that are for their state

offices are harder to ger to and not as convenient as house offices

All Politics is Local

Speaker of the House TIP O’Neill

  • people vote for for financial reasons

Surge and Decline Theory:

Delegates: enact the wishes of constituents

Trustee Model: entrusted to make the best calls they can in conjunction with the party and the country.

Politico model: the most realistic type of model as the representative tries to balance between the other two.

Descriptive Representation: proper representation that is rooted in the racial. ethnic, socioeconomic, gender, and sexual identity of the representatives themselves.

Collective Representation: whether the member of Congress Represents their district or whether

Woman’s Rights

  • National Women’s Political Caucus

  • Founded by Bella Abzug, Gloria Steinem, and Shirley Chisholm

  • This encouraged woman’s participation in politics.

  • First Asian-American woman to be elected to Congress, Patsy Mink

Daniel Inouye c

Caucus: a groupf of people who have a general sense of ideas

pork-barrell

-   The “ObamaCare Act”

  • After this balancing their roles as a national legislator and a local community representative became harder.

Incubemncy-

House and Senate Organization:

  • Party Leadership

    • Party Leaders are elected by the conferences in each chamber

    • the most important position is the Speaker of the House that is elected by the entire body.

    • Only House officer mentioned in the constitution.

    • The Speaker doesn’t Not have to be the member of the House but usually they are.

    • they are third in line to the presidency

Congressional Officers

House

  • Speaker

  • Majority Leader

  • Minority Leader

  • Whip

Senate

  • President pro Tempore

  • Majority Leader

  • Minority Leader

  • Whip

Congressional Standing and permenant select commitees

Types of Committees:

  1. standing/permanent committee- first call for proposed bills

  2. joint committee - members are appointed from both housed informational only… do not submit bills

  3. conference committee - Reconcile differences in Bills

  4. committees for a specific purpose- Benghazi or Jan 6

know process of how bill becomes a vote/law

How Bill becomes a law: Short Cut

  • Introduce

  • Committee

  • hearings

  • markup/table

  • House/Senate Votes

  • Reconcilliation

  • Send to the President

Alabama House Members:

  1. Jerry L. Carl

  2. Robert Adderholt

  3. Barry Moore

  4. Shamary

The Presidency

Inventing the Presidency

The Evolving Executive Branch

Jefferson vs. Adams

1800 elections kinda caused the political party

Requirements:

  • at least 35

  • US Citizen

  • Term limit of 2 4 year terms

Impeachment’':

  • Clinton

  • Trump

Presidential powers:

  1. Commander-in-chief

  2. Negotiate treaties

  3. Receive Representatives

  4. Execute Laws

  5. Pardons

The next president can undo the executive orders of the precedent president.

Selecting the candidate 

  • National Convention- smoke-filled rooms 

  • King Caucus - gather together in community area and stand behind who we select 

Executive office of president was created by Franklin Rooselevelt 

The modern presdidency 

THE MEDIA- Lincoln at Gettysburg 

Roosevelt - THE BULLY Pulpit.

First Ladies: 

The Court

  • Guardianship of the Constitution

  • part of dual court system

  • the federal system

Appelate courts- do not hear case; they read it

Supreme -

12/13 distrst courts fo appeals

13 if you count Washington D.C

Stare decisis

Precednet