Congressional and Presidential Powers

Interactions Among Branches

  • Differences between houses of Congress:
    • District size.
    • Chamber size.
    • Enumerated powers.
    • Framers aimed to satisfy states with large and small populations.
  • Structure and operations of Congress reflect the republican idea of self-government through representatives.
  • House of Representatives (HOR):
    • Lower chamber of Congress.
    • 435 representatives.
    • Members serve 2-year terms.
  • Senate:
    • Upper chamber.
    • 100 senators (each state gets 2).
    • Senators serve 6-year terms, with 1/3 of them running for re-election every 2 years.
  • Constituents: Voters in a legislative district.
  • Coalition: Alliance of political groups pursuing a common goal.

Similarities and Differences Between HOR and Senate

  • Because HOR members serve 2-year terms, they are more responsive to their constituents' concerns than the Senate.
  • Debate procedures are less formal in the Senate due to its smaller size.
  • HOR is less likely to form bipartisan coalitions because representatives are sensitive to constituent concerns.
  • Different enumerated and implied powers.

Senate

  • Representation: 2 per State
  • Procedures: Less formal rules
  • Filibuster: Yes
  • Holds: Yes
  • Unanimous Consent Agreements: Yes

House of Representatives

  • Representation: Based on population
  • Procedures: More formal rules
  • Filibuster: No
  • Holds: No
  • Unanimous Consent Agreements: No
  • Rules Committee: Yes
  • Revenue bills originate in the HOR because of the responsiveness of representatives.
  • Impeachment trials are a power unique to the Senate, giving states equal ultimate power over the presidency.

Congressional Powers

Senate

  • Ratifies treaties.
  • Confirms cabinet and court nominees (more powerful).

House of Representatives

  • Initiates impeachment.

  • Cloture: Senate procedure where 60 senators can vote to limit the amount of time spent debating a bill and cut off a filibuster.

  • Discharge Petition: Petition signed by members of the HOR to bring a bill out of committee and onto the floor for a vote.

  • Filibuster: Tactic used by the Senate to block a bill by continuing to speak until the bill's supporters back down.

  • House Rules Committee: Schedules and manages the flow of legislation on the floor to make the process more efficient.

  • Logrolling: Two legislators agree to trade votes for each other's benefit.

  • Pork Barrel Legislation: Use of federal funding to finance localized projects, bringing money to a representative's district to please constituents.

  • Speaker of the House: De facto leader of the majority party.

  • Baker v. Carr: Baker rejected the way the state was apportioned because districts did not have an equal distribution of population, violating the equal protection clause. Established "One person, one vote."

  • Shaw v. Reno (1991): The Supreme Court declared that race cannot be the predominant factor in creating districts; voters claimed North Carolina's congressional district violated the equal protection clause because of a majority-minority group.

  • Formal Powers: Powers outlined in Article I.

  • Informal Powers: Claimed powers.

  • Cabinet: Presidential advisors.

  • Power justified by Section 1 & 3 + carrying out law enforcement.

  • Executive Agreement: International agreement between the president and another country.

  • Executive Order: Presidential order to the executive branch that carries the force of law.

  • Pocket Veto: Indirect veto where the president leaves a bill unsigned for fewer than 10 days before Congress adjourns.

  • Signing Statement: A presidential statement upon signing a bill into law that explains how the president's administration intends to interpret that law.

  • State of the Union Address: The president's annual message to a joint session of Congress, evaluating the nation's condition and setting legislative priorities.

  • Some powers of the President:

    • Confer diplomatic recognition of other governments.
    • Commander-in-chief of the army.
    • Make treaties.
    • Grant pardons.
    • Adjourn Congress and convene Congress.
    • Appoint US officers.
    • Direct bureaucracy.

  • Intended interpretation of bill.

  • Setting priorities of Congress.

  • Presidential Checks:

    • Executive order.
    • Pardons.
    • Appointing government officials and judges.
    • Priorities to Congress.
    • Can adjourn Congress.
    • Military force.

  • Presidential Nominations: The president's formal proposal of a candidate to fill a position/cabinet or SCOTUS.

  • Confirmation: Senate approval of a presidential nomination; can pose questions and leads to potential conflict with Congress.

  • Executive Order: Rule issued by the president without the cooperation of Congress that carries the force of law, representing enhanced presidential power beyond expressed powers.

  • Federalist No. 78:

    • Argues in favor of the unitary executive, necessary to ensure accountability.
    • Enables the president to defend against legislative encroachment on his power.
    • A single executive is easier to remove if they become corrupt, and a single executive has more secrecy than a larger group of leaders.

  • War Powers Act: Limits the president's power to deploy the US army.

  • Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt's notion of the presidency as a platform from which the president could promote an agenda directly to the public.

  • Inferior Courts: All lower courts.

    • Congress holds the power to establish inferior courts and determine how they operate.

  • Judicial Independence:

    • Factors include lifetime appointments and a ban on salary decrease for sitting justices, preventing members of the legislative and executive branches from influencing SCOTUS.

  • Judicial Review: SCOTUS power to review whether acts of the executive and legislative branches are consistent with the Constitution.

  • Federalist No. 78:

    • Judges should serve for life to ensure judicial independence.
    • The judicial branch is the least dangerous because it cannot wage war or collect taxes.

  • Article III of the Constitution:

    • Establishes the judicial branch.
    • Gives Congress the power to create inferior courts.

  • Marbury v. Madison (1803):

    • Before Adams left office, he passed the Judiciary Act of 1801, adding judges and giving the president more appointment power.
    • The Senate approved the appointment, but some commissions were not delivered (Marbury's).
    • Marbury petitioned for a writ of mandamus.

  • Questions:

    • Does the plaintiff have the right to receive the commission?
    • Can they sue for their commission in court?
    • Does SCOTUS have the authority to order the delivery of commissions?

  • The Judiciary Act of 1789, enabling Marbury to bring the claim to SCOTUS, was unconstitutional since it purported to extend the Court's original jurisdiction beyond what Article III established.

  • Judicial Appointment: The president appoints SCOTUS justices and federal judges, attempting to influence the ideology of the Courts for years to come.

  • Confirmation Process: The Senate must confirm nominees by a simple majority.

  • Life Tenure: SCOTUS justices and federal judges have lifetime appointments.

  • Precedent: Legal decision establishes a rule for similar cases in the future.

  • Stare Decisis: Making legal decisions based on past precedents.

  • Court-Curbing Measures: Strategies for reducing the power of the SCOTUS or its rulings and future appointments.

    • The president can change the ideological composition of the court.
    • Congress may pass acts that prevent the SCOTUS from hearing appeals in certain types of cases.
    • The executive or legislative branches may refuse to implement decisions.

  • Jurisdiction: Field of authority a court has to make legal judgments and decisions.

  • Legitimacy of the SCOTUS: Public trust in, and willingness to accept a SCOTUS ruling.

  • Judicial Activist: Belief that the role of a justice is to defend individual rights and liberties, even those not stated in the Constitution.

  • Judicial Restraint: Belief that the role of a justice is to defer decisions to elected branches of government and stay focused on a narrower interpretation of the Bill of Rights (more explicit rights).

  • Challenging other branches may question the court's right to exercise judicial review or appropriateness of justices' life tenures.

  • Ex: Nomination and confirmation of justices.

  • Bureaucracy: Carries out responsibilities of the federal government.

  • Merit System: Bureaucrats hired based on skills rather than political connections, enhancing effectiveness.

  • Civil Service: Permanent, professional branches of government administration; nonpartisan employees hired based on merit.

  • Iron Triangle: Longstanding, mutually beneficial relationship among an interest group, congressional committee, and bureaucratic agency devoted to similar issues.

    • Ex: Social Security Agency, AARP, Congressional Subcommittee on Aging.

  • Issue Network: Group of individuals, public officials, and interest groups that form around a particular issue.

  • Patronage: Practice of hiring individuals based on political support rather than merit.

  • Discretionary Authority of Bureaucracy: Agencies deciding whether or not to take action when implementing certain laws.

  • Rulemaking Authority: Agency's ability to make rules that affect how programs operate; both enhance the power of bureaucracy over government policies.

Checks

  • Congress allots a budget to the federal bureaucracy.
  • Committee Hearings: Ask agencies questions.
    • Congress cannot always control the large size of bureaucracy.
    • The president cannot fire lower levels of bureaucracy, only officers.
    • The president can make appointments, shift budgets/agencies, and issue executive orders.