The Legislative Branch

• Congress (made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate) are responsible for creating legislature

  • They are held responsible to the people

• The basis of the constitutional authority of Congress is found in Article I of the Constitution

  • A House member must be at least 25 years old, an American citizen for seven years, and an inhabitant of the state the representative represents → representatives serve two-year terms

  • A Senate member must be 30 years old, an American citizen for nine years, and a resident of the state the senator represents → senators serve six-year terms

  • Common powers include the power to tax, coin money, declare war, and regulate foreign/interstate commerce

    • The House of Representatives has the power to begin all revenue bills, to select a president if there is no Electoral College majority, and to initiate impeachment proceedings

    • Senate has the power to approve presidential appointments and treaties and to try impeachment proceedings

  • Implied congressional powers come from the “necessary and proper” clause → the Elastic Clause

  • Congress may overrule a presidential veto by a two-thirds vote of each house

Apportionment, Reapportionment, and Gerrymandering

• Representatives of the House are apportioned based on the basis of population as determined by the decennial census, which is supposed to keep the system as democratic as possible

  • Gerrymandering, how legislative districts are drawn for political purposes, has undermined the equal representation principle

    • Districts can be drawn to favor incumbents of a certain political party

• The Senate represents the states equally, with each state having two senators

Policy-Making Process of Congress

• The significant difference in size between the two chambers of Congress means each chamber operates differently

  • There is more extensive debate over legislation in the Senate compared to the House

  • The longer terms and smaller body of the Senate enable senators to maintain friendships and build relationships across party lines

  • House members must represent their district, taking into account individual constituents, organized interests, and the district as a whole

    • This influences the actions they take to achieve that goal

• How a bill becomes a law (simplified):

  

  • If the president vetoes the bill, the Houses of Congress must vote separately to determine whether each has a two-thirds majority to override the veto

Structure of Congress

• The bicameral (two-house) structure of Congress made it necessary to develop an organization that would allow each house to conduct its business while doing its job

• Each house has a presiding officer:

  • The Speaker of the House (selected by the majority party) presides over House meetings, recognizing members who rise to speak, referring bills to committees, answering procedural questions, and declaring the outcome of votes

    • They are also third in line after the vice president to succeed the president

The Committee System

• Committee chairs, those representatives who chair the standing committees of the House and Senate, wield a great deal of power

  • Selected as a result of the seniority system (unwritten custom)

• Four types of committees:

  • Standing committees deal with proposed bills and are permanent, existing from one Congress to the next

  • Select committees are specially created and conduct special investigations

  • Joint committees are made up of members from both houses for the purpose of coordinating investigations or special studies and expediting business between the houses

  • Conference committees resolve legislative differences between the House and Senate

• Committee makeup is determined by the percentage of party representation in each house

Constituent Service

• How a representative responds to the people who elected him or her is called “constituent service”

  • Three types of constituent accountability models:

    • Trustee model: voters trust their congressperson to make decisions that the member believes are in the best interests of constituents

    • Delegate model: voters elect their senator and representatives as their delegates and expect them to vote on the basis of what their constituents believe

    • Politico model: representatives and senators are the most political in this model, utilizing both the trustee model and delegate model to make decisions

The Executive Branch

• The president has specific powers outlined in the Constitution as well as inherent powers that have increased the power of the presidency

• Basis of constitutional authority:

  • Must be 35 years old, a natural-born citizen, and a resident of the United States for 14 years

  • Chief executive and Commander in Chief of the armed forces

  • Power to grant pardons, make treaties, nominate presidential appointees as long as it is approved by Congress (ambassadors, justices, etc.), sign or veto legislation

  • Elected by the Electoral College

  • Informal power based on precedent, custom, and tradition in issuing executive orders (orders initiated by the president that do not require congressional approval), executive privilege (keeping executive meetings private), signing statements (presidential statements made in conjunction with a president signing a bill), and creating executive agencies

• Indirect roles:

  • Chief legislator, head of the party, chief of state, and chief diplomat

Powers

The Veto

• A veto is a primary tool used by presidents to influence Congress to meet White House agenda priorities

• The Pocket Veto (occurs if the president does not sign a bill within ten days and the Congress adjourns within those ten days) is used less often

The Pardon

• The president’s influence over the judiciary comes from his power to appoint Supreme Court justices and grant pardons and reprieves

• The difference between a pardon and a reprieve is that a reprieve is a postponement of a sentence and a pardon forgives the crime and frees the person from legal culpability

Signing Statements

• Rather than using a veto, presidents also have a legislative tool that enables them to express what they think is right or wrong with a bill they sign → a signing statement

  • Can be challenged if the president decides to carry them out

Executive Privilege

• The president has interpreted the Constitution to allow for executive privilege, the ability of the president to protect personal material

  • The only recourse that Congress has when that occurs is to subpoena the witness and/or go to court to force the witness to testify

The Cabinet and White House Staff

Cabinet

• The principal official advisory body to the president of the United States is made up of the vice president of the United States and the heads of the executive branch's departments in the federal government of the United States

• The president relies on

  • Two key cabinet departments for advice—the State Department and the Defense Department (both of which are run by civilians)

  • The national security advisor (a staff position), and the directors of National Intelligence, CIA, FBI, and Homeland Security

The White House Staff

• The White House staff, managed by the White House chief of staff, directly advises the president on a daily basis

• Key White House staff include the political departments (the Office of Communications, Legislative Affairs, Political Affairs, and Intergovernmental Affairs), along with the support services (Scheduling, Personnel, and Secret Service) and the policy offices (National Security Affairs, Domestic Policy Affairs, and cabinet secretaries)

• The first lady has her own office and staff, as does the vice president

Presidential Conflicts…

…with Congress over National Security

• As the chief diplomat, the president has the constitutional authority of the commander in chief of the armed forces, the person who can make treaties with other nations and appoint ambassadors

  • The war-making power of the president causes the most concern

  • In 1973, Congress passed the War Powers Act, which states that a president can commit the military only after a declaration of war by the Congress or by the specific authorization of Congress, if there is a national emergency, or if the use of force is in the national interest of the United States

    • Essentially a legislative veto

… with the Senate over Supreme Court nominees

• The executive and legislative branches of government are linked in the process of selecting federal justices, a process that sometimes becomes embroiled in political controversy

• The president must win the approval of the Senate for all federal judgeships and the prior approval of the senators from the state from which the judicial appointment is (the latter does not apply to Supreme Court nominations) and once nominated the judicial candidate must appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee and is given a complete background check by the Department of Justice

• The consideration of judicial ideology has become increasingly important in the selection of Supreme Court justices (is often linked to politics)

How the President Communicates

The “Bully Pulpit”

• Used by presidents to:

  • Manage a crisis

  • Demonstrate leadership

  • Announce the appointment of cabinet members and Supreme Court justices

  • Set and clarify the national agenda

  • Achieve a legislative agenda

  • Announce foreign-policy initiatives

• A president who knows how to use the bully pulpit has a powerful tool to advance the goals of the administration

The Judicial Branch

Basis of constitutional power:

• Found in Article III of the Constitution

• Judges are appointed by the president with the consent of the Senate and serve for life, based on good behavior

• The Court’s judicial power extends to issues dealing with common law, equity, civil law, criminal law, and public law

• Cases are decided through original jurisdiction or appellate jurisdiction

• The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presides over impeachment trials

• Congress creates courts that are “inferior” to the Supreme Court

How the Supreme Court Excersices its Power

• The number of cases accepted for oral argument is known as the certiorari

  • Based on the “rule of four” (which requires that a minimum of four justices agree to review a case), the Supreme Court’s docket is taken up by a combination of appeals cases ranging from the legality of the death penalty to copyright infringement

  • The process for a writ of certiorari to be heard is based on five criteria:

    • If a court has made a decision that conflicts with precedent

    • If a court has come up with a new question

    • If one court of appeals has made a decision that conflicts with another

    • If there are other inconsistencies between courts of different states

    • If there is a split decision in the court of appeals

• Process after the writ is granted:

Lower court sends SC transcript of case → Lawyers of both petitioner and respondent to submit written briefs outlining their positions → Case is placed on dockets → Attorneys are grilled for 30 minutes by the sitting justices → Nine justices meet in conference and deliberate until a majority of the judges have agreed on an opinion → Chief justice assigned a justice to write the majority opinion → The decision is announced months later

Judicial Activism vs. Judicial Restraint

• A court that shows judicial activism will hold that the courts can and should go beyond the applicable law to consider the broader societal implications of its decisions (create new precedent) while a court that shows judicial restraint will maintain the status quo or mirror what the other branches of government have established as current policy

Limitations of Supreme Court Power

• The Supreme Court’s power can only be limited in the following ways:

  • A constitutional amendment that would allow a vote to remove a Supreme Court Justice either by the Congress or the electorate

  • Congress authorizing the president to appoint more justices

  • Presidential appointments to the Supreme Court can change the balance of the court

  • The president, Congress, or states not obeying a Supreme Court decision

The Federal Bureaucracy

• Bureaucracies are defined as large administrative agencies and are similar to a form of government

  • They reflect a hierarchical authority, there is job specialization, and there are rules and regulations that drive them

• Over four million government workers make up today’s federal bureaucracy

• Bureaucracies are first and foremost policy-making bodies

Workers in federal bureaucracies are held accountable by:

• The Constitution

• Federal laws

• The dictates of the three branches of government

• Their superiors

• The “public interest”

• Interest groups

The federal government is organized by departments, which are given that title to distinguish them from the cabinet

• Agencies and administration refer to governmental bodies that are headed by a single administrator and have a status similar to the cabinet

• Commissions are names given to agencies that regulate certain aspects of the private sector

• Corporations are agencies headed by a board of directors and have chairmen as heads

Policy administration of federal bureaucracies has been limited by a number of checks, such as:

• The legislative power of Congress through legislative intent, congressional oversight, and restrictions on appropriations to agencies

• The Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 (defined administrative policy and directed agencies to publicize their procedures)

• A built-in review process, either internal or through the court system, for appeal of agency decisions

• A built-in review process, either internal or through the court system, for request of agency decisions

• Political checks, such as pressure brought on by interest groups, political parties, and the private sector, which modifies bureaucratic behavior

• Executive orders, such as affirmative action mandates, in government contracts

• Relationships with other branches of government

  • Bureaucracies are linked to the president by appointment and direction and to Congress through oversight

  • Bureaucracies are also inherently part of the executive branch

Executive-Level Departments

The Executive Office of the President

• Separate from the cabinet is the executive office of the president, which has four major policy-making bodies:

  • The National Security Council: the lead advisory board in the area of national and international security

  • The Council of Economic Advisors: consists of individuals who are recognized as leading economists, who help the president prepare the annual Economic Report to Congress

  • The Office of Management and Budget: responsible for the preparation of the massive federal budget

  • The Office of National Drug Control Policy: prepares recommendations on how to combat the problem of drug abuse

• Other agencies that are an integral part of the foreign policy arena include:

  • The Immigration and Naturalization Service: deals with people from other countries seeking residence in the United States

  • The Central Intelligence Agency: responsible for gathering and analyzing information related to foreign affairs and national defense for the other federal agencies and reporting to the president and National Security Council

  • The U.S. Information Agency: acts as the propaganda arm of the United States

  • The U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency: maintains responsibility for negotiations, participation, and implementation of treaties dealing with disarmament

  • The Selective Service System: maintains responsibility for coordinating registration of those of military age