Chapter 11
Chapter Outline
I.
Introduction/Congressional elections (public
criticizes Congress, but do they understand democracy?)
A. 435
in House, 100 in Senate; 2yr. and 6 yr. Terms; 25 and 30 qualifying ages
1. Safe seats
2. Most incumbents win—90% won in 2000
B. Districting and apportionment
1. The Constitution gives Congress the right to apportion
representatives among the states
according to population, and Congress has given state
legislatures control over the drawing of
their respective congressional districts
2. Subject to a gubernatorial veto, state legislatures draw the district
lines for the House of
Representatives; the party in control of the state
legislature traditionally draws the lines to
enhance its own political fortunes, which is called
gerrymandering
3. State legislatures are free to draw congressional districts as they
wish, subject to some
constitutional limitations (note effect of gerrymandering)
a. Each district must be equal in population, or as equal as
possible; redistricting occurs once
a decade, after each national census
b. A state legislature must not be overzealous in favoring
one party at the expense of another
c. Although a state legislature can design congressional
districts to virtually guarantee the
election of a member of a particular minority, it must be
careful not to do so in a way that
focuses only on racial considerations and ignores county
lines and city boundaries
II. The structures and powers of Congress
A.
Bicameralism most important feature
1. In other countries, upper
house has fewer powers (France, Germany)
2. Consequences: serves to moderate influence, allows
bargaining
B. Constitutional separation of
powers
1. Article I powers, such as
borrowing money, regulating commerce; raise and support armies
2. In impeachment, House brings
charges, Senate is jury (Clinton impeachment)
3. Senate powers—confirm president’s nominations, consent to treaties
C. Functions of Congress
1. Representation
2. Law making
3. Consensus building
4. Overseeing the bureaucracy
5. Policy clarification
6. Confirming by a majority vote presidential appointees (for the
Senate)
7. Investigating the operation of government
D. The House of Representatives
1. The Speaker and other leaders (saga of Newt Gingrich; followed by
Dennis Hastert)
a. The Speaker is formally elected by the House yet is actually
selected by the majority party;
the Speaker directs business on the floor of the House,
and is very influential
b. The majority leader assists the Speaker by helping plan
party strategy, conferring with
other party leaders, and trying to keep members of the
party in line
c. The minority leader steps into the speakership when his or
her party gains a majority in
the House
d. Whips assist each floor leader, serving as liaisons
between the house leadership of each
party and the rank-and-file (Tom Delay was majority whip
in 2001)
2. The House Rules Committee
a. Helps regulate the time of floor debate for each bill as
well as limitations on floor
amendments
b. Closed rule versus open rule
c. An arm of the leadership, offers a "dress
rehearsal" on procedural issues
E. The Senate
1. A smaller body, more informal, and more time for debate
2. The president of the Senate (the vice-president of the United States)
has little influence, can
vote only in case of a tie and is seldom consulted in
decision-making
3. President pro tempore is elected from among the majority party, and
is official chair in the
absence of the vice-president
4. Party machinery includes party caucuses (conferences), majority and
minority floor leaders,
and party whips (Majority leader in 2001 was Trent Lott)
5. Each party has a policy committee, which is responsible for the
party's overall legislative
program
6. Political environment
a. Senators have more diverse policy interests than do members of the
House, serve on more
committees, and are more likely to wield power in their
state parties
b. The Senate is a more open, fluid, and decentralized body now than it
used to be
c. Practice of the “hold,”
now a tactic to kill a bill
7. The filibuster
a. Used to delay Senate proceedings in order to delay or
prevent a vote
b. Cloture votes may end the filibuster (16 signatures,
three-fifths vote, 1 hour per senator)
8. The power to confirm
a. The Senate has the constitutional power to confirm
presidential appointments to such
positions as the cabinet, the U.S. Supreme Court and
other federal courts, all
ambassadorial positions, and many executive branch
positions, serving as an important
check on executive power
b. By a tradition called senatorial courtesy, the president
confers with the senator(s) from the
state where an appointee is to work
c. Note difference between judicial and administrative
appointments
III. The job of the legislator
A. Congress as a place to work
1. The working center of our nation's legislative process
2. Congressional staffs are 10 percent smaller than they were in the
early 1990s
B. Legislators as representatives
1. Congress is both a law-making institution and a representative
assembly
2. Legislator's role as delegate versus trustee
C. Legislators as lawmakers
1. Policy and philosophical convictions
a. On controversial issues, knowing the general philosophical
leanings of individual members
provides a helpful guide both to how they make up their
minds and how they will vote
2. Voters
a. Members hear most often from the attentive public rather
than the general public; still,
members of Congress are generally concerned about how
they will explain their votes,
especially around election day
3. Colleagues
a. Legislators look to respected members of the committee who
worked on a bill
b. For some legislators, the state delegation reinforces a
common identity
c. A member may vote with a
colleague with the expectation that the colleague will later vote
for a measure about which the member is concerned is
called log rolling
4. Congressional staff
a. Staffers draft bills, conduct research, and do much of the
legislative negotiating and
coalition building, often influencing legislative
decisions
5. Party
a. Partisan voting has increased; party differences are
stronger over domestic, regulatory, and
welfare reform measures than over foreign policy or civil
liberty issues
b. Very strong partisan
differences in Clinton’s impeachment (98% each way)
6. Interest groups
a. In addition to their roles as financiers of
elections, they provide information
b. They can mobilize grass-roots activists to lobby
Congress
7. The president
a. Presidents are partners in the legislative process
b. Presidents, on key votes, usually win needed majority
support more than half the time
c. Presidents and executive branch officials influence how
legislators vote, particularly on
foreign policy or national security issues
IV. The legislative obstacle course
A. How a bill becomes law
1. Congress operates under a system of multiple vetoes; in each chamber
power is fragmented
and influence is decentralized
2. After introduction, bill is
referred to appropriate standing committee
3. 85 percent of bills die in
subcommittee
4. Importance of hearings,
mark-up, and riders (increasing number added to spending bills)
5. Conference committee
reconciles different versions of a bill
6.
Bill passes both houses, president can veto or sign; pocket veto possible
7. If vetoed, Congress can override by
two-thirds vote (hard to achieve)
B. Authorization and
appropriation
1. After Congress and the president authorize a program, Congress, with
the president's
concurrence, has to appropriate the funds to implement it
2. Appropriations are processed by the House and Senate Appropriations
Committees and their
subcommittees
C. The importance of compromise
1. One decision is whether to push for action in the Senate first, in
the House first, or in both
simultaneously
2. Another decision concerns the committee to which the bill is assigned
3. Getting a bill through Congress requires that majorities be mobilized
over and over again
V. Committees: the little legislatures
A. Types of committees
1. Joint committees
2. Select or special committees
3. Standing committees (exclusive, major, non-major)
B. Choosing committee members (House
members rarely serve on more than three)
1. In the House of Representatives, a Committee on Committees of the
Republican membership
allots places to Republican members; on the Democratic side,
assignment to committees is
handled by the Steering and Policy Committee of the
Democratic caucus in negotiation with
senior Democrats from the state delegations
2. In the Senate, each party has a small Steering Committee that makes
committee assignments
C. Seniority rule
1. The practice of elevating the senior member of a committee to serve
as committee chair
remains the general rule (encourages retention, promotes expertise, reduces interpersonal politics)
2. Since mid-1990s, Republicans have departed somewhat from seniority rule
D. Investigations and oversight
1. Congress conducts investigations to determine if legislation is
needed, to gather facts relevant
to legislation, to assess the efficiency of executive
agencies, to build public support, to expose
corruption, and to enhance the image or reputation of its
members
2. Congressional hearings are an important
source of information and opinion; the oversight
function involves the responsibility to question executive
branch officials to see whether their
agencies are complying with the wishes of the Congress and
conducting their programs
efficiently
E. Conference committees
1. At least 15 percent of all bills passed must be referred to a
conference committee – a special
committee of members from each chamber – that settles the
differences between versions
2. Both parties are represented, but the majority party has more members
3. The proceedings are an elaborate bargaining process; the conference
report can be accepted or
rejected but it cannot be amended
4. Sometimes called a “third
house,” or one that arbitrarily revises policy
5. The impact on legislation is generally equal between House &
Senate in conference committees
VI. Congress: an assessment and a view on reform
A. Criticisms of Congress
1. Congress is inefficient (not up to the modern information age)
2. Congress is unrepresentative (only 14% women, 7% African-American)
3. Congress is unethical (ethics codes exist; can’t accept gifts of over
$100)
a. Defenders argue that money
would not tempt so many congressional millionaires
4. Congress lacks collective responsibility (too much dispersion of
power—who’s in charge?)
5. But desire to be reelected fosters accountability
B. A defense of Congress
1. Congress's greatest strengths--its diversity and deliberate
character--also weaken its position
in dealing with the more centralized executive branch
2.
How to reconcile the need for executive energy with republican liberty?
3.
Governing is difficult because of complex issues and lack of consensus
4.
Lack of public consensus on an issue affects Congress
5.
Congress was never intended to act swiftly