Congress
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Learning Objectives
11.1
11.2
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Characterize the backgrounds of
members of Congress and assess their
impact on the ability of members of
Congress to represent average
Americans
Identify the principal factors
influencing the outcomes in
congressional elections
Learning Objectives
11.3
11.4
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Compare and contrast the House and
Senate, and describe the roles of
congressional leaders, committees,
caucuses, and staff
Outline the path of bills to passage
and explain the influences on
congressional decision making
Learning Objectives
11.5
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Assess Congress’s role as a
representative body and the impact of
representation on the scope of
government
Representatives and Senators
11.1
 Members
 Why Aren’t There More Women in Congress?
Members
11.1
 Not a glamorous job, but there are perks
 Power
 $174,000 annual salary
 Generous retirement and health benefits
 Constitutional requirements




House: 25, citizen for 7 years
Senate: 30, citizen for 9 years
Reside in state
435 Representatives; 100 senators
TABLE 11.1: Portrait of the 113th Congress:
Some statistics
11.1
Members
 Demographics
 Descriptive versus substantive representation
11.1
Arab-American Heritage festival
11.1
Why Aren’t There More
Women in Congress?
 Fewer women running
 Childcare
 Risk averse
 Bias
 Must be more qualified
11.1
11.1 How old do you have to be to run
for the office of senator?
a. 25
b. 35
c. 30
d. 21
11.1
Congressional Elections
 Who Wins Elections?
 Advantages of Incumbency
 Role of Party Identification
 Defeating Incumbents
 Open Seats
 Stability and Change
11.2
Who Wins Elections?
 Incumbents
 Over 90% win reelection in House
 Senators do not have it as easy
 Incumbents perceive themselves as
vulnerable
 Hence fundraising and campaigning
11.2
FIGURE 11.1: Incumbency factor in
congressional elections
11.2
Advantages of Incumbency
 Advertising
 Constituent contact
 Credit claiming
 Casework
 Pork barrel projects
11.2
Big Dig
11.2
Advantages of Incumbency
 Position taking
 Weak opponents
 Campaign spending
11.2
Role of Party Identification
 Parties and districts
 Drawn for one-party dominance
11.2
Defeating Incumbents
 Challengers are naïve
 But sometimes incumbents are vulnerable
 Redistricting
 Public mood
11.2
Open Seats and Stability and
Change
 Vacant seat = no incumbent running
 Most turnover occurs here
 Stability from incumbency
 Development of expertise
 Term limits?
11.2
11.2 Why do incumbents have such a
11.2
strong electoral advantage?
a. They attract more campaign contributions
b. They can use the congressional franking
privilege
c. They have more name recognition
d. All of the above
How Congress is Organized to
Make Policy
 American Bicameralism
 Congressional Leadership
 Committees and Subcommittees
 Caucuses: Informal Organization of
Congress
 Congressional Staff
11.3
American Bicameralism
 Bicameral legislature
 Bills must pass both houses
 Checks and balances
 Result of Connecticut Compromise
 House
 More institutionalized and seniority-based
 Rules Committee
 Senate
 Filibuster
 Less centralized and seniority-based
11.3
TABLE 11.2: House versus Senate: Some key
differences
11.3
Congressional Leadership
 Chosen by party
 House
 Speaker of the House
 Majority and minority leaders
 Whips
 Senate
 Vice president
 Majority leader
11.3
Committees and Subcommittees
 Four types of committees
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


Standing committees
Joint committees
Conference committees
Select committees
11.3
TABLE: 11.3: Standing committees in the
Senate and in the House
11.3
Committees and Subcommittees
 Committees at work: Legislation
 Legislative oversight
11.3
Congressional committee at work
11.3
TABLE 11.4: Sharing oversight of homeland
security
11.3
Committees and
Subcommittees
 Getting on a committee
 Constituent needs
 Appealing to leadership
11.3
Caucuses: Informal
Organization of Congress
 As important as formal structure
 Dominated by caucuses
 500 caucuses today
 Goal is to promote their interests
 Black Caucus, Hispanic Caucus
11.3
Congressional Hispanic Caucus
11.3
Congressional Staff
 Personal staff
 Casework
 Legislative functions
 Committee staff
 2,000 staff members
 Legislative oversight
 Staff agencies
 Congressional Research Service (CRS)
 Government Accountability Office (GAO)
 Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
11.3
11.3 How many staff members does
Congress employ to help it do its job?
a. More than 11,000
b. 3,200
c. Less than 2,000
d. Staff are volunteers from the member’s
constituency, and their numbers vary
11.3
Congressional Process and
Decision Making
 Presidents and Congress: Partners and
Protagonists
 Party, Constituency, and Ideology
 Lobbyists and Interest Groups
11.4
FIGURE 11.2: How a bill becomes a law
11.4
Presidents and Congress:
Partners and Protagonists
 President’s legislative agenda
 Persuade Congress
 Work at the margins but usually win
 Yet Congress is quite independent
11.4
Party, Constituency, and
Ideology
 Party influence
 Economic and social welfare policies
 Polarized politics
 Parties more internally homogeneous
 Less likelihood of compromise
11.4
FIGURE 11.3: Increasing polarization in
Congress
11.4
Party, Constituency, and Ideology
 Constituency opinion versus member
ideology
 Trustees versus instructed delegates
11.4
Lobbyists and Interest Groups
 D.C. is crawling with lobbyists
 12,000 of them
 Spent $3 billion in 2011
 Former members of Congress
 How lobbyists persuade
 Provide policy information
 Provide promises of money
 Ghostwrite legislation
 Who really wrote ACA?
 Status quo usually wins
 Disclosure requirements
11.4
11.4 On what tactics do lobbyists rely
11.4
to influence policy in Congress?
a. Promising money for reelection campaigns
b. Providing expert policy information
c. Ghostwriting legislation
d. All of the above
Understanding Congress
 Congress and Democracy
 Congress and the Scope of Government
11.5
Congress and Democracy
 Democracy depends upon successful
representation
 Congress unrepresentative
 Members are elites
 Leadership chosen, not elected
 Senate based on states, not population
 Obstacles to good representation
 Constituent service
 Reelection campaigns
 Representativeness versus Effectiveness
11.5
Congress and the Scope of
Government
 Does size of government increase to
please public?
 Pork barrel spending
 Contradictory preferences
 Against large government, for individual programs
11.5
11.5 How does the Senate undermine
11.5
democratic representation?
a. Its members tend not to show up for roll
call votes
b. It is forbidden from overriding a
presidential veto
c. It represents states rather than people
d. None of the above
Discussion Questions
Based on what you have learned in this
chapter, do you prefer the trustee or
instructed delegate model of
representation? Which model is closer to
the system we have now?
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