CONGRESS:THE PEOPLE’S BRANCH
REAPPORTIONMENT
Apportionment is decided every ten years by the census.
Congress is in charge of reallocation.
REDISTRICTING
Redrawing of congressional and other legislative district lines
following the census, accommodating population shifts and keeping
districts as equal as possible in population.
TEXAS REDISTRICTING
REDISTRICTING
Follows the census.
Final approval governors, redistricting commissions.
GERRYMANDERING
Single party controlling both the legislative and executive branches
of state governments. Extreme cases known as the above.
Governor Elbridge Gerry of Massachusettes.
RULES
Districts must be equal in population (one man
one vote)
Must be contiguous.
Cannot be based on race.
14th Amendment’s Equal
Protection Clause; “one man,
one vote”; ordered state
legislative districts to be as
near equal as possible in
population; reapportionment;
example of Warren Court’s
judicial activism
Built on Baker case; Required virtually every state legislature
to be reapportioned; shifted power from rural to urban areas
Ordered House of Representative legislative districts to be as near in population as possible;
extended Baker v. Carr (1962) to the national government
No racial gerrymandering; race cannot be the sole or predominant factor in redrawing
legislative boundaries; majority-minority districts.
HOUSE V. SENATE
House
Senate
Two year term
435 members
Elected in districts
Fewer personal staff
Tighter rules
Tax bills start here
Rules committee sets
Terms of debate
No fillibuster
Six year term
100 members
Elected by states
Looser rules
More personal staff
Foreign treaties must
Be ratified here
Whole senate sets rules
fillibusters
SPEAKER
Presiding officer in the House
Second in line of the presidency (after the vice president)
Nothing laid out in Constitution, appoints members to committees.
NEWT GINGRICH
Established authority
Reorganized committees
Resigned due to lack of ethics in use of tax-exempt funds.
BYE BYE: NANCY PELOSI
MAJORITY LEADER
Helps plan party strategy, confers with other party leaders, and trieds
to keep memers of the party in line.
Assists the speaker
Used to be almost exclusively picked on Seniority.
CURRENTLY: ERIC CANTOR
MINORITY LEADER
Usually steps into the speakership when his or her party gains the
majority.
Spokesperson of minority party.
WAS:JOHN BOEHNER, NOW
SPEAKER
MINORITY LEADER NANCY PELOSI
WHIP
Party leader who is the “helper” b/w the leadership and the rankand-file in the legislatiure.
Whipper-in “hunter who keeps the hounds bunched in a pack during
a fox hunt”
CURRENT WHIPS: HOUSE
Democrat Steny Hoyer
Republican Kevin McCarthy
CURRENT WHIPS: SENATE
Richard Durbin Majoirty Whip
Jon Kyl Minority Whip
PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE
Take the place of the Vice President
Elected by the majority
JOE BIDEN, PATRICK LEAHY
FILIBUSTER
Practice in the Senate whereby a senator refuses to relinquish the
floor and thereby delays the proceedings and prevents a vote on the
controversial issue.
CLOTURE
How you end a fillibuster. 16 Senators sign petition asking for
cloture. 60/100 Senate vote for cloture.
STROM THURMOND
Known for his long speeches. Once over 24
hours 18 minutes, trying to curtail the Civil Rights
Act of 1957 allowing voting rights to minorities.
Included the Bill of Rights, Declaration of
Independence, Washington’s Farewell Address
and seveal phone books.
THURMOND
DIXIECRATS: THURMOND V. 1948
CIVIL RIGHTS SPEECH
Hubert Humphrey
POWER TO CONFIRM
Check on executive power
Relevant Committee advises: Judiciary over Supreme Court Justices
Usually gives president benefit of doubt on executive appointees
COMMITTEES
Standing committees, just that.
Select special: Come together to address temporary priorities
Joint committees: have members of both houses
AUTHORIZING COMMITTEES
Pass the laws that tell the government what to do.
Senate education and labor committees: responsible for setting the
rules governing Pell Grants
APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE
How much money government can spend.
Sub committees underneath these for each subject area.
REVENUE AND BUDGET COM.
Deal with raising and spending the money and
set broad targets that shape the federal budget.
House of Ways and Means: raises and authorizes
spending. Only committee that can originate tax
and revenue legislation, also responsible for
making decision on SS and medicare.
SENIORITY RULE
Member of the majority party that has been in committee the longest
becomes chair upon the retirement of another.
INVESTIGATION AND OVERSIGHT
Conducts investigation to see if legislation is needed.
Oversight:questions executive officials to see whether their agencies
are complying with the wishes of the Congress and conducting
programs efficiently.
“I’m Just a Bill”
House introduces a bill by dropping it in a mahogeny box called a
“hopper.”
Senate introduces by presenting it to their colleagues in a floor
speech.
H.R. (House of Representatives)
BILL ON ITS WAY
Subcommittees look at bill, edits and send to Committee.
Committee considers bill, if it is approved (in some form) sent to full
House or Senate.
HOUSE RULES COM AND ON..
Rules Committee issues a rule to govern debate on the floor and
sends it to the rull house.
Full House debates the bill and may amend. Sends to Senate if
passed.
SENATE
Subcommittee-unanimous consent sends bill to full Senate
Full Senate debates and may amend.
HOUSE V SENATE
Differences are heard in the CONFERENCE COMMITTEE
ON TO THE PRESIDENT
If bill is approved, sent to President for signature of authorization.
President can veto
Congress can override by two third majority vote in both House and
Senate
MARK-UP
What committees or subcommittees do before they pass the bill on.
Change wording, amend.
DISCHARGE PETITION
Force bill out of committee to be heard by full
House.
Campaign Finance 2002
Not used often, Senate does not use at all.
QUESTIONS?
What is stated in Article I Section 3 of the Constitution?
How was this changed by the Seventeenth Amendment?
PORK BARREL POLITICS
PORK BARREL
A term referring to appropriation of government spending for
localized projects secured solely or primarily to bring money to a
representative’s districts.
EARMARKS
EARMARKS DEFINITION
Provision that directs approved funds to be spent on specific
projects.