AP United States
Government and Politics
Exam
Review --Day FIVE
Edwards Chapters 12
(Unit 5 From our course)
Edwards Chapter 14 [(pages 451 - 459)
Unit 5 from our course]
Chapter 9 (pages 89 - 96) in the review book
Congress
Chapter 12 (Edwards)
Congress
• federal government divided into a number of institutions
of government, each with its own political role and
responsibilities
– legislative branch composed of two houses (House of
Representatives and Senate)
– executive branch is comprised of the president and the
bureaucracy
– judicial branch is comprised of a three-tiered court system, with
the Supreme Court acting as the highest court of appeals
• at least one-third of the questions on the
multiple choice part of the AP U.S. Government
and Politics Exam will address the duties of these
institutions and how they function to carry out
those duties
The Representatives and
Senators
• Congress
– composed of 435 representatives
– 100 senators
– total of 535 members
• Occupation:
– most are lawyers or businesspeople
• Party:
– Most election years leave both houses about evenly split
between Democrats and Republicans, with one or two
independents in each
• Race:
– members of both houses have always been largely Caucasian
– House is more diverse than the Senate, which is almost
exclusively white
The Representatives and
Senators
• Gender:
– ratio of men to women in the House is about six to one; in the
Senate it is about seven to one
• Committee Work:
– Most members serve on at least five committees and
subcommittees; senators usually serve on most committees
than representatives do
– Members of Congress depend upon staff members to help them
meet their obligations
– Members of a personal staff help with providing services to
constituents, meeting with lobbyists, and a variety of other
activities, while committee staff members help with research
and drafting legislation
– Staff agencies, such as the Congressional Research Service,
provide valuable information to member of Congress
Congressional Elections
• Congressional elections are held every two
years in November
• most important factor that determines which
candidate wins an election is incumbency
– Incumbents are elected officials who already hold
office and are running for reelection
– Incumbents win reelection more than 90 percent of
the time
– Incumbency allows senators and representatives to
gain valuable experience and bring some stability to
Congress
Congressional Elections
• Incumbency may also work to insulate members of
Congress from change, making it more difficult for
constituents to change
• Senatorial races are usually intense because incumbents,
who tend to have higher profiles, are more likely to
be held accountable for public policy successes or
failures
– Senatorial challengers are more likely to be known already in
the political arena, because senatorial races often draw former
representatives or governors
– incumbents usually win, though by a narrower margin
– turnover in Congress usually occurs only when members retire
Incumbent Advantage
• Incumbents engage in activities that increase the
probability of being elected:
– Advertising: Advertising makes a candidate visible
to many constituents
• Name recognition is an important advantage for incumbents
• number of votes a candidate receives is fairly proportional
to his or her air time on television and the frequency of his
or her public appearances
• advertising requires a great deal of campaign funds,
particularly for senators, which explains in part why
Congress is composed mostly of wealthy men
Incumbent Advantage
• Incumbents engage in activities that increase the
probability of being elected:
– Credit claiming: Incumbents have the benefit of
being able to present their congressional record
to their constituents to demonstrate their hard work
in service of the district or state
• Incumbents may have helped specific people or groups
sidestep bureaucratic red tape (casework), or they have
helped with federal programs and institutions (pork
barrel)
• from this record of service to the constituency, incumbents
can build a more clearly defined public image, whereas
challengers new to politics are less likely to be able to
convey their position on issues to the public
Incumbent Advantage
• Incumbents engage in activities that increase the
probability of being elected:
– Position taking: Incumbent’s public image is
strengthened because they have already taken a
stand on issues relevant to their constituency
• at election time, this can work in their favor to identify
them in the minds of the public
• Party identification: Voters for the most part
cast their ballots along party lines
– thus, a predominantly Democratic district, for
example, is most likely to elect and then reelect a
Democratic candidate
Defeating Incumbents
• defeating an incumbent is very difficult, however
occasionally, incumbents are defeated
• sometimes redistricting can occur, causing an incumbent
to attempt to win over an unfamiliar constituency or
sometimes even compete against another incumbent
• sometimes incumbents are involved in scandals that are
visible in the media, which tarnishes their name
• occasionally, the unpopularity of a president of the same
party as the incumbent can have a negative impact on
the incumbent’s chances of success
Open Seats/Stability and Change
• When an incumbent leaves a seat open,
there is more likely to be competition
– usually the competition occurs within the
primary, as most seats are safe for one party
or the other
– this is unusual, so Congress does not change
very much or change very often
How Congress Is Organized to
Make Policy: American
Bicameralism
• A bicameral legislature is divided into two houses
• Legislation must pass both houses of Congress to
become law
• Senate is designed to represent states
• House is designed to represent the population
How Congress Is Organized to
Make Policy: American
Bicameralism
The House
• state’s population determines how many
representatives it has
• state is divided into congressional districts, each with
an equal population
• every ten years, district lines must be redrawn
according to the population data supplied by the
national census
• political party in power in each state will try and draw
district lines to their advantage, a process called
gerrymandering
• states therefore can lose or gain a seat in the House,
but total membership remains at 435
How Congress Is Organized to
Make Policy: American
Bicameralism
The House
• Other characteristics of the House:
– Members tend to vote along party lines
– Power is usually hierarchical
– Special responsibilities include introducing revenue bills and
articles of impeachment
• Key to agenda setting in the House is the House Rules
Committee
• House Rules Committee gives each bill a rule for
debate, schedules the bill on a calendar, and allows time
for debate and may specify what types of amendments
can be offered
• Speaker of the House chairs the Rules Committee
How Congress Is Organized to
Make Policy: American
Bicameralism
The Senate
• Power is more evenly distributed among senators
• Senators act more independently of their parties
• Special responsibilities include approving presidential
nominations, ratifying treaties, and the trial of
impeached federal officials
• Senators can filibuster
– power of unlimited debate means that they can talk so long that
they delay or even prevent voting on a piece of legislation
• Senators can stop a filibuster by voting for cloture,
which halts debate
– rarely happens because it requires 60 votes; the majority party
usually holds fewer than 60 seats, making cloture nearly
impossible
Congressional Leadership
The House
• there are several elected positions in the House of Representatives
– at beginning of each Congressional term, parties will meet in
caucus to elect these leaders
• leader of the House is the Speaker of the House, who is chosen by
the majority party
• Speaker presides over each session, and is largely responsible for
assigning representatives to committees or party positions
• majority leader assists the Speaker of the House in assigning
majority party members to committees and scheduling legislation
Congressional Leadership
The House
• minority leader leads the minority party in opposing the
agenda of the majority, and in choosing minority party
members for committees
• majority and minority whips are responsible for
“counting votes” for proposed legislation, working with
members of their party to get enough votes to pass or
defeat a piece of legislation
Congressional Leadership
The Senate
• Vice president of the United States is president of the
Senate
– role is more formal than active
– most authority rests with party leaders in the senate
• Majority leader in the Senate is usually the most
active or seasoned member of the majority party
– manages the schedule of debate and rallies party
votes for party legislation or against proposals of the
minority party
• Minority leader rallies the support of the minority
party around legislation and acts as its spokesperson
• Party whips assist party leaders in generating support
for party legislation
The Committees and
Subcommittees
• Committees are the nuts and bolts of Congress
– responsible for researching, assessing, and revising the
thousands of bills that are introduced by members of Congress
each year
– conduct legislative oversight, which is the monitoring of
federal agencies and their execution of the law
– Oversight usually takes the form of investigation-often
committees hold hearings to question agency officials about
the activities of their departments
– as the federal bureaucracy has grown over the last few decades,
so has the process of legislative oversight
The Committees and
Subcommittees
There are four basic types of committees
1) Standing committees handle a specific policy area, such as
agriculture, finance, energy, and commerce
– Both the House and Senate have standing committees
– each committee is often divided into subcommittees
2) Joint committees are responsible for legislation that overlaps
policy areas
– composed of both senators and representatives
3) Select committees are appointed to handle a specific issue,
such as an investigation or impeachment trial
4) Conference committees iron out the differences between the
House and Senate version of a bill
– consist of both members of both houses.
The Committees and
Subcommittees
•
Getting on a Committee
– One key to a new member of Congress’s success
is getting on a high profile committee
– Members seek committees that will help them
provide opportunity to assist their constituency or
publicity and help them get reelected
– Committee placement is decided by the chamber
leadership
The Committees and
Subcommittees
•
•
Committee Chairs and the Seniority System
Committee chairs influence the agenda of the
committee
–
–
–
the chair is always a member of the majority party,
and usually is the most senior member of the
majority party on the committee
the minority party member of the committee with
the longest tenure is called the ranking member
the seniority system was a formal rule used to
select chairs, but is no longer a requirement
Caucuses: The Informal
Organization of Congress
• Caucus
– a group of members of Congress who share a similar interest
• each party has a caucus, and there are hundreds of
caucuses, some are more active than others
– Congressional Black caucus and the Congressional Women’s
caucus are two examples
– Caucuses may hold hearings and put pressure on committees to
try to influence legislation
Congressional Staff (Personal
Staff, Committee Staff, Staff
Agencies)
• Members of the House of Representatives and Senators
have a number of staff who assist them in serving their
constituencies, researching legislation, and
communicating with those who contact the office
• Committees also employ staff to organize hearings, draft
reports, and perform other duties
• Congress has staff agencies such as the Congressional
Research Service (CRS) to track the progress of bills and
perform research for members of Congress
The Congressional Process
• Policymaking is a slow and laborious process, and often
a final bill has changed significantly from the original
• authors of the Constitution intentionally devised a
complicated legislative system as a means to prevent
hasty decisions and to encourage compromise in
policymaking
You should know how a bill becomes a law!
Some important committees to
know:
• House Rules Committee reviews all bills submitted
by committees before they go to the House floor,
assigns them a slot on the calendar, allocates time for
debate, and even decides where the bill may be
amended or not
– committee is unique to the House and has a
significant degree of power
• House Ways and Means Committee writes bills
concerning tax and other public revenue, which are
subject to the approval of both houses
Some important committees to
know:
• Senate Finance Committee works in conjunction
with the House Ways and Means Committee to write
tax and revenue bills
• Appropriations Committee in each house decides
how government money will be apportioned to
federal agencies
– largest committee on each side, and divides into
many subcommittees that attach to each of the
standing committees
Party Constituency, and Ideology
• Members of Congress do not always vote with their
party
– Partisanship tends to be strongest on economic and
welfare issues
– On other issues, members of Congress may act
more independently, especially to fulfill the needs of
their constituents
– although whips actively attempt to garner support
for certain legislation, they are not always successful
Party Constituency, and Ideology
• When representatives or senators do act independently,
what influences their vote?
• If the issue is of significance to their constituency, or is
likely to be highly publicized, members of Congress tend
to vote as the Constituency would want them to
• on the many other issues about which the public is less
informed, congressmen and women are more likely to
vote according to their own personal views and
convictions
Lobbyists and Interest Groups
• With lobbyists dominating Washington, how effective is
Congress in representing the people?
You should be familiar with both sides of this debate!
Congress Represents the Interests of the
Electorate
– Interest groups are organized by groups of “the people” to
make their views known so that policymakers will act on their
behalf
– pluralists contend, the competition among groups for the
support of members of Congress ensures that compromise will
play a part in policymaking
– issues on which Congress focuses are as diverse as the interests
pushing them to the forefront, thereby decentralizing the
political agenda and power in each house
Lobbyists and Interest Groups
• With lobbyists dominating Washington, how effective is Congress
in representing the people?
You should be familiar with both sides of this debate!
Congress Serves the Interest Groups, Not the
Public
– Critics argue that those interest groups with enough money to
buy influence dominate the policy agenda and distract
policymakers from the needs of the public
– So many competing interests prevent the formation of cohesive
policy
• different committees may handle the same policy issue in
dramatically different ways
– Ultimately the government wastes a significant amount of
money by attempting to appease so many interests
Congress, the President and the
Budget: The Politics of Taxing
and Spending
Chapter 14 (Edwards)
Congress, the President and the
Budget: The Politics of Taxing
and Spending
• president and Congress are responsible each year for
creating the federal budget
• balanced budget, revenues are equal to expenditures
• balancing the budget is extremely difficult, however,
especially when Americans favor more federal programs
but disapprove of increasing taxes
• spending more money than the government takes in
results in a budget deficit, which is difficult to avoid
given the demands on a large government
Sources of Federal Revenue
• Income taxes: A percentage of what a person earns
goes directly to the government.
– Sixth Amendment (1913) officially authorized Congress to
collect income taxes
– Internal Revenue Service collects income takes
• monitors people’s payments through audits
• investigates and prosecutes in cases of tax evasion
Sources of Federal Revenue
• Income tax is progressive
– people with higher incomes pay a greater percentage in taxes
• Opponents suggest a flat tax in which everyone pays an
equal rate
• Others propose a sales tax to replace the income tax
• Corporations also pay taxes on their income, but most
tax money comes from individual income taxes
Sources of Federal Revenue
• Social insurance taxes:
– Social Security taxes are paid both by businesses and their
employees
• Money collected from this tax is used specifically to pay
current monthly benefits to senior citizens
• these taxes have grown significantly and now account
for about one-third of the federal revenue
• As the population ages more people will be expecting
payments from the government
• Economists and Mr. Bekemeyer are concerned that the
baby boom generation may drain the system
Sources of Federal Revenue
• Borrowing: The federal government has borrowed a huge amount
of money over the years
– it borrows from foreign investors, foreign governments, and the
American people
– people can buy government bonds
• government gets the money but must pay it back to the
bondholder with interest
• money the government owes is the federal debt
– about 10 percent of the federal budget is allocated to pay just
the interest on the federal debt
– Future generations will have to pay for many policies enacted
today
• Lawmakers have considered proposing a balanced budget
amendment, which would require Congress and the president to
balance the budget each year
– Critics argue that it is too difficult to predict a balanced budget
because of the uncertainties of the economy
Taxes and Public Policy
• Tax loopholes: Any tax break that allows a person to
benefit from not paying a part of his or her taxes
• Deductions for specific items are considered loopholes
• Not everyone has the same access to loopholes
Taxes and Public Policy
• Tax expenditures: The losses in federal revenues that
result from tax breaks, deductions, and exemptions
– function as built-in subsidies -- the government loses money by
excusing a homeowner from paying taxes on a mortgage
• Middle- and upper-income people benefit the most
because they usually have more deductions and writeoffs
Taxes and Public Policy
• Tax reform: How much tax is almost always a point of
contention among Congress and the public
– most significant tax reform was President Reagan’s Tax
Reform Act of 1986, which cut taxes for everyone
• eliminated many deductions and exemptions
• exempted many low-income families from paying
• many cite these reforms as the cause of the enormous
national debt
– President Clinton raised tax rates on the wealthy
– President George W. Bush enacted a series of tax cuts across
all income levels, but that particularly benefited the wealthy
Federal Expenditures
• government must pay its own operational costs, which
make up a significant percentage of its overall
expenditures
• National security was the biggest expenditure during
the Cold War and Reagan era, but it had begun to
decline before September 11, 2001
Federal Expenditures
• Social services are now the biggest expenditure:
programs for people of low income and senior citizens
make up one-third of the budget
– Social Security began with the Social Security Act, part of
the New Deal
– Medicare, initiated in 1965, extended medical coverage to
senior citizens
• Because people are living longer and the current
generation of senior citizens is large, Social Security
taxes have risen
Federal Expenditures
• Uncontrollable expenditures are a form of
mandatory spending
– Pensions and payments toward the national debt are
fixed and thus not subject to budgetary cuts or
changes
– Entitlements are benefits the government must pay
to people who are eligible according to federal rules,
such as veterans’ aid, Social Security and welfare
Federal Expenditures
• Incramentalism is the basis on which the budget is
adjusted every year
– budget is calculated by assuming that the expenditures included
in the budget of the previous year will rise for the next year
– one issue is how large the increment should be, and another
concern is that this creates a system of an ever increasing
budget
The Budgetary Process
• budget affects and involves agencies and departments in the
federal, state
– even local governments
• Each year the budget process begins with the “spring review”
where the federal agencies review their programs and
prepare their requests for the next fiscal year
• Budget requests are submitted to the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB)
• “fall review” the OMB reviews the requests and submits final
requests to the president
• Interest groups and agencies often team up when making
budgetary requests
The Budgetary Process
• Based on all of the agency requests, the president
formally proposes a budget plan to Congress in
February
• since 1922 the president has been required to prepare
and submit a budget to Congress
• 1974, the Congressional Budget and
Impoundment Control Act was passed by Congress
to restore and regain some control over the budgetary
process
• House Ways and Means Committee and the
Senate Finance Committee write the tax codes that
will determine how much revenue the GOV will have
for the year
The Budgetary Process
• Congress must agree that on a budget resolution, the
final amount of expenditures not to be exceeded for the
year
• Appropriation Committees in both houses
determine how federal funds within the total
expenditure will be allotted among agencies and
departments
• Congress might make changes to existing laws to meet
the budget resolution
– Reconciliation: program authorizations are revised
– Authorization bill: expenditures allowed for discretionary
programs or the requirements for entitlement programs are
changed
• Congress must pass the final budget bill and the
president must sign it for it to become law