https://www.youtube.com/watch
?v=n9defOwVWS8&list=PL8dP
uuaLjXtOfse2ncvffeelTrqvhrz8H
&index=2
Congress
11
11.1
EQ: Characterize the backgrounds of
members of Congress and assess their impact
on the ability of members of Congress to
represent average Americans
Representatives and Senators
 Members
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 they represent
435 Representatives; 100 senators
TABLE 11.1: Portrait of the 113th Congress:
11.1
Members
11.1
 Demographics
 Descriptive versus substantive representation
 This simply means that they can’t represent their constituents
by being from the same background and having the same
problems, but they can represent them as advocates who
understand their problems and concerns.
Why Aren’t There More
Women in Congress?
 Women constitute more than half the U.S.
population but hold less than a fifth of
congressional seats.
 Fewer women running- win about ½ of the
time.
 Childcare-Women without children are more politically
ambitious
 Bias
 When candidates are equally qualified, there’s a bias in voters
toward the male candidate, therefore females must be MORE
qualified to win.
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
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
11.2
EQ: Identify the principal factors
influencing the outcomes in congressional
elections
Congressional Elections
 Who Wins Elections?
 Advantages of Incumbency
 Role of Party Identification
 Defeating Incumbents
 Open Seats
 Stability and Change
Who Wins Elections?
 Incumbents
 Over 90% win re-election in House
 Senators do not have it as easy
 Represent a larger more diverse constituencies,
more visible, held more accountable, serve a
longer term
 Incumbents perceive themselves as
vulnerable
 Hence fundraising and campaigning
11.2
FIGURE 11.1: Incumbency factor in
congressional elections
11.2
Americans disapprove of the performance of Congress as a
whole, but tend to think that their own representatives are an
exception and reelect them. This makes it hard to change the
makeup of Congress in a given election.
Advantages of Incumbency

11.2
Do Americans reelect their representatives because they agree with
their voting record? Hardly. Only 11% of Americans have any idea of
how their representatives voted on a given issue. If not policy, what
gives incumbents their electoral advantage?
 Advertising
 Franking Privilege = Constituent contact, telephone,
email, twitter, FB, etc.
 Credit claiming
 Casework-services to individual constituents
 Pork barrel projects
 (These are safer than taking credit for policy changes because
those win enemies as well as supporters)
Advantages of Incumbency
11.2
 Position taking- risky but can be effective
 Weak opponents who lack visibility and
experience
 Campaign spending
 House more than $1mil on avg
 Senate more than $10 mil
 Incumbent outspend their challengers 2 to 1
Role of Party Identification
 Parties and districts
 Drawn for one-party dominance-this also give
incumbents an advantage
 When state legislatures redraw districts every decade, they
look at the demographics of residents and draw the districts to
ensure that they’re safe seats for one party or the other
11.2
Defeating Incumbents
 Challengers are naïve
 But sometimes incumbents are vulnerable
(scandal)
 Redistricting – every 10 years – done by the
party in power in the STATE legislatures –
Gerrymandering
 Public mood
 Dissatisfaction w/ economy or scandals
 This happens most often in midterm elections, and
the party that holds the presidency almost always
loses seats in both houses.
11.2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcUDBgYodIE&index=47&
list=PLHTrUoI0-acy7fkBiZz0EaE1S-LS1cGgK
113th Congress
Open Seats and Stability and
Change
 Vacant seat @ election = no incumbent
running
 Most turnover occurs here
 Stability from incumbency
 Development of expertise
 Term limits?

Does this expertise outweigh the lack of responsiveness that results from
career politicians in safe seats? Some people have proposed term limits for
members of Congress. Do you think that’s a good idea?
11.2
11.2
https://www.youtube.com/watch
?v=qxiD9AEX4Hc&list=PL8dPu
uaLjXtOfse2ncvffeelTrqvhrz8H&
index=6
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
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
11.3
EQ: Compare and contrast the House and
Senate, and describe the roles of congressional
leaders, committees, caucuses, and staff
How Congress is Organized to Make Policy
 American Bicameralism
 Congressional Leadership
 Committees and Subcommittees
 Caucuses: Informal Organization of Congress
 Congressional Staff
American Bicameralism
11.3
 Bicameral legislature- Connecticut (Great)
Compromise
 Bills must pass both houses (exactly the same)
 Checks and balances
 House
 More institutionalized and seniority-based
 Rules Committee-functions as a traffic cop for bills coming out of
committee. It gives each bill a “rule,” which schedules the bill on the
calendar, allots time for debate, and specifies what kind of
amendments may be offered.
 Senate
 Filibuster (can end w/ cloture of 60 votes) – weapon of
minority party https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMeGxoyDC5o&index=51&list=PLHTrUoI0acy7fkBiZz0EaE1S-LS1cGgK
 Less centralized and seniority-based
TABLE 11.2: House versus Senate: Some key
differences
11.3
Congressional Leadership
11.3
 Leadership assignments are chosen by party
 House
 Speaker of the House – chosen by majority party (3rd
in line for POTUS), presides over the House
 Majority leader/minority leaders-work with the party whips
to persuade members to vote with their party on important bills
 Whips-Whips are a party's "enforcers", who typically offer
incentives and threaten party members to ensure that they
vote according to the official party policy
 Senate
 Vice president –leader of Senate – only breaks a tie
vote
 Majority leader is the de facto head (president pro
tempore)
Congressional Leadership
11.3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8urcMLGFyU&list=PL8dP
uuaLjXtOfse2ncvffeelTrqvhrz8H&index=8
Committees and Subcommittees
11.3
 Four types of committees
 Standing committees-handle bills in different policy areas.
Members of Congress each serve on several standing committees
and subcommittees.
 Joint committees-between the two chambers exist in a few
key policy areas, such as the economy and taxation
 Conference committees- created when the House and
Senate need to reconcile different versions of the same bill
 Select committees-deal with a policy issue, such as deficit
reduction, and may be temporary or permanent
TABLE: 11.3: Standing committees in the
Senate and in the House
11.3
Committees and Subcommittees
11.3
 Committees at work: Legislation
 9000 bill introduced annually
 New bills are assigned to a subcommittee, where they usually die.
 If they are debated and passed, they move on to the full
committee, where they have another good chance of never again
seeing the light of day
 If the bills pass out of committee, they move to the full floor of the
chamber for debate and voting, where they can also die!.
 legislative oversight- Once a bill becomes law, committees
remain involved in assigning budgets and monitoring the work of
the executive branch agency responsible for implementing the law.
legislative oversight.
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
11.3
 As important as formal structurenetworks spring mainly from friendship,
ideology, and geography.
 Dominated by caucuses
 500 caucuses today
 Goal is to promote their interests
 Black Caucus, Hispanic Caucus, Caucus for Women’s
Issues, etc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evLR90Dx79M&list=PL8
dPuuaLjXtOfse2ncvffeelTrqvhrz8H&index=7
Congressional Staff
11.3
 Personal staff (11,000+)
 Casework
 Legislative functions-ghost legislation, meet with interest
groups/lobbyists, negotiate agreements on behalf of
congressmen, summarize bills, brief legislators.
 Committee staff
 2,000 staff members
 organize hearings, research legislative options, draft committee reports
on bills, write legislation, and engage in legislative oversight.
 Staff agencies
 Congressional Research Service (CRS)- research
 Government Accountability Office (GAO)-legislative oversight
 Congressional Budget Office (CBO)- analyses president’s
budget
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
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
EQ: Outline the path of bills to passage and
explain the influences on congressional
decision making
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
https://w
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/watch?
v=66f4NKEYz4
&list=PL
8dPuua
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x=9
11.4
Presidents and Congress:
Partners and Protagonists
 President’s legislative (Chief Legislator)
agenda
 Persuade Congress (easy if the majority party is the
same party as president)
 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
11.4
 Constituency opinion versus member ideology
 Trustees versus instructed delegates
 What if a member of Congress has a different preference on a
policy than his constituents?
 The trustee model of representation says that legislators are
elected to use their best judgment. They have access to
information that their constituents don’t have and they should act
in their best interests.
 The instructed delegate model of representation states that
representatives must mirror the preferences of their constituents.
Lobbyists and Interest Groups
 D.C. is crawling with lobbyists
 12,000 of them
 Spent $3 billion in 2011
 Many were former members of Congress
 How lobbyists persuade




Provide policy information
Provide promises of money
Ghostwrite legislation
Status quo usually wins
 Disclosure requirements-
meaning influence is
made public (but that doesn’t slow them down)
11.4
https://www.youtube.com/watch
?v=ZT9ipQdYLs&index=10&list=PL8dPuuaLjXt
Ofse2ncvffeelTrqvhrz8H
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
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
EQ: Assess Congress’s role as a
representative body and the impact of
representation on the scope of
government
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 by members, not voters
 Senate based on states, not population
 Obstacles to good representation
 Constituent service vs. national interests
 Reelection campaigns (time consuming)
 Representativeness versus Effectiveness
 Senate represents each state equally, regardless of
population
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
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