Congress
If progress is the advancement of
society, what is congress?
Congress
US CAPITOL BUILDING
Legislative Branch – “makes laws”
Founders’ Intentions
1. Strongest branch
2. Separation of lawmaking power from
executive
3. Bicameralism balances large/small states
• House – more connected to people (2 yr term)
• Senate – allows for independent thinking (6 yr term)
Important Differences
House
• 435 members
• 2 year term
• 7 year citizen
Senate
• 100 members
• 6 year term
• 9 year citizen
• Initiate impeachment
• Revenue bills
• Tries impeachment
• Approve presidential
appointments
• Approve treaties’
• Loose debate rules
• Strict debate rules
The Representatives
and Senators
• The Job
– Salary of $145,100 with retirement benefits
– Office space in D.C. and at home and staff to
fill it.
– Travel allowances and franking privileges.
– But, there’s often 10 to 14 hour days, lots of
time away from the family, and lots of
pressure from different people to “do the right
thing.”
Constitutional Powers
Article I, Section 8
• To lay and collect taxes, duties, imports
• To borrow money
• To regulate commerce (states and foreign)
• To establish rules for naturalization
• To coin money
• To create courts (except Supreme Court)
• To declare war
• To raise and support an army and navy
Evolution of Powers
Elastic clause has extended Congress powers
• Oversight of budget – can restrict the fed.
budget prepared by executive branch
• Appropriations – set amount of money made
available for various activity in a fiscal year
• Investigation – Congress can launch
investigations (Watergate, Clinton-Lewinski
hearings, Steroids in baseball)
House Leadership
SPEAKER
OF THE
HOUSE
MINORITY
LEADER
MINORITY
WHIP
MAJORITY
LEADER
MAJORITY
WHIP
Senate Leadership
PRESIDENT of the
SENATE
(VICE PRESIDENT)
PRES. PRO
TEMPORE
MAJORITY LEADER
MINORITY
LEADER
MINORITY
WHIP
(MOST POWERFUL)
MAJORITY
WHIP
Leadership
• Majority party controls the most significant
leadership positions
• House - Speaker of the House
•
•
•
•
Allows people to speak on floor
Assigns bills to committees
Influences which bills are brought to a vote
Appoints members of special and select committees
• Senate – Majority Leader
• Schedules Senate business
• Prioritizes bills
Who’s in Congress?
110th Congress (2007-2008)
• 85% male
• 85% White
• 40% Lawyers
109th Congress (2005-2006)
• 29 accused of spousal abuse
• 7 have been arrested for fraud
• 19 arrested for writing bad checks
• 117 have bankrupted at least 2 businesses
• 8 have been arrested for shoplifting
• In 1998 alone, 84 were stopped for drunk driving
Elections
• House members directly elected
• Senators directly elected after 17th Amend
• House Incumbent advantage – Why?
– Name recognition
– Proven track record
– Franking privileges – free mailing
Texas Districts
Representation
• Malapportionment – unequal population in
districts
– Wesberry v. Sanders (1963) – found unequal
district pop. unconstitutional – 14th amend
• Gerrymandering – district boundaries are
redrawn in strange ways to make it easy
for candidate of one party to win
– Easley v. Cromartie (2001) – redistricting for
political ideology was constitutional, led to
increase in minority reps
12th District
How A Bill Becomes a
Law
• Create legislation, make laws
• Founders believed in a SLOW process
• Founders believed efficiency was a trait of
an oppressive government
Step 1 – Introduce Bill
• Introduced in Senate or House (except tax)
• Single or multiple reps can introduce bill
Step 2 - Committee
1. Bill is assigned to a particular committee
in its category (Ex. Tax bill – Ways and
Means Committee, Farm bill – Agriculture
Committee)
2. Bill is then placed in sub-committee
3. Bills are debated and “marked up”
4. Most bills die in committee, committee
can vote to “report out” a bill
Step 3–Rules Committee
• Before bill can go to floor in House, it must
first set time limits and amendment
regulations.
– Closed rule – sets time limits, restricts
amendments
– Open rule – permits amendments
– Restrictive rule – permits some amendments
Step 4 – Floor Debate
Senate Debate
• Less formal, no speaking limit
• Filibuster – practice of stalling a bill w/
debate
• Cloture – 3/5 of the Senate vote to stop
debate
House Debate
• More formal, no filibuster, strict rules
Step 5 - Voting
• Majority passes
• If the bill passes, it must go through the
same process in the opposite chamber
with a sponsor
• If the bill passes one house and fails the
other, it must start over
• If the Senate and House cannot come to
agreement over two versions, it goes to
Conference Committee to fix it and
resubmit the bill
Presidential Action
• Sign – bill becomes law
• Veto – bill returns to origin
• Override – 2/3 vote in both houses can
override veto
• Pocket Veto – President has 10 days to
act on a piece of legislation. If he receives
the bill within 10 days of the end of the
Congressional session, and doesn’t sign, it
dies
Override
Committees and
Subcommittees
• Most real work happens here
• Bills are passed, changed, ignored, or
killed
Types of Committees
• Standing committee
– handle bills in different policy areas
– (ex. Appropriations, Agriculture, Armed
Services, Science, etc.)
– most important and have been “standing”
(existing) for a long time
• Select committee
– formed for specific purposes and usually
temporary – run investigations (ex. Aging,
Intelligence)
Types of Committees
• Joint committee
– consist of both House and Senate members
– similar in purpose to Select committee
– Meant to draw attention to issues
• Conference committee
– consist of both House reps and Senators
– formed to hammer out differences between
House and Senate versions of similar bills
• Congressional Committees and
Subcommittees
Committee Membership
• Controlled by majority party, committee
membership divided proportionally
• Committee Chairman
– Senior member of committee
– Controls membership and debate
Work of Committees
• 11,000 bills introduced yearly, most die
• Committees can…
– Report out favorably/unfavorably
– Pigeonholed/table (do not discuss)
– Amend / “mark up” (change or rewrite)
Congressional Caucuses
• Groupings of members pushing for similar
interests
• Ex. – Sunbelt, Northeast-Midwest,
Congressional Black, Women’s,
Democratic Study Group, Boll Weevils,
Steel
Criticisms of Congress
• “Pork” – aka “pork-barrel legislation” – bills to
benefit constituents in hope of gaining their
votes
• Logrolling – Congress members exchange
votes, bills might pass for frivolous reasons
• Christmas-tree bill –bill with many riders (pork)
– in Senate, no limit exists on amendments, so
Senators try to attach riders that will benefit their
home state
Term-limits Debate
•
No current limit on how many terms
members of Congress can serve
1. Some argue this has weakened popular
control of Congress, reps might be
unresponsive to their constituents
2. Some argue most experienced reps have
the expertise to bring home more
benefits (pork, riders, etc.)