House and Senate Differences
• The smaller Senate encourages deliberation and
debate. It discourages specialization on particular
issues because senators serve large, often diverse,
statewide constituencies. In the Senate, less power is
concentrated in the leadership’s hands.
• The larger, more centralized and organized House gives
the leadership more legislative control and allows for
specialization. Differences in terms of office and
requirements for eligibility and representation
determine how both houses develop their
constituencies.
Sociological Representation and Social
Composition of Congress
• Sociological representation is a type of representation in
which representatives have the same racial, gender, ethnic,
religious, or educational background as their constituents.
It is based on the principle that if two individuals are similar
in background, character, interests, and perspectives, then
one could represent the other’s views.
• Congress is not a sociologically representative assembly.
Religious affiliations of members of both houses are first
overwhelmingly Protestant, then Catholic, and then Jewish;
this religious distribution is close to that of the population
at large. Women and minorities in Congress are greatly
underrepresented according to their proportion in the
general population.
The Future of Congress: Kyrsten Simena
Member of Congress, U.S.
House: 9th Congressional
District of Arizona
Democrat
1st Bisexual Member of
Congress
The only open Atheist
serving in Congress
1st Member of Congress
from the Millennial
generation (1979 – 1996)
During her House campaign,
Simena was attacked for
being an “anti-American
hippie” and accused of
practicing “pagan rituals.”
Worst Congressional Scandals in History
• Rep. Dan Sickles kills Phillip Barton Key—He was also involved in an affair with
Rep. Dan Sickles wife in 1859. When Sickles found out about the affair, he forced
his wife to sign a confession, and he then shot and killed Key when Key came over
for a rendezvous.
• Barney Frank’s prostitution ring—Long before he was caught up in the middle of
the subprime mortgage crisis, Barney Frank was making headlines for a different,
much seedier reason. In 1989, Frank admitted to having a lengthy relationship with
a male hooker who was running a prostitution service out of Frank’s apartment.
• Sen. Kennedy drives car off bridge, woman drowns—It was July 1969. Senator
Edward Kennedy offered a 28 year old secretary a ride home from a party. What
took place in the car has never been fully explained, but what we do know if that
Kennedy’s car went off a bridge and was submerged under water. Kennedy got out
of the car, fled the scene, and didn’t report the accident until the next morning.
• Congressional page sex scandal rocks Congress in 1983—The 1983 Congressional
page sex scandal was just another black eye for Congress. The House Ethics
Committee recommended that Rep. Dan Crane and Rep. Gerry Studds be
reprimanded for engaging in sex with minors who were congressional pages.
• Rep. Hays hires unqualified secretary for sex acts–In 1976, Rep. Wayne Hays’s
mistress told the Washington Post about her story of working for Hays. She said
Hays hired her as a secretary even though, as she put it, “I can’t type. I can’t file. I
can’t even answer the phone.” As it turns out, Hays didn’t hire her for her
secretarial skills. He hired her to have sex with him and his friends.
The Electoral Connection
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Who runs for office? Voters’ choices are restricted by who decides to run for
office. Today, political parties ensure that well qualified candidates run for
Congress, but running for office is a personal choice ignited by the individual’s
ambition, potential for raising funds, and support.
Incumbency - This is defined as holding the political office for which one is
running. Incumbents provide constituents with services to ensure reelection. The
services include taking care of individual requests and regular communications
with constituents to establish a personal relationship with them.
Apportionment and Redistricting - Apportionment is the process, occurring after
every census, (every 10 years) which allocates congressional seats among the fifty
states according to population changes.
Redistricting is the process of redrawing election districts and redistributing
legislative representatives. This happens every ten years to reflect population
shifts or in response to legal challenges to existing districts.
Gerrymandering - Redistricting can also give an advantage to one party by
clustering voters with some ideological or sociological characteristics in a single
district, or by separating those voters into two or more districts. The manipulation
of electoral districts to serve the interests of a particular group is known as
gerrymandering.
The Organization of Congress
• Party Leadership in the House. The elected majority
leader is automatically elected by the whole House as
the Speaker of the House, the chief presiding officer of
the House of Representatives.
• Party Leadership in the Senate. In the Senate, the
office of the president pro tempore is a ceremonial
position, held by the most senior member of the
majority party. In the Senate, the real power lies in the
hands of the majority leader and minority leader, who
perform tasks equivalent to their counterparts in the
House. Along with these organizational tasks,
congressional party leaders may control or try to set
the legislative agenda.
The Speaker of the House
• Paul Ryan– Speaker of the House.
• The presiding officer of the United
States House of Representatives.
• The Speaker, a member of the House,
is elected by a majority party caucus.
In addition to being chief spokesman
for the majority party, the Speaker
runs the proceedings of House debate
and voting, appoints committee
members, refers bills to committees
for research and development, and
has an influential voice in all stages of
a bill's consideration.
• The Speaker is second in the United
States presidential line of succession,
after the Vice President and before
the President pro tempore of the U.S.
Senate.
The Majority and Minority Leaders of
the U.S. Senate
• Mitch McConnell – Senate
Majority Leader.
• The Senate Majority and
Minority Leaders are two United
States Senators who are elected
by the party conferences that
hold the majority and the
minority respectively.
• These leaders serve as the chief
Senate spokesmen for their
parties and manage and schedule
the legislative and executive
business of the Senate.
• By rule, the Presiding Officer
(President of the Senate) gives
the Majority Leader priority in
obtaining recognition to speak on
the floor of the Senate.
The Committee System
• 1. Standing committees are permanent in nature. They have the
power to propose and write legislation. The jurisdiction of each standing
committee covers particular subject matter, such as finance, tax, trade,
Social Security, and Medicare. Among the most important standing
committees are those in charge of finances, such as taxation and trade.
• 2. Select committees. These are usually temporary legislative
committees set up to highlight, investigate, or address a particular issue
not within the jurisdiction of existing committees.
• 3. Joint committees are legislative committees formed by members of
both the House and Senate. There are four of these committees
concerned with economics, taxation, library, and printing.
• 4. Conference committees are temporary joint committees created to
work out a compromise on the House and Senate versions of a piece of
legislation.
The Committee Structure
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How Congress Decides
• Constituency. The constituency influence is not
straightforward. Most constituents do not know what
policies their representatives’ support. Still, in order to
be re-elected, members of Congress spend much time
anticipating which policies constituents like.
• Interest Groups. Interest Groups with the ability to
mobilize followers can be very influential in decision
making. These groups lobby Congress by informing
their membership by simulating grassroots pressure
(called astroturf lobbying, this technique can include
mass mobilization via collective mail) or by using
congressional scorecards rating members’ voting
decisions.
• Party Discipline. Party leaders exert influence over
party members’ congressional behavior.
Other Congressional Powers
• Oversight: Through hearings, investigations, and other
techniques, Congress exercises control over the activities of
executive agencies. This means Congress supervises how
legislation is carried out by the executive branch.
• Advise and Consent: Special Senate Powers: The
Constitution grants the president the power to make
treaties and to appoint top executive and judicial offices
only “with the advice and consent of the Senate” (Article II,
Section 2). For treaties, a two thirds consent in needed; for
appointments, a simple majority is required.
• Impeachment: The formal charge by the House of
Representatives that a government official has committed
“treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”