Congress
Chapter 11
The Constitution and the Legislative
Branch of the Government
 Article I describes
structure of Congress
 Bicameral legislature
 Divided into two houses
 Each state sends two
Senators regardless of
population.
 Number of representatives
each state sends to the
House is determined by
state population.
The Constitution and the Legislative
Branch of the Government
 Constitution sets out requirements for
membership in the House and Senate
 House – 25 years of age; reside in U.S. at least 7
years; serve 2 year terms
 Senate – 30 years of age; reside in U.S. at least 9
years; serve 6 year terms ; originally chosen by
state legislators, until 17th Amendment (1913)
 Congressional members must be legal residents of
their states.
The Representatives
and Senators
 The Job
 Salary of $174,000 (2009) with
retirement benefits. Who sets their
salary? ($193,400 for leaders,
$223,500 for the Speaker)
 Office space in D.C. and at home and
staff to fill it.
The Representatives and Senators
 The Job
 Travel allowances and franking (see
below and next slide) privileges.
 Often requires 10 to 14 hour days, lots of
time away from the family, and lots of
pressure from different people to “do the
right thing.”
Congressional Demographics
 Members tend to be
 Better educated than the population in general
 Ninety-five percent are college graduates;
over 2/3’s have advanced degrees.
 Richer
 Nearly 200 are millionaires; 21 Senators are
worth at least 3.1 million. 29 House members
worth that much as well. Who is the richest
Senator?
 Male
 White
Congressional Demographics
 Members tend to be
 Average age is 63 for Senators; 57 for House members.
 Aaron Schock (R-IL) elected in 2008 at age of 27.
 Occupations: No longer overwhelmingly lawyers
 214 members (182 Representatives and 33
Senators) list their occupation as public
service/politics
 204 (152 Representatives and 51 Senators) list
law
 201 (175 Representatives and 27 Senators) list
business
Apportionment and Redistricting
 Apportionment
 Proportional process of allotting
congressional seats to each state following
the ten year census. Who is responsible for
this?
 Redistricting
 Redrawing of congressional districts to
reflect increases or decreases in seats
allotted to the states, as well as population
shifts within a state
 1929: House size fixed at 435.
Congressional Elections
 Who Wins Elections? Why?
 Incumbent: Those already holding office.
Percentage of Incumbents
Reelected to Congress
Harold W. Stanley and Richard G. Niemi, Vital Statistics on American Politics, 1999-2000 (Washington, D.C.: Congressional
Quarterly Press, 2000), table 1-18; 2004 updated by Marc Siegal.
Congressional Elections
 The Advantages of Incumbents
 Advertising:
 The goal is to be visible to your voters.
 Frequent trips home & newsletters are used.
 Credit Claiming:
 Service to individuals in their district.
 Casework: specifically helping constituents get
what they think they have a right to.
 Pork Barrel: federal projects, grants, etc.
made available in a congressional district or
state.
Congressional Elections
 The Advantages of Incumbents
 Position Taking:
 Portray themselves as hard working, dedicated
individuals.
 Occasionally take a partisan stand on an issue.
 Weak Opponents:
 Most opponents are inexperienced in politics.
 Most opponents are unorganized and underfunded.
 Campaign Spending:
 Challengers need to raise large sums to defeat an
incumbent.
 PACs give most of their money to incumbents. Why?
 Does PAC money “buy” votes in Congress?
Running for Office and
Staying in Office
 Incumbency – Another Look
 The fact that being in office helps a person stay
in office because of a variety of benefits that go
with the position
 Name recognition
 Access to free media
 Inside track on fund-raising
 District drawn to favor incumbent creating
 Safe Seats
How Congress is Organized
American
Bicameralism
–Bicameral: Legislature divided into two houses.
 The House
 435 members, 2
year terms of
office.
 Policy Specialists
 Initiates all
revenue bills, more
influential on
budget.
 House Rules
Committee
 Limited debates.
 The Senate
 100 members, 6
year terms of
office.
 Policy Generalists
 Gives “advice &
consent”, more
influential on
foreign affairs.
 Unlimited debates.
(filibuster)
The United States Senate 2009
Party Membership by District
2009 House of Representatives
How Congress is Organized
 New Congress is seated every two
years.
 When does the next Congress begin?
 Elect new leaders
 Each house has a hierarchical leadership
structure.
The House of
Representatives
 Speaker
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Presides over House
Official spokesperson for the House
Second in line of presidential succession (Others?)
House liaison with president
Great political influence within the chamber
 Henry Clay, first powerful speaker (1810)
 Joe Cannon (1903-1910), was so powerful, that a
revolt emerged to reduce powers of the
speakership.
 Newt Gingrich (1995)
 Nancy Pelosi – first woman speaker
 John Boehner – Current Speaker
Other House Leaders
 Majority Leader
 Elected leader of the party controlling the most seats
in the House or the Senate
 Second in authority to the Speaker—in the Senate, is
the most powerful member
 Minority Leader
 Elected leader of the party with the second highest
number of elected representatives in the House of
Representatives or the Senate
 Whips
 Party caucus or conference
 A formal gathering of all party
members
The Senate
www.senate.gov
 The Constitution specifies the vice
president (Joe Biden) as the presiding
officer of the Senate.
 He votes only in case of a tie.
 Official chair of the Senate is the
president pro tempore (pro tem),
Primarily honorific
 Generally goes to the most senior senator of
the majority party
 True leader is the majority leader, but not as
powerful as Speaker is in the House
The Senate
 Senate rules give tremendous power to
individual senators.
 Offering any kind of amendment even if not
germane
 Filibuster (What was the change in 1975?)
 Because Senate is smaller in size
organization and formal rules have not
played the same role as in the House.
Committee System
 Standing Committees
 Continue from one Congress to the next—bills referred
here for consideration
 Joint Committees
 Includes members from both houses of Congress,
conducts investigations or special studies
 Conference Committees
 Joint committee created to iron out differences
between Senate and House versions of a specific piece
of legislation
 Select (or special) Committees
 Temporary committee appointed for specific purpose,
such as conducting a special investigation or study
How Congress is Organized to
Make Policy
 The Committees and Subcommittees
 The Committees at Work: Legislation and
Oversight
 Committees work on the 11,000 bills every
session.
 Some hold hearings and “mark up”
meetings.
 Oversight involves hearings and other
methods of checking the actions of the
executive branch.
 As the size of government grows, oversight
grows too.
How Congress is Organized to
Make Policy
 The Committees and Subcommittees
 Getting Ahead on the Committee: Chairs
and the Seniority System.
 The chair is the most important position for
controlling legislation.
 Chairs were once chosen strictly by the
seniority system.
 Now seniority is a general rule, and
members may choose the chair of their
committee.
Role of Parties in
Organizing Congress
 Parties and their strength have
important implications in Congress.
 Committees are controlled by the
majority.
 Committees set the agenda.
 All committee chairmen are from
the majority party.
 Why is this important?
Committees
 Committees are the most important
organizational feature of Congress
 Consider bills or legislative proposals
 Maintain oversight of executive
agencies - Examples
 Conduct investigations – Examples
Committee Membership
 Members often seek assignments to
committees based on
 Their own interests or expertise
 A committee’s ability to help their
prospects for reelection
 Pork/ earmarks: legislation that allows
representatives to bring home the “bacon”
to their districts in the form of public works
programs, military bases, or other
programs designed to benefit their districts
directly.
 Access to large campaign contributors
Committee Chairs
 These individuals have tremendous power
and prestige.
 Authorized to select all subcommittee chairs
 Call meetings
 Recommend majority members to sit on
conference committees
 Can kill a bill by not scheduling hearings on it
 Have staff at their disposal
 Seniority vs. loyalty to the party in the
House
 Seniority still important in the Senate
 Both chambers have term limits for chairs.
How Congress is Organized to
Make Policy
 Congressional Staff
 Personal staff: Work for the member.
Mainly providing constituent service, but
help with legislation too.
 Committee staff: organize hearings,
research & write legislation, target of
lobbyists.
 Staff Agencies: CRS, GAO, CBO provide
specific information to Congress.
Congressional Staff
 Constituency service is a major task
of members’ staff
 Legislative functions of staff include
devising proposals, negotiating
agreements, organizing hearings, and
meeting with lobbyists and
administrators
 Members’ staff consider themselves
advocates of their employers
Constitutional (Formal) Powers of
Congress
 The authority to make
laws is shared by both
chambers of Congress.
 No bill (a proposed
law) can become a
law without the
consent of both
houses.
 Each chamber also
has special,
exclusive powers as
well.
 Other shared powers
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Declare war
Raise an army and navy
Coin money
Regulate commerce
Establish the federal courts and
their jurisdiction
Establish rules of immigration
and naturalization
Make laws necessary and proper
to carrying out the powers
previously listed
 Special powers
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House – origin of revenue bills,
impeachment, (but Senate tries)
Senate – treaties (2/3 vote),
presidential appointments
The Congressional Process
 Legislation:
 Bill: A proposed law.
 Anyone can draft a bill, but only
members of Congress can introduce
them.
 More rules in the House than in the
Senate.
 Party leaders play a vital role in steering
bills through both houses, but less in the
Senate.
 Countless influences on the legislative
process.
How a Bill Becomes A Law
 Only members of the House or
Senate can submit a bill.
 Once a bill is introduced: usually a
dead end.
 Of about 9,000 or so bills introduced
during a session of Congress, fewer than
10 percent make it into law.
How a Bill
Becomes Law
How are the
House and
Senate
different?
How a Bill Becomes a Law:
Textbook Version
 In the Senate, bill may be held up by:
 A hold – a tactic by which a senator asks
to be informed before a particular bill is
brought to the floor.
 A filibuster – a formal way of halting
action on a bill by means of long
speeches or unlimited debate on the
Senate.
 Cloture: Mechanism requiring sixty
senators to vote to cut off debate.
 Riders and Christmas trees
 How could stealth bombers end up
attached to a National Parks bill?
How a Bill Becomes a Law:
Textbook Version
 Third state of action takes place when the
two chambers of Congress approve
different versions of the SAME bill.
 Conference committee
 Returns to each chamber for final vote. If it
does not pass in each chamber it dies.
 If bill passes, it is sent to the
president.
How a Bill Becomes a Law:
Textbook Version
 President can either sign it or veto it.
 The president has 10 days to consider a bill.
 Four options:
 Can sign the bill, at which point it becomes law.
 Can veto the bill; congress can override the veto
with a 2/3 vote in each chamber.
 Can wait the full ten days, at the end of which
time the bill becomes law without his signature
IF Congress is still in session.
 If Congress adjourns before the ten days are up,
the president can choose not to sign the bill. The
bill is then pocket-vetoed.
 Bill would have to be reintroduced and go through
the entire process again in order to become a law.
How Members Make Decisions
 Party
 Divided government
 Constituents
 Colleagues and Caucuses
 Logrolling (vote trading)
 Interest Groups, Lobbyists, and PACS
 Staff and Support Agencies
Summary of the November 7, 2006
United States Senate election results
The End