1. Origins and Dev of Congress Pre-constitutional background and precedents, Article of Confederation - England rule led to mistrust of exec power - Articles of confederation- first continental congress- document of rights of American citizens sent to England - 2nd continental congress becomes de facto representative body to England - 1776 declaration of independence sent to England, continental congress begins to govern and ratify the articles of confederation - structure of articles- unicameral legislature, legislators are chosen by states each state represented by a single vote, no independent exec no independent judiciary, had war power spending power essential powers but all required supermajorities to act, agreement on controversial issues impossible - problems- no power to tax, no regulate foreign interstate commerce, amending articles required unanimity among the states, issues over trade and slavery - constitutional convention 1787- 2 major plans of state representation- Virginia Plan- big state plan, population based representation, new jersey plan- small state plan, equal representation - compromise between two plans- house assumes the Virginia, senate new jersey - sent to states begins a divide- federalists and anti-federalists - federalist papers explain how the constitution was to be implemented- two most important states were unable to ratify the constitution- Virginia and New York - issues w/ constitution was it lacked a bill of rights - 1st congress creates core departments of fed govt- foreign affairs, dept of treasury - 12 amendments sent to states 10 ratified become the bill of rights - constitutional provisions- art 1 sect 2- house structure and member selection representative etc, art 1 sect 3 senate structure and requirements - art 1 sect 7- tax bills originate in house senate amends - art 1 sect 8- enumerated expressed delegated powers federal fiscal powers spend defense and general welfare - necessary and proper clause elastic clause- power of congress to do anything when it came to spending and borrowing powers, Hamilton won argument for bank of the US - advise and consent of the senate- senate ratifies treatises w 2/3 vote - separation of powers- federalism- division be fed govt and states= supremacy clause art 6 gives fed > states - major differences bw articles of confed and constitition - structural differences confed- unicameral leg, indirect election, no exec presidency, supermajority votes needed - structural dif constitution- bicameral leg, direct election, strong exec and presidency, majority votes needed - power differences confed- no taxation power, no regulation of interstate foreign commerce, no enforcement taxation no exec bureacy states can coin money - power diff- constitution- broad taxation power, commerce clause, amending easier, tax power, unlimited borrowing, large bureaucracy, no state can coin money 2. historical dev of leadership structure - initially no speaker role but now speaker key to the house and leader of majority party - henry clay shaped speakers role and established speaker as head of the house making committee assignments - Thomas reed developed speakers power- control the legislative process and establish rules committee - Joseph canon - Newt Gingrich- creates term limits of 6 years for chairs, republican - Speaker and maj leader decide what comes up for debate setting the chambers agenda and schedule controlling agenda to ensure legislative results - Committee system: - Committees early on were temporary panels - Now standing committees in 1916 - 3 types of committees: - 1- standing- legislative jurisdictions, 20 in House 100 subcommittees, 16 senate 70 sub - exclusive committees- members limited to one assignment approprations ways means senate- super a committees - 2- select/special- conduct investigations - 3- joint committees- housekeeping functions, tax analysis - House- 2 committee and 4 subcom assignments, committees majority party members ensure majority party concerns - Chairmen- Wilbur mills chairmen of ways means, seniority a factor but now not - No criteria for chairmen- merit expert diversity, but still seniority in senate - Senate- senators limited to 1 super a com and ¾ other committees ratios reflect chambers partisan ratio - Republicans have term limits on committee chairmen in house and senate- 6 years, got rid of speaker limits - Staff selection: - Congress power grown legislative agenda grown now professional staff - House limited to 18 full time staff and 4 part time - Senators unlimited staff members 3. House and senate legislative process - 1- referral- bill referred has to do w jurisdiction of established committees, house ways means- jurisdiction over tax revenue bills, social security, trade, fed debt - committee options- refuse to consider leg, consider leg initiate hearings and markup, consider leg but reject it or consider and report leg to the floor - 2- hearings- 2 types- substantive- what is in the bills, political analysis- scorecard of who is for or against the legislation - 3- markup - 4- report- leg reported on floor on a committee report through a maj vote - differences in house senate: - house- more difficult to bypass committee influence through discharge, members not guaranteed a seat on majority committees, centralized power in speaker of house - - - - - - - - - senate- can bypass committee, 1-propose non germane amendments to floor bills, 2placing bill immediately on calendar general orders, 3- suspending senate rules, 4discharge procedure UCA, committees have greater influence over floor scheduling and floor action because of the lack of centralized parliamentary power scheduling for house senate: house- maj party can manipulate agenda schedule to ensure leg outcomes, agto enda is tightly controlled by speaker majority party control of scheduling senate- maj min leaders must work together to schedule leg to form UCA, if UCA no reached then filibustered, not unilateral two parties work together to pass a UCA or invoke cloture, minority means to stall or kill leg by refusing to approve a UCA or cloture floor procedures: house- maj party, bringing motions directly to floor, special rule limits debate house maj can easily take action on legislation because it does not need any input or compromise from minority party senate- senate different maj party cannot bring legislation directly to floor because does not have ability to limit debate or limit amendments unilateral, cannot bring legislation directly to floor wo some minority party agreement due to the threat of filibuster – maj party less power in senate bcuz minority party must consent to pass UCA and invoke cloture floor procedures: house- if leg uncontroversial rules can be suspended done 78% of the time whatever speaker wants the rules committee typically votes in favor, maj party can seriously protect leg on the floor by being able to restrict debate and amendments unilaterally by applying a special rule senate- maj party can only seriously influence floor procedures if it is able to negotiate an advantageous UCA w minority party which can limit debate prevent amend, include germaness and bring motion to floor at a time, senate maj has little ability to protect leg on the floor from being filibustered if UCA cannot be reached and if 60 vote for cloture not reached role of the following: rules committee: allows maj party in house to exert serious control over the leg process including ability to schedule leg, quickly move on actions unilaterally, protect legisa on floor w limits on debate and amendments maj party has absolute control over the rules committee effectively making a house majoritarian institution UCAs: a single senator can hold or kill legislation Cloture proves: UCA cannot be reached then bill must undergo regular process where the motion to take up legislation and debate period of leg can be filibustered preventing bill from ever coming to a vote, cloture process 60 votes can stop filibuster and move bill to a vote UCA cloture only 2 ways of getting things done in senate require minority input more deliberative and individualistic institution 4. Purposes and types of legislative input - - General and investigative oversight- congress most potent check on exec branch congress responsibility to monitor evaluate revise existing law and implementation of law make sure exec agencies are executing laws correctly Amount and intensity of oversight is less when there is unified control of govt but trump lot of oversight despite unified control Incentives for oversight-pol needs to hurt other party, personal needs campaigning, princples and moral reasons adherence to laws Cat of oversight: Legislative Funding- approprations committees CBO General economy efficiencySpecial select joint Mechanisms for oversight- hearings and investigations- most popular, legislative vetoescongress veto, authorizations- appropriaitons- most effective oversight because it can cut off reduce increase or change agencies funds, oversight through agencies- GAO- CBO 5. Conference committees in leg process - Purpose- before measures sent to president must be passed the house and senate w exactly same text and bill number - Procedures 5 steps: - 1- house requests a conference and other chamber agrees - 2- selection and instruction of conferees - 3- bargaining in conference negotiating policy obj and proc issues - 4- filing conference report - 5- taking final house and senate action on conference committee version of the bill - relations to comittees of ju and parent chambers: - committee on juri - parent chambers- report must still be approved by 2 chambers - house- nongermane amendments frusturate rep of maj party - senate- changes to leg may prevent UCA - amendment exchange- pass same bill, simple amendment exchange- bill passes one chamber, second chamber gegin to amend bill, - complex- amendment exchange- ping pong, vulnerable to senate filibuster, bill goes back and forth bw 2 chambers - ex of amendment exchange civil acts right of 1964 6. - types of congressional staff now large staff personal chief of staff, leg assstens leg duties- constituency duties committee play role in hearings markup and report 2 comittees professional and administrative staffprof- tax attorneys admin- paperwork 7. - 8. - 9. - - congressional support agencies- GAO, agencies support the work of house senate and rely on nonpartisanship objectivity house v senate- role senate greater because senators assigned to more committee rely onmore expertise house members can only be on 2 com senaters 5 sen unlimited staff members leg and exec nomination filibusters cloture process in senate filibuster- senates rules do not restrict debate a bill can be killed by talking long time ^ tool used by minority party cloture process- 16 senators must sign petition for cloture, 3/5 vote of 60 sentors required to invoke it, then 30 hour debate limite, amendments must be germane, one hour of debate per senator legislative filibuster- threat of filibuster prevents a bill from coming to the floorexec nom fili- nuclear option congressional reform initatives dem changes in 70s seniority was a big factor in selecting committee chairmen prior to 70s dem move to make changes w seniority system- merit and more now republican changes- similar approach to dems, limit of 6 yrs chairs centralized power in speakership and party leaders decreased power of chairmen due to party control chairmen est committees leg agenda setting a schedule hearing manip, hearing select witness preside over hearings direct markup principle manager for floor debate subcom leg dem no term limits permeability of house and senate committees by minority party house- minority in little influence committee ratios more of maj 9-4 maj senate- min can influence, committee ratios reflect overall party ratio in senate house maj institurtion stay united can bypass any sort of minority disapproval through rules committee speakers powers over agenda and scheduling appointment of committees supermaj ratios senate indivisualist instit min influene- unlim deb and leg filibuster, nongermane amend, holds, need uca,
