The
Congress
The Nature of Congress
 Bicameralism: the two chambers reflect the
social biases of the founders (Great
Compromise).



House of Representatives – population
(represents interests of large states)
Senate – 2 per state (represents interests of
small states)
Representatives + Senators=electoral votes
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Parliament
v. Congress
 Candidates selected by party
 Candidates run in a primary
 Voters choose between




national parties, not between
multiple candidates
Members of Parliament select
prime minister and other
leaders
Party members vote together
on most issues
Renomination depends on
remaining loyal to party
Principal work is debate over
national issues




election, with little party
control over nomination
Vote is for candidate/not
party
do not choose
executive/president
principal work is
representation and action
Great deal of power, high
pay, and significant staff
resources (perks and
privileges)
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Perks and Privileges
 Permanent professional staffs
 Average Senate office employs around 30 people.
 Total number of all congressional staffers has grown dramatically since 1960.
 Franking privileges
 Use of signature instead of a postage stamp to allow
for free mailings
 Costs taxpayers up to $10-$15 million per year
 Privileges and immunities under the law
 Special constitutional protection from the “speech or
debate” clause under Article 1, Section 6
 Cannot be sued for libel or slander based on
statements made during official duties
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So… how much do
Congressmen make?
 Take a guess!!!!
 Pay as of 2009… (and other privileges)
27th amendment
 No law, varying the compensation for the services
of the Senators and Representatives, shall take
effect, until an election of Representatives shall
have intervened. (No law that would pay
representative more or less in salary or other income
will be allowed to take effect until after there has
been another election)
 Pay keeps increasing due to COST-OF-LIVING
increases…
The Nature and Functions of
Congress
 The lawmaking function
 Makes binding rules (laws) for all Americans
 Sets broad national policies by compromise and
logrolling/ reciprocity (agreeing in advance to support one
another's bills)
 Divided government: when different political parties control
different chambers.
 Earmarks (pork): provide federal funding to companies,
projects, groups and organizations often in specific
congressional districts
Continued…
 Representation
Function –
represent
constituents’ views
but also should
represent views of
whole society
Olympia Snow and Susan Collins (AP Photo/Pat Wellenbach)
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Continued…
 Service to constituents
 Casework – assisting private citizens in dealing with
their individual problems and questions regarding
government actions
 Ombudsman – investigating and resolving the
complaints of constituents against noncompliant officials,
programs, etc.
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Continued…
 The oversight function
 the follow up on laws it has enacted to make sure
that they are being enforced and administered in the
way Congress intended.
 Has become increasingly partisan

Hearings and investigations – inquiries often eased up if
president from own party and cracks down when president
is from different party
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Continued…
 The public-education function
 Congress presents a wide range of views when it holds
public hearings, exercises oversight, and engages in
debate.
 Agenda setting – deciding what issues will come up for
debate and consideration
 The conflict-resolution function
 Congress tries to resolve differences among competing
points of view by passing laws to accommodate many
interested parties.
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Getting Elected to Congress
 Members of Congress are directly elected by
registered voters.
 Do not receive government funds for campaigns (only
President)
 Incumbents – those in office now…the most important
variable in determining the outcome of an election for a
member of the House
 Name recognition
 Credit claiming: service to constituents through:


Casework – specifically helping constituents get what they
think they have a right to
Pork Barrel spending
 PACs give most of their money to incumbents
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House and Senate Differences
Size and Rules
of the House
Size and Rules
of the Senate
 25 years old
 30 years old
 435 members (plus delegates
 100 members
from D.C. and U.S. territories)
 More prestige

Apportionment – later PowerPoint
slides
 2 year terms (all up for
reelection every 2 years)
 Many more formal rules govern
activities in the House
 Rules Committee (rules of
floor debate, stricter time limits
so pass bills more quickly)
 Each state has at least 1
representative
 6 year terms staggered (1/3rd
of Senate is up for reelection
every 2 years)
 The Senate is less crowded, so
procedures are more informal
 Filibuster – unlimited
discussion and delay to block
bills (dating back to 1790)..next
slide
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Rules Committee (House)
 controls what bills go to the House Floor and the
terms of debate
 makeup of the Rules Committee has traditionally
been weighted in favor of the majority party, and has
been in its current configuration of 9 majority and 4
minority members since the late 1970s.
 Open rules permit the offering of any amendment that
otherwise complies with House rules, and allows
debate under the 5-minute rule.
 Closed rules effectively eliminate the opportunity to
consider amendments, other than those reported by
the committee reporting the bill.
 Return to slide…
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The Filibuster (Senate only)
 Can be stopped through cloture (Senate Rule 22)
 http://www.senate.gov/CRSReports/crs-
publish.cfm?pid=%26%2A2%3C4QLS%3E%0A (what is cloture)
 Cloture is the only procedure by which the Senate can vote to set an
end to a debate without also rejecting the bill, amendment, conference
report, motion, or other matter it has been debating.
 vote by 3/5s of Senators (60) after two days of filibustering then
debate is limited to a maximum of one hour per senator
 Increased used of the filibuster
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remember….based on population so you have
to decide how many seat allocated to each state
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 Reapportionment – allocation of seats in
the House to each state after each 10 year
census (MS lost one House seat in 2000…
MS presently has 4 representatives)
 Important to states because it determines how many
House seats states gets
 More representatives – more influence
 Redistricting – redrawing congressional
district boundaries within each state
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How boundary lines are
drawn can affect elections
 Malapportionment – results from having districts of
unequal size
 If one district is twice the size of the other, twice as
many cotes are needed to elect a representative.
Thus, a citizen’s vote in the small district is worth twice
as much as a vote in the larger district
 Gerrymandering – drawing district lines in favor of
one party over another
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Supreme Court cases
 Look up the following cases and answer the
following questions:
 Summary of case (why did it reach Supreme Court)
 Question in the case
 Outcome of the case (the ruling)
Supreme Court Cases
Baker v. Carr
Wesberry v. Sanders
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4 Problems to solve in deciding who
gets represented in the House
 Establish total size in House
 In 1911, Congress decided the House was large enough and fixed its
size to 435 members.
 Allocating seats in the House among the states
 Congress reapportioned every 10 years.
 A complex formula was developed in 1929 that makes it
automatic…states gain/lose based on changes in population
 Determining size of congressional districts within states
 In 1964, the Supreme Court ruled that districts be drawn
according to the “one person-one vote” principle (Wesberry
v. Sanders)
 Determining the shape of those districts
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Head person
in
House…voted
in by majority
party (major
role in
committee
assignments)
Majority and
Minority
positions
based on
which political
party has the
most (or
least) in a
specific
political party
Real
leader in
Senate
Committees:
where all the
work occurs
(next slide)
The Vice
President
is head
person in
Senate –
only votes
in case of
tie
This person
heads
Senate when
Vice
President is
absent.
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The Committee Structure
 Most of the work of Congress takes
place in committees and
subcommittees.
 Power of committees
 The committees have the final say on most
bills.
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4 Types of Congressional
Committees
 Standing committee
 It is permanent and given a specific area of subject
matter.
 Develops expertise in subject matter
 Select committee
 It is created for a limited time and for a specific
legislative purpose.
 Example: Watergate investigation
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Types of Congressional
Committees
 Joint committee
 Formed by concurrent action of both houses and
consists of members of each chamber.
 Conference committee
 Formed to resolve differences in House and Senate
bill; must write a bill in identical form
 House rules committee (already discussed)
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Committees at Work: Legislation
and Oversight
 Legislation:
 Committees work on about 11,000 bills every session
 Legislative Oversight:
 Monitoring of the bureaucracy and its administration of
policy through committee hearings
 Oversight usually takes place after a catastrophe
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Getting on a Committee
 Usually, ratio of Dems and Reps on committees
roughly corresponds to ratio in House and Senate
 Members want committee assignments that will
help them get reelected
 New members express their committee preferences
to party leaders
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Remember….
 Committees are the real place where work in
congress is done!!!!
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How Congress is Organized to
Make Policy
 Caucus: formed by Members to provide a forum for issues or
legislative agendas (hundreds exist)
 There are a series of caucuses in Congress based on race, region,
ideology, and economics.
 Caucuses pressure for committee meetings and hearing and for
votes on bills
 Congressional Staff
 Communication between congressional representatives and
constituents occurs mainly through the personal staffs of
representatives
 Lobbyists and Interest Groups
 There are 35,000 registered lobbyists trying to influence Congress
 Tries to influence legislator’s votes
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Now that we studied the basic characteristics of
Congress AND we understand how many House
representatives each state receives, let us look at the
POWERS OF CONGRESS…. (already studied in
Federalism unit)
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The Powers of Congress
 Enumerated/Expressed Powers (Article
1 Section 8)
 Important powers are collecting taxes, spending
money, regulating commerce, coin money, declare
war, create federal courts…
 Powers of the House (only House)


Initiate revenue bills
Choose President if tie in Electoral College
 Powers of the Senate (only Senate)


Ratification of treaties
Confirmation of ambassadors, Supreme Court justices,
and other federal judges
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The Powers of Congress
 The Necessary and Proper Clause
 Article 1, Section 8, Clause 18
 Congress has the right under this clause to make all
laws which are necessary and proper to carry out
powers in Article One and all other powers vested in
the Constitution.
 Also called the Elastic Clause
 Expands the power of the national government
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Constitutional Amendments provide
additional powers to Congress
 12th amendment: certifying presidential election
(electoral process)
 16th amendment: levying an income tax
 20th amendment: presidential/congressional terms
(inauguration, term session, etc.)
 25th amendment: succession of president/vice
president in case of death or incapacitation (surgery,
etc.)
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HOW A BILL BECOMES A
LAW
 See handout…
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10,238
Bills introduced
Reported by committee
Passed one chamber
667 Passed both chamber
590
Public Law
How a Bill Becomes a Law
 Key things to remember…
 A bill is a proposed law.
 Anyone can draft a bill but only members of
Congress can introduce them.
 More rules in House than in the Senate.
 Party leaders play a vital role in steering bills
through both houses, but less in the Senate
 Committee Phase:


Most bills die in committee
All revenue bills begin in House; Senate may add/amend
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but only if House originated them
The House of
Representatives
 Debate of a bill in the House under a “closed rule”
means that amendments to the bill may not be
offered.
 The House Rules Committee reviews all bills and
adopts a rule that governs the procedures under
which they will be considered by the House.
 The Committee of the Whole is made up of whoever
happens to be on the floor at the time of debate.
 A quorum is the minimum number of members who
must be available for business to be conducted
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The Senate
 There is no rule limiting debate and members may
speak for as long as they stay on their feet.
 There is no Committee of the Whole, amendments
need not be germane (connected) to the purpose of
the bill, and, thus, the Senate often attaches
RIDERS to the bills.
 Rider - an “add-on” to a bill already under the
consideration of the Congress, having little
connection with the subject matter of the bill.
 A filibuster is difficult to break (already discussed).
 16 senators have to sign a petition to move cloture
and then 3/5s (or 60) Senators must vote for it. If it
passes, Senator is limited to one hour.
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How Much Will the
Government Spend?
• Budget and Control Impoundment Act of
1974
• President must spend the money Congress
appropriates.
• Congress examines the tax and spend
process at least twice in each budget cycle.
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Preparing the Budget
 The federal government operates on a
fiscal year cycle.
 Runs Oct 1st to Sept. 30th
 Process starts 18 months ahead of fiscal year
 Office of Management and Budget outlines the budget
and sends it to various departments and agencies.
 Each agency submits a formal request to the OMB.
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The Budget Cycle
Figure 9-4
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