Government Chapter Notes: The Congress

• Members of the public hold the institution in relatively low regard while expressing satisfaction with their individual representatives.
• If the Federal bureaucracy makes a mistake, the senator’s or representative’s office tries to resolve the issue.  What most Americans see of Congress, therefore, is the work of their own representatives in their home states.

 

• Why Was Congress Created?
• Congress was created to work not just for local constituents but also for the nation as a whole.
• The Founders of the American republic believed that the bulk of the power that would be exercised by a national government should be in the hands of the legislature.
• The leading role envisioned for Congress in the new government is apparent from its primacy in the Constitution. 
• Article I deals with the structure, the powers, and the operation of Congress.
• Bicameral legislature – Senate and House of Representatives
• The two chambers of Congress reflected the social class biases of the founders. 
• They wished to balance the interests and the numerical superiority of the common citizens with the property interests of the less numerous landowners, bankers, and merchants. 
• This goal was achieved by providing in Sections 2 and 3 of Article I that members of the House of Representatives should be elected directly by “the people,” whereas members of the Senate were to be chosen by the elected representatives sitting in the state legislatures, who were more likely to be members of the elite.
• With the passage of the 17th amendment in 1913, the Senators are also to be elected directly by the people.
• The logic of separate constituencies and separate interests underlying the bicameral Congress was reinforced by differences in length of tenure.
• Members of the House of Representatives are required to face the electorate every two years.
• Senators could serve for a much more secure term of six years – even longer than the four-year term provided for the President.
• Terms are staggered so that only 1/3 of the senators would face the electorate every two years, along with all of the House members.

• The Powers of Congress
• The Constitution is both highly specific and extremely vague about the powers that Congress may exercise.
• The first 17 clauses of Article I, Section 8, specify most of the enumerated powers of Congress – that is, powers expressly given to that body.
• The right to impose taxes and import tariffs (one of the most important of the domestic powers)
•  Borrow money
• Regulate interstate commerce and international trade (one of he most important of the domestic powers)
• Establish procedures for naturalizing citizens
• Make laws regulating bankruptcies
• Coin and print money and regulate its value
• Establish standards of weights and measures
• Punish counterfeiters
• Establish post routes
• Regulate copyrights and patents
• Establish the federal court system
• Punish pirates and other committing illegal acts on the high seas
• Declare war (most important foreign policy power)
• Raise and regulate an army and a navy
• Call up and regulate the state militias to enforce laws, to suppress insurrections, and to repel invasions
• Govern the District of Columbia
• Congress is also able to establish rules for its own members, to regulate the electoral college, and to override a presidential veto.
• Some functions are restricted to only one chamber.
• Under Article II, Section2, the Senate must advise on, and consent to, the ratification of treaties and must accept or reject presidential nominations of ambassadors, Supreme Court justices, and “all other officers of the United States.”
• The Senate may delegate to the president, the courts, or department heads the power to make lesser appointments.
• Congress may regulate the extent of the Supreme Court’s authority to review cases decided by the lower courts, regulate relations between states, and propose amendments to the Constitution.
• The amendments provide for other congressional powers
• Congress must certify the election of a president and vice president or itself choose these officers if no candidate has a majority of the election vote (12th amendment)
• Congress may levy an income tax (16th amendment) 
• Congress will determine who will be acting president in case of the death or incapacity of the President or vice president (20th amendment, Sections 3 & 4, and 25th amendment, Sections 2, 3, and 4.
• Congress explicitly is given the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of several other amendments.
• Necessary and Proper Clause (or elastic clause) – the power to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the powers of Article I and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or any department or officer thereof.
• This clause sets the stage for a greatly expanded role for the national government relative to the states.
• It also constitutes, at least in theory, a check on the expansion of presidential powers.

 

• The Functions of Congress
• The Law-making Function – requires decisions about the size of the federal budget, about healthcare reform and gun control, and about long term prospects for war or peace.
• Not all laws are initiated by Congress.  Most of the bills Congress acts on originate in the executive branch, and many other bills are traceable to interest groups and political party organizations.
• Through the processes of compromise and logrolling (offering to support a fellow member’s bill in exchange for that member’s promise to support your bill in the future), as well as debate and discussion, backers of legislation attempt to fashion a winning majority coalition.
• Service to Constituents – individual members of Congress are expected by their constituents to act as brokers between private citizens and the federal government.
• Casework is the usual form taken by this function of providing service to constituents.
• The Representation Function – generally, representation means that the many competing interests in society should be represented in Congress.  It follows that Congress should be a body acting slowly and deliberately and that its foremost concern should be to maintain a carefully crafted balance of power among competing interests.
• The Trustee View of Representation – legislators should act as trustees of the broad interests of their entire society and that they should vote against the narrow interests of their constituents as their conscience and their perception of national needs dictates.
• The Instructed-Delegate View of Representation—the notion that congressmen should behave as instructed delegates.  That is, they should mirror the views of the majority of the constituents who elected them to power in the first place.
• Generally, most legislators hold neither a pure trustee view nor a pure instructed-delegate view.  Typically, they combine both perspectives in a pragmatic mix.
• The Oversight Function – oversight of the bureaucracy is essential if the decisions made by Congress are to have any force.  Oversight is the process by which Congress follows up on the laws it has enacted to ensure that they are being enforced and administered n the way Congress intended.  Oversight is related to the concept of constituency service, particularly when Congress investigates alleged arbitrariness or wrongdoing by bureaucratic agencies. This is done by:
• Holding committee hearings and investigations
• Changing the size of an agency’s budget
• Cross-examining high-level presidential nominees to head major agencies
• The Public-Education Function – educating the public is a function that is exercised whenever congress holds public hearings, exercises oversight over the bureaucracy, or engages in committee and floor debate on such major issues and topics as political assassinations, aging, illegal drugs, or the concerns of small businesses.
• Congress also decides what issues will come up for discussion and decision -- agenda setting – is a major facet of its public education function.
• The Conflict-Resolution Function – Congress is commonly seen as an institution for resolving conflicts within American society.
• This puts Congress in the role of trying to resolve differences among competing points of view by passing laws to accommodate as many interested parties as possible.

• House-Senate Differences

Differences between the House and Senate

HOUSE	SENATE
Members chosen from local districts	Members chosen from an entire state
Two-year term	Six-year term
Originally elected by voters	Originally (until 1913) elected by state legislatures
May impeach (indict) federal officials	May convict federal officials of impeachable offences
Larger (435 voting members)	Smaller (100 members)
More formal rules	Fewer rules and restrictions
Debate limited	Debate extended
Less prestige and less individual notice	More prestige and more media attention
Originates bills for raising revenues	Has power to advise the president on, and to consent to, presidential appointments and treaties
Local or narrow leadership	National leadership
More partisan	Less party loyalty

• Size and Rules
• The House has 435 members, plus delegates from the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and the Virgin Islands
• The Senate has 100 members
• Greater number of formal rules are needed to govern activity in the House due to its size
• Looser procedures can be followed in the less crowded Senate
• This difference is most obvious in the rules governing debate on the floors of the two chambers:
• Senate permits extended debate on all issues that arise before it
• The House operates with an elaborate system in which its Rules Committee normally proposes time limitations on debate for any bill.
• As a result, the House is usually able to act faster on legislation than the Senate.

• Debate and Filibustering
• Filibustering in the Senate is unlimited debate to halt action on a particular bill. 
• Under Rule 22, debate may be ended by invoking cloture, or shutting off discussion on a bill.  Amended in 1975 and 1979, Rule 22 states that debate may be closed off on a bill if 16 senators sign a petition requesting it and if, after 2 days have elapsed, 3/5 of the entire membership (60 votes) vote for cloture.  After cloture is invoked, each senator may speak on a bill for a maximum of one-hour before a vote is taken.
• In 1979, the Senate extended Rule 22 to provide that a final vote must take place within 100 hours of debate after cloture has been imposed.
• Prestige – House of Representatives generally cannot achieve as much individual recognition and public prestige as can members of the senate (because of their size).  Senators, especially those who openly express presidential ambitions, are better able to gain media exposure and to establish careers as spokespersons for large national constituencies.

 

• Congresspersons and the Citizenry: A Comparison
• Government institutions are given life by the people who work in them and shape them as political structures.
• Members of the House and Senate are not typical American citizens.

• Congressional Elections
• Congressional elections are operated by the individual state governments, which must conform to rules established by the U.S. Constitution and by national statutes.
• The Constitution states that House of Representatives are to be elected every second year by popular ballot, and the number of seats awarded to each state is to be determined by the result of the decennial census (every 10 years).  Each state having at least 1 representative.
• Senators are elected by popular vote (since passage of 17th amendment) every six years; approximately 1/3 of the seats are chosen every 2 years.  Each state has 2 senators.
• Under Article I, Section 4, of the Constitution, state legislatures are given control over “the times, places, and manner of holding elections for senators and Representatives.”
• Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations.
• Candidates for Congressional Elections – are likely to be very successful individuals who have been active in politics before.  They may be thinking about a House seat as a steppingstone to future political office as a senator, governor, or presidential candidate.
• Elections are very expensive.  The average cost of a winning senate campaign is around $5 million and a winning House campaign averaging more than $770,000.
• Once in office, legislators spend some time almost everyday raising funds for their next campaign.
• Most candidates for Congress must win the nomination through a direct primary in which party identifiers vote for the candidate who will be on the party ticket in the general election.
• Presidential effects – congressional candidates are always hopeful that a strong presidential candidate on the ticket will have “coattails” that will sweep in senators and representatives of the same party.
• The Power of Incumbency – An overwhelmingly majority of representatives and a smaller portion of senators who decide to run for re-election are successful.  This conclusion holds for both presidential-year and midterm elections.
• The pursuit of re-election is the strongest motivation behind activities of members of congress.
• The re-election goal is pursued in three major ways:
• By advertising – includes using the mass media, making personal appearances with constituents, and sending newsletters – all to produce a favorable image and to make the incumbent’s name a household word.
• By Credit Claiming – focuses on the things a legislator claims to have done to benefit his or her constituents – by fulfilling the congressional casework function or bringing money for mass transit to the district, for example.
• By Position Taking – occurs when an incumbent explains her or his voting record on key issues; makes public statements of general support for presidential decisions; or indicates that she or he specifically supports positions on key issues, such as gun control, or anti-inflation policies.  Position taking carries with it certain risks, as the incumbent may lose support by disagreeing with the attitudes of a large number of constituents.
• The shake-up in the 1994 elections – the 1994 midterm elections swept the Democratic majority in both chambers of Congress out of power and brought in a Republican majority in a nationwide change of government that surprised and shocked members of Congress and the parties themselves.
• The 1994 elections resulted in a “divided” government, which was reaffirmed by the voters in subsequent elections.

 

• Congressional Reapportionment
• The most complicated aspects of the mechanics of congressional elections are the issues of reapportionment (the allocation of seats in the House to each state after each census every 10 years) and redistricting (the redrawing of the boundaries of the districts within each state).
• Baker v. Carr – invoked the 14th amendment principle that no state can deny to any person “the equal protection of the laws.”  In 1962 the Supreme Court made reapportionment a justiciable question (that is, reviewable) in this landmark case.
• Reynolds v. Sims – the above 14th amendment principle was directly applied in the 1964 ruling.  The Court held that both chambers of a state legislature must be apportioned with equal populations in each district.  This “one person, one vote” principle was applied to congressional districts in the 1964 case of Wesberry v. Sanders, based on Article I, Section 2, of the Constitution which requires that congresspersons be chosen “by the people of several states.”
• Gerrymandering – a district is said to have been gerrymandered when its shape is altered substantially by the dominant party in a state legislature to maximize its electoral strength at the expense of the minority party.
• This can be achieved either by concentrating the opposition’s voter support in as few districts as possible or by diffusing the minority’s strength by spreading it thinly across many districts.
• In 1986, the Court ruled for the first time that redistricting for the political benefit of one group could be challenged on constitutional grounds in Davis v. Bandemer, the Court however, did not agree that the districts were drawn unfairly.
• “Minority-Majority” Districts – The Supreme Court had declared as unconstitutional districts that are uneven in population or that violate norms of size and shape to maximize the advantage of one party.
•  In the early 1990s, however, the federal government encouraged another type of gerrymandering that made possible the election of a minority representative from a “minority-majority” area.  Under the mandate of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Justice Department issued directives to states after the 1990 census instructing them to create congressional districts that would maximize the voting power of minority groups – that is, create districts in which minority voters were the majority.
• Many of these “minority-majority” districts were challenged in court by citizens who claimed that to create districts based on race or ethnicity alone violate the equal protection clause of the Constitution.
• In 1995, the Supreme Court agreed with this argument when it declared that Georgia’s new 11th District was unconstitutional.  The Court went on to say that when a state assigns voters on the basis of race, “it engages in the offensive and demeaning assumption that voters of a particular race, because of their race, think alike, share the same political interest, and will prefer same candidates at the polls.
• In subsequent rulings, the Court affirmed its position that when race is the dominant factor in the drawing of congressional district lines, the districts are unconstitutional.

• Pay, Perks, and Privileges
• Pay -- In 2012, annual congressional salaries were $175,00  
• Special Benefits – have access to private Capitol Hill gym; get low cost haircuts; receive free, close-in parking at the National and Dulles airports near Washington; get six free parking spaces per member in Capitol Hill garages – plus one free outdoor Capitol parking slot. 
• They also avoid parking tickets because of their congressional license plates and, until 1994, were not required to comply with most labor laws in dealing with their staffs. 
• They eat in subsidized dining room and take advantage of free plants from the Botanical Gardens for their offices, free medical care, an inexpensive but generous pension plan, liberal travel allowances, and special tax considerations.
• Members of Congress are also granted generous franking privileges that permit them to mail newsletters, surveys, and other letters to their constituents for free.
• Permanent Professional Staffs – more than 35,000 people are employed in the Capitol Hill bureaucracy.  About half of them are personal and committee staff members.  The personal staff includes office clerks and secretaries; professionals who deal with media relations, draft legislation, and satisfy constituency requests for service; staffers who maintain local offices in the member’s home district or state.
• The average Senate office employs about 30 staff members, and twice that number work on the personal staffs of senators from the most populous states.
• House office staffs typically are about half as large as those of the Senate.
• Congress also benefits from the expertise of the professional staffs of agencies that were created to produce information for members of the House and Senate.
• The Congressional Research Service (CRS) a section of the Library of Congress, furnishes a computer-based record of the contents and current legislative status of major bills that are under consideration.
• The General Accounting Office (GAO) audits spending by federal agencies, investigates agency practices, and makes policy recommendations to Congress, especially concerning the financial activities of the government.
• The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) advises Congress on the anticipated effect on the economy of government expenditures and estimates the cost of proposed policies.
• Privileges and Immunities under the Law
• Under Article I, Section 6, of the Constitution, they “shall in all cases except treason, felony, and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any speech or debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other place.  In other words cannot be sued for libel or slander or be subject to legal action while engaged in debate or speech.

 

• The Committee Structure
• Most of the actual work of legislating is performed by the committees and subcommittees within Congress.  Since no one member can possibly be adequately informed on all issues that arise in Congress, the committee system is a way to provide for specialization, or a division of the legislative labor.
• The flow of legislation through both the House and Senate is determined largely by the speed with which the members of those committees act on bills and resolutions.
• The Power of Committees – commonly known as “little legislatures,” committees have the final say on pieces of legislation.
• Chairpersons of committees exercise control over the scheduling of hearings and formal action on a bill.  They also decide which subcommittee will act on legislation falling within their committee’s jurisdiction.
• Types of Congressional Committees
• Standing Committees – permanent bodies that are established by the rules of each chamber of Congress and that continue from session to session.  In addition, most of the standing committees have created several subcommittees to carry out their work.
• Each standing committee is given a specific area of legislative policy jurisdiction, and almost all legislative measures are considered by the appropriate standing committee.
• Each member of the House serves on two standing committees, except when the member sits on the Appropriations, Rules, or Ways and Means committee – then they only serve on one standing committee.
• Each Senator may serve on two major committees and one minor committee (only the Rules and Administration Committee and the Veteran’s Affairs Committee are considered minor).
• Select Committees – is normally created for a limited period of time and for a specific legislative purpose.  Select committees are disbanded when they have reported to the chamber that created them.  They rarely create original legislation.
• Joint Committees – is formed by the concurrent action of both chambers of Congress and consists of members from each chamber.  Joint committees may be permanent or temporary, have dealt with the economy, taxation, and the Library of Congress.
• Conference Committees – special type of joint committees – are formed for the purpose of achieving agreement between the House and the Senate on the exact wording of legislative acts when the two chambers pass legislative proposals in different forms.  A bill cannot be sent to and signed by the president unless it is passed in both Houses in identical form.
• The House Rules Committee – is one of the most powerful committees in congress because of its “gatekeeping” power over the terms on which legislation will reach the floor of the House of Representatives.  A special committee rule sets the time limit on debate and determines whether and how a bill may be amended.
• The Selection of Committee Members --In the House, representatives are appointed to standing committees by the Steering Committee of their party.  Majority-party members with longer terms of continuous service on a standing committee are given preferences when the committee chairperson – as well as holders of other significant posts in Congress – is selected → seniority system.

Standing Committees of the 107th Congress, 2001-2003

House Committees	Senate Committees
Agriculture	Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
Appropriations	Appropriations
Armed Services	Armed Services
Banking and Financial Services	Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
Budget	Budget
Commerce	Commerce, Science, and Transportation
Education and the Workforce	Energy and Natural Resources
Government Reform	Environment and Public Works
House Administration	Finance
International Relations	Foreign Relations
Judiciary	Governmental Affairs
Resources	Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
Rules	Indian Affairs
Science and Technology	Judiciary
Small Business	Rules and Administration
Standards of Official Conduct	Small Business
Transportation and Infrastructure	Veterans’ Affairs
Veterans’ Affairs
Ways and Means

• The Formal Leadership
• Congress is organized by party.  Which ever party wins the majority of seats in either the House or Senate, they control the official positions of power in that chamber, and each important committee has a chairperson and a majority of members from the controlling party.
• Party leaders are a major source of influence over the decisions about public issues that senators and representatives must make everyday.
• Leadership in the House of Representatives – the House leadership is made up of the Speaker, the majority and minority leaders, and the party whips.
• The Speaker – the official leader of the majority party in the House. Their duties include:
• Presiding over meetings of the House
• Appointing members of joint committees and conference committees
• Scheduling legislation for floor action
• Deciding points of order and interpreting the rules with the advice of the House Parliamentarian.
• Referring bills and resolutions to the appropriate standing committees of the House.
• A speaker may take part in floor debate and vote, as can any other member of Congress.
• The Majority Leader – is elected by a caucus of party members to foster cohesion among party members and to act as a spokesperson for the party.  The majority leader influences the scheduling of debate and generally acts as chief supporter of the speaker.
• The Minority Leader – is the candidate nominated for speaker by a caucus of the minority party.  Their duties are the same as the Majority leader.  They speak on behalf of the president if the minority party controls the White House.
• Whips – are assistants to the majority and minority leaders.  They assist the party leaders by passing information down from the leadership to party members and by ensuring that members show up for floor debate and cast their votes on important issues.  Whips conduct polls among party members about the member’s views on major pieces of legislation, inform the leaders about whose vote is doubtful and whose is certain, and may exert pressure on members to support the leaders’ position.
• Leadership in the Senate
• President of the Senate (essentially ceremonial in nature) – the vice president of the United States.  He may vote to break a tie, and is rarely present for a meeting of the Senate.
• President Pro Tempore – the senate elects to preside over the Senate in the vice president’s absence.  Is a member of the majority party with the longest continuous term of service in the Senate.  Is mostly a ceremonial position.  Junior Senators take turns actually presiding over the sessions of the Senate.
• Majority Floor Leader – real leadership power in the Senate rests in the hands of the majority floor leader, minority floor leaders and their respective whips.
• Majority and Minority Floor Leaders have the right to be recognized first in debate on the floor.
• They control the scheduling of debate on the floor in conjunction with the majority party’s Policy Committee, influence the allocation of committee assignments for new members or for senators attempting to transfer to a new committee, influence the selection of other party officials and participate in selecting members of conference committees.
• The leader act as liaisons with the White House when the president is of their party, try to get the cooperation of committee chairpersons, and to seek to facilitate the smooth functioning of the Senate through the senator’s unanimous consent.
• Senate Party Whips – maintain communication within the party on platform positions and try to ensure that party colleagues are present for floor debate and important votes.

• How Members of Congress Decide
• Why congressmen vote the way they do is difficult to know with any certainty.
• One popular perception of the legislative decision-making process is that legislators take cues from other trusted or more senior colleagues.
• Party affiliation is the single best indicator of how a congressperson is going to vote

 

• How A Bill Becomes Law
• Each law begins as a bill, which must be introduced in either the House or the Senate.
• A “money” bill must start in the House
• The bill is referred to a committee and its subcommittees for study, discussion, hearings, and re-writing
• When a bill is reported out to the full chamber, it must be scheduled for debate (by the Rules committee in the House and by the leadership in the Senate)
• After the bill has been passed in each chamber, if it contains different provisions, a conference committee is formed to write a compromise bill, which must be approved by both chambers before it is sent to the president to sign or veto.

• How Much Will The Government Spend?
• All money bills, whether for taxing or spending must originate in the House of Representatives.
• Today, much of the business of congress is concerned with approving government expenditures through the budget process and with raising the revenues to pay for government programs.
• Congress requires the president to prepare and present to the legislature an executive budget.
• Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 – requires the president to spend the funds that Congress had appropriated, frustrating the president’s ability to kill programs of which the president disapproved by withholding funds.
• The act also forces Congress to examine total national taxing and spending at least twice in each budget cycle.
• Preparing the Budget – the federal government operates on a fiscal year (FY) cycle.  The fiscal year runs from October 1st through September 30th.
• 18 months before a fiscal year starts, the executive branch begins preparing the budget.
• The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) receives advice from the Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) and the Treasury Department.
• The OMB outlines the budget and then sends it to the various departments and agencies.  Bargaining follows.
• The OMB sends out a letter instructing agencies to submit their requests for funding for the next fiscal year.
• Congress Faces the Budget – in January, nine months before the fiscal year starts, the president takes the OMB’s proposed budget, approves it, and submits it to Congress.  Then the Congressional budgeting process takes over.
• Congressional committees and subcommittees look at the proposals from the executive branch.
• The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) advises the different committees on economic matters, just as the OMB and the CEA advise the president.
• Budget Resolutions – the first budget resolution by Congress is supposed to be passed in May.  It sets overall revenue goals and spending targets.  By September, Congress is supposed to pass its second budget resolution, one that will set “binding” limits on taxes and spending for the fiscal year beginning October 1st.
• In each fiscal year that starts without a budget, every agency operates on the basis of continuing resolutions, which enables the agencies to keep on doing whatever they were doing the previous year with the same amount of funding.

 

• The Question of Congressional Ethics
• Ethics is the most serious public relations problem confronting Congress today.  Perhaps nothing has so tarnished the public’s perception of Congress as the revelations concerning the abuse of staff members, the misuse of public funds, and the personal indiscretions ad corruption of members of that institution.
• Congresses’ response to revelations of member misconduct has been mixed.
• Public financing of congressional campaigns may offer a partial solution to recurring problems of financial misconduct.  Nonetheless, Congress has refused to impose spending limits on its members’ campaigns.