The bill was both of political and practical value
It illustrates that the Congress is both a national lawmaking institution
and a representative assembly for states and districts
The chapter's focus: nature and relationship of congressional election
and organization, and concluding with congressional policymaking
The chapter's main points:
Congressional elections have strong local orientation, favor incumbents
Although party leaders in Congress provide collective leadership,
the work of Congress is done mainly through committee structure
Congress lacks the direction and organization required for the development
of comprehensive national policies, but it is well organized to handle
policies of relatively narrow scope
Congress's policymaking role is based on three major functions:
lawmaking
representation
oversight
Congress as a Career: Election to Congress
Section Introduction
In the nation's first century, service in the Congress was not a
career for most of its members
The modern Congress is made up of mostly professional politicians
Incumbents have a good chance of being reelected
Using Incumbency to Stay in Congress
An incumbent promotes one's reelection prospects by responding to
the constituency
Pork barrel projects: legislation that funds a special
project for a particular locale, such as a new highway or hospital
Service strategy: providing constituents with information
about and help with government programs
Frank privilege: Each member of Congress is permitted several
free mailing annually to constituents
Incumbents have a decided advantage when it comes to raising campaign
funds
Personal Misconduct
Roughly a fourth of House incumbents who lost their bids for reelection
in the last decade were shadowed by ethical questions
Turnout Variation: The Midterm Election Problem
Historically, the party holding the presidency loses seats in the
midterm congressional elections, particularly in the House
This pattern is attributable largely to a dropoff in turnout for
midterm elections
Strong Challengers: A Problem for Senators
Incumbents are particularly likely to face formidable due to the
prestige of the office
Redistricting: A Problem for House Members
Every ten years, after each population census, the 435 seats
in the House are reallocated among the states in proportion to their
population
The state legislatures decide how districts will be redrawn (or
not redrawn) through the process of redistricting
The process by which one party draws district boundaries to its
advantage is called gerrymandering
Safe Incumbency and Representation
Congress is not highly responsive to political change
The Republicans gained a decisive victory in 1994 on the strength
of voters' anger at Washington
A similar public mood in 1980 failed to translate into GOP control
of the House of Representatives
Safe incumbency weakens the public's influence on Congress
Who are the Winners in Congressional Elections?
One third of congressional members have studied law
Members of Congress are disproportionately white and male
Congressional Leadership
Section Introduction
Because of their independent power base in their state or district,
members of Congress have substantial independence within they serve
There is an inherent tension in Congress between the institution's
need for strong leadership at the top and the individual members'
need to exercise power on behalf of constituents
Party Leadership in Congress
The House Leadership
The main party leaders in the House are the Speaker, the majority
leader, the minority leader, and minority whip
The Speaker is often said to be the second most powerful official
in Washington
The powers of the Speaker:
to speak first on legislation during House debate
to give permission to members to speak from the floor
choosing the chairperson and majority-party members
of the House Rules Committee
assigning bills to committees
The Senate Leadership
The Majority Leader is the most important party leadership position
The powers of the Majority Leader:
formulates the majority's legislative policies and strategies
chairs the party's policy committee and acts as the
party's voice in the chamber
The Majority Leader does not preside over Senate
The Constitution gives presiding power to the Vice President
The V.P. usually does not preside over debate since he or
she only votes to break a tie
The President pro tempore has the right to preside
in absence of the V.P.
The position is usually given to the most senior member
of the majority and is largely honorary, since member
can speak as long as they wish
Party Leaders and Followers
The power of all party leaders rests in the trust placed in
them by members of their respective parties
They are also positioned to influence national debate
Party leaders are in a stronger position today than they were
a few decades ago as a result of changes in the composition of
the congressional parties
House and Senate members are less deferential to their leaders
than they were in the past
Today, junior House and Senate members pursue their own agendas
more aggressively
Committee Chairpersons: The Seniority Principle
Thirty-nine standing (permanent) committees (each with sub-committees)
Committee chairs are always members of the majority party, almost
always have the most seniority
Abuses by some committee chairs had led to the change
The seniority system persists because it has several important advantages:
reduces the number of bitter power struggles occur if the chair
were decided by open competition
provides experienced and knowledgeable committee leadership
enables members to look forward to the reward of a position
as chair after years of committee service
Congressional organization and leadership extend into subcommittees
Oligarchy or Democracy: Which Principle Should Govern?
A balance between conducting the nation's business and a place for
promoting constituency interests
European parliaments have power are entirely concentrated at the
top
The Committee System
Section Introduction
Most of the work of Congress is conducted through standing committees
Each standing committee in Congress has its own staff
Congress also has:
select committees, which are created to perform specific tasks
joint committees, composed of members of both houses
conference committees, which are joint committees formed temporarily
to work out differences in House and Senate versions of particular
bills
Committee Membership
Each committee includes Republicans and Democrats
Each standing committee has a fixed number of members
Each party has a special committee in each chamber with responsibility
for deciding who will fill vacancies on standing committees
Subcommittees assignments are decided subcommittee members
Committee Jurisdiction
The 1946 Legislative Reorganization Act requires each bill
introduced in Congress to be referred to proper committee
Jurisdiction has become contentious due to increased complexity
of issues
House subcommittees also have secure jurisdictions
How a Bill Becomes a Law
Committee Hearings and Decisions
A bill is a proposed legislative act
Once a bill is introduced by a member of the House or Senate, it
is given a number and a title and is then sent to the appropriate
committee, which assigns it to one of its subcommittees
About 10 percent of the bills make it out of committee to the
floor
A committee rarely decides fully the fate of legislation that
is important to the majority party or its leadership
If a bill seems to have merit, the subcommittee will schedule
hearings on it
From Committee to the Floor
If the majority of the committee votes to recommend passage of the
bill, it is referred to the full chamber for action
In the House, the Rules Committee decides:
when a bill will be voted on
how long the debate on the bill will last
whether bill can be amended
The Senate has no Rules Committee, the majority leader instead
schedules bills
All Senate bills are subject to unlimited debate, unless there
is a cloture vote by 3/5ths of the full Senate to limit debate
to 30 hours
Cloture votes can be used to thwart a filibuster -
a tactic to draw out debate till the other senators
give in by withdrawing the bill
Leadership and Floor Action
Committee action is decisive on bills that address small issues
The leaders and other members of Congress do watch committees
and subcommittees for fair play or divisiveness
On major bills, the party leaders are the critical factors
Barbara Sinclair has written that the majority party's leaders have
increasingly set the legislative agenda
Conference Committees and the President
For a bill to pass, it must receive the support of a simple majority
To become law, a bill must be passed in identical for by both the
House and the Senate
A conference committee is formed to resolve differences between
a House and Senate version of a particular bill
The bill then goes to the House and Senate floors, where it
can be passed, defeated, or returned to conference, but not amended
After passage, the president must the sign the bill for it to become
law,
unless president fails to sign bill for 10 days (excluding Sundays)
and Congress is still in session - the bill automatically becomes
law
if Congress is not in session after 10 days, then the bill does
not become law - a pocket veto
or the president can veto the law - killing the bill unless
two-thirds of each chamber votes to over-ride the veto
Congress's Policymaking Role
Section Introduction
The Framers of the Constitution expected Congress to be the leading
branch of the national government
Congress's policymaking role revolves around its three legislative
functions:
lawmaking
representation
oversight
The Lawmaking Function of Congress
Broad Issues: The Limits of Fragmentation on Congress
Congress is structured in a way that makes agreement on large
issues difficult to obtain
Congress is made up of 2 chambers, each with its own authority
and constituency base
There are many members, representing different and sometimes
opposing interests
The fragmented nature of Congress enables the president to assume
leadership on many issues
The president can:
legislative proposals considered (but not necessarily
adopted)
use leverage of office when prompt legislative action
is imperative
can influence shape of legislation with implied threat
of veto
In its lawmaking activities, Congress has the support of three
congressional agencies:
Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
General Accounting Office (GAO)
Congress in the Lead: Fragmentation as a Policymaking
Congress occasionally does take the lead on large issues
The great majority of the bills deal with narrow issues
Most of the legislation passed by Congress is "distributive"
It distributes benefits to a particular group while spreading
the costs among the general public
The Representation Function of Congress
Section Introduction
Representative function - the responsibility of a legislative
to represent various interests in society
Primary concern of a representative should be the interests
of the nation as a whole or those of his or her own constituency
Representation of States and Districts
To get reelected, most members of Congress, tend toward
a local orientation
The committee system of Congress also promotes representation
of local rather than national interests
Constituency interests are also advanced by logrolling -
the practice of trading one's vote with another member so
that each get what one wants for one's district
Representation of constituency interests has its limits
A representative's constituents have little interest
in most issues that come before Congress
Often, members of Congress have no choice but go against
the wishes of a significant portion of their constituency
Representation of the Nation Through Parties
When a clear-cut and vital national interest is at stake,
members of Congress can be expected to respond to that interest
In Congress, debates over national goals occur primarily
along party lines
Partisanship is the main source of division within Congress
Partisanship also effects the president's relationship with
Congress
The Oversight Function of Congress
Oversight function of Congress - the responsibility to see that
the executive carries out the laws faithfully and spends the money
properly
Oversight is carried out largely through the committee system
Oversight is easier to mandate than to carry out
When an agency is suspected of serious abuses, a committee
is likely to hold hearings
Most federal programs must have their funding renewed every
year - a requirement that gives Congress crucial leverage in its
ongoing oversight function
Oversight has it drawbacks, after the bureaucracy has acted
and creating the damage
Sunset law fixes a date on which a program will end, unless
it is renewed by Congress
The biggest obstacle to effective oversight is the sheer magnitude
of the task
Congress's zeal for oversight changes dramatically when allegations
of scandal attract national media attention
Enron example
Congress: Too Much Pluralism?
Congress is an institution divided between service to the nation and
service to the separate constituencies within it
Pluralists admire this feature of Congress
They argue that the United States has a majoritarian institution
in the presidency and the Congress is a place where a diversity of
interests are represented
Congress cannot at once be an institution that is highly responsive
both to diverse interests and to the national interest
