1. The Congress
Chapter 10

2. Article I Branch
 Congress is given the most power in the Constitution in
relation to other branches
 The other branches can check the power of Congress, but the
legal process starts in the legislature
 Powers (Article I, Section 8)
 Power of taxation and revenue-raising
 Levy troops
 Power of the purse
 Declaring war
 Regulate supply of money

3. Nature and Functions of Congress
 Lawmaking
 The process of establishing the legal rules that govern society
 Majority of bills originate in the executive branch; others traced to
interest groups and political organizations
 Logrolling
 An arrangement in which two or more members of Congress
agree in advance to support each other’s bills
 Often involves agreements to support legislative “pork”
 Earmarks “Pork”
 Special provisions in legislation to set aside funds for projects
that have not passed an impartial evaluation by agencies of the
executive branch

4. Nature and Functions of Congress
 Representation
 The function of members of Congress as elected officials
representing the views of their constituents
 How do legislators fulfill this function?
 Trustee view -- legislators should act according to his/her
conscience and the broad interests of society in general
 Instructed delegate view -- legislators who are an agent of the
voters who elected him/her and who votes according to the views
of constituents regardless of personal beliefs
 How much should personal belief influence a legislator?

5. The Senate
 Democracy of the States
 Part of the Great Compromise
 Represents smaller states “New Jersey Plan”
 Rule of the Elite
 Appointed and Select
 Overall
 Another way to limit government

6. The Senate: Why?
 Madison, Federalist #63
 A senate is desirable because of the “want of a due sense of
national character.”
 Respect
 “History informs us of no long-lived republic which had not a
senate.”
 Besides, most of the constitutions of the ratifying states had
bicameral legislatures

7. The Senate: Why?
 Madison, Federalist #63
 A “sense of national character,” and “due responsibility in
government” would not be found in the House of Representatives
 Too many people
 It is sufficiently difficult…to preserve a personal responsibility in the members
of a numerous body…”
 Too frequent elections
 2 years for the House vs. 6 years for the Senate

8. The Senate: Why?
 Madison, Federalist #63
 Need for a “select and stable member of the government”
 Madison – “As the cool and deliberate sense of the community ought,
in all governments, and actually will, in all free governments, ultimately
prevail over the views of its rulers, so there are particular moments in
public affairs where the people, stimulated by some irregular passion,
or some illicit advantage, or misled by the artful misrepresentation of
interested men, may call for measures which they themselves will
afterwards be the most ready to lament and condemn.”

9. The Senate: Why?
 The Senate is the force of stability in American politics
 A force of conservatism (not ideological, but in response to change)
 Examples:
 Dole and Republican leaders slow down Clinton (1993)
 Moderate Dems. and Reps. slow down Newt Gingrich (1995)
 G.W. Bush’s experiences were mixed
 Senate Dems. did not slow down his agenda in 2001, but gradually began to
obstruct his agenda after the mid-term election
 This can be counterproductive
 Southern filibusters slowed Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts (1850s and
1960s)

10. House-Senate Differences
House Senate
Members chosen from local districts Members chosen from entire state
2 year terms 6 year terms
Elected by voters (direct) Elected by state legislatures (indirect) until 1913
Can impeach (indict) federal officials Can convict federal officials who have been impeached
Larger # (435 members) Smaller # (100 members)
More formal rules Less rules and restrictions
Debate limited Debate extended
Less individualism and prestige More media attention and prestige
Originates bills for raising revenue Power to advise the president on, and to consent to,
presidential appointments and treaties
Local leadership National leadership
More party loyalty Less party loyalty

11. The Filibuster
 Filibuster
 Use of the Senate’s tradition of unlimited debate as a delaying tactic to block a
bill
 Existed in the House until 1811
 Cloture
 Debate may be ended on a bill of 16 senators sign a petition requesting it and
if, after 2 days have passed, 3/5s of the entire membership (60 votes)
recommend ending debate
 Increased use in the 20th century
 Some are advocating for its abolition as polarized legislation has led many to
threaten to filibuster on almost all legislation
 Sen. Strom Thurmond (D-SC) filibustered civil rights legislation for 24 hours
and 19 minutes in 1957

12. Congressional Elections
 Incumbency Advantage
 Larger percentage of incident in the House than in the Senate
 85-95% in House from 1960-1996; 50-95% in Senate from 1960-1996
 Increased federal spending and importance of the media helps
tremendously
 If the funding is coming to your hometown, you’ll probably vote for your
representative again
 Regional-local entrenchment
 “We’ve always voted _________, so we’ll keep voting _________.”
 Sophomore surge
 Good indicator if a first-timer gets reelected

13. 112th Congress: 2011-2013
Characteristi U.S. Pop. House Senate
c
Age (median) 36.8 55.8 62.6
Minority % 34.9 17.7 4
Female % 50.7 16.6 17
Adv. Degree % 10.1 66.2 78
Occupation
Lawyers % 0.8 38.6 57
Blue-collar % 23.0 1.6 3
Family Income (over 44.9 100 100
$50k)
Personal Wealth 4.7 44.0 58
(over $1 million in
assets)
Religion
Church membership
% 66.4 87.6 94
Catholic % 23.9 29.2 19
Protestant % 51.3 53.3 57
Jewish % 1.7 6.2 12

14. Districting and Redistricting
 Done by state legislatures
 MI, VA, CA, and TX in recent election cycles
 Reapportionment – allocation of seats in the House to each state after each census
 Redistricting – redrawing of the boundaries of the congressional districts within each
state
 Gerrymandering
 Drawing of legislative district boundary lines for the purpose of obtaining partisan or
factional advantage
 Called gerrymandered if the district’s shape is manipulated by the dominant party to
maximize its electoral strength at the expense of the minority party
 There is some evidence that it helps incumbents win
 Majority-minority districts
 Advantage – minorities do get elected
 Disadvantage – dilutes minority voting power by lumping it all into one district
 “Racial gerrymandering” now unconstitutional – Shaw v. Reno (1993)

16. Committees in Congress
 Official function
 Hearings and bill mark-up
 Types:
 Standing, select, joint, and conference
 Hierarchy
 Big committees are those that spend or raise money
 House – Ways & Means, Appropriations
 Senate – Budget, Finance, and Appropriations
 Status committees – Commerce, Armed Services, Judiciary, and
Agriculture

17. Committees in Congress
 Types Broken Down
 Standing -- a permanent committee in the House or Senate that
considers bills within a specific subject area
 Ex. Agriculture, Homeland Security, and Judiciary
 Select – a temporary legislative committee established for a limited
time and for a special purpose
 Ex. Formed to investigate public issues (sewage, child nutrition, etc.)
 Joint – a legislative committed composed of members from both the
House and Senate
 Ex. Issues pertaining to economy, taxation, and the Library of Congress
 Conference – special joint committees appointed to reconcile
differences when bills pass the two chambers in different forms
 Ex. 2011 debt ceiling issue

18. Committees in Congress
 Appointment to Committees
 Initially by party committees
 Once you’re in, selected by Seniority System
 Custom followed in both chambers of Congress specifying that the member
of the majority party with the longest term of continuous service will be given
preference when a committee chairperson is selected
 Committee Power
 Power to set the agenda: “gatekeeping power” over bills
 Oversight of agencies and the president
 Draw attention to a cause
 Grill individuals you don’t like
 (subpoena power is the same as the court system)

19. Theories on Committee Function
 Distributive theory
 Committees act as access points for earmarks “pork”
 Informational theory
 Committees act as fact finders
 Example: Why are primarily agricultural state
representatives on the Agricultural committee?
 Distributive – agricultural state reps bring home the bacon to their
farm constituents
 Informational – agricultural state reps should be on the Ag.
Comm. because they know farms and Ag.

20. Parties in Congress
 Party Hierarchy
 House: Speaker of the House, Majority Leader, Minority Leader,
and Whip
 Senate: President Pro Tempore, Majority Leader, Minority
Leader, and Whip
 Policy Committee -- schedules legislation
 Steering Committee (Dems.) and Committee on Committees
(Reps.) – committee assignments
 Campaign Committees – funding and organization for campaigns

21. Party Hierarchy
 House
 Speaker of the House – presiding officer in the House; always a
member of the majority party and is the most powerful and influential
member of the House
 Majority Leader of the House – selected by the majority party in
caucus to foster cohesion among party members and to act as
spokesperson for the majority party
 Minority Leader of the House – party leader elected by the minority
party in the House
 Whip – member of Congress who aids the majority or minority leader
of the House or Senate

22. Party Hierarchy
 Senate
 Vice President – presiding officer of the Senate; may vote to break a
tie
 President Pro Tempore – temporary presiding officer of the Senate in
the absence of the Vice President
 Senate Majority Leader – chief spokesperson of the majority party in
the Senate; directs the legislative program and party strategy
 Senate Minority Leader – party officer in the Senate who commands
the minority party’s opposition to the policies of the majority party;
directs the legislative program and strategy of the minority party

23. Voting in Congress
 Types of votes
 In committee, approval voting (yeas and nays) on floor, roll-call
voting
 Complicating voter inference
 Smaller provisions complicate this
 Easy to say someone voted against a program when they actually
voted against a larger bill that contained provisions for that program
 Ideology and Party affiliation heavily weigh on voting
 2011 Debt Crisis is a prime example
 Spatial Voting

24. Spatial Voting
Liberal Voter Conservative Voter
Left Right
The Median Voter
Median Voter Theory: Under certain condition (defined preferences and
free of irrelevant alternatives) median voter’s position is decisive in a
majority rule contest

25. Ideological (Spatial) Placement of
Senators
Kennedy Feingold McCain Hutchison Helms
Left Right

26. Spatial Voting: An Example
 Five Senators (classic example)
 Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Russ Feingold (D-WI), John McCain (R-
AZ), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Jesse Helms (R-NC)
 Four Bills
 $20 billion income tax increase
 Expanding FDA powers over the tobacco industry
 Increasing welfare spending by $10 billion
 University research projects funding increase by $500 million

27. Spatial Voting: An Example
Senator Tax Welfare FDA Univ $$
Kennedy Y Y Y Y
Feingold N Y Y Y
McCain N N Y Y
Hutchison N N N Y
Helms N N N N

28. How a Bill Becomes a Law

29. Government Spending
 Executive Budget
 The budget prepared and submitted to Congress by the president
 Since 1922, Congress requires the president to submit a federal budget of
government expenditures
 Fiscal year (FY)
 A 12 month period that is used for federal budgetary accounting purposes
 Runs from October 1 through September 30 of each year
 Spring Review
 Annual process to which the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requires
federal agencies to review their programs activities, and goals and submit their
requests for funding for the next fiscal year
 Fall Review
 Annual process in which the OMB, after receiving formal federal agency requests for
funding for the next fiscal year reviews the requests, makes changes, and submits
its recommendations to the president

30. Government Spending
 In January of each year, the president takes the OMB’s
proposed budget, approves it, and submits it to Congress
 The Congressional Budgeting Process takes over:
 Authorization – formal declaration by a legislative committee that
a certain amount of funding may be available to an agency
 Some authorizations terminate in a year; some are renewed
automatically
 Appropriation – the passage, by Congress, of a spending bill
specifying the amount of authorized funds that actually will be
allocated for an agency’s use

32. 2004 Federal Budget

33. 2008 Federal Budget

35. Budget Resolutions
 First Budget Resolution
 A resolution passed by Congress in May that sets overall revenue and spending
goals for the following fiscal year
 Second Budget Resolution
 A resolution passed by Congress in September that sets “binding” limits on taxes
and spending for the following fiscal year
 In reality, Congress has completed its budget on time in only 3 years since
1977
 This is partially the reason for the “Debt Crisis of 2011”
 Continuing Resolution
 A temporary funding law that Congress passes when an appropriations bill has not
been decided by the beginning of the new fiscal year on October 1
 Ex. In October 2010, Congress began arguing over rising government expenditure,
did not pass appropriations or a continuing resolution and thus, here we are today