12 Congress. Congress: Representing the American People A congressperson’s primary responsibility is to the district and to his or her constituency.

12 Congress

Congress: Representing the American People

A congressperson’s primary responsibility is to the district and to his or her constituency (the residents in the area from which an official is elected).

House and Senate: Differences in Representation

Framers provided a bicameral legislature—

The House of Representatives- elected by the people

The Senate- first chosen by state legislatures

Since 1913, Senators have been elected by the people.

House and Senate: Differences in Representation 435 House members elected from districts

apportioned according to population.

The 100 Senators are elected by state, two for each state.

The two houses play different legislative roles.

House and Senate: Differences in RepresentationThe smaller Senate encourages deliberation

and debate. Specialization on particular issues discouraged

since large, often diverse, constituencies. In the Senate, less power is concentrated in the

leadership’s hands.

House and Senate: Differences in RepresentationHouse is the larger, more centralized and organized

so leadership has legislative control and allows for specialization.

Differences in terms of office and requirements determine how both houses develop their constituencies and exercise their powers.

House members serve as well-organized local interests’ agents, whereas the senators serve as agents to both local and national constituencies.

Sociological versus Agency Representation

What does it mean to “represent” someone or something?

Book says two circumstances under which one person represents another:

Sociological representation- “mirrors” the represented

Agency representation- “accountability” to the represented

More Accurate Three Types of Representation

Legalistic

Sociological

Substantive

Legalistic

Two characteristics:

Authorization

Accountability*

* Books definition of agency

Sociological Representation

Representation in which representatives have the same racial, gender, ethnic, religious, or educational background as their constituents.

The idea is, if two individuals are similar in background, character, interests, and perspectives, then one could represent the other’s views.

Sociological Representation

The assumption here is that sociological similarity promotes good representation.

Thus, the composition of a properly constituted legislature ought to mirror, or reflect the society it represents.

This can lead to a “group” rather than individual orientation.

The Social Composition of the U.S. Congress

Congress is not sociologically representative.

Religions are over- or under- represented. Minorities and women are under-represented.

The Social Composition of the U.S. Congress

Most members of Congress are:

Lawyers

Businessmen

Industry professionals

Have religious affiliations

Higher income and education

Substantive Representation

More important measure– how well representative “serve the interests” of the represented?

Instructed delegate? Vote exactly as toldTrustee? Use own judgment in decisionPolitico? Act as delegate on some issues, as

trustee on others

Politico

Certain issues are core issues, with clear indications of constituents’ view, so little doubt as to how to vote, i.e., act as delegate

Non-core issues are offers representative more ability to use own judgment, i.e., act more as trustee

Trustee style helps to ease legislative process, since representatives can use “free vote” to aid other representatives in return for help later

The Electoral Connection

Three factors related to the electoral system affect who gets elected and what they do in office. Who runs for officeIncumbencyRedistricting

Who runs for office?

Voter’s choices are restricted by who decides to run for office.

Parties try to ensure that well-qualified candidates run for Congress, but to run for office is a personal choice ignited by the individual’s ambition and potential to raise funds and attract support.

Incumbency

Incumbency (being in office) gives great advantage in elections.

Already have won

Publicity from simply doing job

Case work

Fund raising

Incumbency factor for House members seen at worth 10% advantage over challengers

Incumbency

Incumbency help to give high reelection rates- incumbents tend to get re-elected.

This effect tends to preserve the status quo in

Congress and keeps the social composition of Congress consistent.

Incumbency

Supporters of term limits argue that such limits are the only way to get new faces in Congress.

However, because of retirement, there is a 10 percent average of congressional turnover during election years. (says the book(!) but this is overstated if one looks at the New Faces in Congress every two years.)

Redistricting

The last factor affecting congressional seats is the way congressional districts are drawn.

Reapportionment is the allocation of the 435 seats among the states after every decennial census as required by the Constitution.

States with population growth gain seats and states that lose population lose seats.

Redistricting

Lines are drawn by state legislatures and are greatly affected by partisan division in each state.

Districts are to be equal in population, contiguous, relatively compact, but majority party will draw lines to advantage its members now and in the future

Redistricting

Sometimes legal challenges to existing districts results in re-drawing the lines

As in 2000, Texas Republicans and Democrats went to court to challenge remaps that they viewed as unfair.

Redistricting

After the 1964 Civil Rights Act, race became a major and controversial consideration in redistricting (i.e. the creation of minority-majority districts to increase minority representation in Congress).

However, in the 1995 case of Miller v. Johnson the Supreme Court limited racial redistricting-- race cannot be the predominant factor in drawing district lines.

Direct Patronage

Congress members often have the opportunity to provide direct benefits or patronage for their constituents.

Pork barrel legislation

“earmarks” other projects for district

constituency service- case work

private bills

Direct Patronage

The House in 2007 passed a new ethics rule requiring those representatives supporting particular earmarks to identify themselves and guarantee that they had no personal financial stake in the requested project.

The new requirements seem to have had some impact. For example, the value of earmarks included in a 2007 military bill was cut in half, although the reduced earmarks still totaled almost $8 billion.

The Organization of Congress

To exercise its power to make the law, Congress must first organize.

The building blocks include the political parties, the committee system, congressional staff, the caucuses, and the parliamentary rules of the House and the Senate.

Each of these plays a key role in organizing Congress and formulating legislation.

Party Leadership in the House and Senate

A caucus is a legislative or political group’s closed meeting to select candidates, plan strategy, or make decisions regarding legislative matters.

Every two years, at the beginning of a new Congress, each party gathers and elects their House leaders.

The House Republican’s gathering is called the conference. Democrats call their gathering the caucus.

Party Leadership in the House and Senate

The elected majority leader is automatically elected by the whole House as the Speaker of the House, the chief presiding officer of the House of Representatives.

The Speaker is elected at the beginning of every Congress.

Party Leadership in the House and SenateThe Speaker is the most important party and

House leader, and can influence the legislative agenda, the fate of individual pieces of legislation, and members’ positions within the House and committee assignments.

Party Leadership in the House and SenateThe House majority then elects a majority

leader, while the minority party elects a minority leader.

In the House, the majority leader is subordinate in the party hierarchy to the Speaker of the House.

Both parties also elect whips to line up party members on votes and convey voting information to the leaders.

Party Leadership in the House and SenateIn the Senate the president pro tempore is a

ceremonial position, held by the most senior member of the majority party.

In the Senate the real power lies in the hands of the majority leader and minority leader, who perform tasks equivalent to their counterparts in the House.

Along with these organizational tasks, congressional party leaders may control or try to set the legislative agenda.

The Committee System: The Core of CongressThe committee system is central to

congressional operation. Congress relies on committees to do the work of building legislation.

There are different types of committees, including:

The Committee System: The Core of CongressStanding committees

These are permanent in nature. They have the power to propose and write

legislation. The jurisdiction of each standing committee

covers particular subject matter, such as finance, tax, trade, Social Security, and Medicare.

The Committee System: The Core of CongressStanding committees

Among the most important standing committees are those in charge of finances, such as taxation and trade.

Appropriations committees also play important roles because they decide how much funding various programs will actually receive.

The Committee System: The Core of CongressStanding committees

The House Rules committee allots debate time and sets rules for making amendments.

More will be said later about the importance of this standing committee in the legislative process.

The Committee System: The Core of CongressSelect committees

They are usually temporary legislative committees set up to highlight or investigate or address a particular issue that is not within the jurisdiction of existing committees.

The Committee System: The Core of CongressJoint committees

These are legislative committees formed by members of both the House and Senate.

There are four of these committees: economic, taxation, library, and printing.

Joint committees play important information-gathering roles.

The Committee System: The Core of CongressConference Committees

These are temporary joint committees created to work out a compromise on the House and Senate versions of a piece of legislation.

These committees are important in reconciling differences between House and Senate legislation.

Politics and the Organization of Committees Hierarchy

Each committee’s hierarchy is usually based on seniority (an individual’s ranking based on the length of continuous service on a congressional committee).

From time to time, both parties have departed from the seniority system in order to foster other legislative and electoral goals.

Politics and the Organization of Committees Hierarchy

Over the years, Congress has changed its original structure and operating procedures.

Among those changes is the increase in subcommittees, which are responsible for considering a specific subset of issues under a committee’s jurisdiction.

Politics and the Organization of Committees Hierarchy

This was done to reduce the power of committee chairs. However, this change brought power fragmentation

problems, making it more difficult to reach legislative agreement.

In 2001, the Republican House reduced the number of subcommittees and instituted limits on the number of times a member could serve as a committee chair.

The Democrats kept many of these reforms after taking control of Congress in 2007.

Politics and the Organization of Committees Partisanship:

Sharp partisan divisions among members of Congress have made it difficult to deliberate and bring bipartisan expertise to bear on policymaking as in the past.

With committees less able to engage in effective decision making and often unable to act, it has become more common in recent years for party-driven legislation to go directly to the floor, bypassing committees.

The Staff System: Staffers and AgenciesEvery Congress member employs many staff

members, whose tasks include handling constituency requests and, to a large and growing extent, dealing with legislative details and the activities of administrative agencies.

In addition to their personal staff, senators and representatives employ committee staffers who are responsible for administering the committee’s work, such as doing research, scheduling, and organizing the legislative process.

The Staff System: Staffers and AgenciesCongress also established staff agencies or

legislative support agencies responsible for policy analysis.

These agencies help Congress oversee the executive branch; they include the Congressional Research Service, the Congressional Budget Office, and the Government Accountability Office, among others.

Informal Organization: The CaucusesIn addition to the official congressional

organization, there is an unofficial structure—the caucuses.

A congressional caucus is an association of congressional members based on party, interest, or social group, such as gender or race.

Informal Organization: The CaucusesThey seek to advance the interests of the

groups they represent by promoting legislation, hearings, and favorable treatment. Some caucuses have evolved into powerful lobbying organizations.

Rules of Lawmaking: How a Bill Becomes a LawProcedural rules govern the process from the

introduction of a bill (a proposed law by a congressional member submitted to the clerk of the House or Senate) all the way to submission to the president for signature.

Schematic of process is on the next two slides.

Committee Deliberation

Draft bill submitted to the appropriate standing committee for deliberation.

Which gives it to standing subcommittee. It may hold hearings, testimony, and mark-up

(revision) sessions before the next step—passing the bill up to the full committee for mark-up and vote.

Committee Deliberation

Most bills allowed to “die in committee”If bill is voted out of committee, it goes to the

Rules Committee.

The Rules Committee allots debate time and floor amendments rules.

Committee Deliberation

The committee may attach a closed rule (a provision limiting or prohibiting the introduction of amendments during the bill’s floor debate), or an open rule (a provision that permits floor debate and the addition of new amendments to a bill).

Senate rules are more relaxed, reflecting the character of that chamber and there is no Rules Committee.

Debate

Floor debate is next.Speaker of the House and the Senate majority

leader have the power of recognition during the bill’s debate.

The House Rules Committee has allotted debate time to be controlled by the bill’s major sponsor and opponent.

Debate

Senate leadership less control of floor debate.\

Once given the floor, a senator has unlimited time to speak.

After floor debate, leaders schedule it for a vote on the floor of each chamber.

By this time the bill is expected to pass; otherwise it is not even brought to the floor.

Debate

Senators can filibuster to prevent action on legislation they oppose, by continuously holding the floor and speaking until the majority backs down.

Once given the floor, senators have unlimited time to speak, and a vote of three-fifths of the Senate, a procedure called cloture, is required to end a filibuster.

Debate

Senators can also place “holds,” or stalling devices, on bills to delay debate.

The origin of the hold is kept secret.

Senators place holds on bills when they fear openly opposing them will be unpopular, and sometimes when they hold a grudge.

Conference Committee: Reconciling House and Senate Versions of

Legislation

If bills are different, a conference committee is used to iron out the different versions

When/if a compromise version leaves the conference, it must pass another floor vote in each chamber.

It is easier for a bill to die than to overcome all of the hurdles successfully.

Presidential Action

Once a standard version of the bill has been adopted by both the House and Senate, the final step for the bill is to go to the president who may chose to do the following:

Presidential Action

Sign the bill and it becomes law

Veto the bill: in this case the president rejects the bill.

Veto is the president’s constitutional power to turn down congressional acts.

A presidential veto may be overridden by a two-thirds vote of each congressional house.

Presidential Action

If not signed, bill becomes law in 10 days, if Congress is in session

If the president does not act on a given piece of legislation passed during the final ten days of a legislative session, it does NOT become law.

This is called a “Pocket Veto”

How Congress Decides

External and internal factors play a role in congressional decision making.

External influences include the legislator’s constituency, interest groups, and political parties.

Internal influences include party leadership, congressional colleagues, and the president.

Constituency

Constituency influence is not straightforward.

Most constituents do not know what policies their representatives support.

Still, Congress members spend much time forecasting what policies constituents like in order to be reelected.

(Representational Types)

Interest Groups

These groups lobby Congress by informing their membership, by simulating grassroots pressure (called “Astroturf lobbying,” this technique can include mass mobilization via collective mail), or by using congressional scorecards rating congressional members’ voting decisions.

Party Discipline

A party unity vote is a roll-call vote in the House or in the Senate in which at least 50 percent of the members of one party take a particular position and are opposed by at least 50 percent of the members of the other party.

Party votes are rare today, although they were common in the nineteenth century. (Book not so current here– partisanship yields a large number of unity votes– see Fig 12.9)

Party Discipline

Roll-call vote is a vote in which each legislator’s yes or no vote is recorded as the clerk calls the names of the members alphabetically.

Party Discipline

Congressional party unity has increased in the last decade as the two major parties have taken deeply divided positions on various issues such as abortion, the minimum wage, school vouchers, affirmative action, and many more.

Party Discipline

Party unity is a product of shared ideology and background plus party leadership and organization.

Resources regularly used by party leaders to secure party members’ support include: leadership PACs, committee assignments, access to the floor, the whip system, logrolling, and the presidency.

Leadership PACs

Congressional leadership uses these independent fund-raising committees aggressively to win over a party’s congressional members.

PACs enhance party power and create a bond between the leaders and the members who receive their help.

Committee Assignments

By helping members get favorable committee assignments, leaders create “debts” that members want to repay.

Access to the Floor

Floor time allocation is controlled by party leadership (the Speaker and majority leaders recognize members to talk on the floor) in both the House and Senate.

The Whip System

The whip communication network takes polls of members to learn their voting intentions.

This enables leaders to know how support for the bill stands.

This system helps to keep party unity in both houses and allows leaders to know when they need to exert pressure on members, or offer “carrots” for support.

Logrolling

Logrolling is the legislative practice wherein agreements are made between legislators in voting for or against a bill (“I’ll support you if you support me”).

The Presidency

The most important influence is presidential. Support of the president is a criterion for party

loyalty, and party leaders are able to use it to rally some members.

Weighing Diverse Influences

Influence from external and internal factors varies in degree depending on the timing or stage of the bill.

Influence also varies according to the type of issue the bill addresses, constituent interest, and the historical moment.

Beyond Legislation: Other Congressional Powers

Legislation is not the only form of influence Congress has in governing.

Congress has other powers: oversight, appropriations, the Senate’s power to approve treaties and appointments, impeachment and removal of executive.

Oversight

Through hearings, investigations, and other techniques, Congress exercises control over the activities of executive agencies.

This means Congress supervises how legislation is carried out by the executive branch.

Oversight

During hearings about appropriations, most agencies are subject to oversight.

Committees have the power to investigate when fraud, waste, and abuse are found, and bring criminal charges for contempt (failure to cooperate) and perjury (lying).

Advice and Consent: Special Senate Powers

The Constitution grants the president the power to make treaties and to appoint top executive and judicial officers only “with the advice and consent of the Senate” (Article II, Section 2).

For treaties a two-thirds consent is needed; for appointments a simple majority is required.

Advice and Consent: Special Senate Powers

This gives Senators the power to set conditions; this is why presidents often resort to executive agreements (agreements made between the president and another country that has the force of a treaty but does not require the Senate’s approval) instead of treaties.

Impeachment

Impeachment is the formal charge by the House of Representatives that a government official has committed “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

During impeachment proceedings, the House acts as the grand jury by voting on whether to convict and forcibly remove the person from office.

Impeachment

A trial is held with the Senate as the jury, and requires two-thirds Senate to convict and remove that official.

This considerable power is an effective safeguard against the executive tyranny so feared by the founders.

We The PeopleAn Introduction to American Politics

Seventh Texas Edition

Benjamin Ginsberg

Theodore J. Lowi

Margaret Weir

Copyright © 2009 W. W. Norton & Company