Congress, The First Branch Week of 4 April American Federal Government.

• Congress, The First Branch

Week of 4 AprilAmerican Federal Government

Congress

• Bicameral institution– 435 seats in the House of Representatives

• approximately 650,000 persons in each district

– 100 seats in the Senate

Congress

• Fair Representation? – Women/Minorities

Congress

• Fair Representation?– States determine geography of House districts– Malapportionment – Gerrymandering & the Census

States Gaining/Losing Seats After 2000 Census

The Gerrymander

Congress: Representational Issues

– Majority-minority districts • Shaw v. Reno (1993)

• Miller v. Johnson (1995)

– Representing interests: • individual constituents

• organized interests

• geographic - district as a whole

– Delegate vs. trustee models of representation

Racial Gerrymandering? North Carolina District 12

How a Bill Becomes Law

How a Bill Becomes Law

How a Bill Becomes Law

Congress

• Committee Structure – Committees & Subcommittees

• standing

• select

• joint

• conference

• “prestige” committees

– The work of committees • hearings, markups

– The power of committee chairs

Congress

• Staff Agencies – Congressional Research Service (CRS) – General Accounting Office (GAO)– Office of Technology Assessment (OTA)– Congressional Budget Office (CBO)

Congress

• Organizing Congress: The Importance of Party – House: more majoritarian

• Speaker’s role

• majority leader & whips

• minority party - a life of frustration? – minority leader’s role: loyal opposition?

Congress

• Organizing Congress: Senate – majority leader vs. Speaker of the House

Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert of IL

Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist, M.D.,

of Tennessee

Congress

• Floor Proceedings– House

• quorum

• closed rules

• open rules

• restrictive rules – king of the hill and queen of the hill rules

• The importance of the Rules Committee

• discharge petitions

Congress

• Floor Proceedings – Senate

• no rules limiting debate

• germaneness

• amendments

• filibuster

• cloture = 60 votes

• unanimous consent agreements– the way much business gets conducted

Congress

• Types of Bills – Public – Private – Resolutions (HR 200, SJR 20)

• simple

• concurrent (joint)

Congress

• Voting – voice votes– roll-call votes

• How do members decide? – Representational view – Organizational view – Attitudinal view

Party Division in Congress

Congress

• The Rise of Party Unity Voting– 51% of members of one party voting against

51% of the members of the other party

• Leadership reforms in the House

Party Unity Votes 1954-72, U.S. House

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

55

60

54

55

56

57

58

59

60

61

62

63

64

65

66

67

68

69

70

71

72

Year

Per

cen

t P

arty

Un

ity

Vo

tes

r = -.549

Party Unity Votes 1973-96, U.S. House

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

73

74

75

76

77

78

79

80

81

82

83

84

85

86

87

88

89

90

91

92

93

94

95

96

Year

Perc

ent P

arty

Uni

ty V

otes

r = .791

Restrictive Rules, 1977-94

0

50

100

150

200

250

95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Total Rules % Restrictive Rules

Number of Rules

Percent Restrictive

Republican Seats in the U.S. House, 1953-98

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100

101

102

103

104

105

Congress

Perc

ent

r = .935

0.3

0.35

0.4

0.45

0.5

0.55

0.6

83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100

101

102

103

104

Congress

Mea

n Id

eolo

gica

l Spl

it

r = .628

Mean Ideological Split between Democrats and Republicans, U.S. House, 1953-96