# Chapter 13 - Congress

# Opening Remarks

# Powers of Congress

1. Originally the framers of the Constitution intended congress to be the most powerful branch.
2. With the advent of an international presidency and the overall relatively unchecked growth of presidential power, Congress is no longer more powerful than the executive branch but it is more powerful now than it has ever been.
3. Congress is the most powerful on domestic issues.
4. Congress still has the power to embarrass the president

• Can conduct investigations of the CIA and of other executive comittes
• Can refuse to approve of the president's budget and/or severely cut funds.
• Can refuse to confirm the president's appoint of executive office heads or Supreme Court justices.
• Can impeach executive officers for wrong-doing, insanity, or incompetence.
• Congress alone has the right to declare war and ratify treaties, but the president can get around this.

# Essay Question

Discuss all the differences between the House of Representatives and The Senate.

# Structures of Congress

# Bicameral

Two houses.

# Differences Between House and State

Points	House of R	Senate
Members	435 people	100 senators
Term Length	2 years	no term limit
Min. Residency	1 year	18 months
Speaker of the House	✅	❌

Senate approves of treaties and presidential appointments.

Each senator is more powerful than a representative.

# Charactristics of Congressman

• Typical American elite profile.
• Career congressman - why?
  • Too difficult to defeat in election because:
    • Franking privilege.
    • Name recognition.
    • Incumbents get all the interest group money.
  • Only if there is a major crisis or a scandal.

# House

Must personally identify the way in which congressman vote.

# How Congressmen Vote

• Are they from a safe or unsafe district?

# Trustree Representative

Trustee representatives vote for what they feels is the best for the district.

# Delegate representatives

Delegate representatives is how congressmen from unsafe districts vote. The congressman votes exactly the way the constitutents want. Even if they disagree with their choice.

# Organizational View

The organization votes through the agreement of an organization. Ex: Republicans voting against every bill Obama wants to pass.

# US Congress vs Parliament

# Differences

• US Congress get paid more than most parliamentary members.
• US Congressmen wield more individual power than most.
• US Congressmen do not have to be loyal to their party.

# Characteristics of Congress

1. Congressional session - every two years there is a new session. We are now in the 115th, 2nd session of Congress.

# Congress

# General characteristics

• Review term
• Pay
• Must be at least 30 years old
• More prestige
• Number of staff members
• Longer residency requirements

# No germaneness rule

As long as someone is speaking on the floor, a vote cannot be taken.

# Filibusters

Filibusters can take place to prevent or delay a vote on a bill.

• Longest filibuster was 74 days in 1964 on a civil rights bill - cloture was used for the first time to end the filibuster.
• Cloture 16 senators must first sign a petition asking for a vote to end the filibuster and then 3/5ths (60) of the entire Senate (all 100 senators) must vote to end it. If cloture is successful, then the filibuster can only last for 100 more hours.

# Policy Committee

The Policy committee of each party - gives senators their assignments.

# Senate Organization

Position	In Power
President of The Senate	Mike Pence
President Pro Tempore	Orin Hatch
Majority Leader	Mitch McConnell
Minority Leader	Chuck Schumer
Majority Whip	John Thune
Minoriy Whip	Richard Durbin

53 Republicans

45 Democrats

2 Independents

# House of Representatives

# General Characteristics

• Review shorter term
• Less prestige
• Must be 25 years old
• Shorter residency requirements
• House of Representative is governed by more rules.

# Rules Committee

Is extremely powerful and partisan, gets to decide:

• Legth of the debate (No filibusters in the house)
• Whether bill will get to the floor or be killed
• Type of amendments
  • Open Rule
  • Closed Rule
  • Restrictive Rule

# House Organization

Position	In Power
Speaker of the House	Nancy Pelosi
Majority Leader	Steny Hoyer
Minory Leader	Kevin McCarthy
Majority Whip	James Clyurn
Minory Whip	Steve Scalise

197 Republicans

235 Democrats

3 Vacancies

Reasons why the speaker of the house the most powerful position in the congress

• In charge of more people
• She recognizes speakers - decides who may speak on the floor.
• Decides on committee jurisdiction
• Decides which committees bills go to.
• Appoints members of special and select committees

Chairmen of the other committees - Democrat

# Organization of Committees in Congress

Three functions of committees:

1. Consider bills or legislative proposals

• They have the power to kill bills as needed

2. Maintain oversight of executive
3. Conduct investigations

# How Bill Becomes Law

# Essay Question

Discuss how a bill becomes law, discuss the points of death and discuss how the public influences the bill.

# Points of death

• Speaker of the House
• Committee Chairman (most common point of death)
• Subcommittee Chairman (most common point of death)
• Rules Committee
• Majority Leader

Most bills die in Congress and never become law.

# Influences of Committees

• If the committee likes the bill they can markup the bill (making it presentable as a legal document).
• Subcommittee can vote to recommend or not recommend the bill, if it's not recommended, it doesn't pass.

# Quorum

The minimum number of members of an assembly that must be present at any of its meetings to make the proceedings of that meeting valid.

218 house members must be present for the vote to take place. 51 senators are needed for there to be a vote on the bill.

If congress is not in session in 10 days and the bill hasn't been signed, it's a pocket veto.

# Ways to Influence the Bill

• Write the bill (must be sponsored by a Congressman)
• Ask to testify at a committee hearing
• Ask Congressman (letter, e-mail, phone, text) to vote in favor or against a bill

# Comments

• Anyone can write a bill but only a congressman can introduce a bill to Congress.
• Speaker of the House assigns bill to a committee in the House, President Pro Tempore assigns the bill to a committee in the Senate.
• A bill not passed in the Congressional session is dead for the rest of the session and cannot be re-introduced.
• A bill can be assigned to several committees.
• Discharge petition or discharge motion used in the House and Senate to force reporting of a bill to the floor.
• Must have a quorum to vote on a bill (Senate 51, House 218)
• A bill must pass through both houses in exactly the same form.
• All money bills must originate in the House.

# President's Power over Bills

• Sign the bill, it is now law.
• Leave it on his desk and if after 10 days Congress is still in session, it is law.
• Veto the bill - it is not law unless Congress can over-ride the veto with 2/3rds in each house.
• Do nothing and if Congress adjourns before the 10 days are up, it is a pocket veto.

# Facts about Committees

House and Senate have similar committees because they both have to look at similar bills.

The party that the majority in each house, also has the majority of members on each committee.

Committee and subcommittee chairmen will be members of the majority party.

# Committee Assignments

• Committee assignments are determined by the party committee of each house.
  • Republicans assign republicals to committees and democrats assign democrats.
• Committee assignments are based on the following:
  • Congressman's seniority
  • Congressman's constituency - where they're from

# Different Types of Committees

• Standing committees - permanent committees. The only committees that can research a bill.
• Ad hoc committees - They're only there for a little while, after they've carried out their function they disolve..
  • Joint committees - members of both the house and senate on it.
    • Conference committee - Members of both and senate work together get one version of a bill.
  • Select committees - People on the select committee either come from the house or the senate for a specific purpose. (Eg: Trump administration)
• Ethics committee for both house and senate.
• Rules committee

# Criticisms of Congress

1. Congress is fragmented, unresponsive, and it takes a long time to pass a bill. More bills are killed than passed. Politicans are encouraged to encourage in actions like logrolling and pork barreling.

2. Congress isn't maintaining legislative review of the executive branch. This became apparent during the vietnam war when the congress felt like it was difficult to control the president's actions.

# Logrolling

Politicians doing favors for one another I'll vote for your bill if you vote for mine

# Pork Barrelling

Politicians putting amendments on bills that only help their own districts using the taxpayer money.

# Attempted Solutions

Sunshine laws were passed to expose everything the congress does publicly. All the information is available online etc... this is the important one

Secret ballot of committee chairmen (I totally zoned out for this one sorry)

Subcommittees granted more power to give them more of an incentive to investigate bills.

War Powers Act of 1973 60 days after the US troops have been deployed anywhere in the world, the congress can call them back. this has never been used

Establishment of a Congressional Budget Office for each house to investigate the budget allocated by the president.

# Discussion Questions

Trace the route of a bill through congress name all the points where a bill could die.

What are the different types of committees in Congress? What are the most powerful types of committees? How are committee assignments determined? What functions do committees perform?

What are some of the criticisms of Congress? How has congress sought to improve itself?

What are all of the differences between the House and the Senate? Discuss the leadership...

# Quiz Questions

• Which of the following statements are true in terms of the number of representatives each house has in congress and their respective term lengths: Standing committees
• Committes in congress have virtual power of life or death over every legislative matter.
• Legislators who think of themselves as deleagtes are most likely to follow the wish of their constitutients closely.
• Among the many powers of the house spakers is that he decides to which committess bills go.
• If you wish to study the real leadership power in the senate you would most likely focus on the majority leader.
• One of the most powerful committes in the house of representatives is the rules committe.
• Which of the following statements about introducing a bill in congress is correct? A bill not passed during the session of one congress is dead for the congressional session and cannot be re-introduced for that same session.
• If a house bill has just been reported out of committee and its sponsor worried that foriegn amendmends (uhh someting about the closed rule committe)
• As a member of congress if you vote for a dairy support bill because this is your party's position you would describe your vote as organizational.
• each of the following required in both houses for congress to overrde a presidential veto except a dicharge petition
• In the senate a filibuster can be ended by invoking cloture
• Which of the following is true: the presiding leader of the house considrered to have much more power than the leader of the senate
• One type of ad hoc committe that is used to work out the differences in a bill passed in the house and the senate is the conference committee.
• Factors taking into consideration when assigning a congressman his or her committee: Seniority and Const
• In order for a treaty or a supreme court judge to be approved for office which of the following must occur: The senate must approve.
• In which article of the constitution is congress disussed: Article 1

# Final Review

Discuss who can write the bill

Discuss the sponsorship of the bill

Starts in the house of whoever sponsors the bill

Discuss what happens at each step of the way on the chart on page 326 in my book "How a bill ebcomes law." At each step the bill could die

Don't forget to mention that you need a quorum in each house for a vote to take place

Discuss what the president can do to the bill

Public influence - write the bill, ask to testify in front of committee that is researching the bill, write letters to Congressmen urging them to support or defeat the bill

What the different types of committtees in Congress? What type of committee are the most powerful types of committees? What criteria is used to decide which committee a congressman will serve on? What functions do committees perform?

Discuss that the main purpose of Congress is lawmaking of all lawmaking work takes place in committee

Discuss the importance of standing committees

Discuss ad hoc (temporary) committees

Joint, Conference, Select

Criteria for congressmen to be put on a specific committee

• Type of district
• Seniority

Function of committees

• Law making - most important function
• Over-sight of the executive
• Carry out investigation

Congress has failed to perform legislative oversight well - define what this means

Overseeing the executive branch.

• War powers act 1973.
  • Congress can recall US troops for a given time after deployment, a check on the president's power.
• Establishment of a congressional Budget Office for each house
  • Every year the president writes a budget and it gets checked by the congressional budget office and see if it passes or not.

What are all the diffrences between the House and the Senate? Discuss the leadership positions of each house. How are the leadership positions determined? Which leadership position is the most powerful and why is it the most powerful?

1. House

• 2 year term
• 25 years old
• Based on population
• 435
• All money bills must start here

Rules committee powerful

• Lenght of debate - no more than 1 hour
• If amendments can be added Open, closed, restrictive rule (explain each)
• Type of vote on bill (discuss each type)

Speaker of the house (name) Very powerful, discuss why?

2. Senate

• 6 year term
• 30 years old
• Based on equality
• 100
• Must approve of presidential appointments to Judiciary, Cabinet, ambassadors, and key government positions like GBI, CIA, etc.
• Filibusters - discuss what it is and why it's important

3. Discuss how people get their leadership positions in Congress, what they are and who occupies each position