Chapter 10: Congress

Section 1: Congressional Membership

Section 2: The House of Representatives

Section 3: The Senate

Section 4: Congressional Committees

Section 5: Staff and Support Agencies

Section 1: Congressional Membership I. When does Congress

meet? Congressional ________

versus congressional _____. How long is a session?_____

How long is a term?_____

The current Congress is the ______th Congress.

How many sessions will someone elected to the House serve?____

How about in the Senate? _____

II: Membership of the HouseTo qualify to run for election

as a member of the House of Representatives, you must:

1. Be at least _____ years old.

2. Have been a citizen for at least ______ years

3. Meet the residency requirements for the district they want to represent.

Members serve ______ year terms.

The number of representatives from each _____ is determined by the _________ of that state.

That’s one reason why we have a ________ every _____ years.

State __________ set up the congressional _________ in their states.

II. continued

If a state has ______ or ______ population, the number of representatives they get will change. This means the state needs to draw a new _____ to divide up the _______ to include the new districts or take out the old ones.

This process of redrawing the districts is called _______________.

If a state has gained or lost seats in the House, the process of changing the number of representatives they have is called ____________.

See p. 274. How many districts does Alabama have?______ Is that the same number that we had in 2000? _____

How has Alabama’s population changed in the ten years between the 2000 and 2010 census? ______

What pattern do we see across the country? _____________________

Is the redistricting always fair? Who controls drawing the

new state district map? Can we trust them to draw

the map in a fair way? Historically, state

legislatures have abused the redistricting power in two ways. . .

Packing & Cracking See p. 276

Dividing up the district so that the population was very uneven. (urban v. rural)

Drawing the districts in a way that gives more power to the political party in control. (Gerrymandering)

What does Alabama’s district map look like?

What district is Helena in? Who is our representative?

What has been done to prevent abuse of redistricting?

Gomillion v. Lightfoot (1960) An Alabama case in which all but 4 of the 400 eligible voters in Tuskegee had been drawn out of the district. The new district had 28 sides to it! What would have been the purpose of excluding voters from this district?

Famous Supreme Court Cases:

Baker v. Carr establishes that ______ and _____ districts should be about the same.

Wesberry v. Sanders establishes the principle of “____ person, one _____”, which means that districts should have populations that are roughly equal.

See Article I, Section 2

III: Membership of the Senate To run for Senate,

you must: . Be at least ____

years old. Be a citizen for at

least ____ years Be a resident of the

state you want to represent.

Senators serve ____ year terms. There is no limit to the number of terms they can serve.

There are ____ Senators. (each state has two) 1/3 of them are up for re-election every two years because the house is a continuous body. Why is this a good idea?____________

Membership Has its Privileges

Can’t be arrested while in Congress or in transit to & from

Can’t be sued for what they say while on the House floor. (slander)

Can be censured for bad behavior.

Salary of $________ (2002)

Pension of $150,000/year for life

Franking privilege (what’s this?)_______________

Free medical care & gym access

Money to pay for office space & staff in Washington, D.C.

Tax deductions to pay for two residencies

The Privileges of membership continued. . . Both Senators and House Members make

$______ a year and voted in 2006 to give themselves a pay raise effective January 2007 of 2%.

Is this fair compensation? Why? Why not? ________________________________

The President makes $400,000 a year (2001) and the VP makes $208,100 (2004)

Who is in Congress?

See p. 286 Almost 50% are lawyers

(why?) Most Congresspersons

are still _______, middle-aged ________.

Does Congress look like the rest of the country?__________

Why don’t our representatives represent what the country looks like?

The main reason why the makeup of Congress changes slowly is because of the advantage incumbents have.

Main advantages:Name ______________________ & credit ________Can use staff and franking

privilegeHave had media exposure

How Congress Works: the House of Representatives (Section 2)

I. Each chamber of Congress makes its own ___________________

Most of the work done in Congress happens in ___________. This is especially true in the ______ since it is larger than the _________

Party membership helps organize Congress in several ways:

The ___________ (party in power) chooses who chairs each committee

__________ (every 2 years)

Organizes the _________

Controls which _____ go to which ____________

Keeps the ___________

Who’s in charge in the House? House LeadershipA. The __________________

is leader of the majority party and has great power & influence over other members

B. The ______________ is the Speaker’s top assistant

C. The _______________: main job is to round up votes.

The _______________ is in charge of the minority party members in the House.

The minority party also has a ________________

What do these leaders do? Organize and unify

party members Schedule the work of

the House by controlling the calendar (majority party only)

Make sure House members show up to vote

Distribute and collect information

Keep the House in touch with the President

Influence lawmakers to support the policies of their parties.

How a bill passes through the House

The ________ Committee must approve bills before they can reach the floor for a vote.

Measures that do win House approval are then sent to the __________.

A member can introduce a bill in either house but the bill can originate elsewhere, often in the executive branch.

Bills are referred to __________ committees, where most _________.

Surviving bills are studied in ____________, and bills reported out of committee are placed on a calendar. (reported favorably)

So, to summarize. . . All laws begin as bills by

being introduced, then go to committee.

If approved, they are put on the calendar, listing the order in which they will be considered on the House floor.

The House Rules Committee receives all bills approved by the various committees of the House.

The Rules Committee determines which bills will be considered by the full House and places them on the House Calendar.

The _________ Committee also settles disputes among other committees and delays or blocks bills that representatives and House leaders don’t want to come to a vote.

When the Rules Committee sends bills to the floor, the House may sit as a Committee of the ______, in which _____ members (not 218) constitutes a quorum, in order to speed up consideration of an important bill, so that the full House can then vote on it.

Section 3: The Senate I. The Senate at Work A Has fewer rules than the

House. Senators have more freedom and face less pressure from party leadership

The Senate is more _________ in general

The _____________ acts as President of the Senate, casting a tie-breaking vote if necessary. The VP doesn’t usually participate in day-to-day Senate matters

The Senate elects a _____________Pro Tempore “for the time being”, but this position is not nearly as powerful in that position as a leader as the Senate Majority Leader.

Senate Leadership VP as President of

the Senate President Pro

Tempore Senate Majority

Leader

Senate Minority Leader

Majority Whip Minority Whip

What do the Senate Leaders do? The Senate majority

______________ is responsible for guiding bills through the Senate

The __________ floor leader develops criticisms of majority party bills and tries to keep the opposition party members working together

Majority and minority ______ make sure their party members show up to vote and report the status of votes to the majority and minority leaders

All Senate leaders control the flow of bills to committees and to the floor for debate; there is no Senate committee comparable to the House Rules Committee.

The Senate at Work continued There are only 2

calendars in the Senate:

Calendar of General Orders (bills for consideration go here)

Executive Calendar (treaties and nominations)

The majority party controls the flow of legislative work in the Senate. (why?)

The filibuster is a tool either party can use as a tactic to stall or prevent a vote on a bill. It takes a vote of 3/5ths of Congress to reach cloture (to end a filibuster and put the bill to a vote)

To help us remember the process. . . See p. 339 for how a

bill goes through the House

See p. 351 for how a bill goes through the Senate

See p. 354 for a chart of the whole process

“

Section 4: Congressional Committees What do committees do? Ease the __________ by

dividing up the work into _______________.

This allows members to ____________ on certain issues.

If you were in Congress, which committees would you want to be on?

House committees Senate committees

Committees allow members to discuss and selecting the most important bills Congress will consider.

Committees perform Congress’ __________ function by holding public hearings on key problems and issues as a way of investigating and keeping the public informed.

Types of committees ____________ committees are

_____________ from one congress to the next

The __________ party controls membership on the standing committees, so membership can change with each round of elections.

___________ look at issues more closely and in more detail. Also continue from one Congress to the next. Examples: the subcommittee on economic security (Committee on Homeland Security) or the Subcommittee on Livestock in the Agriculture Committee)

__________committees study a specific issue and issue a report on it. They are formed in both houses and usually only last one term. (The 9/11 Commission)

__________ committees include members from both houses.

___________ committees are temporarily set up to work out difference in House and Senate versions of a bill.

Choosing Committee Members Which committee you’re

on is a big deal because: It helps members build

their __________ in their home districts, which helps _____________

Gives members a chance to __________ important national legislation

Enables members to influence ___________

__________ assign members to the standing committees

The _____________ of the standing committees are powerful members of Congress because they’re regarded as _________ on a particular issue

Membership used to be based on seniority, but not since the 1970s.

Section 5: Staff & Support Agencies I. Congressional Staff

Role A. Lawmakers rely on

their staffs to help with many of their duties Handle communication with

constituents Run committee meetings Draft new bills Write reports Attend meetings Write newsletters &

speeches

The number of staff members has grown to more than 11,000 in 1990 from 2,000 in 1947. Why do you think this growth has happened?

Two types of staff Personal staff

Administrative assistants Legislative assistants caseworkers

Committee staff Some say committee staffers

have too much power; that they do work the legislators should do themselves.

Congressional Support Agencies The Library of Congress Contains over 100 million

items Administers the copyright

law Tracks what goes on in

Congress both in quarterly journals and online (www.loc.thomas.gov)

Congressional Budget Office (CBO)

Streamlines the budget-making process

Studies budget proposals submitted by the president’s Office of Management & the Budget (OMB)

Puts together cost estimates

Study and track economic trends