chapter 12 the congress and its work © 2009, pearson education fiorina, peterson, johnson, and...

Chapter 12The Congress and Its Work

© 2009, Pearson Education

Fiorina, Peterson, Johnson, and MayerNew American Democracy, Sixth Edition


Congress: The First Branch

Called the “first” branch because the Constitution lays out the powers and structure of Congress in Article I.


Congress: The First Branch

THE PRINCIPAL POWERS OF CONGRESS


Congress: The First BranchCongress is bicameral– Consisting of two chambers

• Upper is the Senate• Lower is the House of Representatives

– The chambers have roughly equal powers

Supported by staffs and other institutions– Library of Congress– General Accounting Office – Congressional Budget Office


The Organization of Congress

The two chambers have evolved to meet the demands of law making

The division of labor created the committee system

The need to organize large numbers of people to make decisions led to the party leadership structure

Both are more important in the House

Senate is small enough to operate by informal coordination and negotiation


The Congressional Parties: The House

Speaker of the House– The presiding office of the House of Representatives;

normally the Speaker is the leader of the majority party

Majority Leader– Speaker’s chief lieutenant in the House and the most

important officer in the Senate– Responsible for managing the floor

Minority Leader– Leader of the minority party who speaks for the party

in dealing with the majorityWhips– Members of Congress who serve as informational

channels between the leadership and the rank and file, conveying the leadership’s views and intentions to the members and vice versa


The Congressional Parties: The House

Party Caucus

– All Democratic members of the House or Senate. Members in caucus elect the party leaders, ratify the choice of committee leaders, and debate party positions on issues

Party Conference

– What Republicans call their party caucus


The Congressional Parties: The SenateGiven that the Senate usually includes two

members from each state, some tie-breaking mechanism is necessary

The Constitution provides the vice-president with the authority to preside over the Senate and to cast a tie-breaking vote when necessary

The president pro-tempore serves as Senate presiding officer in the vice-president’s absence (which is nearly all the time)

– Ordinarily goes to the most senior member of the majority party

– Honorific


The Congressional Parties: The SenateSenate leadership – Has a structure of whips and expert staff– Senate leaders are not as strong as those in the

HouseSpend most of their time negotiating compromisesUnanimous Consent Agreements– Agreement that sets forth the terms and conditions

according to which the Senate will consider a bill; individually negotiated by the leadership for each bill

Filibuster– Delaying tactic—either speaking indefinitely or by

offering dilatory motions and amendmentsCloture – Motion to end debate; requires 60 votes to pass


Ups and Downs of Congressional Parties

Difficult to measure the strength of congressional parties

Power of leadership has varied over time

Parties more powerful when unified

– More unified if there is polarization in the Congress

– Leadership appears more powerful when party unified

Leadership PACs may help leaders influence their party members; sense of obligation if given money

Members may accept some party discipline because it is necessary for attaining policy goals


PARTY UNITYThe congressional parties are more unified today than ageneration agoThe graph shows the percentageof all recorded votes on which amajority of voting Democratsopposed a majority of votingRepublicans. Numbers for eachyear have been averaged overSources: Norman Ornstein,Thomas Mann, and Michael Malbin, Vital Statistics on Congress, 2001–2002 (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2002), p. 172; CQ Weekly vote studies, various years.


The Committee SystemSince 1989 roughly 6 to 8 thousand bills have been introduced in each two-year session in the House

Screening process: division into committees– Committees do the work before bills come to the

floor for a vote

Standing committees: – Committee with fixed membership and

jurisdiction, continuing from Congress to Congress

Select committees: – Temporary committees appointed to deal with a

specific issue or problem


Standing Committees of the 110th Congress


House CommitteesThree levels of importance

— Top committees: Rules, Appropriations, Ways and Means

— Second level committees deal with nationally- significant policy areas: agriculture, armed services, civil rights

— Third level: Housekeeping items

• Government Reform and Oversight or a narrow policy venue such as Veteran’s affairs

Members rarely serve on more than one top committee.


Senate CommitteesSenate committee system is simpler than that of the House

– Has only major and minor committees

– Appropriations and Finance are major committees, as are Budget and Foreign Relations

Committee power in the Senate is widely distributed

– Each senator can serve on one minor and two major committees, and every senator gets to serve on one of the four major committees

– Senators less likely to specialize

– Serve diverse constituencies within an entire state, cannot afford to limit themselves to one or two subjects


How Committees Are Formed

Committee system is formally under the control of the majority party in the chamberEach committee has a ratio of majority to minority members at least as favorable to the majority as is the overall division of the chamberThe more important the committee, the more likely it is stacked in favor of the majoritySeniority– Practice by which the majority party member with

the longest continuous service on a committee becomes the chair

– Has been weakened and reformed– Example: Republican conference adopted a three-

term limit on committee chairs, which they enforced in 2000. Enforced by Senate Republicans in 1996


Committee Reforms

1970s saw much reform of committees by Democratic caucusCurbed power of standing committee chairsInjected more democracy into the committee system– Limited House committee chairs to holding one

subcommittee chair– Subcommittee bill of rights– Spread power more evening across

subcommittees


Purpose of CommitteesWhy do standing committees exist?

Theories:

– Use committee system to focus on district interests.

• Logrolling: trading favors, votes, or generalized support for one another’s proposals

– Committees serve knowledge function

– Committees serve as the tools of congressional parties


CaucusesCaucuses are groups within Congress formed by members to pursue common interests

– Nearly 300 such groups in the 109th Congress

– Congressional Black Caucus

– Northeast-Midwest Congressional Coalition

– Sportsmen’s Caucus, funded by NRA and sporting industry

– Wine Caucus

May be increasingly important actors in the congressional process.


How a Bill Becomes a LawBill or resolution is introduced by a congressional sponsor and one or more co-sponsors

House Speaker or Senate presiding officer, advised by chambers parliamentarian, refers the proposal to the appropriate committee

– Multiple referral: said to occur when party leaders give more than one committee responsibility for considering a bill


Once a bill goes to committee, the chair gives it to the appropriate subcommittee– Real work begins here

If subcommittee takes bill seriously it will:– Schedule hearings– After hearings, markup takes place

• Revising it, adding and deleting sections, preparing it for report to the full committee

– Full committee may repeat the process, or it may largely accept the work of the subcommittee.

– If supported, the bill is nearly ready to be reported to the floor

How a Bill Becomes a Law


How a Bill Becomes a LawThe chambers diverge in their process at this point

In the House, bills that are not controversial can be called up and passed unanimously, with little debate

Somewhat more important bills

– Fastrack through suspension of the rules

• Here, debates are limited to 40 minutes, no amendments are in order, and a two-thirds majority is required for passage


How a Bill Becomes a LawIn the House, legislation that is especially important goes to the Rules Committee before going to the floor

– Rule: specifies the terms and conditions under which a bill or resolution will be considered on the floor of the House

• Closed, open, restrictive rules, king of the mountain rules

– If the Rules Committee recommends a rule, the floor then chooses to accept or reject it

– Usually accepted, as the Rules Committee anticipates what the floor will tolerate


How a Bill Becomes a Law

The Senate procedure is a bit simpler.

– For uncontroversial legislation, a motion to pass a bill by unanimous consent is all that is necessary

– More important and controversial legislation requires the committee and party leaders to negotiate unanimous-consent agreements

• complicated bargains analogous to the rules granted by the House Rules Committee


How a Bill Becomes a LawSo what happens if a majority in one chamber accepts the bill?

– Nothing. A bill must pass BOTH chambers in identical form.

Unless one chamber is willing to defer to the other, the two must iron out their differences.


How a Bill Becomes a LawUsual method of resolving differences is a conference committee: here a group of representatives from both the House and the Senate work to create a compromise version.– If they can resolve differences, the bill goes

back to each chamber for a vote.– If the chambers pass the bill, it will then go to

the president for his action. If it passes, is the process over?

– The authorization process is over, but appropriations process may be necessary


How a Bill Becomes a LawThe Appropriations Process

13 appropriations subcommittees– hold hearings and mark up the bill– cardinals of Capitol Hill– must report spending bills– passed by rank and file – conference committee


Evaluating Congress: Criticisms1. The congressional process is slow and inefficient

2. The congressional process works to the advantage of policy minorities, especially those content with the status quo

3. Members of Congress are constantly tempted to use their positions to extract constituency benefits, even when important national legislation is at stake

4. Sometimes, the very process of passing legislation ensures that it will not work


Why Americans Like Their Members of Congress More than Congress ItselfCongress as a whole suffers from a negative public

image

Irony: it is the national government’s most electorally sensitive institution

Puzzle: why are members of Congress reelected at such a high rate if we are so critical of the institution?

Answer: Americans judge their own representatives by different standards from those by which they judge the collective Congress

Members of the public say they prefer a trustee, but actually demand that their own representatives serve as a delegate

chapter 12 the congress and its work © 2009, pearson education fiorina, peterson, johnson, and...

Documents

house senate

pearson education congress

pearson education slide

senate senate leadership

party caucus slide

branch congress

house party caucus

structure of congress