Congressional Unit Wrap-up - Harding University



Congressional Unit Wrap-up

Review for Test Two

The Legislative Branch

Congressional Powers

Article I of the Constitution:

All legislative Powers vested in a Congress…Consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives

Big Word for the Day: Collegial

characterized by or having authority vested equally among colleagues

Varied Roles of Congress

Makes legislation

Appropriates funds to carry out laws

May declare war

Proposes amendments to Constitution

Impeaches the President

Regulates conduct of legislators

Approves Appointments

Ratifies treaties

Amendments:

XIV – (Due Process) Repeals 3/5ths clause - 1868

XVI – Income Tax - 1913

XVII – Direct Election of Senators – 1913

XX – (Lame Duck) Session starts 3rd of January - 1933

XXVII – Congressional Pay Raises – 1992

Who ARE These People?

House

Representative or Congressman or Congresswoman

25 years old

Citizen for 7 years

Resident of their state

2 year terms

Senate

Senator

30 years old

Citizen for 9 years

“Resident” of their state

6 year terms

Separated at Birth

House

Larger (435)

Shorter term of office (2 yrs)

More procedural restraints on members

Narrower constituency (they represent a smaller region) average district size: 646,952

Policy Specialists

Diffused media coverage

More powerful leader

Less Prestigious

Briefer floor debates

Less reliant on staff

More Partisan

Special Role: Taxing and Spending

Impeachment Charges

Senate

Smaller (100)

Longer term of office (6 yrs)

Fewer procedural restraints on members

Broader, more varied constituency

Policy generalists

More media coverage

Less powerful leaders

More Prestigious

Longer floor debates (filibuster)

More reliant on staff

Less Partisan

Special Role: Treaties and Appointments

Impeachment Trial

Leadership Organization

House

Speaker

Selected every two years

Often serves for many years

Nancy Pelosi (CA)

Majority Leader

Party Leader

2nd in command

Steny Hoyer (MD)

Senate

Majority Leader

The person in charge

Party Leader

Harry Reid (NV)

President Pro Tempore

Honorary, based on seniority

For the time being

Robert Byrd (WV)

Presiding Officer - Vice President

Presides – but not often

Breaks ties (6 months for Cheney)

Dick Cheney (WY)

How a Bill…

Work, work, work

How Many Bills?

How Many Filed?

20,000 annually!

How Many Pass?

Around a 1000.

That’s about 5%!

Committees

Where the work gets done

Subcommittee

Specialization

Types:

Joint (only 2)

Special or Select

Budget

Standing

The Workhorse of Congress

19 in the House, 17 in the Senate

88 Subcommittees in the House, 68 in the Senate

Quorum – enough members present to hold a vote

Conference (not the same as party conferences) works out the differences between House and Senate versions of a bill

House Committees

The Big Three

House Rules Committee

It is the “traffic cop” for whether or not a bill makes it

The House Rules Committee is MUCH more powerful than the Senate.

Ways and Means

Raises Revenue for the Government

First stop for ALL revenue bills

House Appropriations

Spends money to fund government

Appropriation: the legal authorization to expend governmental funds

Senate Committees

The Big Three

Senate Appropriations

Finance

The Tax Committee for the Senate

Senate Foreign Relations

Confirms ambassadors

Ratifies treaties

Is the “check and balance” for executive foreign policy powers.

The Floor

Calendar – list of bills scheduled for hearing or vote

The Well

Filibusters

Unlimited debate

Senate Only (too many members in the House…)

Rule 22 requires 3/5th of the Senate (60) to invoke…

Cloture, which is a vote to end the debate.

Staff

35,000 employees

Committee staff has declined in recent years under Republican control (House: 1,407 from 2,100; Senate: 950 from 1,185)

Minimum personal staff: 18 full time, 4 part time

Wasserman: they “organize hearings, negotiate… research… speak with voters, and promote legislation.” They initiate policies and “sell” them to their bosses.

Executive/Legislative Tension

Even if the House, the Senate and the President ALL come from the same party, and certainly if they do not,

Even if the President (or Vice President) was recently part of the Legislative Branch,

Even if the President has a substantial mandate of public support,

They trust each other

“as far as I can throw ‘em…”

Power

Party Leadership

The Twins and their Older Brother:

Specialization

Reciprocity

Seniority

Caucus

A gathering of all members of the same party serving in the House or Senate

Majority and Minority Leadership

Majority Leader – Political Leader

Hoyer and Reid

Minority Leader – I’d be the boss if WE were in charge

Boehner and McConnell

Whips – coordinate party positions

Name comes from English fox-hunting

“Whipper-in” keeps dogs from running away

Counts votes

Keeps votes in line

Party Loyalty

80%!

Mavericks: members who show less loyalty to their party and do not abide by informal rules

Now, not a single chairman in either side believes they are there because of the leadership. (Dick Army)

Show Me the Money

Revenue and Appropriations

Appropriations

Appropriation: the legal authorization to expend governmental funds

How we fund government

To spend money you need:

Authorization (an appropriation)

Funds (revenue)

You must have BOTH

You gotta start somewhere…

And for money, you start in the House of Representatives

Article I, Section 7 (1) All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.

The 1974 Budget Act

An attempt to address the lack of a consistent economic policy

Set up Budget Committees in each house to review President’s Budget in light of all taxing and spending measures

Budget Committees set total spending, tax and debt levels

Staff for the Budget Committees is the Congressional Budget Office

Non-partisan, but not impartial

Legislative/Executive Tension

Line Item Veto

Declared Unconstitutional in 1998

No line item veto means the President cannot separate out objectionable items from important, helpful items.

Throw out the “baby with the bathwater”

Riders – a piece of legislation attached as an amendment to another, possible totally unrelated bill

Pork

Oink, oink, oink…

Pork Barrel Spending

Bringing home the bacon

Appropriations for items of interest to your constituents

(and in a worst case scenario, of service to no one else!)

Two Key Terms

Deficit

The Federal Government does not require a balanced budget!

The difference between revenue (receipts) and expenditures (outlays)

An annual measurement of the shortfall

The opposite of surplus

Too much spending, not enough money!

Too much spending, not enough money!

Estimated FFY 2007 deficit: $172 billion (CBO)

Down from $337 in 06!

Debt

What we borrow to cover accumulated deficits

The interest will eat you alive!

We borrow from ourselves and others.

You can have debt without deficits!

We had balanced budgets (no deficit) in 1998-2001, but we still had debt

Other Powers

Advise and Consent:

Confirming and Ratifying

The Senate Confirms the President’s Appointments

Judicial

Executive

Diplomatic

The Senate Must Ratify all Treaties

Foreign Relations Committee

Congressional Big Brother

Oversight

General Accounting Office (The GAO)

Investigation

Impeachment

The House impeaches; the Senate holds the trail

Johnson 1868

Clinton 1998

Impeached but not convicted

Nixon 1974

Resigned instead of facing impeachment

Federal Judges can be (and have been) impeached (and convicted)

The War Powers Act

Criticism of the President’s role in Vietnam led to the War Powers Act of 1973

The President may only commit troops abroad for a period of 60 days, (90 if including withdrawal)

Congress must approve a longer period

Nixon vetoed it; they over-rode the veto

Presidents don’t like it, but tend to go for some sort of authorizing resolution from Congress

Remember, no matter what, Congress still funds things!

You Gotta Draw the Line Somewhere…

Apportionment, Incumbency and Reform

Apportionment

Apportionment - the distribution of voters into districts; the dividing of representation by population

Mal-apportionment - large differences in the population of Congressional districts

Re-Apportionment – the process of re-distributing the populations amongst districts

Districting – the process of drawing the lines on the maps. Sounds simple, right?

States draw Federal House Lines

(Why not Senate?)

Their processes vary dramatically!

Bad Boys, Bad Boys…

Gerrymander – Governor Eldridge Gerry’s Salamander shaped district

Drawing district lines for partisan purposes

Packing and Cracking

Packing – putting lots of your people in one district

Cracking – separating out the opposition so they can’t win

Incumbency

Incumbency:

Being the current officeholder

Advantages:

Staff

Franking (mail)

Publicity

Disadvantages

We hate the IDEA of incumbency

Apathy pays off for incumbents!

In 2002 85% of House members and 98% of Senators won re-elections

In 2004, 401 of 435 House members ran for re-election. 396 won. (98.7%) Of the 26 Senators running, all but one won. (96%)

In 2006 Re-election rates were down… 94.3% in the House, 79% in the Senate

Term Limits

21 States have passed term limits for their officials; 15 still have them

Federal Officials remain unlimited

Arkansas’s little role in all this:

US TERM LIMITS vs Thornton

Generally, the trend is fading

Congress In a Nutshell

A House and a Senate makes a Congress

LOTS of Bills

Few pass

Incumbent rich, Heavy on the Lawyers

LOTS of staff

But less than there once was

At the Moment: Democratic Party Controlled

Committees are where the work gets done

They legislate, appropriate, confirm and ratify, oversee and investigate

Inefficient by design

Bicameral, with Checks and Balances

Home of Debaters, Bosses and Managers

Where we all have a voice

Where OUR laws are made

OUR congress: they work for US!

The following items are NOT part of your test 3 material:

Question Time!

I won’t always know the answer, but I know how to find it!

Who originally appointed Alan Greenspan?

Ronald Regan

Greenspan served from 1987 to 2006 for four presidents.

Reagan, Bush, Clinton, W. Bush

Our debt in perspective:

International Perspective:



Historical Perspective:



Interest on the Debt



FISCAL Year 2005 Total $352,350,252,507.90

FY 2006:

$385,017,969,088.24  

“Square State” Populations

Wyoming 506,529

South Dakota 770,883

North Dakota 634,366

Montana 926,865

Average US Congress district: 646,952

Veto Examples



Johnson Impeachment

Johnson was Lincoln’s VP on a Bi-partisan, compromise ticket.

When Lincoln was assassinated, the worst fears of the Radical Reconstructionist Republicans appeared true – A state’s rights southern Democrat in the White House.

They passed the Tenure in Office Act to keep him from firing Lincoln’s Cabinet.

He fired Stanton anyway and was impeached with 11 counts.

The Senate failed to convict by 1 vote. None of the 6 Republicans who crossed the aisle to “acquit” were ever re-elected. To anything.

He was tipsy at his inauguration: he was recovering from typhoid and someone had made him a hot toddy: 6 shots and an egg. GROSS!!!!

Old questions:

Office of the Director of National Intelligence



Constitutional Amendments The Didn’t Make It

There are 6:

1) The first of the 12 Bill of Rights amendments relating to apportionment – 1789

Ratified by 1 states

2) The Tittles of Nobility Amendment – You renounce your citizenship if you accept a title from a foreign power – 1810

Ratified by 12 states

3) The Corwin Amendment about Slavery and State’s Rights – 1861

Ratified by 3 states

4) The Child Labor amendment – 1924

Ratified by 28 states

5) The Equal Rights Amendment - 1972

Ratified by 35 states

Closest to being ratified before time ran out… and ran out again!

DC Voting Rights – 1978

Ratified by 16 states

Senatorial Replacement

Appointed Senators

The 17th Amendment to the Constitution (1913) established direct election of senators, as well as a means of filling vacant Senate seats. If a vacancy occurs due to a senator's death, resignation, or expulsion, the 17th Amendment allows state legislatures to empower the governor to appoint a replacement to complete the term or to hold office until a special election can take place. There are a few exceptions to this rule. The states of Oregon, Wisconsin, Massachusetts and Alaska do not allow the governor to appoint, but rather require special elections to fill a vacancy. Oklahoma allows the governor to appoint under certain circumstances. Typically, a replacement holds office until the next scheduled statewide election. For more information on how vacancies are filled, see this Report from the Congressional Research Service (pdf).  

The Massachusetts change was made in July of 04 over the veto of Republican Governor Mitt Romney

Longest filibuster

Filibusters were particularly useful to Southern senators who sought to block civil rights legislation, including anti-lynching legislation, until cloture was invoked after a fifty-seven day filibuster against the Civil Right Act of 1964. In 1975, the Senate reduced the number of votes required for cloture from two-thirds to three-fifths, or sixty of the current one hundred senators.

The record for the longest individual speech goes to South Carolina's J. Strom Thurmond who filibustered for 24 hours and 18 minutes against the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

Cabinet Salaries

$175,000

(The Pres. makes about $400,000)

They could all make more money in the private sector.

State of the Union Protest Update

WASHINGTON - Faced with a bipartisan furor, the chief of the Capitol Police on Wednesday apologized for ejecting anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan and the wife of an influential Republican congressman from the State of the Union address and blamed vague policies for the actions of his officers.

"The officers made a good faith, but mistaken effort to enforce an old unwritten interpretation of the prohibitions about demonstrating in the Capitol. The policy and procedures were too vague," Capitol Police Chief Terrance W. Gainer said. "The failure to adequately prepare the officers is mine.“

In 1916 Woodrow Wilson’s Address was interrupted by women demanding the right to vote

Pendleton Act

PENDLETON, George Hunt, (1825 - 1889)

Senate Years of Service: 1879-1885

Party: Democrat

Leading Oil Exporter to US:

Non OPEC countries produce 60% of the World’s oil

Our number one friend:

Oh, Canada!

Then Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Venezuela, and Nigeria

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