Chapter 11: Congress 121
CHAPTER 11
Congress
Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, students should be able to do the following:
1. Define the key terms at the end of the chapter
2. Outline the constitutional duties of the House and Senate
3. Account for the various “incumbency effects”
4. Summarize the redistricting process, identifying how gerrymandering and racial gerrymandering occur, and the methods used to alleviate these redistricting problems
5. Describe the background characteristics of a typical member of Congress and define a “descriptive representative”
6. Sketch the process by which a bill becomes a law
7. Explain the importance of the committee system in the legislative process
8. Outline methods of congressional oversight
9. Define leadership positions in both the House and Senate
10. Distinguish between congressional rules of procedure and norms of behavior
11. Explain the dilemma representatives face in choosing between trustee and delegate roles
12. Evaluate the extent to which the structure of Congress promotes pluralist or majoritarian politics
Chapter Synopsis
We expect Congress to make wise policy decisions in a democratic fashion. But what type of representation defines a “democratic” legislature? The framers struggled over the apportionment of representatives in the House and the Senate to try to balance competing views of what a representative democracy should look like. When we argue today over how to improve congressional performance, we still must think about questions of representation and incumbent advantages.
The policymaking cycle in Congress begins with issues reaching the congressional agenda. Once Congress is ready to fashion legislation, the work begins in committee. Policy is most closely scrutinized in committee, and most of the decisions over the substance of legislation are made there. The authority of the committee system promotes pluralism in Congress. The leaders in Congress can play an important role in building coalitions for legislation as it emerges from committee. When legislation does reach the floor, what influences the way a member of Congress votes? This chapter examines various factors that can have influence, including political parties, the president, constituents, and interest groups. Oversight can be thought of as both the final stage of one legislative cycle and the beginning of another. It is the final stage in the sense that oversight activity is directed at finding out how well the legislation that was passed is working. At the same time, it provides crucial information to members of Congress to help them amend existing legislation. That is, oversight helps to start the cycle of legislating all over again. The end of the chapter turns once again to representation. Members of Congress are caught between the needs of their constituencies and what is best for the country as a whole. The classic question is posed: Should senators and representatives act as trustees or delegates? This debate is relevant to one of the larger themes of the book. Members of Congress who act as delegates help to promote pluralism in Congress. If we decide we want a more majoritarian Congress, we need a fundamental reform of our party system.
Parallel Lecture 11.1
I. The origins and powers of congress
A. The Great Compromise
1. Two separate and powerful chambers
a) Small states won equal representation in the Senate
b) Number of each state’s representatives in the House based on population
2. One-third of Senators elected every two years
3. House is apportioned according to population
a) Census taken every ten years
b) Reapportionment: redistribution of representatives among the states, based on population change; House is reapportioned after each census.
B. Duties of the House and Senate
1. Many shared tasks
a) Declare war
b) Raise an army and a navy
c) Borrow and coin money
d) Regulate interstate commerce
e) Create federal courts
f) Establish rules for naturalization of immigrants
2. Powers House holds alone
a) Origination of revenue bills
b) The power of impeachment: the formal charging of a government official with “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”
(1) The Senate acts as a court to try impeachments.
(2) No impeached president ever convicted by the Senate
3. Powers Senate holds alone
a) Approve major presidential appointments
b) Sole power to affirm treaties
II. Electing Congress
A. The incumbency effect
1. Incumbent: a current officeholder.
2. Incumbents have a very high re-election rate.
a) Since 1950, over 90 percent of all House incumbents have won re-election in the majority of elections. (See Figure 11.1.)
b) In 2004, only nine incumbents were defeated.
3. Paradoxically, the public seems not to hold Congress in high esteem.
a) Americans feel Congress is overly influenced by interest groups.
b) Americans have traditionally held politicians in low esteem.
4. Voters are generally satisfied with their own senators and representatives.
5. Redistricting
a) Possible to draw new districts to benefit incumbents of one or both parties
b) Gerrymandering: redrawing a congressional district to intentionally benefit one political party
6. Name recognition
a) Develop significant name recognition just by being members of Congress
b) Franking privilege: the right to send mail free of charge.
7. Casework
a) Casework: solving problems for constituents, especially problems involving government agencies.
b) The structure of congressional offices is largely built around helping constituents.
c) Growing popularity of e-mail makes it easier for constituents to make requests.
8. Campaign financing
a) Incumbent has significant advantage over challenger in raising funds
b) Incumbents raised 62 percent of all money contributed to campaigns in the House and Senate in 2004.
c) PACs show a strong preference for incumbents.
9. Successful challengers
a) Opposing and unsympathetic PACs may target incumbents who seem vulnerable.
b) Vulnerable incumbents bring out higher quality challengers.
10. 2002 and 2006 elections
a) Off-year election: the congressional election between presidential elections.
b) Traditionally not good for the party holding the White House
c) 2002: only the third time since the Civil War that the president’s party gained House seats in the midterm election
B. Whom do we elect?
1. Most members of Congress are professionals (lawyers, businesspeople, educators).
2. Women and minorities have long been underrepresented, but their numbers are increasing.
a) Descriptive representation: a belief that constituents are most effectively represented by legislators who are similar to them in such key demographic characteristics as race, ethnicity, religion, or gender.
b) Voting Rights Act of 1982 provided support for descriptive representation.
(1) Encourage states to draw districts to concentrate minorities so blacks and Hispanics would have a better chance of being elected
(2) Led to a roughly 50 percent increase in number of blacks elected to the House
(3) Effort has been less effective for Hispanics
3. Racial gerrymandering: the drawing of a legislative district to maximize the chance that a minority candidate will win election.
a) Shaw v. Reno (1993): Supreme Court ruled that racial gerrymandering segregated blacks from whites.
b) The Court modified its decision in 2001, declaring race was not an illegitimate consideration in drawing districts.
III. How issues get on the congressional agenda
A. Agenda: the broad, imprecise and unwritten agenda comprising all the issues an institution is considering.
B. Many issues have been around a long time (foreign aid, the national debt).
C. Other issues emerge suddenly, often as a result of technological change (genetically altered foods).
D. Issues may reach the agenda in many ways.
1. A highly visible event focuses attention on a problem (e.g., September 11 and airport screening procedures).
2. Presidential support
3. Party leaders and committee chairs can also move issues onto the agenda.
4. Interest group efforts may spark support for action, or at least awareness.
IV. The dance of legislation: an overview
A. Series of specific steps, but legislation can be treated differently at each step
B. Bill is introduced in either house and assigned to committee, then subcommittee
1. Subcommittee holds hearings, bill is usually modified or revised, if passed is sent to full committee
2. Bill approved by full committee is reported to membership of the chamber
3. Bills in chamber may be debated, amended, and either passed or defeated
C. Bills coming out of House committees go the Rules committee before going to the full House
1. Rules committee attaches a rule to the bill that governs floor debate
2. On major legislation, rules can be quite complex and restrictive.
D. Senate does not have comparable committee, though restrictions can be reached through unanimous consent agreements
1. If House and Senate pass bills on same subjects, conference committee develops compromise version
2. Compromise version goes back to both houses for vote
3. If both chambers approve, bill goes to the president
E. The president’s action
1. If president signs a bill, it becomes law
2. If president vetoes (disapproves) the bill, it goes back to Congress
3. If president neither signs nor vetoes bill within ten days of receiving it, the bill becomes law
4. If Congress adjourns within the ten days after the bill is sent and the president does not sign the bill, the bill has died through a pocket veto.
F. Content of the bill can be changed at any stage of the process in either house
V. Committees: the workhorses of Congress
A. Congress has committees to develop and use expertise in specific areas.
B. The division of labor among committees
1. Standing committee: a permanent congressional committee that specializes in a particular policy area.
a) Twenty-one standing House committees; twenty standing Senate committees
b) Proportions of Democrats and Republicans on each committee are controlled by the majority party
c) Standing committees are broken down into several subcommittees.
2. Joint committee: a committee made up of members of both the House and the Senate.
a) Four joint committees
b) Weaker because they are restricted from reporting bills to the House or Senate
c) Usually engage in fact-finding and reporting problems
3. Select committee: a temporary congressional committee created for a specific purpose and disbanded after that purpose is fulfilled.
a) Created to deal with special circumstances of issues that overlap or fall outside standing committee jurisdiction
b) Example: committee that investigated Watergate scandal
4. Conference committee: a temporary committee created to work out differences between House and Senate versions of a specific piece of legislation.
C. Congressional expertise and seniority
1. Influence in Congress increases with expertise
2. Influence also grows more formally with seniority: years of consecutive service on a particular congressional committee.
3. Members tend to stay on the same committees.
a) May move if offered the opportunity to move to a high-prestige committee
b) May move if offered appointment on committee that handles matters of vital importance to their constituents
(1) Within each committee, senior majority party member usually becomes committee chair.
(2) Seniority norm has been weakened since the Republicans established a six-year limit for committee and subcommittee chairs
4. Public policy decision making takes place in committees.
a) Committees hold hearings to take testimony from witnesses who have special knowledge.
b) Markup sessions: the meetings at which subcommittees and committees actually debate and amend legislation.
(1) Some committees have a strong tradition of decision by consensus.
(2) Other committee leaders focus on assembling coalitions.
D. Oversight: following through on legislation
1. Oversight: the process of reviewing the operations of an agency to determine whether it is carrying out policies as Congress intended.
2. Oversight has become more difficult.
a) The executive branch has grown.
b) Policies and programs have become more complex.
3. Performing the oversight function
a) Hearings: may be part of routine review or the by-product of information that reveals a serious problem.
b) Requesting reports on specific agency practices and operations
c) Much oversight takes place informally.
4. Congress has added resources to perform the oversight function.
a) Congress has expanded the staffs of individual legislators and of committees.
b) Enhanced its analytical capabilities by creating the Congressional Budget Office
c) Strengthened the Governmental Accounting Office and the Congressional Research Service
5. The nature of oversight
a) Oversight is often stereotyped as conflictual.
b) Just as likely that at least some members of a committee are advocates of the programs they oversee
c) Most oversight is aimed at finding ways to improve programs.
E. Majoritarian and pluralist views of committees
1. The committee system enhances pluralism.
a) Members try to get on committees dealing with issues of special importance to constituents.
b) Committee members are predisposed to write legislation favorable to their constituencies.
2. The majoritarian aspects of committees
a) Most committee members reflect the general ideological profile of the parties’ congressional contingents.
b) Committees are constrained in the legislation they write because it must pass both chambers.
c) Party leaders also reward members who are loyal to party priorities.
VI. Leaders and followers in Congress
A. The Leadership task
Each of the two parties in the two houses has a leadership hierarchy.
1. In the House of Representatives
a) Majority party leadership
(1) The Speaker of the House: the presiding officer of the House of Representatives.
(2) Majority leader: assists the Speaker.
(3) Majority whip: keeps track of vote count and rallies support for legislation on the floor.
b) Minority party leadership
(1) Minority leader: “shadow speaker,” ready to assume the role if party control of the chamber changes.
(2) Minority whip
2. In the Senate
a) Constitutionally, the vice president is the leader of the Senate.
(1) In practice he is rarely there.
(2) Casts tie-breaking votes
b) The president pro tempore presides in the absence of the Vice President.
(1) Position is entirely honorary
(2) Title is typically assigned to most senior member of majority party
c) Majority leader: the head of the majority party in the Senate; most powerful person in the Senate
d) The minority leader: holds a parallel position in the minority party.
3. Functions of party leaders
a) Steering the bargaining and negotiating over the content of legislation