2: Interactions among Branches Flashcards
Qualifications for House
- 25 years old
- US citizen for 7 years
- Resident of the state at election time
Qualifications for Senate
- 30 years old
- US citizen for 9 years
- Resident of the state at election time
Speaker of the House
- Appoints special committees and can remove committee chairs
- Determines the agenda
- Administrative head of the chamber and leader of majority party
President of the Senate
- VP
- Does not vote except to break a tie
- President pro tempore presides in VP absence (longest sitting majority party Senator)
Constitutionally mandated Congressional leadership positions
- Speaker of the House
- President Pro Tempore of the Senate
Neither designated as party leader
Style of representatives: Trustee
- Base their vote on personal judgments and ideological alignments
- Not easily swayed by public opinion
Style of representatives: Delegate
Base their vote on how they think people in their district would want them to vote
Style of representatives: Partisan
Always vote along party lines
Style of representatives: Politico
- Combination of trustee, delegate, and partisan
2. Vote in ways that are politically expedient and personally beneficial
Explicit powers of Congress
Directly stated in Constitution, examples:
- Taxes
- Coin money
- Borrow money
- Raise army and navy
- Create post offices and federal courts
Implied powers of Congress
Necessary and Proper Clause (Article I, Section 8)
Origination clause
Article I, Section 7
House retains the right to being the revenue-raising process
War Powers Act
1973
- POTUS can commit troops anywhere in the world for 60 days; must inform Congress within 48 hours
- Congress can vote to extend 60 days, or refuse and troops must be brought home within 30 days
- Ineffective, most presidents ignore it; argue that it clashes with CinC authority
Filibuster
- Senate
- Rarely used today except in partisan manner
- Designed with deliberative nature of Senate in mind
Cloture
- Break filibuster
- 3/5 majority vote
- Adopted 1917
Hold
- Senate only
2. Allowing one or more senators to block a motion
Pork barrel spending
- AKA earmarks
2. Add funds for projects in legislators’ home districts
Logrolling
Understanding between two or more Congressmen to vote for one another’s bills
House vs Senate: Determining legislative considerations
House - Rules Committee
Senate - Unanimous consent
Closed rule
House - sends bill to floor for a vote but doesn’t allow debate
House vs Senate: Debate time
House - limited
Senate - unlimited
House vs Senate: Committee control over bill
House - committee control nearly absolute
Senate - committee consideration not mandatory
House vs Senate: Order of consideration for bills
House - Speaker determines
Senate - Rulings from leadership can be opposed
House vs Senate: Recognizing members
House - Speaker recognizes who can speak
Senate - Presiding officer wields far less power
House vs Senate: Ending debate
House - majority vote
Senate - Filibuster can delay indefinitely
House vs Senate: Concluding
House - end of day
Senate - recesses rather than adjourns
Mandatory spending
No appropriations required
- Social Security
- Medicare & Medicaid
- Interest on national debt
Discretionary revenue
Amount of income that remains after all mandatory spending is funded
Discretionary spending
Non-essential spending
Largest proportion - military & defense
Standing committees
- Permanent subject matter committees
- Consider bills and make recommendations
- Ex: Agriculture, Banking & Finance, VA
Joint committees
- Permanent legislative joint-task committees with both House members and Senators
- Often conduct admin and studies rather than consider legislative bills
- Ex: Economics, Taxation
Conference committees
Temporary joint committee that drafts compromises between House and Senate versions of bills
Select committees
- Temporary legislative committees that address a specific investigation or study outside the scope of standing or joint committees
- Senate uses “special” committee
- Ex: Intelligence, Indian Affairs, Watergate
House Rules Committee
- Speaker uses to control activity on the floor
- Original jurisdiction and special orders
- Most time spent on special orders
Original jurisdiction
Administrative House matters
Special orders
- House Rules Committee issues special rules that set terms for debate on legislation
- Can refuse to grant a rule - renders legislation dead
Open rules
Allows 5 minutes for debate, permitted during any amendment
Modified open rules
Minor restrictions on otherwise open rules
Structured rules
Allow strict consideration of certain amendments and debate restraints
Closed rules
Disallow consideration of amendments
Discharge petition
- Bill referred to committee and 30 days have passed without bill being reported to floor
- Majority vote (218) required
- Very rare
Reapportionment
- Constitutionally mandated redistribution of House seats to account for population changes
- Based on Census
- Every state’s population viewed relative to that of all others
Redistricting
- Drawing of Congressional district boundaries after reapportionment
- Done by state legislatures
Gerrymandering
- Intentional process of drawing district lines to benefit one party or voting bloc
- Purpose is to create safe seats
- Done via packing, cracking, or both
Packing
Drawing boundaries so that voters within a given bloc are concentrated into as few districts as possible, to ensure the surrounding districts are safe
Cracking
Drawing boundaries so that given blocs are broken up and distributed throughout several districts so their votes are too few to have an impact
White House staff: Hierarchical model
- Chief of Staff in place
- Access to POTUS controlled by CoS
- Greater efficiency (+)
- Unelected official (CoS) given tremendous power (-)
White House staff: Circular model
- No Chief of Staff
- Everyone in WH staff has free access to POTUS
- Avoids excessive filtering of information (+)
- Can be chaotic (-)
Executive Office of the President
3 most important agencies:
- OMB
- NSC
- Council of Economic Advisers
International Economic Powers Act
1977
Authorizes POTUS to impose sanctions
Federalist No 70
- Alexander Hamilton
2. Strong unitary executive
Federalist No 78
- Alexander Hamilton
2. Judicial branch is weakest
Article III
Judicial power
Section 1. Supreme court and establishment of lower courts
Section 2. Jurisdiction of federal courts
Section 3. Definition of treason
Writ of Certiori
Requests review by the Supreme Court
Rule of Four
4 of 9 Justices agree with writ of certiori
Judicial review
- Challenges constitutionality of legislative and executive actions
- Established in Marbury v Madison
Stare decisis
- Foundation for the rule of precedent
2. If lower court renders a decision, higher court will defer to its ruling
Judicial activism
Legislating from the bench (usually liberal)
Judicial restraint
Interpret the Constitution literally (usually conservative)
Original cabinet
- State
- Treasury
- War
Rule-making authority
- Administrative Procedures Act
2. Agencies have to make regulations public, provide time for comments, publish in CFR
Discretionary authority
Allows agencies to use expertise to make rules that are effectively law unless challenged in court
Iron Triangle
- Department/agency
- Congressional subject matter committee
- Interest group
