2.1 The Structure of Congress Flashcards
the house
chamber, members, terms, debate, confirmation powers
- lower chamber
- 435 members
- 2 year terms
- limited debate
- does not have the power of confirmation
senate
members, terms, elections, debate, confirmation powers
- 2 from every state - 100 members
- 6 year terms
- 1/3 elected every 2 years
- upper chamber
- unlimited debate
- power of confirmation
the structure of congress
the house vs the senate elected
the house is direclty elected
the senate is appointed by state legislatures.
each state gets 2 senators, serving 6 years each.
The house represents popular soverignty, while the senate acts as a safeguard against this.
- the senate became an elected chamber in 1913 as part of the 17th amendment
the structure of congress
power differences in the house and the senate
- unlike the UK parliament, there is no upper and lower house
- each house has different powers: house’s right to begin all appropriations bills, and the senates to ratify treaties and appointments
- they concurrently share the power to make legislation, and they recieve equal salaires
the structure of congress
membership in congress: 1st vs congress today
- 1st: 26 senators and 65 members of the house
- congress today has 100 senators and 435 house members
the structure of congress
the 1911 appointment act
sets the no. of representatives allowed at 435. Today, each house member represents around 765,000 americans
the structure of congress
the election cycle
- every 2 years theres a congressional election, which uses FPTP
- every seat in the house is up for election, and 1/3 of seats in the senate
- when these elections occur when a president is in the middle of a term, they are called midterms.
the structure of congress
midterm elections! advantages/disadvantages
- if the government becomes divided during midterms, it can make it more difficult for the president to pass their legislative agenda
- congress also has a recent mandate at all times of a maximum of 2 years, meaning it is more likely for congress to challenge the president.
- Eg. in 2016 when senate leader Mitch McConnell claimed they held a stronger mandate than a ‘lame duck president whose priorities and policies were just rejected in the most recent national election’
the structure of congress
the significance of incumbency: advantages
- being a current office holder means youre already well known
- they may also need to spend less in order to win votes, Eg. Mitch McConell republican senate leader in 2020 needed to spend an average of $34 per vote to retain his seat, vs $92 for his democratic challenger
- website is provided where they can explain their policy beliefs, success, and contact info.
- franking privileges (signing by official signature rather than name) Eg. Franking requests increased from 651 in Jan 2020 to 1529 in April 2020
- redrawing constituency boundaries is permitted every 10 years. After each census, this has led to gerrymandering, producing few swing seats and giving the incumbent a further advantage.
the structure of congress
senate elections
- senators are known as Class I, Class II, or Class III depending on the amount of time they have left in congress.
the structure of congress
the impact of the election cycle
- with the seats in both houses being up for election every 2 years, control of congress/presidency, the 2 houses can be split between 2 parties
- divisions are increasingly common; between 1901-1969; the government was divided 21% of the time, but since 1969 the US government has been divided 70% of the time
- in 7 of these congresses the 2 houses were controlled by 2 different parties, only Obama’s first congress had a majority of democrats in both houses.
