3.2.1.2 The legislative branch of government: Congress

Question 1

why was congress designed as a bicameral legislature

Answer 1

• Before 1787 the Articles of Confederation only set up a legislature which proved to be too weak to manage the 13 colonies affairs.
• After Philadelphia Convention in 1787 Congress becomes 1 of the 3 branches of federal government and is made up of 2 houses (Representatives and Senators).

Question 2

Why did the founding father choose a bicameral legislature?

Answer 2

• Compromise solution to the arguments concerning how the people/states should be represented at Philadelphia Convention of 1787. It responds to states fears that the federal government would be too powerful.
• Introduces a further check and balance into the Constitution to provide a counterbalance to prevent either a monarch-like figure or the federal legislature becoming too powerful.

Question 3

exclusive powers of HoR

Answer 3

• Initiate money bills
• Impeachment
• Elect president if Electoral college is deadlocked.

Question 4

exclusive powers of the senate

Answer 4

• Confirm appointments.
• Ratify treaties.
• Try cases of impeachment.
• Elect vice-president if Electoral College is deadlocked.

Question 5

reasons mid terms are bad for presidents

Answer 5

• Not friendly to the president’s political party, if they win a landlside worselt imapcted by mid terms
• Voters tend to only go to the polls when they are angry

Question 6

reasons mid terms are good for presidents

Answer 6

• coattails effect

Question 7

measure to improve diveristy in congress

Answer 7

• Positive discrimination in favour of women e.g. year of the women
• Democrat control of congress 2007-2008.
• Role of states in encouraging more diversity e.g. Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia.
• Congressional Black Caucus started in 1971 to raise black profile.
• Redrawing of district boundaries following the 1990 census e.g. North Carolina’s 12th Congressional District – allowed for more black representation.
• Role of state governors e.g. Nikki Haley of South Carolina in 2012 appointed Tim Scott (African American) to the senate.
• Various bills going through congress currently aiming to tackle diversity issues e.g. Stronger Together School Diversity Act of 2016, Diversity in Military leadership Act 2016

Question 8

concurrent powers of congress

Answer 8

Pass legislation.
Override the president’s veto.
Initiate constitutional amendments.
Declare War.
Confirm a newly appointed vice-president.

Question 9

Hopper - legislative process

Answer 9

Box on the side of clerks’ desk for bills to be introduced.

Question 10

Ear Marking - legislative process

Answer 10

Congress setting aside money for a specific purpose in a bill.

Question 11

Pigeon Hole - legislative process

Answer 11

To allow a bill to ‘die’ or be pigeonholed at the committee stage.

Question 12

Mark up - legislative process

Answer 12

Process where committee members ‘markup’ or make changes to a bill.

Question 13

Filibuster - legislative process

Answer 13

Delaying device used to obstruct the passage of a bill through either chamber of Congress.

Question 14

Cloture - legislative process

Answer 14

A process whereby the senate can end a filibuster if two-thirds majority occurs

Question 15

Pork Barrel - legislative process

Answer 15

Term used to transfer funding to a congress member’s state or district.

Question 16

legislative process

Answer 16

1) First reading
2) Committee stage
3) Timetabling
4) Second reading
5) Third reading
6) Confrence committee stage
7) Presidential action

Question 17

advantages of the legislative process

Answer 17

• Presidential action provides a check and balance.
• Threat of veto means that politics is played out and that parties aren’t just thinking about themselves.

Question 18

disadvantages of the legislative process

Answer 18

• Legislation is dependent on which party dominates; filibusters may be the only answer to this.
• Takes a long time

Question 19

Reasons why it’s hard to get a bill through congress

Answer 19

1. Huge number of bills introduced in first place
2. Process is complicated – Congress is a ‘bastion of negation’ and passing laws is a ‘legislative labyrinth’ and legislative process has ‘a built-in negative bias’.
3. Some stages require super-majorities
4. Power in Congress is decentralised.
5. Power is shared equally between 2 houses – makes it more difficult.
6. Party loyalty might complicate the issue
7. Congress might be controlled by parties different to president therefore he will not find it easy to get legislation through.
8. Party discipline in Congress is weak so even when presidents party has control in Congress members might not toe the party line, especially senators.

Question 20

Congress options after presidential veto

Answer 20

• Put right the objections as identified by the president in his veto message and give it back for his signature. (unlikely)
• Override the veto – requires a two-thirds majority in both houses (rarely achieved)
• If they are not confident that they can override the veto, do nothing, and accept losing (most likely)
• In the case of a pocket veto nothing as time has run out.

Question 21

reasosn the presidential veto has declined

Answer 21

• White house getting involved.
• A divided congress mitigates veto threats.
• You can’t veto what doesn’t pass.
• Bills have gotten bigger.
• Presidents only object to parts of bills.

Question 22

standing committees

Answer 22

permanent panels with jurisdiction over broad policy areas (e.g. Agriculture, Foreign Relations) or areas of continuing legislative concern (e.g., Appropriations, Rules)

Question 23

House rules committee

Answer 23

a standing committee of the House which decides on which bills to send to the House Floor for debate. The majority party has control of this Committee and the Chair, therefore, holds a key position of power.

Question 24

select committees

Answer 24

temporary or permanent panels created to consider a specific issue that lies outside the jurisdiction of other committees or that demands special attention (e.g., campaign contributions)

Question 25

What happens when a bill is referred to a congressional committees?

Answer 25

• bills are scruntinised
• most bills will die in this stage
• bills that go forward will be framed and amended
• guide through the debate stage

Question 26

rules regarding the committee chairs

Answer 26

• Drawn from majority party in that house.
• Seniority rule – a rule stating that the chair of a congressional standing committee will be the member of the majority party with the longest continuous service on that committee.

Question 27

powers of committee chairs

Answer 27

• Control committee’s agenda.
• Decide when committee will meet.
• Control committee’s budget.
• Influence membership, sub-committees.
• Supervise committee staff (up to 50).
• Spokesperson on policy area of committee to White House and media.
• Make requests to the House Rules Committee and party leadership (in the Senate) for scheduling of legislation.
• Speak for the committee on the floor of their respective chamber.

Question 28

criticisms of committees

Answer 28

• Too much power given to committee chairs to decide the passage of a bill.
• Too much power to the whole committee to consider a bill.
• Some committees are large meaning decisions are harder to reach with lots of competing considerations e.g. district/state and ideological concerns.
• Very long-drawn-out process.
• Role of House Rules Committee and who chairs that decides what legislation to put through.
• Party politics has too much sway in the passage of legislation as they control the proportion of members on each congressional committee and the committee chair.
• Chairs have the power to ‘pigeon-hole’ bills.
• Chairs have the power to initiate ‘pork-barrel’ politics.
• Critics of committee chair term limits say that the institutional memory of the committees is lost, and that power is ceded to unelected committee staff who hold the knowledge for new inexperienced chairs.
• Some chairs are old

Question 29

how did the constitution set out the role of the speaker

Answer 29

The Founder’ intentions seemed to expect the Speaker to serve as a political appointee but to also be a peace maker. Originally the Speaker didn’t talk on the House floor during debates, only when conducting the affairs of the House.

Question 30

what powers does the speaker have

Answer 30

Speaker is the House’s presiding officer, party leader, and administrative head of the House.

Question 31

What do majority and minority leaders do?

Answer 31

They serve as spokespersons for their party’s positions. Majority leader schedules the day’s programme whilst the Minority leader negotiates with majority leader over debates, timings, etc.

Question 32

What is the office of president pro tempore (‘president for a time’)?

Answer 32

Constitution, Article 1, Section 3 says that the Senate must choose a president pro tempore to act in the vice-president’s absence. By custom it is the senator of the majority party with the longest record of continuous service.

Question 33

how does the house vote

Answer 33

• By electronic means – each member places an electronic card into a small machine which records the vote and the member voting.
• Members have 15 minutes to cast their votes.
• A ‘score box’ shows votes and time remaining.
• This replaced the time-consuming system which required all 435 members’ names in the House of Representatives to be read out for each vote.

Question 34

how do senators vote

Answer 34

• show of hands
• if a senator will not vote, he must say why
• When the aye and nos are counted/ordered, a recorded vote might be requested by a Senator.
• If the vote is tied, the vice president if present, is entitled to a casting vote. If the vice president is not present, the motion fails.

Question 35

ways congress may choose to vote

Answer 35

• political party
• constituents
• the administration
• pressure groups
• colleagues and staff
• perosnal belief

Question 36

why has the house become increasingly partisan

Answer 36

• ‘Like two bottles with different labels, both empty’ 1910 to ‘The defining characteristics of this age are greater unity within the parties and more distinct conflicts between them. On almost every major issue, the distance between the two parties has widened even as dissent within the parties has diminished.
• In the Senate many centrists in both parties retired (4) or died (1) since 2010 and many centrists in both parties were not re-elected (4) in 2010
• Parties are more united and cohesive.
• Same people but voting in different ways for reasons other than being partisan.
• Elected members are more ideological than they used to be.
• For House members the redrawing of district boundaries has resulted in representatives being more partisan to appeal to their electorates.

Question 37

why has the senate become increasingly partisan

Answer 37

• Senate was very bipartisan in 1982 e.g. 2 extremes in the Democrats were Ted Kennedy and Ed Zorinsky who rarely voted in the same way and 2 extremes in the Republicans in 1982 were Lowell Weicker on the liberal wing and Strom Thurmond on the conservative wing who rarely voted in the same way – Ted Kennedy was more likely to vote with Lowell Weiker than Zorinsky.
• But in 2015 much more partisan e.g. most liberal Democrat was Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and the most conservative was Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and 2 extremes in the Republicans was Susan Collins of Maine as the most liberal and Pat Roberts of Kansas the most conservative. No ideological overlap by 2015.