Assessing Congress

Question 1

What are the strengths of divided government?

Answer 1

Creates an incentive to the out party (one who doesn’t have the presidency) to help the in party succeed. When one party is completely in control the other party just does nothing, this is bad representation. E.G. beginning of the Obama presidency

Has to appeal to the middle group when making legislation - middle America rather than extremes

More effective oversight of the executive branch- congress becomes a watchdog not a lapdog. Consider the frivolous questioning of Gorsuch or the way tax cuts in 2017 cleared the house, not good oversight there in a United government.

Divided government incentivises cooperation and compromise

Question 2

What are the weaknesses of divided government?

Answer 2

GRIDLOCK! Partisan bickering
2013 shutdown for 16 days

If there are very partisan parties it is difficult to build coalition and make compromise. In Reagan’s time although Republicans did not control the house he could build a coalition with GOP members and conservative dems. Now the democrats are more cohesively liberal and GOP is more cohesively conservative this is difficult

Impeachment is difficult

Question 3

How many Benghazi select committees have there been?

Answer 3

8

Over zealous!

Question 4

How did the 113th congress make the body more diverse?

Answer 4

1) there was the first openly gay senator (Timmy Baldwin D Wisconsin)
2) the first AA senator from the Deep South since reconstruction (Tim Scott R S Carolina)
3) fist bisexual member of congress and also first ‘religiously unaffiliated member’
4) first Buddhist senator (Maisie Hirino D Hawaii)
5) fist Hindu member of the house
6) first disabled female congresswoman
7) for the first time ever the Democrat part membership is not majority white male
8) record number of women elected to the senate (20) record number of LGBT legislators (7)

Question 5

Is the congress representative?

Answer 5

Um hell no

Women only 20% of people in congress yet 51% of the population.

Hispanics 6% of congress but around 16% of the population

African Americans are 12% of the population but only 8% of congress

Asians are 4.5% of the population but 1% of congress

20% of Americans are not religious at all, basically no legislators say they are not religious. Atheists under represented.

80% of congresses wealth is held by 50 legislators

GOP especially not diverse, 3/4 of women are D and over 90% of the AA members

Question 6

Does it matter that congress is not very diverse?

Answer 6

Yes perhaps a legislature should reflect the wider population.

Arguably with the system of congressional primaries, it is the people’s fault not the parties for having poor representation

There was an all white congress that banned slavery and an all male congress that gave women the right to vote. arguably we don’t need representative members to represent its interests.

Question 7

How is the 115th congress in terms of diversity? Think about Race Gender and Religion

Answer 7

Race-

Kamala Harris (California)
Second ever black female senator
First Indian American senator

Tammy Duckworth
First Thai-American senator

Cortez Mastodon
First Latino senator

49 black members of congress in total ( 3 are GOP)

Gender
21% female (104 women)
5 GOP Senators are women/ 52 senators
21 GOP house members are female 9%

Religion
90% christian
6% Jewish
3 Buddhists, 3 Hindus, 2 Muslims, 1 Athiest

Question 8

who is the speaker of the house?

Answer 8

Paul Ryan

is partisan. Controls the house and timetabling. Is not a ceremonial role in the same was as it is in the House of Commons. The speaker is an active partisan and second in line to the presidency (after the VP).

The speaker controls the legislative agenda and influences which committee a bill is assigned to.

the speaker has powers of patronage and can shape the membership of all important committees.

Question 9

Obama was the …

Answer 9

First ever black president

Third ever black senator

Question 10

Is there Native American representation?

Answer 10

No basically none

Question 11

Who was the first ever female speaker of the House in 2006?

Answer 11

Nancy Pelosu

Question 12

Why is the house more diverse that the Senate?

Answer 12

Shorter terms - more responsive to demands of the electorate

Increasing number of majority minority districts mean returning a minority candidate is more likely.

Question 13

What is divided government?

Answer 13

When one party controls congress and the other controls the presidency. Divided government could not occur in the UK, the executive always controls the legislature.

Question 14

What is a divided congress?

Answer 14

Where one party controls the house and the other controls the Senate

Question 15

What happened to Nixon and his predecessor Ford, partly due to a Democrat controlled congress?

can this show divided government brings bickering?

Answer 15

Nixon forced to resign

Ford only lasts 2.5 years

Question 16

Why is divided government more of a problem now than it used to be?

Answer 16

Parties are more ideologically extreme.

In Reagan’s day he faced a divided government situation but could build a coalition with moderate democrats.

now due to gerrymandering and stricter party discipline, it is harder to build coalition and get legislation passed.

Question 17

Give some examples of significant legislation passed under divided government? as these were decided on consensus are they more appealing to middle America and therefore better?

Answer 17

Yes probably better legislation under divided government

Reagan’s tax reforms 1986
Clinton’s welfare reforms 1996

Question 18

Which well qualified supreme court nominee of Reagan’s was rejected by the Senate under divided government?

Answer 18

Robert Bork

a weakness of divided govt, this was stupid

Question 19

What issues with divided government did Clinton face?

Answer 19

partial federal government shutdown 1995-96 and the impeachment and trial in 1998-99

Question 20

Does divided government give better oversight?

Answer 20

Arguably yes, makes congress a watchdog not a lapdog.

Not enough scrutiny of Trump at the moment, Betsy Devos was accepted and Neil Gorsuch was asked stupid questions.

Question 21

What happened with the 113th congress?

Answer 21

So unproductive

divided government meant nothing happened

Question 22

When has there been divided government?

Answer 22

divided government is the norm.

From 1987-1993 the GOP had the Presidency and the Democrats had both houses of congress.

From 1995-2001 the Democrats had the presidency but the GOP had both houses.

2007-2009 GWB but a Democrat house

Obama
2011-2015 the GOP had the senate
2015-2017 the GOP had both houses.

Question 23

Does congress have good oversight over the executive?

Answer 23

the quality of oversight is variable

Most oversight is retrospective. Investigations take place long after events and few sanctions can be put against those who have done the wrong doing.

However, informal oversight may be good, based on day to day contact between members of congress and the executive branch.

Question 24

Can the Senate check the executive effectively using the advice and consent powers?

Answer 24

Not really

Senate supposed to ratify treaties with a 2/3 majority

Senate did not ratify the UN arms trade treaty, perhaps showing these powers can be a check.

Presidents in reality just make executive agreements. e.g. Cuba and Iran 2015

Question 25

Can the Senate check the executive effectively using its power to confirm presidential appointments?

Answer 25

1987, Reagan’s supreme court nominee Robert Bork was rejected.

1989 John Towers was rejected as defence secretary

Now they just withdraw, e.g. Susan Rice

perhaps a good check? but the Betsy Devos confirmation does not show good oversight

Question 26

Can Congress use the presidential veto overturn check effectively?

Answer 26

Overrides are in practice rare because they are very difficult.

however, JASTA 2016 was overridden when Obama vetoes. This was a bill that allowed families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia.

Question 27

Can Congress use the impeachment check to give oversight on the executive?

Answer 27

Not really, Johnson and Clinton both impeached but acquitted at trial.

Question 28

Why has increase partisanship meant that oversight has decreased in quality and quantity?

Answer 28

Ornstein and Mann (the Brookings institute) found that oversight rarely occurred unless there was a party political advantage. Hearings in committees are usually narrowly focused on procedural matters.

Question 29

How do members of congress use televised committee hearings for their own gain instead of oversight?

Answer 29

they try to get soundbites for their next campaign advert.

Kathleen Sebelius was often reminded that she wasn’t in Kansas (she was governor of Kansas before she joined the Obama administration) during the Obamacare hearings in 2013.

Marsha Blackburn left the Obamacare hearings early to repeat her quip about ‘red solo cups’ to Fox news.

Question 30

What is the power balance between congress and the President like?

Answer 30

It changes

There are times of congressional inertia (e.g when there was the imperial presidency- a time in the 70’s when Presidential power peaked.)

At other times congress is very assertive. E.G impeachment of Clinton

Question 31

How have loyalties towards the president been undermined by think-tanks, news channels like cnn and the internet?

Answer 31

The white house hold over information has broken down.

This could make congress more powerful than the President

Question 32

How did the cold war make the president arguably more powerful than congress?

Answer 32

People rallied round the President. Foreign and defence policy consensus.

Question 33

How has divided government shaped the President/Congress power balance?

Answer 33

Speakers have perhaps usurped the President’s role as chief legislator. Newt Gringrich was v powerful and Paul Ryan used to write alternative budgets.

Clinton forced to accept the GOP legislative proposals, notably welfare reform.

Question 34

How does the strategy adopted by the President for wooing congress change the relationship between the executive and legislature?

Answer 34

Nixon, Carter and Trump are considered poor strategists.

Although the Democrats had strong majorities in both houses at the time, Carter couldn’t get many of his key ideas through.

Trump can’t build the wall.

Question 35

How did 9/11 strengthen presidential power over congress?

Answer 35

rallied round GWB

In times of crisis President’s power increases

Question 36

How have internal structures in Congress changed?

Answer 36

Committee chairpersons or ‘Barons’ used to hold full sway over Congress.

During the 70’s Congress became more fragmented as power was transferred to sub-committee chairpersons and individual members. This made attempts to build coalitions more difficult.

The subsequent strengthening of the party leadership helped GWB enact some of his policy proposals.

Question 37

Which factors have shaped president-Congress relations?

Answer 37

• growth of dedicated news channels
• end of the foreign policy consensus (cold war)
• role of parties in Congress
• structures of power in Congress
• presidential strategies
• degree of national/international tension.

Question 38

What does the 115th congress look like?

Answer 38

88 members of the house female, 21 senators (highest ever)

49 black members of the house, 3 black senators (9%- 13% population)

47 Hispanic members of the house, 5 senators
(8%- 16% pop)

15 Asian members of the house, 3 senators

2 native Americans members of the house

Question 39

Why is congress getting more diverse?

Answer 39

EMILY’s list

Minority majority districts

Black and Hispanic activism

More diverse candidates