Component 3, Part 1- Congress

Question 1

What is Congress?

Answer 1

1) Congress is a bicameral legislature, with two equal legislative bodies:
2) The House of Representatives (which awards political representation to states in proportion to their population
3) The Senate (two politicians per state, giving a decree of protection to the interests of smaller states.

Question 2

What are the 4 powers given to Congress in the Constitution?

Answer 2

1) Article I states that all legislative powers shall be vested in a Congress. Article II gives Congress the power to overturn a presidential veto with a 2/3s majority.
2) Article I outlines the need for congressional elections, ensuring representation.
3) Article V allows Congress to amend the constitution with the states. An amendment requires a 2/3s vote in each chamber of congress.
4) Article I also gives Congress the right to initiate military action.

Question 3

What are the 3 exclusive powers held by the House of Representatives?

Answer 3

1) Impeachment
2) Elect the President if no candidate has over 50% of Electoral College votes. This power has been used in 1800 and 1824.
3) Begin consideration of all money bills. All revenue-raising bills must pass through the House first. This is because the Founding Father’s wanted to give the House (the only elected chamber at the time) more influence over taxation than the Senate.

Question 4

What are the 4 exclusive powers held by the Senate?

Answer 4

1) Trial an impeachment case. A 2/3s senate vote is required to remove someone from office. Some argue that the Republican failure to gain seats in the Senate meant that Bill Clinton did not get removed from office.
2) Elect the vice president if no candidate has over 50% of the Electoral College Votes.
3) Ratify treaties:
- All treaties are negotiated by the President, and are subject to confirmation by the Senate, requiring a 2/3s vote.
- The last rejected treaty proposal was in December 2012.
- The role of treaty ratification has been eroded by the President’s use of executive agreements.
4) Confirm executive appointments.

Question 5

How do congressional elections work?

Answer 5

1) Congressional elections are held every two years, using the FPTP system.
2) Congressional elections are also subject to primaries. A primary contest will only occur within a party when more than one candidate wants to represent the party for that seat.

Question 6

1) Explain the importance of mid term elections.
2) When has the Presidential party ever gained seats in the House?

Answer 6

1) They are often seen as a referendum on the first two years of a presidential term, and the results can have a major impact on presidential power since the President’s party can lose a majority in either chamber.
2) Three times: Roosevelt 1934, Clinton 1998 and Bush 2002.

Question 7

How do mid term elections work?

Answer 7

1) In mid term elections, each party runs a national campaign based around a common party platform, usually under the leadership of the House speaker and the House minority leader.

Question 7

What effect does congressional elections have on incumbency rates? Can you provide some stats from 2016?

Answer 7

1) The incumbent typically wins their seat again in the next election after a congressional election.
2) In 2016, incumbency re-election rates were 97% for the House and 90% for the Senate.

Question 8

What are some of the factors responsible for high incumbency re-election rates?

Answer 8

1) Use of office - Congresspersons and Senators use their place in office to establish popularity.
2) Safe seats and gerrymandering - The winner takes all system has allowed a large number of safe seats, where a candidate wins so convincingly that they are expected to keep the seat at the next election.
- The problem is made worse by gerrymandering - drawing electoral boundaries to favour a certain social group or party, allowing the dominant party to draw district boundaries in their favour.
3) Pork-barrel legislation - When a member of Congress proposes an amendment to legislation that will bring benefits to a particular group. An amendment added by a politician to add expenditure to a bill that benefits their constituency is referred to as an ‘earmark’.
4) Financial advantage - incumbents can attract more money than challengers, allowing them to run more successful campaigns.

Question 9

Explain the case study of Gerrymandering and Operation REDMAP?

Answer 9

1) After Obama’s election victory in 2008, a group of republican tacticians developed a plan to increase their chances of winning congressional seats, targeting democratic states which were due to re-draw their house district boundaries, and concentrated resources to make sure Republicans could take control of the state legislature.
2) After this, new Republican-held state legislatures changed constituency boundaries to maximise Republican success in House of Representative elections.

Question 10

What are some of the factors affecting voting behaviour within Congress?

Answer 10

1) Public opinion/constituency: Representatives must take into account public opinion or run the risk of being voted out of office.
2) People are likely to vote for a certain candidate due to their individual policies rather than because of their party label/ party leader.
2) Party/party leaders: representatives are pressured to vote according to the majority party view. Team competition contributes to higher unity. Party leaders also have limited use of patronage power. Eg: No republicans voted for Obama’s stimulus budget in 2009, arguably due to partisanship rather than ideological differences.
3) Caucuses: Groups of legislatures who share special interests. Some caucuses are based on ideology, others are based on social characteristics, others are based on economic interests.
4) Interest groups and professional lobbyists: these groups can influence voting through means including donations, which may influence a Congressperson or Senator to vote for policies that favour that group. Eg: after the 2012 Newton shootings, Obama was unsuccessful in passing legislation to limits guns despite clear majority public support. Pressure from the NRA carried more weight than public opinion.

Question 11

What are the 4 key features of the legislative process in Congress?

Answer 11

1) Initiation: Presidents can dominate the political agenda, but leaders in the House or Senate and individual members of Congress regulate initiate policy.
2) Compromise: The separation of powers and the checks and balances, including the co-equal legislative power of the House and Senate make compromise between parties or chambers necessary.
3) Weak parties and party leaders: Parties tend to be weak with many factions. Party leaders also have limited power over their own party. As a result parties do not act as a single unit in passing legislation through Congress. Here, partisanship can cause high levels of gridlock, where legislation can’t be passed.
4) Obstacles to success: Senate and House may have different legislative priorities due to differing term lengths. Legislation has to pass through several congressional committees, each of which can amend or obstruct a bill.

Question 12

How does the legislative process in the USA work?

Answer 12

1) Initiate - bills are initiated by the president, party leaders in congress, committees or even individual members of congress.
2) Committee stage: debate and amend - bills usually pass through each chamber at the same. Many bills cover a range of policy areas and are of interest to range of committees which will examine and amend a bill.
3) Schedule for main chamber - Once a bill passes the committee stage, a decision is taken on whether or not it should proceed to the full chamber and the rules of debate.
4) Decide - a bill must receive 50%+ vote in each chamber. Both chambers have to agree to the exact same version of a bill for it to pass. A disputed bill may go to a conference committee. The President has to sign a bill for it to become, but he can also veto a bill. Congress can overturn this veto but it requires a 2/3s vote in each chamber

Question 12

What are some of the differences in legislation between House and Senate?

Answer 12

1) In the House, bills go to a Rules Committee, which decided how long and the rules which the bill be debated under.
2) The Senate is much less structured than the House and does not have a Rules Committee, and gives unlimited debate time for a bill. The Senate also uses a process called unanimous consent, where all senators involved agree on a decision being made.
3) The filibuster - a senate rule that lets individual senators insist on continuing to debate, to prevent a vote taking place. The longest filibuster was more than 24hrs against the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

Question 13

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the US legislative process?

Answer 13

1) Strengths:
- Checks and balances prevent tyranny, forcing compromise between different interests.
- Quality policy comes from detailed consideration of bills and filters to remove undesirable aspects, limiting the danger of a bill being poorly thought through.
- Individual and states’ rights are protected, as senators can insert amendments or filibuster on the basis of their equal state power and interests.
2) Weaknesses:
- Inefficiency/low output results from the excessive need to compromise. Congress cannot act quickly and often fails to agree on legislation to address key needs.
- High levels of partisanship mean parties are unwilling to compromise, leading to more gridlock. The constitution requires compromise for laws to be passed.
- Poor quality legislation can come from too much compromise. A bill may lack coherence due to many amendments and interests.

Question 14

What have been some of the major legislative proposals since 2008 which have been passed?

Answer 14

1) American Recovery and Reinvestment Act 2009. Gave the economy more than $700bn to protect jobs and stimulate economy.
2) Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 2010. Required all Americans to have health insurance, with provisions for those on low/no income. Support in Congress based mainly on party affiliation.
3) Freedom Act 2015. Created after it was revealed how the Patriot Act was being used to monitor US citizens. Led to disputes between the House and Senate.

Question 15

What have been some of the major legislative proposals which have been rejected since 2008?

Answer 15

1) DREAM ACT. Advocated by Obama in 2008 and 2012 election campaigns. Aimed at allowing illegal immigrants who arrived in the US before 18 to have a right to remain. Filibustered in the Senate.
2) Gun regulations. Proposed in various forms by president and Congress. Developed by Vice President Biden, after Sandy Hook. Defeated in the Senate. Would have banned assault rifles.
3) Budget shutdown in 2013. Legislative gridlock due to disagreement centred on spending levels, budget deficit and the Affordable Care Act. Lasted 16 days and cost an estimated $24bn.

Question 16

What are the 4 factors limiting the impact of Congress/

Answer 16

1) The President can veto legislation passed by Congress. Eg: Obama veto of Affordable Care Repeal 2016.
2) Partisanship has decreased the will of parties to compromise, making it harder to create laws.
3) The Supreme Court can overturn acts of Congress using judicial review. Eg: Shelby v Holder overturned key sections of the Voting Rights Act.
4) Congress is internally divided and may be unable to make a new law especially with decisions between House and Senate.

Question 17

How can committees created by Congress provide checks on the executive?

Answer 17

1) Most committees are policy-based and conduct oversight based on their policy expertise. Typically they investigate a department and hold hearings for executive members.
2) The House Committee an Oversight and Reform has the sole role of scrutinising the executive. In the years before the 2016 election, Committee chair Jason Chaffetz used the committee to investigate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email account for her work as secretary of state.
3) Congress can create temporary committees to provide oversight if an event concern arises.

Question 18

What are some of the factors influencing the relationship between Congress and the Presidency?

Answer 18

1) The popularity of the President, Congress or a specific policy with the general public.
2) Are the President and Congress working on domestic or foreign policy?
3) Does the President hold a majority in both congressional chambers.
4) Who has the stronger or more recent mandate?
5) Does the president have effective leadership and persuasion skills?

Question 19

What are Congress’s limits on the Supreme Court?

Answer 19

1) Its ultimate power is to overturn a decision. using an amendment to the Constitution, Congress can reverse or amend a Court ruling.
- Eg: When Congress and the states lowered the voting age to 18 in the 26th amendment of 1971, it effectively overturned Oregon v Mitchell of 1970 which allowed states to retain the age of 21 as the voting age for state elections if they wanted to.
2) The Senate’s role in ratifying presidential nominations. The Senate can only conduct hearings.
3) Individual justices can be impeached and removed by congress, but this last happened in 1804.

Question 20

1) To what extent does partisanship still exist?
2) Is partisanship as bad as it seems?

Answer 20

1) The Republican Party was criticised for excessive partisanship during the Obama presidency. The average party unity in the 113th congress was 92%.
2) It is not absolute, there are instances of bipartisan agreement and compromise. Eg: in 2016 there was a convincing vote to overturn Obama’s Saudi Arabia legislation veto, which upheld Congress’s original law to allow victims of 9/11 to sue the Saudi Arabian government.

Question 21

What are some of the implications of partisanship?

Answer 21

1) Legislation and gridlock. The 112th and the 113th congress’s were the two least productive in history at the time.
2) Checks on the president. Under divided government, the president might fail to provide significant leadership. In contrast, if there is unified government, partisanship may lead to an increase in the power of the president.

Question 22

What is the impact of low and high party unity on the role of congress?

Answer 22

1) Low party unity:
- weak leadership due to limited patronage power of leaders means individuals do not always vote with their party.
- constituency opinion has stronger influence than party.
- members of congress may be strongly allied to an interest group or congressional caucus or faction.
2) Higher party unity:
- leaders in congress have become more powerful, with nationalisation of mid-terms and speakers increased power.
- increased partisanship has led to higher levels of party unity

Question 23

What 3 things has led to a change in congressional power as of late?

Answer 23

1) The rise in importance of foreign and military policy. As military action became faster, the president has been able to exert greater control over military policy. Congress attempted to exert authority with the War Powers Act of 1973.
2) The nationalisation of mid term elections has centralised power in the hands of the House speaker.
3) Partisanship has created greater extremes in Congress’s reaction to the presidency and the extent to which they have attempted to restrict the executive branch

Question 24

What are the two types of representation?

Answer 24

1) Delegate and trustee.

Question 25

How is congress representative?

Answer 25

1) There are separate elections for president and congress:
- This allows voters to have separate votes for the executive and the legislature, maximising voter choice.
2) Two elected chambers - complementary representation:
- voters have two choices rather one with the benefit of alternative or complementary representation.
3) Frequent elections and short House terms:
- Congressional elections take place every 2 years, causing Congress to be a highly representative body.

Question 26

In what 3 ways is Congress not representative?

Answer 26

1) FPTP and gerrymandering:
- These heavily undermine the representative nature of congress.
- The determination of parties and politicians to maximise their power has led to a major disruption of public opinion, in which power in congress doesn’t reflect the wishes of the people.
2) Social representation:
- the make-up of congress still does not reflect the make-up of society, particularly in terms of race and gender.
- however, the 118th congress is the most racially diverse to date. Republicans argue that minority representation has been growing rapidly.
3) Influence of pressure groups:
- pressure groups influence congress in a manner that arguably distorts the wishes of the public.
- the significance of money means that richer pressure groups dominate, gaining over-representation of their wishes and interests at the expense of others..
- elite theory suggests that congress is not democratic at all because it responds only to the wishes of a small minority in society.