Congress Flashcards
What are the features of the House of Representatives?
5
- 435 members (fixed number), 2 year terms, represent a congressional district
- Speaker = most important role
- Majority and minority leader and whip
- Can introduce financial legislation
- Has committees
What are the features of the Senate?
5
- 100 members (two per state), 6 year terms, 1/3 elected every 2 years, represent an entire state
- VP can vote in a tie situation
- Debating chamber
- Has confirmation powers and can approve treaties
- Has committees and members can filibuster
Roles of congress
3
- passing legislation
- representing the people
- overseeing the executive
What are the concurrent powers of congress ?
7
- Equal legislative power - a bill must pass through both houses and then go to the president
- Overriding presidential vetos - 2/3 majority needed to overturn a veto
- Initiating constitutional amendments - needs a 2/3 majority in both houses to begin the ammendment process
- Ratifying treaties (senate only) - cannot be an official international treaty without a 2/3 majority in the senate
- Declaring war - both houses must vote to declare war (not been used since 1941) - modern presidents avoid senate
- Confirming appointed officials (senate only) - must confirm executive appointments
- Impeachment - 2/3 majority to convict a president for an impeachment
What is gerrymandering?
A form of redistributing electoral districts by deliberately modifying, thus producing a contorted shape for electoral purposes
What are the advantages of gerrymandering?
Creates majority-minority districts, where members of a single minority group makeup a majority of the voting population, this has increased racial representation in the House of Representatives
What are the disadvantages of gerrymandering?
Can be used to pack a district with core supporters pf one party, creating wasted votes
Cracking is where the voting power of opposing parties is diluted by spreading their party supporters across many districts
legislative process
6
- Introduction - formality, no vote held
- Committee - standing committees hold hearings where amendments may be made and then a vote
- Timetabling
- Floor debate and vote on passage
- SENATE FLOOR DEBATE
- Presidential action - veto or be signed
- must pass through both houses
final legislative actions
** Conference committee** (optional) - temporary committees set up to consider specific bills, when house and senate come with 2 versions bill conference committee merges
- to reconcile the differences between the two versions
Unique features of legislative process
2
Gridlock - when a stalemate arises between the executive and congress
divided government - occurs when one party in control of the presednecy and the other holds congress
Does congress perform its legislative function effectively ?
YES
- EFFECTIVE: Congress has passed significant and weighty pieces of legislation such as Obamacare or the recent infrastructure bill.
For example, In the last 25 years congress has passed some significant acts like the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002, the SAVE LIVES Act, which expanded COVID-19 vaccinations for veterans and their families and the COVID-19 Bankruptcy Relief Extension Act of 2021. -Congress passes over 300 bills in each congressional session - Congress can pass laws on a wide range of policy issues - it has used the ‘necessary + proper’ clause & the commerce clause to expand the areas over which it can legislate.
Does congress perform its legislative function effectively ?
NO
- In times of unified govt - scrutiny is reduced through party dominance = filibuster.- Takes 60 a supermajority vote in Senate to cut off debate & get to vote
- allowing minority to block bills. E.g. 2021 People acr aimed to overhaul election laws and enhance voting rights
- blocked with 50/50 vote, w no filibuster would have been enough.- E.g. 2010 DREAM ACT - passed by representative BUT, senate fell short due to filibustering
- In times of divided govt - partisanship can lead to a total lack of legislation & ineffective govt.
Does congress perform its power of oversight effectively?
YES
6
Congressional committees are the focus of Congress’ oversight function. Members of the executive branch can be questioned and held accountable (e.g. committee created to look into the Iran-contra scandal and an intelligence committee was created to look at the findings of the CIA and it reported there were no WMDs in Iraq)
⇒ Standing committees have expertise (e.g. Senator Patrick lee has been on the Judicial Committee for 36 years)
⇒ Senate confirms Presidential appointments (e.g. Marco Rubio interviewed Rex Tillerson and asked controversial questions about his relationship with Russia)
⇒ Congress have the power to veto the President and can override the residents veto (e.g. Congress veto overrode Bush’s Medicare veto, 2008)
⇒ Divided government - oversight tends to be stringent and act like a watchdog (e.g. Democrats investigated the scandal over the healthcare provided for war veterans at the Water reed medical centre)
⇒ United government - even with a united government there is still effective oversight (e.g. democrats held back money for Obama to close Guantanamo bay as they said there was no plan)
Does congress perform its power of oversight effectively?
NO
3
⇒ United government - when the President’s own party is in Congress they are reluctant to embarrass the President with stringent oversight (e.g. Rubio voted in favour of Tillerson even though he said he had reservations)
⇒ Point-scoring - party representatives can base their opinions on who is in charge (e.g. in 2005, Obama said Justice Roberts was qualified to be a justice but voted against his nomination, then in 2016 the Rep Senate refused to hear Merrick Garland)
⇒ Congressional committees not always effective (e.g. John McCarthy had to be centured from the Senate after his behaviour as chair of a committee)
Does congress perform its representative function effectively?
NO
4
⇒ Only 21% of Senators are female (an all-time high) and there are only 83/435 female members of the house
⇒ Only 3 blacks in the Senate
⇒ Average age of a Senator is about 62
⇒ No one under 30 can become a member of Senate
Does congress perform its representative function effectively?
YES
⇒ Locality rule means that Congressmen must come from the district they represent
⇒ The creation of majority-minority districts boosted minorities in the house (currently 46 blacks)
⇒ Anyone over 25 can stand for election for the House of Representatives
Is congress a broken branch?
YES
⇒ Only because of partisanship that the government shutdown happened in the first place
⇒ Many of the laws that are passed are trivial because the parties cannot agree on more important bills (e.g. a bill was passed on what size coins were used to be used in the baseball national hall of fame, but no bills on gun reform or immigration)
⇒ The super-majorities needed to pass a bill are hard to achieve - the requirement of super-majorities was put in by the founding fathers to create an intentional negative bias
Is congress a broken branch?
NO
⇒ The parties do have bi-partisanship. In 2013, 87 Republican members of the house voted to end the government shutdown by voting for Obamacare. Also agreed the budget for the next 2 years
⇒ Only because of a lack of Republican support that Trump’s Obamacare repeal was pulled
⇒ power of the purse is a crucial power which helps keep the executive accountable
Explain and analyse three functions of the US Congress. [9 marks]
