Congress Flashcards
Where in the constitution does it lay out the powers of congress
Article 1
How was congress designed by the 5 founding fathers
- so it’s powers douldn’t be removed
- congress was designed to be most accountable branch to voters
- house of reps elected every 2 years
- to be able to protect rights of states from within federal gov and to challenge and limit power of newly formed presidency
What is the structure of congress
- bicameral (made up of 2 chambers), house of reps and senate
- house of reps directly appointed, senate appointed by state legislatures, each state gets 2
- House should represent popular sovereignty, while senate acts as a safeguard against it ensuring every state has a voice
Why and when was it decided that senate would become an elected chamber
17th amendment 1913
- due to concerns over power of industrial monopolies to control state legislatures and influence appointments of senators
What is the size of the house of reps in congress
435 house of reps, each one roughly represents 765,000 people
What is the election cycle of congress
- congressional election occurs every 2 years.
- uses FPTP
- In every congressional election, every seat in house of reps is up for election as well as 1/3 of seats in the senate
What are midterm elections
- often seen as a referendum on performance of president so far, it isn’t unusual for the president to loose a chamber.
- hard for a president to achieve everything in 2 years between election and midterms, especially because of seperation of powers
What does incumbent mean
Person who holds a political office, usually referring to president, a senator, or member of house of reps
How is congress made in a bicameral nature
- 2 chambers,
- 100 senate members, 6 year terms, 2 from each state
- 435 house of reps members, 2 years terms
What’s an example of congressional elections being expensive
- 2020, congressional elections cost 7 million dollars, with 9/10 most expensive senate races ever
What’s an example of if the incumbent is already well known, they don’t need to spend as much money
- senate Republican leader McConnell spend 34 dollars per vote, compared to 92 dollars a vote from his democratic challenger
What congressional advantages do incumbents have
- provided with a website so they can explain political beliefs, demonstrate policy
- franking priviledeges, cost of mailings to their constituents is provided by congress.
What is gerrymandering
Where a states governing party draws the boundaries of each constituency to give it an electoral advantage, producing relatively few swing seats, giving the incumbent the advantage
What impact does the election cycle have on congress
With seats up for election every 2 years, control of congress and presidency or 2 houses can be split between 2 parties, which has become more common in recent history
Eg: since 1969, US government has been split 70% of the time
What are the powers the house of reps hold
- power of the purse
- impeachment
- choose the president if electoral college is deadlocked
What are the concurrent powers in congress
- creating legislation
- override president vetos
- propose constitutional amendments
- declare war
- confirm new vice president
- investigation
What are the powers of the senate in congress
- ratifying treaties
- confirm appointments
- to try cases of impeachment
- choose president if electoral college is deadlocked
What’s an example of congress creating/amending legislation in the Biden administration
- Biden ‘build back better plan’, consisted of 3 parts, recovery, infrastructure, social security. Recovery plan passed but other 2 were held up in congress with senators such as Manchin and progressive democrats objectifying to the 2 parts of his proposed package.
What’s an example of congress amending/creating/rejecting legislation in the Trump administration
- congress’ refusal to pass legislation finding the trumps border wall led to the longest shutdown in government history
What’s an example of congress overriding a presidents veto
- 2020, congress overrode Trumps veto of national defence authorisation act with bipartisan cooperation between republicans and democrats
What’s an example of congress declaring war
- after attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan, Roosevelt’s asked congress to formally declare wad
What’s an example of congress doing an investigation
- congress has the power to subpoena - ordering someone to attend a hearing and compel them to give evidence
- eg: 4 congressional committees investigated alleged Russian interference in 2016 presidential election
What’s an example of the house of representatives using the power of the purse
- 2018, trump requested budget for environmental. Protection be cut by 1/3, however house repubs had it only cut by 6%
What’s a an example of house of reps bringing charges of impeachment
- happened to trump twice, second time was a week before his term expired
What’s an example of the house of reps choosing a president if electoral college is deadlocked
- happened twice, in 1800, 1836
- Jefferson won in 1800 with outright majority of 9 votes
What’s an example of the senate ratifying treaties
- in 2012, senate voted to reject the UN convention on the rights of persons with disabilities
What’s an example of the senate confirming appointments
- nominees like Brett kavanaugh was confirmed but faces backlash due to allegations of sexual assault
- democrats boycotted the vote in protest of the swiftness in Amy coney Barret nomination
Who decides what an impeachable offence is
‘ what ever a majority of the house of reps considers it to be at a given moment of history’ - Gerald Ford
What is the legislative process
- Intro ( receive bill, place into relative committe)
- committee consideration( if bill is considered, it’s amended and then ‘reported out’)
- scheduling ( deciding on timetable for debate)
- floor action ( debates take place on floor of house/senate, amended and voted on)
- resolving differences ( if there are minor differences, goes to committee to resolve problem - presidential action( sign, veto, leave the bill, after 10 days it will be law if congress is still in session)
- new law
What are the benefits of the legislative process
- length process allows for scrutiny of president proposed legislation
- equality of both houses ensures needs of ppl and states are heard
- supermajorities help prevent tyranny of a presidents party
- difficult nature of process ensures only necessary laws pass, not laws the president wants
- unless a president vetoes it, it becomes law
What are the limitations of the legislative process
- chances of passing legislation is limited, which ignores a presidents mandate
- power is placed in hands of a few, rather then allowing elected representatives to scrutinise
- need for supermajorities and ability of one senator to hold up a bill allow for tyranny of minority
- the president alone can prevent a bill becoming law, and veto is unlikely to be overturned
Why May congress be significant in policy making
- congress can pass laws on a wide range of issues and has necessary and proper clause and commerce clause to expand the areas over which it can legislate
- in times of unified gov, legislative achievement can be made, such as the Biden supported infrastructure investment and jobs act passed
- supremacy clause in constitution means its superior to state law, states are bound to follow this.
Why May congress not be significant in policy making
- states are unwilling to allow congress complete control, eg issues with abortion, LGBT, immigration
- laws passed by congress can be overturned by president (veto) and Supreme Court (judicial review)
- increase in hypeepartisanship has reduced ability to pass legislation
What is representation like in congress
- members have a functional representative responsibility (socioeconomic groups are represented no matter the state or district line)
What’s the a make up of congress in terms of diversity
- proportion of minority groups is less then what they make up of US population
- African Americans most appropriately represented in 117th congress
What is a congressional Caucas and what’s an example of one
- group of individuals share a common policy goal
- eg: congressional black caucas represents African American members of congress, eg, set up a war room to defend judge Brown Jackson after nomination to US Supreme Court
What was congresses approval rating in 2020
25%, lower then trumps approval rating in the latter stages of his presidency
