legislative process and oversight Flashcards
5 strengths of the legislative process
- checks and balances
- high quality
- protects individual and states rights
- shows major social and economic change
- only laws which are necessary pass allowing states to retain legislative power over other areas
what are 6 weaknesses of the legislative process
- leads to gridlock
- the president alone can prevent a bill from becoming law
- power is placed in the hands of a few
- long process
- pork barrel politics
- failure to enact major pieces of legislation
3 reasons congress is significant in policy making
- can pass laws on a wide range of issues
- in times of unified government it is easy to pass legislation
- supremacy clause in constitution ensures federal laws are more important than state laws and states have to honour federal law as a result
3 reasons congress is insignificant in policy making
- congress barely passes any legislation
- being dependent on states to enforce federal law means some more controversial laws are ignored
- low success rate of a bill passing 2-3% –> many places a bill can die –> pigeon holed, vetoed, SC can declare unconstitutional
explain the powers congress has over the president
- veto override with 2/3rd vote
- declare war
- approve sc and executive nominations
- senate ratifies treaties
- impeachment
give an example of a veto overide
- Obama veto override of justice against sponsors of terrorist act 2016
- allowed 9/11 victims families to sue foreign governments for terrorism links but Obama vetoed the bill fearing it would hurt diplomatic ties especially with Saudi Arabia
- but congress override –> 97/1 and 348/77
- the only veto override of his presidency
what powers does congress have over the SC
- congress can amend the constitution to amend a court ruling
- the senate ratifies appointments
- justices can be impeached
- congress could increase the number of justices on the court
give an example of congress amending the constitution to amend a court ruling
- following the Dred Scott vs Sanford ruling by the SC (which rules Black Americans to be non-US citizens and gave them no constitutional rights)
- congress passed 14th amendment in 1868 following the civil war which gave citizenship to all those born in the US including slaves
what powers does congress have over the legislative branch
- congress can vote against or amend policies supported by the president
- congress can fail to allocate funding for projects supported by the president –> Trump 35 day shut down over funding the wall
- congress can develop its own legislative agenda –> ignoring the state of the union address
give examples of committees oversight powers
- Benghazi committee –> Clinton scrutiny
- January 6th Committee –> 7 democrats and 2 republicans, said it took trump over 3 hours to stop the violence –> resulted in his impeachment
what is descriptive representation
- representatives shouldn’t just represent their constituents but also people with whom they share characteristics
what is functional representation
- representatives should represent social or economic groups –> sectors of the economy or underrepresented minority sections of the economy in congress
why does the use of primary elections mean that it is important for members of congress to listen to their constituents
the public decides who will represent their party on the ballot paper not the party, difference with the UK
how did the senate vote on kavanaugh
- 50/48
- 49/50 were republicans with 1 democrat, Joe Manchin who was facing reelection that year
- 46/48 were democrats with the other 2 as independents
what is a caucus with an example
a group of people who share a common policy ground in congress
- house freedom caucus –> made up of tea party supporters
