strengths of congress' legislative process outweigh its weakness Flashcards
expertise on committees
-lawmakers that sit in the ‘little legislatures’ develop expertise on their area, and they usually have vested interest in a public policy topic e.g. senator cruz on the committee for commerce, science and transportation deals with space issues due to NASA being in texas
-to strengthen his re-election chances he secures funding for NASA
expertise on committees evaluation
Expertise comes a distant second to constituency-interest in the US Congress. John Manchin isn’t necessarily an ‘expert’ on climate change. Rather he contradicts the science by supporting coal as it is a key industry in his state of West Virginia.
senate filibuster and gridlock
-60 votes (cloture vote) required to end filibuster during debate gives the party in minority an essential monopoly on power which can be seen as highly undemocratic
-Biden was unable to secure the build back better bill due to the threat of a filibuster despite the democrats having unified government they could not pass a bill, and were forced to compromise (undemocratic)
filibuster and gridlock evaluation
The filibuster ultimately protects the principle of compromise. Although it is a high bar, it often results in legislation that is neither radical nor populist. Furthermore, it is easy to beat if the legislation is not controversial: e.g., Republicans worked with Obama and Congressional Democrats to pass Every Student Succeeds Act.
influence of ‘powerful minorities’
-special interests can influence or block legislation at the expense of the interest of the people
-the most effective way for MOCs to generate campaign finance is through corporate interest, these normally have lobbyists to influence MOCs e.g. big pharma has 2 for every MOC
-the NRA holds disproportionate influence over republicans
‘powerful minorities’ evaluation
The power of pressure groups and special interests has limitations. For example, the NRA has next to no power over Democratic members of Congress – apart from conservative ‘Blue Dogs.’ During periods of unified government, the Democrats often attempt gun control
legislation, despite fierce lobbying and protesting by the NRA. Equally, lobbying by Planned Parenthood has no effect on conservative Republicans who are intent on appointing ‘pro-life’ Supreme Court Justices.
non-partisan institutional support
-CRA and CBO support the congress , this institutional support is much greater than that of the UK with over 4,000 dedicated staff
-in 2017 the Trump administration proposed a tax cut claiming it would lead to significant economic growth snd a reduction in the budget deficit, CBO demonstrated such claims were false
non-partisan institutional support evaluation
Members of Congress routinely ignore the findings of the CRS and CBO. For example, Republicans supported Trump’s tax cuts despite the CBO report. Ultimately, they are “single-minded seekers of re-election” who prefer a good position to good legislation.
