topic 2.2 functions of congress and their effectivness Flashcards
what are the three functions of congress
- representation
- legislation
- oversight
what percentage of proposed legislation is passed in a congressional session?
2%
what obstacles to success of legislation are there
- easier to prevent change then bring-it about
- different parties controlling different houses makes their equal law making powers hard to compromise
- legislation has to pass through 7 congressional committees each can amend, obstruct a bill
- overriding a presidential veto needs a supermajority
how many of trumps vetos were overidden
1 out of 10
legislative process. what is the role of the house of reps in deciding how a bill is debated
- speaker chooses time limit on a bill and how many committees it goes through, lengthening the process makes it less likely to pass
- speaker can split up bill sending each bit to speed up process
(called split referal)
role of the senate when introducing legislation
- committee with authority over relavent policy areas will go through bill
- speaker cant dominate like house of reps
- senate has ‘unanimous consent’ speeding up process as if no one objects to the bill it will immediately be passed.
unanimous consent limits power of senate leadership
why do few bills make it out of the committee state?
- only around 1 in 4 bills don’t make it out of the committee stage due partisan disagreements
what happens to bills that are acted on by committees
after amendments from committees are made known as ‘mark ups’ the fina amended bill is voted on by the whole committee sent back to the relevant house for consideration
how is scheduling decided in the house of reps
timetabling decided by the house rules committee. which is dominated by the majority party by 2;1
allowing the majority party to dominate policy passing
decides if it’s an ‘open debate’ amendments can be made as its debated
or a close debate; no amendments can be made
how is scheduling decided in senate
- if the bill received a simple majority it is placed on the calendar
floor action in the house of reps
debates are time-limited and dominated by the bill initiator and leading opponent
once the time is up a vote is taken and if agreed to it passes
floor action in seante
right to ‘unlimited debate’ as long as someone wishes to discuss for
leads to filibustering
can only be ended by a cloture motion needing 16 senators to agree. that requires a vote 60 senators
resolving differences:
conference committee
the senate and reps are represented in equal numbers on such committees the final version of the bill from this committees must go back to each house before approval before it can be sent off for presidential action
resolving differences:
informal methods of reconciling bills
- ping pong. as a bill passes through both houses reconcile amendments to a bill rather than setting up a committee
- take it or leave it. more blunt and infrequent. one chamber is forced to accept the bill or drop it entirely
what are the three ways a president can act on a bill
- sign the bill
- leave it on his desk. if congress is still in session after 10 days it become law. if congressional session ends before the 10 days this is a ‘pocket veto’
- veto the bill
how the legislative process is effective
- length process ensures effective scrutiny. ensuring in quality, popularity and workability of the law that is passed. makes sure no knee-jerk legislation
- disperal of power is key. house fo reps places the interest of the people 1sr whereas the senate represented the states interests. legislation passes therefore has a wide consideration of people and federalism
- scrutiny of committee stage ensures that a partisan decisions have made it into law
conference committee is made u pof equal parts house of reps and senate to reconcile is passing popular legislation
how is the legislation process unaffective
thee process is long and compled consdierig congressional sessions are so long
only 2 % of legislation is passed
filibustering hols up process
of laws are needed to be passed urgently there are no longer revelebtn when passed
president has final ay (lots of power in one persons hands)
speaker of thehouse huge power to limit bill during timetablaing
so much change can be affected to a bill that they could be killed due to huge differentiation
leads to pork barrel politics
what three types of represntation can congress provide
- consitutnecy represntation
- party representation
- social reprentation do they look like the country
how are congressmen meant to proctet their state or constituents
able to represnt cosituent interests by portecting the cultural economic of social interests in legislation
how do the brady amendments to the tax cuts and job acr 2017 demonstrates this protection of states?
made copyrighted songs be defined as ‘capitalism assets’ and subject to a lower tax rates
apparently the request made by congressman diana black whos distic voered parts of Nashville, famed for songwriting and country music
how does the primary system make it more important for members or congress to listen to their constituents?
use the eric cantor example
congressmen and women need to ensure they are listening to their constituents due to primaries. such short election cycle
eric cantor lost republican primary in Virginia 2014 as he wasn’t seen as conservative enough and not vocal enough on his dislikes for obama
evidnce is there that constiuents care more about local issues than national politics
local press in Wisconsin newspaper that ran a story in 2014 about the amount of time in his congressional district that tom perri was sending.
only spending 1/3 of time away from congress
failing to represent constituents= cost job
why is some lvel of party loyalty expected from members of congress
elected in party baed primarys
usually elected by state and distinct is more likely to be based on their part allegiance andif
why is some lvel of party loyalty expected from members of congress
elected in party baed primarys
usually elected by state and distinct is more likely to be based on their part allegiance andif
how has the importance of the two parties increased in recent years
growth in partisan voting with party members. becoming less likely to vote against party
why is there an issue for third parties
lack of representation of 3rd parties in congress, all but 2 members of the 115th congress were either dem or rep the two are independents in the senate and usually vote democrat
Due to issue of funding during election and the dominace of the two party sustem
example of midterm elections benfitting a presidnet
bush in the 2002 primary gained majorities in both houses after 9/11 making bush one of the most powerful US presidents for the next 4 years
example of midterm election negatively effecting president
after the 2018 midterms, the Republicans lost control of the house of reps. nancy Pelosi claimed this result to be a rebuke of the devises presidency of trump and allowed for the democrats in the house of reps to impeach trump
how can congress maintain oversight over the other branches
vote on presidential proposals determining to fund for presidential projects proposing legislation overturn presidential veto Senate ratification of appointments Senate ratification of treaties - impeachment and removal
how is congress socially reprentational
- african americans make up 12.6% of population and are the most accurately represented with 11.4% in the 117th congress
improving over time
how is congress socially un-representative
- women makeup 50.8% of american but in 2021 only counted at 26% of congress
- hispanic people make up 17.6% of the population but in 2021 only 9%
why is it more important for congress to be functionally representative rather than descriptive
- functional representation is a representation of economic groups in wider society. this is more important that descriptive representatives ness as life experience means that contributions to legislation can be made to help protect the economic interests of minority not just how they look
what % of bills were passed. in 115th congress bipartisanly
70%
how long did it take to pass the affordable care act
1 year
example of the war powers act working
1999 clinton’s test ban treaty was blocked
example of war powers act failing
1999 congress blocked clintons bombing of kosovo which were done anyway
in 2016 how much did it cost to win a seat in the senate?
$10.5
benefits incumbents as its easier to attract funding
how much in 2016 were incumbents in the seante able to rasie compared to their competeor
12,000,000 compared to 1,500,000 of their challenger
cooper v harris
found that the gerrymandering of north carolina was unconsititional
