topic 2.2 functions of congress and their effectivness

Question 1

what are the three functions of congress

Answer 1

• representation
• legislation
• oversight

Question 2

what percentage of proposed legislation is passed in a congressional session?

Answer 2

2%

Question 3

what obstacles to success of legislation are there

Answer 3

• 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

Question 4

how many of trumps vetos were overidden

Answer 4

1 out of 10

Question 5

legislative process. what is the role of the house of reps in deciding how a bill is debated

Answer 5

• 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)

Question 6

role of the senate when introducing legislation

Answer 6

• 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

Question 7

why do few bills make it out of the committee state?

Answer 7

• only around 1 in 4 bills don’t make it out of the committee stage due partisan disagreements

Question 8

what happens to bills that are acted on by committees

Answer 8

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

Question 9

how is scheduling decided in the house of reps

Answer 9

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

Question 10

how is scheduling decided in senate

Answer 10

• if the bill received a simple majority it is placed on the calendar

Question 11

floor action in the house of reps

Answer 11

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

Question 12

floor action in seante

Answer 12

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

Question 13

resolving differences:

conference committee

Answer 13

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

Question 14

resolving differences:

informal methods of reconciling bills

Answer 14

• 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

Question 15

what are the three ways a president can act on a bill

Answer 15

• 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

Question 16

how the legislative process is effective

Answer 16

• 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

Question 17

how is the legislation process unaffective

Answer 17

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

Question 18

what three types of represntation can congress provide

Answer 18

• consitutnecy represntation
• party representation
• social reprentation do they look like the country

Question 19

how are congressmen meant to proctet their state or constituents

Answer 19

able to represnt cosituent interests by portecting the cultural economic of social interests in legislation

Question 20

how do the brady amendments to the tax cuts and job acr 2017 demonstrates this protection of states?

Answer 20

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

Question 21

how does the primary system make it more important for members or congress to listen to their constituents?
use the eric cantor example

Answer 21

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

Question 22

evidnce is there that constiuents care more about local issues than national politics

Answer 22

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

Question 23

why is some lvel of party loyalty expected from members of congress

Answer 23

elected in party baed primarys

usually elected by state and distinct is more likely to be based on their part allegiance andif

Question 24

why is some lvel of party loyalty expected from members of congress

Answer 24

elected in party baed primarys

usually elected by state and distinct is more likely to be based on their part allegiance andif

Question 25

how has the importance of the two parties increased in recent years

Answer 25

growth in partisan voting with party members. becoming less likely to vote against party

Question 26

why is there an issue for third parties

Answer 26

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

Question 27

example of midterm elections benfitting a presidnet

Answer 27

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

Question 28

example of midterm election negatively effecting president

Answer 28

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

Question 29

how can congress maintain oversight over the other branches

Answer 29

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

Question 30

how is congress socially reprentational

Answer 30

• african americans make up 12.6% of population and are the most accurately represented with 11.4% in the 117th congress

improving over time

Question 31

how is congress socially un-representative

Answer 31

• 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%

Question 32

why is it more important for congress to be functionally representative rather than descriptive

Answer 32

• 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

Question 33

what % of bills were passed. in 115th congress bipartisanly

Answer 33

70%

Question 34

how long did it take to pass the affordable care act

Answer 34

1 year

Question 35

example of the war powers act working

Answer 35

1999 clinton’s test ban treaty was blocked

Question 36

example of war powers act failing

Answer 36

1999 congress blocked clintons bombing of kosovo which were done anyway

Question 37

in 2016 how much did it cost to win a seat in the senate?

Answer 37

$10.5

benefits incumbents as its easier to attract funding

Question 38

how much in 2016 were incumbents in the seante able to rasie compared to their competeor

Answer 38

12,000,000 compared to 1,500,000 of their challenger

Question 39

cooper v harris

Answer 39

found that the gerrymandering of north carolina was unconsititional