Unit 2 Ch. 4 Terms (Congress) Flashcards
Where is Congress dealt with in the Constitution?
Article I (first to be dealt with)
Congress is a what?
Bicameral legislature
What are the two chambers of Congress?
The House of Representatives and the Senate
How are House of Representatives people elected?
The House of Representatives
Directly elected by the eligible voters in their districts
How long is a House of Representatives term?
Two years
House of Representatives Requirements
Must be at least 25 years old
A resident of their state
A citizen of the united states for 7 years
The Constitution did not bar women from holding office, but it barred all but a few from participating in public life
Senate terms length
Elected for six year terms
Staggered so that a third are up for reelection every two years
how are members of The Senate elected?
In the original constitution, state legislatures elected senators. The Seventeenth Amendment (1913) replaced the indirect election of senators by state legislatures with direct popular election by a state’s eligible voters.
The Senate requirements
The Requirements:
Must be at least 30 years old
Citizens for at least 9 years
Must live in the state that they seek to represent
The constitution does not limit the number of terms a given representative or senator may serve
The powers of Congress (three broad areas)
Generally fall into 3 broad areas: lawmaking, budgeting, and exercising oversight of the federal bureaucracy and other public officials.
Pork Barrel Spending
legislation that directs specific funds to projects within districts or states
Controversial - criticized for putting narrow interests ahead of those of the nation’s voters.
Logrolling
combine multiple bills into one to get more votes
You COMBINE so that more people will be like yeahhhh
In 2011, the House of Representatives, led by Republicans, banned earmarks.
Earmarks
funds provided by Congress for projects or programs that impose a restriction on/curtail the ability of the Executive Branch to manage critical aspects of the funds allocation process
Oversight
efforts by Congress to ensure that executive branch agencies, bureaus, and cabinet departments, as well as their officials, are acting legally and in accordance with congressional goals.
May conduct hearings and investigations for this purpose
How many members in the House of Representatives?
435 house members (now capped) - 700,000 constituents
Divided amongst POPULATION
How many Senators are there in the Senate?
100 (2 per state)
What are the steps for a bill to become law?
Introduced by a congress person
Committee Meetings
——-Hearings/Reports
——-Debates
Floor Debate and Vote
Goes to President
——-Sign or Veto (can over ride)
Speaker of the House
elected by majority of the house
Third in line of success after VP
If VP and Pres both die then speaker becomes president
Controls the house floor and committee assignments
Big powerful
Assistant to Speaker
House majority leader
Whip
ensures unity and party discipline
Essentially threatens members of their own party to get hwat they want
Vice President (role in Senate)
president of the senate (only breaks tie vote)
They count the votes (scorekeeper) and break ties.
President pro tempore = takes the VP’s place if they are absent
Chosen by (majority party of) the senate
Congressional Committees / Subcommittees
Hears bills about specific issues (edu, veterans, budget, environment, etc.)
Investigate impact of the bill (research and testimony)
Give recommendation to the floor (approve or reject)
House Rules Committee (star !)
Members chosen by Speaker of the House
Determine what bills will be heard and if amendment can be added
Committee of the Whole
Only needs 100 Reps present and easier to pass bills
Senate Filibuster
You can speak for as long as you have the floor - it’s unlimited
Has rule of unlimited debate (unlike house)
Any senator can pleace “hold” on bill to show concerns
Senator can filibuster (talk without stopping) to prevent vote
Must have ⅗ vote (60 senators) to override filibuster
Types of Committees
Standing, Joint, Conference, Select/Special
Standing Committee
Normal committees focusing on routine topics
Normal committees that always exist
Joint Committee
Members of both houses focusing on issue (call attention)
They’re investigating together to research an issue / call attention to an issue that they’re both interested in.
Conference Committee (star !)
Both houses leadership to resolve difference in bill
Select/Special Committee
temporary to deal with crisis or investigate issue
Congressional Committees
Reviews legislation and issues about a specific topic
Congressional Committees (list)
Ethics (rules for congress)
Homeland Security
Energy and Commerce
Education
Transportation and infrastructure
Agriculture
Foreign affairs
Small business
Science, Space, and Tech
Enumerated/Expressed powers of Congress
Declaring war and providing military funds
NOT THE PRESIDENT – it’s congress!!
Passing a federal budget, borrowing money, lay taxes
Determine naturalization process
Regulate interstate commerce
Create federal courts and jurisdictions
Enact legislation that is “necessary and proper” to fulfill duty
Aka ELASTIC CLAUSE !
Conduct oversight and investigations of executive branch and bureaucracy
Mandatory Spending
REQUIRED BY LAW to pay for entitlement programs
Social security, medicare (old people) , and medicaid (at or below the poverty line)
Third rail - you cant come for it without getting unelected
Because old people love voting !!
Discretionary Spending
Approved annually for defense, education, infrastructure, erc.
Can fluctuate based on economic and tax conditions
Models of Representation
Delegate Model, Trustee Model, Politico Model
Delegate Model
Emphasizes the beliefs and desires of constituents
Will compromise personal beliefs to match those tey represent
Trustee Model
Ephasizes the experience and wisdom of the representative
Willing to ignore “passions” of constituents and do “what’s right”
JFK wrote a book on this
Fienstien video - “I’m wise, you should just listen to me”
Politico Model
Primarily focused on voting with their political party
Combines both of the other models
Reapportionment
The change in the # of reps that each state has based on population
What is done based on the Census?
of reps changes based on population
- States can gain or lose representatives (700,000 per rep.), 435 is set number
Redistricting
Redrawing the CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS (done by state legislature)
Gerrymandering
Manipulate boundaries to favor one party/ group
- crack or pack
Lame Duck Period
Period between election and new elected officials taking office
Less bills and appointments
Divided Government
control of the presidency and one or both chambers of Congrress split between the two major parties
Gridlock
a slowdown or halt in Congress’s ability to legislate and overcome divisions, especially those based on partisanship.
Bipartisanship
agreement between the parties to work together in Congress to pass legislation
Politico role
representation where members of Congress balance their choices with the interests of their constituents and parties in making decisions
Trustee role
the idea that members of Congress should act as trustees, making decisions based on their knowledge and judgement
Delegate role
the idea that the main duty of a membrr of Congress is to carry out constituent’s wishes.
Budget Surplus
the amount of money remaining when the government takes in more than it spends
Budget deficit
the annual shortfall when a government takes in less money than it spends
National Debt
the total amount of money owed by the federal government
Entitlement Programs
a program that provides benefits for those who qualify under the law, regardless of income
Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
the executive branch office that assists the president in setting national spending priorities
Cloture
a procedure through which senators can end a filibuster and proceed to action, provided 60 senators agree to it
Unanimous Consent Agreement
an agreement in the Senate that sents the terms for consideration of a bill
hold
a delay placed on legislation by a senator who objects to a bill
Committee chairs
leader of a congressional committee who has authority over the committee’s agenda/processes.
Senate Majority Leader
the person who has the most power in the Senate and is the head of the party with the most seats
Minority Leader
the head of the party with the second-highest number of seats in congress, chosen by the Party’s members
Political Action Committees (PACs)
an organization that raises money for candidates and campaigns
Shaw v. Reno (1993)
The Supreme Court overturned the race-conscious drawing of a strangely shaped legislative district.
Baker v. Carr (1961)
The Supreme Court has the authority to review state redistricting plans, and the equal protection clause requires legislative district boundaries to be drawn to have roughly the same number of constituents under the principle of “one man, one vote”
Incumbency
being already in office as opposed to running for the first time // running for reelection as oiooised to running for the first time
Incumbents usually win
Incumbency Advantage
institutional advantages held bby those already in office who are trying to fend off challengers in an election.
Malapportionment
the uneven distribution of the population among legislative districts
Minority district
a district in which voters of a minority ethnicity constitute an electoral majority within that electoral district
Partisan gerrymandering
drawing district boundaries into strange shapes to benefit a political party
And then more and more like minded people move to those districts
Apportionment
the process of determining the number of representative for each state using census data
Constituencies
a body of voters in a given area who elect a representative or senator
Congress Checks and Balances
Congress is given the authority to declare war, and the Senate to ratify treaties, thus forcing the executive and legislative branches to work together in important aspects of foreign and national security policy.
Congress also has a role in the judicial system - has the power “to constitute Tribunals inferior to [below] the Supreme Court” (Article 1, Section 8) and sets the number of justices on the Supreme Court
The Senate - using its power of advice and consent - conforms presidential nominees to the federal courts by simple majority.
Exercises the same role of advice and consent in the confirmation of most presidential nominees to important posts in the federal bureaucracy, like cabinet secretaries
Congress has the power to remove federal officials (president, vice president, members of the bureaucracy, and federal judges) through impeachment.
