US Congress

Question 1

what is a congressional district?

Answer 1

A geographic subdivision of a state represented by a member or the House of Representatives

Question 2

what powers does congress have?

Answer 2

• Law making
• Overseeing the executive branch
• Overriding the Presidents veto
• Confirming appointments
• Ratifying treaties
• Initiating constitutional amendments
• Impeaching and removing public officials
• Confirming an appointed vice president

Question 3

what percentage of congress is currently women?

Answer 3

27%

Question 4

what are the sole powers of the senate?

Answer 4

confirming appointments + ratifying treaties

Question 5

what are the sole powers of the House of Representatives?

Answer 5

beginning consideration of money bills

Question 6

arguments for the senate being more prestigious than the House?

Answer 6

• Senators represent the entire state
• Senators serve longer terms
• Senators are only 1 of 100
• Senators are more likely to chair a committee or subcommittee of hold some other leadership position
• The senate is seen as a recruiting pool for presidential and vice presidential candidates
• Senators possess significant exclusive powers
• House members frequently seek election to the Senate but not the other way round

Question 7

arguments for the senate not being more prestigious than the House?

Answer 7

• Both houses have equal power in the passage of legislation - Congress’s key function
• Both houses must approve the initiation of constitutional amendments
• Both houses conduct oversight of the executive branch
• Members of both houses receive equal salaries

Question 8

what is an example of a senator gaining a leadership position more quickly than a member of the house?

Answer 8

Senator Cornyn was elected as Senate majority whip in January 2015. Congressman Cuellar meanwhile was only 18th in superiority among the 21 democrats serving on the House Appropriations Committee of which he was a member

Question 9

what is a standing committee in the US?

Answer 9

A.permanent, policy specialist committee of Congress playing key roles in both legislation and investigation

Question 10

what are the functions of standing committees

Answer 10

• conducting the committee stage of bills - involves holding ‘hearings’ on the bill at which ‘witnesses’ appear
• conducting investigations
• confirming presidential appointments - Judiciary committee holds hearings on federal judicial appointments and Foreign relations committee holds hearings on ambassadorial appointments (senate only)

Question 11

how many members do US standing committees have and what is the party balance?

Answer 11

Senate committee comprises of about 18 members and House standing committee comprises of about 30-40 members. Party balance in each standing committee is proportional to that which exists in the chamber as a whole

Question 12

examples of standing committees in the US?

Answer 12

Budget, armed services, judiciary

Question 13

what is the house rules committee?

Answer 13

One of the standing committees of the House Of Representatives. Responsible for prioritising bills coming from the committee stage on to the House floor for their debate and votes.
3 basic types of rule:
-open rules that permit unlimited amendments
-modified rules that limit the total number of amendments
-closed rules that forbid any amendments

Question 14

what are conference committees?

Answer 14

their function is to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate versions of the same bill. all committees are ad hoc

Question 15

what are select committees in the US and an example?

Answer 15

committees set up to investigate a particular issue, nearly all ad hoc.

example: In 2014 then Speaker of the. House John Boehner set up the House select committee on events surrounding the 201 terrorist attack in Benghazi that had resulted in the deaths of the American ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.

Question 16

what powers do committee chairs have in the US?

Answer 16

• control the committees agenda
• decide when the committee will meet
• control the committees budget
• influence the membership, meetings, and hearings on sub-committees
• supervise a sizeable committee staff
• serve as a spokesperson on the committees policy area
• make requests to the House Rules committee and the party leadership for scheduling of legislation on the House floor
• report legislation to the floor of their respective chamber on behalf of the full committee

Question 17

what are the stages of the legislative process in congress?

Answer 17

1. Introduction
2. Committee stage
3. Timetabling
4. Floor debate and vote on passage
5. Conference committee (optional)
6. Presidential action

Question 18

what happens in the introduction stage of the legislative process in congress?

Answer 18

pure formality - no debate and no vote.
in the house it involves placing a copy of the bill in a ‘hopper’ - a tray - on the clerks desk. in the senate involves reading out the title of the bill on the senate floor

Question 19

what percentage of bills introduced in congress actually make it into law?

Answer 19

2-4%

Question 20

why is it so hard to pass legislation through congress?

Answer 20

• The process is complicated
• there is a meed for super-majorities at certain stages (ie 3/5 needed to end a filibuster or 2/3 majority to override presidents veto)
• both houses possess equal power in passing legislation
• the two houses may be controlled by different parties (eg from 2001-2002)
• the presidency and congress may be controlled by different parties
• party discipline in congress is comparatively weak (eg Bill Clinton had majorities in both houses when he took office in 1993 and announced 6 priorities but only passed 2.
• power in congress has become more decentralised

Question 21

what are the president’s options with what to do with a bill after it had gone through congress and examples?

Answer 21

• signing the bill into law (eg 2010 patient protection and affordable care act by obama and 2002 signing by President Bush of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act)
• leaving the bill on his desk -bills become laws after 10 congressional days
• Regular veto (eg Senate attempted 3 times to override trumps veto of legislation blocking arms deals to saudi arabia)
• pocket veto -at the end of a legislative session when bills not signed are lost (eg President Clinton on the Consumer bankruptcy Overhaul Bill in December 2000)

Question 22

what is a unanimous consent agreement?

Answer 22

an agreement in either the House or the Senate, made without objection, to waive the chambers normal rules

Question 23

what is a filibuster?

Answer 23

a device by which one or more senators can delay action on a bill or any other matter by debating it at length or by other obstructive actions

Question 24

what are some examples of filibusters?

Answer 24

• In 1956, Strom Thurmond conducted a filibuster against a civil rights bill that lasted over 24 hours
• On December 10 2010, Bernie Sanders spoke against a tax deal which Obama was trying to work out with Republicans for just over 8.5 hours

Question 25

how many pieces of legislation was passed congress from january 2015-march 2016 and how much of this was significant

Answer 25

passed 139 acts but many were not matters of huge important eg 22 were passed merely to rename a local facility after a local citizen.

Question 26

what are some examples of significant laws passed by congress in january 2015-march 2016?

Answer 26

medicare access and CHIP Reauthorisation Act, Disaster Relief Act

Question 27

what does oversight mean?

Answer 27

congressional review and investigation of the activities of the executive branch

Question 28

what are examples of standing committee oversight hearings?

Answer 28

House Homeland Security Committee - ISIS in the Pacific: assessing terrorism in Southeast Asia

Senate Judiciary Committee - The need for a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution

Question 29

what is evidence to suggest that congressional oversight is only effective when Congress is not controlled by the president’s party?

Answer 29

• It was a democratic senate that rejected republic president Reagan’s nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme court in 1987 and George H. W. Bush’s nomination of John Tower to be secretary of defence. It was a republican senate who rejected Bill Clintons nominations of Ronnie White to be a federal trial court judge and his Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1999
• congressional oversight was low during the first 6 years of George W.Bush’s President when the republicans controlled the senate compared to after the 2006 midterm elections when the democrats took control of both houses

Question 30

how many hearings were held in 1993 and 1994 when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress during democrat Bill Clintons first two years vs in 2003 and 2004 when the Republicans controlled both houses of senate and the president was Republican George W. Bush?

Answer 30

1993-1994: 135 oversight hearings held

2003-2004: 37 oversight hearings

Question 31

what evidence possibly suggests congressional oversight is just a polite phrase for trying to embarrass the President and his administration?

Answer 31

the house republicans organised hearings in six committees on the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, in September 2012 and two senate committees also held hearings. the main reason for this apparent oversight was that Hillary Clinton who was serving as secretary of state when the attack took place was front runner to become the democratic party’s presidential candidate in 2016

Question 32

what factors affect the effectiveness of congress in it’s oversight role?

Answer 32

party control, relative popularity of congress, size of president’s mandate at last election, national crisis

Question 33

what forms does congress’s oversight function take?

Answer 33

• committee inquiries and hearings
• formal consultations with and reports from the president
• senate advice and consent for presidential nominations and for treaties
• house impeachment proceedings and subsequent senate trials
• house and senate proceedings under the twenty-fifth amendment in the event that he president becomes disabled, or the office of the vice president falls vacant
• informal meetings between legislators and executive officials
• congressional membership on governmental commissions
• studies by congressional committees and support agencies such as the congressional budget office, the general accounting office, and the office of technology assessment, all arms of congress

Question 34

what is an example of congress not being able to effectively use oversight during Trumps presidency?

Answer 34

4 Trump nominees did similar work to the position for which they have been nominated without waiting for senate approval

Question 35

what is an example of impeachment not working effectively as a form of congressional oversight?

Answer 35

the attempted impeachment of Bill Clinton just confirmed the view that the republican party was controlled by puritan zealots and hypocritical

Question 36

what does representation mean in congress?

Answer 36

how legislators represent their constituents; or who the legislators are and whether they are representative of constituents in terms of, for example, gender or race

Question 37

what is the trustee model of representation?

Answer 37

the legislator is vested with formal responsibility for making decisions on behalf of others

Question 38

what is the delegate model of representation?

Answer 38

a delegate is someone who is chosen to act on behalf of others. they are therefore not a free agent and can exercise little if any private judgement

Question 39

how do congress members engage with constituents?

Answer 39

• holding party and town hall meetings
• conducting surgeries with individual constituents
• making visits around the state/district
• appearing on local radio phone-in programmes
• interviews with representatives of the local media
• addressing groups such as chambers of commerce, professional groups, and charity lunches
• visiting local schools, hospitals and businesses

Question 40

what is an example of recess appoints being used to bypass congressional oversight?

Answer 40

In December 2006 President Bush nominated Sam Fox to be the US ambassador to Belgium but the Democrat controlled Senate Foreign Relations committee was unlikely to approve him so in April 2007 when senate was in recess Bush named Fox for the post as a recess appointment. 3 Democratic senators wrote a letter of protest to the Government Accountability Office saying it was an abuse of power

Question 41

why is congressional oversight important according to congressional scholars Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann (2007)

Answer 41

‘it has limited ability to quickly reverse the course set upon by a determined president… oversight keeps an administration on its toes”

Question 42

in what ways can members of congress fulfil their representative function?

Answer 42

• voting on the legislation on the floor of the chamber
• membership of standing committees of particular interest to their constituents
• lobbying executive departments and agencies on relevant policies
• performing constituency casework, helping constituents with all kinds of federal matters such as student loans, passport and visa issues and receipt of federal benefits
• trying to gain money and projects to benefit their states or districts

Question 43

what does pork barrel mean?

Answer 43

a term used to refer to funds provided for superfluous projects in a member of Congress’s state or district. peaked in 2006, since decreasing.

Question 44

what is an example of pork taking place?

Answer 44

$11 billion in pork slipped into the FY’03 Appropriations bill - senator John McCain

Question 45

what is gerrymandering and how does it happen?

Answer 45

the term is used for changing the boundaries of a district for political advantage.
after each 10-yearly census in the ISA the number of congressional seats to which a state is entitled to is reallocated or reapportioned, reflecting any population changes that have taken place. districts then need to be redrawn and since this is most often the responsibility of the governing party of each state legislature, state legislative elections following the census are of critical importance.
It is carried out by ‘packing’ (concentrating like-minded voters into one district to reduce their weight in other districts) while at the same time ‘cracking’ (spreading like minded voters apart across multiple districts to dilute their weight in each)

Question 46

what are some examples of gerrymandering taking place?

Answer 46

• In North Carolina 51% of people supported the democrat party while 49% supported the republican party. However this translated into 4 democrat and 9 republican seats in the house
• there has been controversy regarding gerrymandering by the democratic party in Maryland, particularly over the 3rd district created after the 2000 census which was weirdly shaped. It was gerrymandered further after the 2010 census to ensure the re-election of Democrat Congressman, John Sarbanes in 2012

Question 47

what are the consequences of gerrymandering?

Answer 47

• increase in polarisation
• fewer swing seats
• less incentive to take more moderate approach

Question 48

what are some examples of congressional caucuses?

Answer 48

• The Blue Dog Coalition (most southern, fiscally conservative Democrats)
• Congressional Black Caucus (exclusively african-american members of both houses, claims to be bipartisan but less republicans)
• congressional hispanic caucus (formed to support policies that benefit the hispanic and latino communities, began bipartisan)
• House freedom caucus (founded in 2015 of about 50 conservative house republicans, closely allies with tea party)
• the tuesday group (group of around 50 moderate house republicans)

Question 49

arguments that congress is the broken branch?

Answer 49

• congress cannot get things done
• lack of bipartisanship
• polarisation is increasing
• uncompetitive seats push parties to the ideological extremes
• the Tea Party Effect
• senate action often frustrated by filibustering or the threat of it
• confirmation of appointments often degenerates into partisan point scoring

Question 50

how many bills did the 112th congress pass and what is an example of congress not getting things done

Answer 50

passed just 561 bills.
in October 2013, the house republicans forced a partial shutdown of the federal government, demanding that Obama delay the implementation of his healthcare law in exchange for their agreeing to raise the debt ceiling

Question 51

how many seats were competitive in 2013 compared to in 1998?

Answer 51

20% in 2013 vs over 1/3 in 1998 (according to the non-partisan Cook Political Report)

Question 52

how many Americans, according to gallup, had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in congress in 2021?

Answer 52

12%

Question 53

arguments that congress is not the ‘broken branch’

Answer 53

• low approval of congress is nothing new
• it does produce a lot of legislation
• it is strong on representation
• congress alone does not cause gridlock
• congress merely reflects a polarised country
• it is what the founding fathers wanted
• strong on constituency representation
• has successfully called presidents and their administrations to account

Question 54

what is an example of congress producing a lot of important legislation?

Answer 54

during 2007-2008, despite divided government, congress passed a range of major bills, including ethics and lobbying reform, additional funding for wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, a $200 billion economic stimulus and major water projects (despite a bush veto)

Question 55

how many Americans said they would like to see their representative re-elected a year before the upcoming 2014 midterm elections

Answer 55

48% (Pew Research Centre)

Answer 56

• unrepresentative of gender
• unrepresentative of race as african-americans, hispanics and asians are all under-represented in congress
• unrepresentative of age (average american is 37 average house member 57 and average senator 62)
• unrepresentative in education (95% of congress have bachelors degree)
• sometimes unrepresentative politically (eg 113th congress as in house elections democrats polled at 48.8% and republicans at 47.6% yet republicans won 234 to democrats 201)

Question 57

how have some members damaged congress’ reputation?

Answer 57

12 members involved in criminal activity between 2000 and 2014

Question 58

what factors affect voting in congress?

Answer 58

• political party
• the administration
• pressure groups
• colleagues and staff
• personal beliefs

Question 59

what is a party unity vote?

Answer 59

a vote in the house or senate in which the majority of one party votes against the majority of the other party

Question 60

what is an example of a party unity vote?

Answer 60

Federal Information Systems Safeguard Act
Yes:241 No:181
Republicans: 237-2
Democrats: 4-179

Question 61

what percentage of votes are party unity votes and how has this changed?

Answer 61

20 or so years ago around 45% to 50% of votes in each chamber were party votes but it has since increased. In 2010 the percentage of party unity votes in the senate was 78.6% and in 2011 in the house it was 75.8%, the highest in each.

Question 62

how does party leadership work in congress?

Answer 62

party leadership in congress is affected by the constitutional principles of separation of powers, federalism and bicameralism.
in both chambers the members of each party elect a leader who is designated at majority or minority leader depending on the party’s status in that chamber.
there is also the speaker elected by the entire house, who operates as a partisan and organisational figure and may become a kind of leader of the opposition to the president if from opposing parties such as republican speaker Paul Ryan to President Obama in 2016

Question 63

what does partisanship mean?

Answer 63

a situation where members of one party regularly group together to oppose members of another party, characterised by strong party discipline and little cooperation between parties

Question 64

how has partisanship increased in congress?

Answer 64

conservative democrats and moderate republicans have become more rare - of the nine centrists in the senate whose seats were up for re-election in 2010 none were reelected and of the 60 most conservative democrats in the 111th congress 62% lost in the midterms and of the five most moderate house republicans only one was reelected

-the election of divisive presidents also contributes

Question 65

what evidence shows an increase in partisanship in congress

Answer 65

-In 1982 there were 35 democrats and 23 republicans between the most liberal republican (Lowell Weicker) and the most conservative democrat (Ed Zorinsky) and they rarely voted together with the most conservative (Strom Thurmond) and most liberal (Ted Kennedy) members of their party respectively

In 2015 the most liberal democrat was Kirsten Gillibrand and the most conservative was Heidi Heitkamp. the most liberal republican was Susan Collines and the most conservative was Pat Roberts. There was noone between Heitkamp and Collins

Question 66

what is an example of a centrist being replaced by a more ideological member of congress?

Answer 66

In 2010 a centrist democrat Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania was replaced in the senate by conservative Republican Pat Toomey

Question 67

what are the main functions of congressional caucuses?

Answer 67

• educational
• agenda setting
• encouraging support for their proposals

Question 68

arguments for parties playing an important role in congress

Answer 68

• leadership in congress is run by parties
• committees in congress are organised by parties
• with increased partisanship, party discipline is much stronger in congress than it used to be
• party is an important determinant of voting in congress
• it is almost impossible to be elected to congress with being a major party candidate

Question 69

arguments against parties playing an important role in congress

Answer 69

• views of constituents can often outweigh party considerations - especially for house members
• parties have no control over candidate selection
• both parties are made up of ideological factions that compete with party cohesion
• the executive branch has few ‘sticks and carrots’ with which to incentivise party discipline
• congressional leadership, likewise is fairly impotent in the face of opposition

Question 70

What is an example of congress confirming a vice president?

Answer 70

In 1973 Vice President Spiro Agnew stepped down and congress had to confirm President Nixon’s nomination of Gerald Ford to be the next vice president. Ford then went on to become President when Nixon stepped down.

Question 71

in 2017 how many members of the senate were former members of the House and vice versa?

Answer 71

In 2017 there were 50 former house members in the senate but no ex-senators in the house.

Question 72

What is an example of the House passing a money bill?

Answer 72

For example, the House recently passed a $1.5 trillion government funding bill including nearly $14 billion in aid for Ukraine

Question 73

How much do senators and members of the house of Representatives earn?

Answer 73

Senators and representatives earn the same salary of $174000 per annum.

Question 74

What are examples of treaties ratified and not ratified by the senate?

Answer 74

The senate has ratified many treaties such as the New START Treaty in 2010 but is also able to not ratify them if it wants such as the 1998 International Criminal court treaty.

Question 75

What is an example of Congress using it’s power of investigation?

Answer 75

Committees against Hillary Clinton and Obama to question how they handled a terrorist attack in Libya in 2012.

Question 76

How are race and gender represented in the 117th Congress?

Answer 76

Non-white lawmakers make up 23% of the 117th Congress, and 27% of all members of congress are now women

Question 77

In which ways is the 117th congress unrepresentative?

Answer 77

94% of House members and all senators have a bachelor’s degree or more education, compared to 36% of American adults aged 25 or over, according to US census bureau data. In comparison with the 23% of congress made up by non-white people, around 38% of the US population aren’t white, and in comparison to the 27% of congress who are women, 51% of the population are female.

Question 78

What were the results of the 2020 elections to house of representatives and how many people voted for each party?

Answer 78

In the 2020 elections to the house of representatives, around 51% of people voted democrat and they won 51% of seats, and around 48% of people voted republican and they won 49% of seats.