US Congress - Topic 2.3

Question 1

What is the institutional effectiveness of Congress?

Answer 1

How effective Congress is at its three roles depends on its ability to effectively oversight the President (and the Supreme Court). Despite every Congress having the same powers as the previous, how far each Congress go to exert its enumerated and implied varies because of the previous reasons.

Question 2

How effective is Congress at carrying out its legislative role?

For:

Answer 2

• Major legislation has passed before
• Low pass rate (1%) suggests the process is thorough
• Lengthy process ensures scrutiny
• Staggered election cycles and divided government promotes compromise between parties
• The need for supermajorities suggests the importance of broad consensus

Question 3

How effective is Congress at carrying out its legislative role?

Against:

Answer 3

• Because of the lengthy process, thousands of bills fail, whether beneficial to the nation or not
• The process is dominated by very few officials that have overreaching supreme power (e.g., Speaker of the House)
• In unified government, bills can be rushed
• In divided government, gridlock prevents Congress from being effective and keeping balance of the other branches and important legislation cannot get through leading to government shutdowns (Trump shutdown 2018-19)

Question 4

How effective is Congress at carrying out its representative role?

For:

Answer 4

• Representation of minority groups and women has improved in recent years
• Caucuses enable under-represented groups to voice opinions and act together, increasing influence
• Parties are well represented in an increasing partisan environment and reflect the population
• The people are represented twice, both locally and regionally

Question 5

How effective is Congress at carrying out its representative role?

Against:

Answer 5

• The need for money can heavily influence and therefore representation that is needed is shrouded of a few indivuals rather than the wider community
• Partisan voting can show a good representation of the majority at the expense of the minority and therefore they’re underepresented in Congress and may have to compromise for the minimum
• Representation of women and minority groups are still below the national population statistics

Question 6

How effective is Congress at carrying out its oversight role?

For:

Answer 6

• Congress has overriden vetoes before and constantly use it
• In divided government, the President faces extensive criticism
• Committees have overseen investigations into previous actions and have had far-reaching impacts
• Congress has previously been independent from presidentially demanded legislation
• Congress has been willing to challenge the President in the Supreme Court
• Congress have developed and evolved its powers (‘necessary and proper clause’) and has used its financial power to block the President (Trump’s wall) and as commander-in-chief
• Impeachment has been used 4 times at its furthest

Question 7

How effective is Congress at carrying out its oversight role?

Against:

Answer 7

• Oversight has been deemed and looked at as if it were party politics, instead of focusing on the interests of the people. This is becoming incredibly evident with the rise of partisanship
• The chances of vetoes been overriden have decreased because of the rise in partisanship and the need of a supermajority
• The power to declare war has been effectively taken by the President as they have the power to freely move troops
• Presidents have side-stepped Congress by using executive orders to create pseudo-legislation and treaties
• In times of crisis or unified government, Congress will likely act in defference to the President
• The impeachment process has proved difficult and the final outcome has never been reached. It is hard to remove someone from office