18/09/2023, 18:02 Congress

Congress:
Structure of Congress:

Structure:
- Congress is a bicameral legislature with two equal legislative bodies:

House of Representatives: Senate:

Total:  435 – proportional to  100 – 2 per state
population
Term length:  2 years  6 years
Elections:  Whole House every 2  1/3 every 2 years
years

Distribution of powers within Congress:

- Concurrent powers – those given to both the House and Senate
- Exclusive powers – reserved powers that each chamber has alone

Concurrent powers:
- 2 chambers are co-equal in the passage of legislation. All bills must pass through all
stages in both houses; neither house can override the other – same version must be
agreed by both houses
- Both houses must vote by 2/3 majorities to override the president’s veto of a bill (eg.
2016 override Obama’s veto about 9/11 victims’ families being able to sue Saudi
Arabia)
- Initiating constitutional amendments – approved by 2/3 majority in both houses
before it is sent to states to be ratified
- Concur in a declaration of war – 5 occasions when this has occurred

Exclusive powers:

House:
- Impeachment – wanting to bring formal
charges against a public official because
there’s evidence of ‘Treason, Bribery, or
other high Crimes of Misdemeanour’
(eg. Clinton)
- Elect the President if no candidate has
over 50% of the ECV
- Begin consideration on all money
related bills (not significant today
however as all House decision still need
to accepted by Senate)
Senate:
- Try an impeachment case – 2/3 Senate
vote required to remove someone from
office (eg. Clinton was impeached but
not removed from office – 1999)
- Elect the VP if no candidate has over
50% of the ECV
- Ratify treaties – all treaties negotiated
by the President must be confirmed by
a 2/3 vote
- Confirm executive appointments (eg.
judges, Cabinet, etc.)

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Functions of Congress:

Representation:
- Frequency of elections means voters voices are heard every 2 years, offering high
levels of representation
- Midterms are often effectively a referendum on the first 2 years of a presidential
term – results can have a major impact on presidential power (eg. Obama lost in
both chambers / Bush gained in both in 2002)

Incumbency:
- The incumbent typically wins their seat again in the next election (2016 re-election
rates – 97% for House, 90% for Senate)
- Reasons for high re-election rates:
o Can use their place in office to gain popularity and a proven track record
o Safe seats
o Gerrymandering (Pennsylvania 2012 – Democrat congressional candidates
received 100,000 more votes but Republicans won 13/18 seats)
o Financial advantage – attract more money than competitors allowing them to run
more successful campaigns (2016 – total raised for incumbents was $627 million
and only $135 million for challengers)
- Pork-barrelling:
o When a member of Congress proposes legislation that will bring benefits to a
particular group to improve re-election chances – referred to as an ‘earmark’
o 2016 – Congress passed legislation to spend $475 million on a new navy ship that
the defence secretary and navy did not want (it was heavily supported by
Representatives of constituencies with major ship building companies)
o Some see pork-barrelling as evidence of the highly representative nature of
Congress – others see it as a form of over-representation as benefits are not
spread evenly

Factors affecting voting behaviour in Congress:

- Public opinion / constituency:
o Representatives must take it into account to avoid the risk of not being re-elected
(eg. 10 Republicans opposed the Republican plan to repeal Obamacare in 2017
after talking to constituents)
o Arguably Congress is more accountable to public opinion than their own
President
- Party / Party leaders:
o Representatives are pressured to vote according to the majority party view
o Eg. no Republicans voted for Obama’s stimulus package (2009), arguably due to
partisanship rather than their own beliefs
- Caucuses:
o There are many factions within Congress often called congressional caucuses
o Some are based on ideology (eg. Blue Dog Democrats), others are based on social
characteristics (eg. congressional black caucus)
o Not always based along party lines

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o These groups often vote together on legislative issues

- Interest groups / lobbyists:
o Can influence voting through means such as donations (eg. NRA and gun laws)
o Some groups (eg. American Association of Retired Persons) have large, active
memberships, so members can mobilise to create threat of removal of members
from Congress

Legislative functions:

The legislative process:

- First reading
- Committee stage
- Timetabling
- Second reading
- Third reading
- Conference committee
- Presidential action

Key features of the legislative process:

- Initiation – presidents can dominate the political agenda but members in either
chamber regularly initiate policy
- Compromise:
o Separation of powers / checks and balances (eg. co-equal legislative power of
both chambers) make compromise between parties or chambers necessary
o Successful legislation will usually be a result of huge concessions and additions to
a bill
- Weak parties / leaders:
o Due to federalism/separation of powers, parties tend to be weak with many
factions – many members may prioritise their own district over the national
agenda
o Party leaders also have limited power over their own party
o Parties do not act as a single unit in passing legislation especially when
presidency and Congress are controlled by different parties – can cause high
levels of gridlock
- Obstacles to success:
o Senate and House roughly share power and may have different priorities due to
differing term lengths
o If different parties control each chamber it can lead to major legislative conflict
o Legislation has to pass through several congressional committees, each can
amend/obstruct a bill
o Overriding a presidential veto requires a supermajority of 2/3 in both chambers

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Strengths and weaknesses:

Strengths:
- Checks and balances prevent
tyranny and force compromise
- Detailed consideration of bills and
filters to remove undesired aspects
create quality policy
- Difficult to bring about change and
can be used to stop the federal gov
from imposing on citizens/states
Weaknesses:
- Inefficiency / low output due to the
excessive need to compromise (the
114th Congress introduced 10,000+
bills but only sent 3% to the
president)
- High levels of partisanship mean
parties are unwilling to compromise,
leading to more gridlock
- Poor quality legislation can come
from too much compromise

Differences in legislation between House/Senate:

- House:
o Bills go to a Rules Committee which decides how long and under what rules the
bill will be debated – speaker of the House effectively controls it
o Rules Committee can determine a closed rule, where a bill can be discussed but
no amendments can be offered
- Senate:
o Gives unlimited debate time for all bills
o Also uses unanimous consent where all Senators involved agree on a decision
being made
o Filibuster – a Senate rule that lets Senators insist on continuing to debate – can
be used to stop or delay legislation
o Example: After Sandy Hook in 2012, Senator Murphy of Connecticut reversed this
and used a filibuster to force a vote rather than prevent one from taking place –
stopped after almost 15 hours when Senate leaders agreed to vote of two key
gun control measures (both failed)
o A filibuster can be ended with a 3/5 vote

Factors limiting the impact of Congress:

- The president – can veto legislation passed by Congress
- Partisanship – has decreased the will of Parties to compromise, making it harder to
create laws (eg. Democrats and Republicans could not agree on a budget in 2013
despite terrible consequences of budget shutdown)
- Congress is internally divided – may be unable to make new laws (2013 – Senate
passed immigration reform which was not taken up by the House)
- The Supreme Court – can overturn acts of Congress using judicial review

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Oversight:

- The Constitution puts Congress in a strong position to provide checks on the

executive branch
- Oversight of the executive branch occurs when Congress scrutinises or limits its
actions

Checks on the executive:

- Vote on presidential proposals

- Vote against laws initiated / supported by the president (eg. 2017 – Trump’s
inability to pass the American Healthcare Act)
- Amend laws initiated / supported by the President (eg. added amendments to the
National Defence Authorisation Act – Obama had to give 30 days’ notice before
moving anyone from Guantanamo Bay)
- Determine funding for presidential projects (eg. 1995 – Congress withdrew funding
for US military involvement in Bosnia, forcing Clinton to withdraw troops)
- Proposing legislation – actively developing their congressional agenda will contract
strongly with the goals of the president
- Overturn presidential veto – using a 2/3 vote Congress can stop the president from
overriding its legislative goals
- Declare war
- Senate ratification of appointments (eg. 2016 – rejected Obama’s SC nomination,
Garland)
- Senate ratification of treaties (eg. 2014 – Senate blocked a UN disability treaty
Obama had pushed for)
- Impeachment / removal of members of the executive branch

Committees:
- Committees can check the executive in a number of ways:
o Most are policy based and conduct oversight based on their policy expertise –
typically investigate a department and hold hearings for the executive branch
o The House Committee on Oversight and Reform has the sole role of scrutinising
the executive (eg. Hillary Clinton was investigated for her use of a private email
account when she was secretary of state)
o However, Congress may be unable to provide checks on the president where the
president makes use of certain powers (imperial presidency theory)
o Eg. Trump was criticised for the high number of executive orders he issued in his
first few weeks, making it difficult for Congress to examine the implications of
each one (travel ban)

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Factors influencing the relationship:

- United gov vs. Divided gov (eg. before and after 2018 midterms)
- Given increasing partisanship, if the president and Congress are from the same party,
oversight may be limited (eg. 2017 – Chair of the House Intelligence Committee,
David Nunes, was supposed to investigate Russian involvement in the 2016 election –
was criticised for his lack of independence from Trump)
- ‘Lapdog’ rather than ‘Watchdog’

Congress’ limits on the SC:

- Using an amendment to the constitution, Congress can reverse or amend a Court
ruling (eg. 1971 – when the states lowered the voting age to 18 in the 26th
amendment, it effectively overturned Oregon v Mitchell which allowed states to
retain 21 as the voting age for state elections if they wished)
- However, this restriction on the Court is limited by the difficulty of amending the
Constitution
- Senate’s role in ratifying presidential nominations
- Individual justices can be impeached and removed by Congress (last attempt to do
this was Justice Chase in 1804)
- Constitution gives Congress the authority to determine the total number of justices –
although this has settled at 9, Congress could increase this number to allow a
president to appoint new members of the Court and establish a majority

Changing significance of parties in Congress:

To what extent does partisanship exist:

- Since the 1970s there has been increased polarisation of parties which has resulted
in increased partisanship, with each party becoming more internally united in
opposition to the other party
- The Republican Party was criticised for excessive partisanship during the Obama
presidency – House budget Committee Chair, Tom Price, refused to begin committee
consideration of Obama’s final $4 trillion budget proposal

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- Average unity in the 113th Congress (2013-14) was 92% for Democrats and 90% for
Republicans
Examples of cross party agreement:
- Democrats and Republican senators worked together in 2012 in the ‘Gang of 8’ to
pass immigration reform
- Democrats and Republicans have eventually arrived at compromise measures
allowing budgets to be passed
- Two sides have even agreed on the removal of Senate filibusters for judicial
nominations
- 2016 – there was a convincing vote to overturn Obama’s Saudi Arabia legislation veto
- Existence of caucuses, within or between parties, reveals that a party is not fully
united

Implications of partisanship:
- Legislation and gridlock:
- Increased operation of parties as collective units has hugely reduced Congress’ ability
to pass legislation in recent years
- Gridlock between parties over the budget and healthcare led to the financially
disastrous budget shutdown of 2013

Checks on the president:

- Increase in partisanship has had a major impact on presidential power (divided gov
vs. united gov)

Changing powers of Congress:

- Changes in recent years have led to a change in congressional power:
o Rise in importance on foreign and military policy has arguably undermined
congressional power as international affairs became increasingly controlled by
the presidency
o Partisanship has created greater extremes in Congress’ reaction to the presidency
and the extent to which they have attempted to restrict the executive
- Argued whether Congress is more powerful during divided or united gov:
o United – able to better achieve more policy goals
o Divided – more assertive and apply intense scrutiny to the executive

Is Congress representative?

- Representation occurs when the people get what they want

Congress is representative:
- Separate elections for president and Congress:
o This separation of powers maximises voter choice and allows the electorate to
select a Congressperson according to specific views/policies of the politician, not
simply the broad party platform
o The lack of executive influence over Congress ensures accountability to the public
not president (eg. Susan Collins, a Moderate Republican who represents a
moderate constituency often votes against her own party)

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- 2 elected chambers:
o Allows complementary representation
o Owing to different term lengths, the 2 chambers usually react to legislation
differently
o By staying in power longer, Senate arguably make decisions based on rationality
by considering long term effects
o 2-year terms force House members to issue policies rapidly and emotionally
based on public opinion
o By taking different types of representation into account, Congress is an effective
representative body
o Eg. populist movement for a flag protection amendment was supported by the
House but not Senate

- Frequent elections and short House terms:

o Changes in public attitude can be quickly reflected through the composition of
Congress due to elections every 2 years (eg. 2018 midterms)
o High levels of sensitivity to public opinion directly pushes Congresspersons to be
highly representative of constituency views
o Strong level of accountability means that public opinion is reflected in the House

Congress is NOT representative:

- FPTP and gerrymandering:
o Heavily undermines the representative nature of Congress
o Means voting patterns and wishes of voters are not accurately reflected in the
composition of Congress

- Social representation:
o Despite being elected frequently, the composition of Congress still doesn’t reflect
the makeup of society (eg. race and gender)
o Conservatives argue that this is not important – a white man can represent a
black man and vice versa
o The current Congress is the most racially diverse ever (2018 midterm results)
o However, Liberals disagree because non-whites make up 38% of the population
but only 10% of Senate
o Suggest that without intentional bias, there’s still an over-representation of
certain groups and not others, limiting the US’s claim to be a pluralist,
representative democracy

- Influence of pressure groups:

o Influence of pressure groups over Congress arguably distorts the wishes of the
public
o Sometimes, politicians respond to the interests of unelected pressure groups
which are then over represented (eg. NRA and lack of gun laws)
o Elite theory suggests that Congress is not at all representative because it
responds only to the wishes of a small group in society

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