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POSC 225 Final Exam Study Guide Chapters 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 Week 10: Congress Chapter 11: Structure of Congress: ● Constitutional Foundations: ○ Framers: main responsibilities that Congress was supposed to have: lawmaking, passing legislation ○ Article I: gives Congress enumerated powers- tax, regulate commerce, declare war ■ Enumerated Powers: powers specifically mentioned in the Constitution ■ Implied Powers: necessary & proper clause/ Elastic Clause (Article I, Section 8): gives Congress power to make laws that help them carry out enumerated responsibilities ● Mcculloch v Maryland: allowed Congress to expand its authority ○ Framers were concerned about Congress being the most dangerous branch (in terms of individual freedoms), concerns about majority tyranny ■ Tried to balance this by creating a legislature that was vigorous, energetic, able to deal with national problems ○ Congress is the MOST powerful branch of govt ● Constraints on Congress: ○ Article I: Congress was prohibited from passing certain laws: bills of attainder, ex post facto laws, granting titles of nobility, suspension of habeas corpus ○ 1st Amendment: “Congress shall make no law…” ○ Bicameralism, Presidential Veto, Judicial Review ● Justification for Bicameral Legislature: ○ Dividing Congress into 2 chambers: prevent the legislative branch from becoming too powerful, prevent majority tyranny, make certain that Congress could exercise only limited power, & make sure that legislation could only happen after deliberation had taken place ○ Bicameralism: Congress divided into 2 chambers ■ Result of the Great Compromise (VA: large states, representation by population→ House) & (New Jersey: small states, equal representation → Senate) ■ Senate: longer terms (6 years), under original Constitution (elected by state legislatures- changed with 17th amendment), 30 years old, more insulated from popular pressures ● Can confirm presidential nominees to agencies & federal judiciary ■ House: closer to the people, has short terms (2 years), direct elections, at

least 25 years old, revenue bills originate here (*taxation should be closest to the people)

■ ○ Oversight: Congress’s responsibility to monitor the actions of executive branch agencies & personnel- makes sure there is conformity to federal law ■ Nominee Confirmation: before a bureaucratic official can take their post, Senate has to ensure they are qualified ● Hold hearings→ committee→ vote (not uncommon to reject) ■ Hearings & Investigations: Investigation of govt wrongdoings (ie: Watergate, Iran-Contra affair, Benghazi, NSA spying scandal) ● Usually leads to resignations, new legislation, & criminal charges ● One of Congress’s most visible roles ■ Impeachment: The house impeaches & the Senate tries and removes them from office ● No president has ever been convicted & removed from office, but the impeachment process has been very divise ○ INFOGRAPHIC: ■ Congressional Job Approval: the LOWEST of the 3 branches ● Spike after 9/11 ● Overall, very low (2014: 9%, today: 22%) ■ Views on local representative & most members of Congress deserving reelection: ● Majority says no to most members/ general Congress (only 29% yes) ● About your own representative: about 50% say yes IN BOOK ● Last 15 years: dramatic reduction in the relative wealth of the middle class & increase in income inequality ● Members of Congress feel obligated to respond to top income earners

○ Take more partisan positions to favor donors: resulting in policy gridlock Representation in Congress: ● Congress is supposed to represent their constituents & reflect what they want ● Styles of Representation: ○ Delegate: Idea that a representative acts in perfect accord with the wishes of your constituents (majority) ■ Mirror views of constituents (Lincoln) ○ Trustee: when the elected representative applies their own judgement & deliberation ■ Act more independent; may make decisions that conflict with constituents views (Burke) ○ Factors that affect Style: ■ How often you face re-election: ● House- delegate: more frequent elections (more vulnerable to preference of constituents) ● Senate- trustee: 6 years between elections- can stray from constituents preferences ■ Safety of your seat ● Safe Seat: re-elected without much trouble → trustee ● Unstable seat → delegate Congress Demographics: ● Descriptive Representation: when representative reflect the demographic makeup of their constituents ○ How similar Congress is to the general population in terms of race, gender, occupation, religion, age, sex ○ → Congress is highly UNrepresentative ○ Race: ■ African Americans: equal representation in House ● Underrepresented in Senate (only 3) ■ Latinos: underrepresented throughout Congress- esp Senate ● Now largest minority group ■ Asian Americans: underrepresented throughout Congress ○ Gender: women: underrepresented throughout Congress ■ “Year of Woman”: 1992 elections- 48 women in House, 7 in Senate ■ 115th Congress: record # of women & minorities ■ Women faced discrimination within Capitol- been improving ■ 50% of general population but only 23% of each chamber ○ Sexual Orientation: lack of LGBTQ members ■ 7 openly gay House members today- important trend ○ Income & Occupation: highly educated & much wealthier than most

■ More law/ business occupations ■ Nearly all have held some elected office before- ¼ were former congressional staffers ● How much does this matter? ○ Descriptive representation isn’t that important because members still have to be attentive to groups in districts/ states ■ In order to get re-elected, they have to listen to voters ○ Many Americans not represented believe their votes would be better heard & represented if those members increase (more legislation for those groups) ○ Demographic disparities b/w Congress & people: a violation of political equality ○ → Joe Biden is NOT representative of Democratic Party The Electoral Connection ● Reapportionment: reallocation of House seats among the states done every 10 years after the Census (lose/ gain population→ seats) ○ After 2010: Texas gained the most seats (4); Florida gained next most (2) ■ Most states didn’t change ■ New York & Ohio lost the most seats- (-2) ○ Number of seat in the House remains (435), just reallocated ○ Trend: less people living in upper Midwest & Northeast & more moving South ● Redistricting: redrawing of congressional district lines within a state to ensure roughly equal populations within each district ○ Very broad mandate: roughly equal populations & must be contiguous ○ Mostly done by state legislature (some states have independent commissions) ■ Political process: done in a way to advantage your political party ○ Gerrymandering: redrawing electoral district lines to give an advantage to a particular party or candidate (extreme) ■ Look at historical voter turnout & microtargeting techniques to predict how places will vote ■ Ie: Maryland's 3rd District, Illinois 4th District, North Carolina's 12th district (1990) ■ Pennsylvania Case: 2018 state Supreme Court found PA’s congressional map to be marred by partisan gerrymandering & to violate voters right to participate in “fair & free” eclections ● Benefited Republican party (controlled 13/ 18 House seats): Operation Red Map (nation-wide) ● Courts found that lost of these maps violate state constitutions ○ Pennsylvania, North Carolina- language about elections being free & equal ■ Violating these Constitutions: constitutional right to participate equally in the political process BUT voters aren’t choosing representatives,

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representatives are choosing their voters ● NOT free & fair elections INFOGRAPHIC: ● 2012-2016: Republican candidates are winning 50-60% of the vote, but winning 75% of the seats ● Has been increasing over the years US Supreme Court: ruled in 2019 (Rucho vs Common Cause, 5-4) that federal courts couldn’t touch the issue of partisan gerrymandering ● Must be challenged in state court Cracking: spreads one party’s votes across multiple districts & tries to deny any one party a majority in any single district (of the other party) Packing: puts voters of the rival party into one district; gives that opposing party a huge margin of support in one district, but cuts its chances of winning seats in multiple districts Controversy: fairness concerns ● Representatives choosing their voters ● Politicians able to guarantee that one party wins the seats →

reduces # of competitive districts ● Do people really have a choice; is it representative ● Independent Commissions/ Bipartisan Commissions: to draw more fair & competitive districts as a solution ○ Does this really take the politics out of it or just make it less transparent ● Polarization: does gerrymandering contribute to political polarization ○ Against: Senate has polarized just as fast as the House ○ Residential patterns adding to polarization (Democrats in urban areas; Rep. in rural) ○ Difficult to draw competitive districts in general ● → overall decline in # of competitive districts in House elections ○ Most districts are safe Dem or Rep ○ Issues about representation, voter turnout, popular sovereignty ○ → Reapportionment & redistricting: 2 most controversial aspects ● Majority- Minority Districts: congressional districts drawn to ensure that a racial minority makes up the majority of voters (racial gerrymandering) ○ More likely for these districts to elect members of their racial minority group ○ The elected representative will then look out for the interest of that constituencyhas been done ■ Some argue this undermines democratic party strength in other districts

(packing all minorities into one district) ● Can decrease # of democrats elected in total ■ Maryland district 3, Illinois 4th district, North Carolina's 12th district: gerrymandered to create majority-minority districts ● Illinois: earmuff district: Chicago- created to contain 2 majority Hispanic communities ● NC: to concentrate African American voters in that district IN BOOK: Congressional Elections ● Most important, expensive & competitive elections ● Not limited to how many times they can run ● Candidates must make speeches, run advertisements, & appear at public eventincumbents have an advantage ○ House members must spend more time focusing on re-election ○ Permanent Campaign: the never ending process of running for re-election in the House ● Must win primary election (or caucus) first → general election ○ Primary elections can be very important but partisan (voters are more extreme) ● Senate seats are much more visible than House seats ○ Senators face higher quality challenger (held elected office before) ● Very costly elections ○ Costs keep growing ($1.7 mill- House; $9 mill- Senate) ○ Don’t receive public funding → no limits ○ Receive outside money from PACs, parties, interest groups, advocacy groups, unions, dark money groups (political nonprofits- increasingly more important) ○ Usually put own money but $ doesn’t always mean success The Incumbency Factor ● Incumbents: current office holder ● Advantages: win at very high rates (esp in House) ○ INFOGRAPHIC: ■ House incumbents being re-elected never goes below 80% ■ Senate has dipped, but the last few decade: re-election rates are generally around 80% ● Why are they more likely to get re-elected: ○ Redistricting Process: designed to protect incumbents- whoever controls state legislatures will draw districts to make sure their party wins & protect their incumbents ○ Money: they attract & spend a lot more money than their rivals ■ Incumbents have name recognition, lots of avenues for fund-raising, easier for them to raise money to protect their seat ○ Can use Tools available to them as members of Congress to help their election

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chances ■ Franking Privilege: the ability to send mail to constituents (not to directly campaign but to advertise accomplishment/ promote themselves) Travel Budget: they can use this to visit their districts & to keep communication with their constituents Constituent Service/ Casework: they help constituents cut through the red tape of the federal bureaucracy ■ Use ads: personal testimonials more powerful than senators standing up saying what they did Provide Pork Barrel Legislation: federal money that flows to a state or districts for various projects: highways improvements, bridge projects, rail improvements, bike paths ■ Some view this as wasteful spending, but it is very important to local areas that depend on federal money to finance projects → members are famous for their ability to bring home pork or help casework→ makes them popular to their voters

Term Limits: ● History: ○ Members of Congress do not have term limits (they can run as many times as they want) ○ 19th century: being in Congress wasn’t a job, more like a hobby ○ Now: a profession that many people hold for many years ■ Not much fresh blood/ ideas bc it’s so hard to defeat incumbents ● Arguments For Term Limits: ○ Fresh blood/ new perspectives; greater descriptive representation & more diverse voices ● Arguments Against Term Limits: ○ Elections are term limits- you can vote against incumbents: if they win, that means people are happy ○ Institutional memory: if we want to replace member of congress, they would have to learn the ropes of those institutions very quickly & lose a lot of institutional member & how those chambers operate ■ Long standing members bring expertise & experience ■ New members would take a long time to get up to speed ● INFOGRAPHIC: ○ 2018: lots of democrats won election to the house ■ Large shifts in partisan control on the House are uncommon Leadership in the House & Senate: ● Speaker of the House: recognized in the Constitution ○ In the line of succession to presidency

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Nancy Pelosi: right now democrats control majority in House Power of Speaker is not absolute More power in the legislative branch than any other person Recognizes members to speak during floor debate, in charge of House’s schedule, ability to allow certain bills to be reported out of committee ● Majority & Minority Leaders in Both Chambers: ○ Both parties have leaders in House/ Senate ○ Bc democrats have majority in House, committees are chaired by democrats ○ Republicans control the majority in Senate- Rep. Senators control committee chairmanships in the Senate ● Speaker: chair of the board in a business corporation ○ Majority leader: CEO who works on day to day operations ● Whips: representatives & senators in charge of: ○ Counting votes ○ Organizing party members to make sure that the legislation that the support supports has a good chance of being passed ● Minority Leaders: chief spokesperson & legislative strategist for the opposition ● Leadership in Senate: less visible & has less influence over a bills fate ○ Senate Majority Leader Parties & Party Line Voting in Congress ● Increase trend in party line voting in Congress: the percentage of the time Reps vote with other Reps & vice versa is increasing ○ More than ever unlikely to vote against their own party ● More party unity: all Dems/ Reps vote as a unified block ○ Regional basis of party changing: transformation of the Deep South from a solidly Democratic region to a Republican one ○ Activists becoming more partisan: congress members are afraid of losing in primary elections where activists are crucial voters ■ → members have become more extreme in their voting to satisfy these activists ○ Constituencies & public becoming more partisan: voters have become more polarized (sorting themselves- Dems moving to urban areas) & therefore those who represent them become more polarized ○ Ideology: democrats becoming more liberal; republicans more conservative ● → Rising partisanship is one of the many reasons why congress & the president have been having great difficulty solving our national problems ● INFOGRAPHIC: ○ Large shifts in partisan control of the US House are uncommon How a Bill Becomes a Law: ● So many obstacles, few bills survive

○ Only about 6% of all bills introduced are enacted ○ Most bills die ○ Very difficult to make laws, very easy to block a piece of legislation at any step ● Introduction of a Bill: ○ Introduces only by a member of Congress ■ Written with the help of lots of people (exec branch, interest groups) ○ Can be introduced in House or senate, but has to pass both chambers to become law ○ Goes to appropriate committee ○ Tax bill must originate in the House (Constitution) ● Committee Stage ○ Standing Committee: goes to standing committee of correlating issue (ie: bill with taxes → ways & means committee in House; military → armed services ○ ○ ○

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committee) Plays an important role in allowing Congress to process all the business that comes before it Committees are islands of specialization: members of the committee develop expertise to address these complex issues they are confronted with Committee assignments: important for members of Congress ■ They try to secure assignments that allow them to connect with their constituencies (relevant) ● Ie: rural rep would want to be on a committee relevant to farmers ■ In house: standing committees divided into subcommittees Hearings: ■ Committees & subcommittees hold hearings on bills ● When people for & against the bill can give statement & answer questions ● Committee can add & subtract language to the bill: markup ● Can change significantly from when bill was introduced Committee Chair: a member of the party that holds the majority in that chamber ■ Majority party appoints members to committees in proportion to the size of the party in Congress ● Ie: 55% of Senate is Rep; then 55% of each committee is Rep ■ Leadership by committees based on seniority ■ Party leaders are more active now in writing legislation too Rules Committee- House Only: determines time limit for floor debate & whether amendments will be allowed ■ Very important committee in house ■ Can make it easier or more difficult for a bill to become a law ■ Closed Rules: prevent the full House from considering any amendment to

a bill ■ Open Rules: allows amendments ■ Members of rules committee: usually party loyalists appointed by Speaker ● Work for Speaker: they prevent any bills from reaching the floor that are not favored ● Party polarization → more closed rules to shut minority party out ● Floor Action: ○ If reported from a standing committee favorably or from rules committee→ floor ○ Process of passage & that is generally easier in the House than the Senate ○ Senate: floor rules much more complicated (tougher to pass legislation) ○ Differences in Votes: ■ Procedural Votes: roll call votes, have to do with motions or rules; conducting the business of the House ■ Substantive Votes: about passing a bill/ adopting amendments ○ House: just need a simple majority vote (on close votes, party leadership can use methods to arm twist - threats, consequences, incentives) ○ Senate: fewer members: more prestige & attention toward minority→ more difficult ■ Some matters up for debate unless all senators agree to waive debate through unanimous consent ■ No rules concerning time limits & limitations on number or type of amendments ○ Filibuster: a parliamentary device used in the Senate to prevent a bill from coming to a vote by “talking it to death”, made possible by the norm of unlimited debate ■ Usually the threat alone is enough to stop debate over a bill ■ Both parties have made changes while in the majority to make it more difficult to use the filibuster in different circumstances ■ Ted Cruz: used filibuster to hold up debate on Obamacare ■ Designed to give minority party a voice ○ Cloture: a vote to end a filibuster or a debate; requires the votes of ⅗ of membership of the Senate ■ In the news & very controversial for the past decade ■ Historically, in order to end a filibuster you need a supermajority ⅗ ■ While both parties were in the majority, they both enacted rules to make it easier to end a filibuster (51 votes) for some situations (supreme court norm)

■ In the past, majority could easily filibuster to end Supreme Court nomination ■ Both made it easier to end a filibuster to make it more fai...