Lecture 8 - Congress Part 2 PDF

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Dr James Bisland...

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Lecture 8 – Congress Part 2 Organisation of Congress        

Party System – decision-making, implementing, review Every 2 years new leaders have to be elected – normally from majority party Speaker of the House – single most important position in the House – Nancy Pelowski – some power over what your party is going to do – patronage – committee seats Ways and Means Committee – tax committee – popular committee to sit on Minority Leader – elected leader from the minority party Vice President is the President of the Senate – in practice doesn’t spend much time there – when it’s a tie-vote the VP casts the deciding vote Pro Tempore of the Senate – mainly ceremonial role Senate Majority Leader – Mitch McConnell – sets the calendar and agenda – senators have more of a say

Committee System           

No mention in the Constitution – evolution of politics Division and specialisation Standing Committees – permanent status – fixed membership – permanent staff and offices – jurisdiction – each one is unique – doesn’t correlate with representation Each committee is tasked with receiving proposals and drafting them into legislation House Rules Committee – focuses on which order bills will come to a vote – how long debate will be – when amendments will be added – determines how difficult or easy it will be for this bill to pass Open rule – long debate – amendment process – multiple amendments Closed rule – short debate Jurisdiction will parallel with a federal agency or department Speaker has some discretion as to where the legislation will go Committee on Committees – decide who is going to sit on the committees – institutions within the party – normally member gets to stay there for as long as they want House Chairs elected by majority party

The Staff System     

11,000 staffers across the House and the Senate – staffers are more involved with the legislation process 2,000 committee staffers – permanent members as not determined by election results – do the research, scheduling, hearings, draft legislation The Congressional Research Service – policy briefing papers The General Accounting Office – investigate the financial and administration affairs of any federal plans – economic predictions The Congressional Budget Office

How a Bill becomes Law    

Submission Committee Deliberation – could go to a sub-committee, hearings, testimonies, discussion House Rules Committee Floor Debate – supporters and opponents given opportunity to debate

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Filibuster – rarely used in modern times but the threat is real – need 60 votes to stop the filibuster Nuclear option – Senate takes away the option to filibuster Conference Committee – knock the two bills into one final draft which is then sent back through the House and the Senate President sign and veto – if vetoed and goes back through Congress needs a super majority (2/3) to go through again Pocket veto – President given 10 days to sign it but if Congress adjourns before that time then it can’t be sent back to the House etc it has to start all over again

How Congress Decides  

External Factors – care what constituents think Interest Groups – mobilize voters, campaign contributions, lobbying money, information

Party Discipline      

Party unity stronger in the House than the Senate Committee Assignments Access to the floor – majority leader’s allocates chunks of time – stay on good side of the leadership so they will call for them The Whip System – communicate with the members – put pressure on their members to vote the right way Logrolling – trading of votes The Presidency – delegated budget power to the President

Beyond Legislation     

Oversight – hold the Executive Branch to account – regular oversight is the annual hearings on tax etc – more extreme cases are actual abuses of power Advice and Consent Impeachment Executive Appointments 2/3 to ratify treaties...