AMERICAN GOVERNMENT

POWER & PURPOSE

Chapter 5
Congress: The First Branch

Theodore J. Lowi
Benjamin Ginsberg
Kenneth A. Shepsle
Stephen Ansolabhere
 Clicker Question

Which of the following institutions do you

trust the most?

A. Congress
B. The presidency
C. The Supreme Court
 Congress is the First Branch

• The U.S. Congress is more independent

and powerful than legislatures in other
industrialized democracies
• It is no accident that the makeup and
powers of Congress are outlined in Article
I of the Constitution and that Article I is, by
far, the longest Article of the Constitution
 The Powers of Congress:
Article I, Section 8
• Congress is given a vast array of powers:
– Power to tax and spend
– Power to raise an army/navy and declare war
– Power to regulate commerce
– Power to coin money (regulate the currency)
– Power to make all laws “necessary and
proper” (elastic clause)
• Today, presidents play a bigger role in
each of these areas
 Congress and Representation

• Congress is the most important

representative institution in government
• A member’s primary responsibility is to
their constituency – the district making up
the area from which an official is elected
• What constitutes fair and effective
representation?
How Members Represent Their
Districts
 Forms of Representation

• Delegate – Legislators see themselves as

perfect agents of others; they have been
elected to do the bidding of those who
sent them to the legislature
• Trustee – Legislator votes based on what
he/she thinks is best for the constituency
• Agency Representation – The type of
representation according to which
representatives are held accountable to
their constituents if they fail to represent
them properly
 Descriptive Representation

• Shared characteristics and experiences

allow a representative to serve and draw
support from those with whom they share
an identity
• Descriptive representation for African-
Americans and Hispanics has been
facilitated by majority-minority districts.
 House and Senate:
Differences in Representation
• Congress is a bicameral legislative
assembly – composed of two chambers,
or houses
• The Senate is smaller and more
deliberative
• The House is larger, and thus power is
more centralized and the process is more
organized
 House and Senate:
Differences in Representation
 The Electoral System:
Who Runs?
• Because members of Congress are
agents, electoral considerations are very
important
• To win, candidates need:
– ambition
– money
– name recognition / strong political base
– charisma / strong personal organization
 The Electoral System:
Incumbency
• Incumbency – holding a political office for
which one is running – is a huge
advantage in congressional elections
• Some of the advantages include:
– casework
– patronage
– pork-barrel legislation
– early money
– name recognition
The Power of Incumbency
 Money in Congressional
Elections
• One of the big reasons congressional
incumbents are so safe is that they raise
and spend more money than their
opponents
• In part, this becomes a self-fulfilling
prophecy as campaign donors only want
to give to those they think can win and
incumbents usually win … so they get
more money
 The Electoral System:
Congressional Districts
• Every 10 years, House districts must be
re-apportioned among the states and lines
must be re-drawn to reflect population
changes
• There is a lot at stake in how these lines
are drawn as voters can be arranged so
as to give an advantage to one political
party. This is called gerrymandering
Changing Apportionment of
House Seats By Region
 Problems of Legislative
Organization
Cooperation among many members is
difficult for several reasons
– Matching Influence and Interest: Each
member has particular priorities but one vote
on every issue
– Imperfect Information: Legislators cannot be
experts on every policy area
– Compliance: Monitoring legislative deals and
legislative outcomes requires collective effort
 Legislative Organization:
Parties
• Members organize themselves into party
coalitions in the House and Senate called
a caucus (Democrats) or a conference
(Republicans)
• Members choose leadership (Speaker,
Majority Leader, Minority Leader, Whips)
• Members empower party leaders to
influence the agenda and manage
legislation
 Legislative Organization:
Committees
• Members also organize themselves into
standing committees divided by policy
jurisdiction
• There are similar jurisdictional committees
in the House and Senate
• Committees have gatekeeping authority –
the right to decide if a change in policy will
be considered
Legislative Organization:
Committees
 Legislative Organization:
Staffers and Agencies
• Each member of Congress has a large
staff that provides assistance on
everything from writing legislation to
correspondence with constituents
• Congress has also created staff agencies
like CRS, GAO, and CBO to provide non-
partisan policy advice to members
 Legislative Organization:
Caucuses
• Caucuses are groups of senators and
representatives who share certain
opinions, interests, or social
characteristics,
• Caucuses seek to advance the interests of
groups they represent by promoting
legislation and congressional hearings, as
well as working with administrative
agencies.
 How a Bill Becomes a Law:
Committee Deliberation

• Bills must first be introduced by a member

of Congress and referred to committee(s)
• Most bills die in committee
• Some are referred to a subcommittee, are
amended, and are reported out to the full
chamber
 How a Bill Becomes a Law:
Debate in the House
• Bills reported out committee first go to the
Rules Committee, of which determines the
rules under which the bill will be debated
on the floor where the majority rules
• The Rules Committee may provide:
– a closed rule – prohibits the introduction of
amendments
– an open rule – permits the addition of
amendments
 How a Bill Becomes a Law:
Debate in the Senate
• The Senate has a tradition of unlimited
debate
• It takes three-fifths of the Senate (60
votes) to invoke cloture (end of debate)
• Recently, greater partisanship has meant
the minority frequently threatens to use the
filibuster—a delaying tactic in which
senators do not allow debate to end—to
kill legislation
 How a Bill Becomes a Law:
Reconciling Bills

• To become a law, a bill must be passed in

exactly the same form in both chambers
• Frequently, the two chambers send the bill
back and forth until one chamber passes a
version passed by the other
• Sometimes, a conference committee is
appointed with members from each
chamber to work out differences
 How a Bill Becomes a Law:
Presidential Action

• The president may veto legislation and

Congress may only override the veto with
a two-thirds vote in each chamber
• Presidents generally use the threat of a
veto to shape legislation and try to avoid
the embarrassment of having a veto
overridden
How a Bill Becomes a Law
 How Members Decide

• Constituency – Members care about what

constituents will think on Election Day
• Interest Groups – Groups educate the
public, mobilize constituents, and make
campaign donations
• Party Voting – Members listen to party
leaders more today than 50 years ago
Party Unity on the Rise
 Widening Ideological Gap
Between Parties in Congress
 Causes of Increasing
Partisanship in Congress
• Greater power for party leaders:
– Committee assignments
– Access to the floor
– The whip system
– Logrolling
– Increasing power and visibility for the
president
• Gerrymandering
 Beyond Legislation:
Other Congressional Powers
• Oversight
• Advice and Consent (Senate only)
• Ratification of Treaties (Senate only)
• Impeachment
 Does Congress Work?

• Often difficult to balance efficiency within

Congress and constituent representation
• Building the super-majority coalitions
necessary to pass legislation leads to a
distributive tendency in legislation,
meaning bills are frequently designed to
distribute policy benefits as widely as
possible