Congress

Topic 7
Copyright 2010 Cengage
Learning 2
Civics books tell us
Congress legislates
President carries out laws
Judiciary decides cases arising from
application of laws
But reality more complex due to checks
and balances in which each branch has
central role but also acts as potential check
or constraint on others

{Checks & Balances overhead p. 31 }
p. 31
Copyright 2010 Cengage
Learning 5
Checks and Balances
Messy, inefficient process but largely
successful in preventing one branch
domination

Overview of congressional stuff
I. Congressional powers (brief review)
II. Who are the members?
III. Internal structure
a. committees as key elements
b. leadership of House and Senate
c. caucuses
IV. Legislative process
I. Congressional powers
Congress arguably most powerful national legislature in
world

Constitutional design closest to people of the
branches of government (House especially)

Constitutional powers

Explicit / enumerated powers in Article I {p 328}
Broadened by constitutional interpretation by
judiciary, interpretations typically expanding
powers of national government
Copyright 2011 Cengage
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
landmark Supreme Court case
laid groundwork for major expansion of
national government by its interpretation of
Article I & 10
th
Amendment of Constitution
Unanimous opinion by Court under
leadership of Chief J ustice J ohn Marshall
Review case facts {p 55 of text in Chapter
3 on Federalism}
Three key issues addressed in opinion
1) Did U.S. have right to set up Bank?
No explicit authority in Article I
But, as Court interpreted the Constitution, there
is implied authority to do this under necessary
and proper clause in Article 1 --

(Congress shall have the power) to make all laws
which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into
execution the foregoing powers and all other powers
vested by this Constitution in the government of the
United States.

Marshall : Let the end be legitimate, let it be
within the scope of the Constitution, and all
means that are appropriate (and are not
prohibited by the Constitution) are
constitutional.
2) Did Maryland have right to tax Bank?
No, because of supremacy clause in
Article VI --

This Constitution, and the laws of the United
States which shall be made in pursuance
thereof... shall be the supreme law of the land;
and the judges in every state shall be bound
thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws
of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.

3) What about Tenth Amendment ?

The powers not delegated to the United
States by the Constitution, nor prohibited
by it to the states, are reserved to the
states respectively, or to the people.


Marshall interpreted Tenth Amendment so
not applicable in this case
Read it as though it said:
The powers not {explicitly or implicitly!}
delegated to the United States by the
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states,
are reserved to the states respectively, or to
the people.
This addition pretty much gutted Tenth.

Wickard v. Filburn (1942) another Supreme
Court case. Not nearly so well-known. Here key
issue dealt with interpretation of commerce
clause of Article I:
{The Congress shall have the power to...} regulate
commerce with foreign nations and among the
several states and with the Indian tribes.

Critical question what does among mean??
Only between states? e.g., trade between NY & NJ
Between states and within each state? e.g., trade between
NY & NJ and also trade entirely within either one of them

Lets see how that applies in this case


-
Wickard v. Filburn (continued)
Congress passed crop limits to boost farm income
Filburn (a small farmer) sued Wickard (Secretary
of Agriculture) to prevent limits on Filburns farm.
Filburn argued that he was engaged in trade
entirely within one state. His reading of commerce
clause was that federal government could not
regulate his farm, i.e., he felt clause covered only
trade between states.
The Supreme Court disagreed, stating that
cumulative impact of millions of farmers like
Filburn did affect commerce between states even
if he did not affect commerce individually.
So crop limits did apply to Filburn after all.

II. Who are the Members?
The House has become less male and less
white
though hardly an accurate cross-section of society


Copyright 2011 Cengage
Source: Congressional Quarterly, various years.
Copyright Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
The Incumbency Advantage
Incumbents tend to be re-elected (as
noted previously in Voters & Elections
topic)
Media coverage is higher for incumbents
Incumbents have greater name recognition
due to franking, travel to the district, news
coverage
Members secure policies and programs for
voters

Figure 13.1 Percentage of Incumbents
Reelected to Congress
Copyright 2011
Cengage
Source: Harold W. Stanley and Richard G. Niemi, Vital Statistics on American Politics, 19992000 (Washington, D.C.:
Congressional Quarterly Press, 2000), table 1-18; 2004 update by Marc Siegal.
III. Internal structure
a. Committees

Committee system history
Not too important early on
Major decisions made on House &
Senate floors
Critical now
Major decisions made by committees
early in process

Types of committees
Select
Not permanent but limited time
Specific purpose
Investigate problems more than
drafting legislation
e.g., Select Hunger & Select
Aging Committees


J oint - members drawn from both
House and Senate rather than one
chamber
e.g. Joint Economic Committee
Note: important type of joint
committee = conference
committee --
can work out differences when
House and Senate disagree on
legislation
special rules on voting



Standing permanent committees of
each chamber
fixed areas of responsibility
draft most legislation
oversight of how legislation carried
out
in summary: most important
committees in general

{pp. 347, 349 text }

Copyright 2011 Cengage
Copyright 2011 Cengage
Standing Committee Organization

members from both majority and minority
parties
each committee reflects party ratio in its
chamber
currently: R control House while D controls Senate
chair of committee from majority party
use seniority rule generally to select chair =
majority party member with longest seniority on
committee normally selected chair
committees usually have subcommittees where real
work often done
subcommittees have their own chairs key actors in
process

note: decentralization has shifted power from full
committees to their subcommittees

finally, committees = burial ground for most legislation
only about 6/100 bills make it out!!
Standing Committee (continued)
on committee assignment process in
Congress:

Senate - basically decided on basis of
seniority in the chamber
though Majority Leader has extra power
since January 2005
House - until 1911 all House committee
assignments (for both parties) were
made by the Speaker! very centralized
system
revolt in 1911 against tyrannical Speaker
(Uncle Joe Cannon)

after Cannon revolt each party in
House gained the right to make its
own assignments standing
committees
each set up party committees (not
standing committees) to make the
partys assignments
those party committees = steering
committees
party leaders dominate these
committees
- process in more detail:
party slots open up on standing comms
party members apply for vacancies
party steering committee meets to consider
choices
makes a recommendation to the full
membership of the party in the H
membership typically approves the
recommendations
vote in H typically approves party choices

note: majority party does not use its
potential clout to dictate minority party
committee assignments
a) sense of fairness
b) fear of reprisals when minority party
assumes control of H
c) need for some minority co-operation
(especially when majority is narrow as it is
now)
III. Internal structure
b. Party leadership

Copyright 2011 Cengage
More on party leadership = related issue
of party voting in Congress, i.e., how
united are parties in congressional
voting?
One measure is party voting = recorded
vote in which majority of one party
opposes a majority of other party
Figure 13.2 gives information on this from
1877 to 2010


Copyright 2013 Cengage
Sources: Updated through 2008 by Zach Courser; NES data as reported in 20012002; Harold W.
Stanley and Richard G. Niemi, Vital Statistics on American Politics (CQ Press, 2001), 211. Reprinted by
permission of Congressional Quarterly, Inc.
Note: A party vote occurs
when the specified
percentage (or more) of one
party votes against the
specified percentage (or
more) of the other party.
Ideology in the 86
th
Senate (1959-61)
Ideology in the 111
th
Senate (2009-11)
Why party voting?
1) ideological differences between
parties [last slide]
2) advice from leaders when little
information available on bills
3) leaders have some power
4) parties represent different kinds of
districts
5) team spirit
6) support or opposition to President
Dont need really strong leaders to get
party voting.

III. Internal structure
c. Caucuses potential partners
with leadership in getting policies
enacted but potential rivals to
leadership as well
Caucus = an association of members of
Congress created to advocate a political
ideology or a regional or economic interest


Source: U.S. House of Representatives, 2009.
Copyright 2011 Cengage
IV. Legislative Process
Some legislative terms first:

Statute = law passed by Congress
Public bill = legislation that would apply to
public generally
Private bill = legislation affecting a named
person
Authorization bill = legislation to create
program or modify existing one
Appropriation bill = legislation to
fund program
Mark up a bill = read and amend bill
in committee or subcommittee
Report out a bill = finish committee
work on bill and send off
Calendar (H, S) = list of bills reported
out of committees
Union Calendar key one in H
Calendar of Business key one in S
[= Legislative Calendar or Calendar of General Orders]

Rule (from House Rules Comm.) =
permission to take bill from calendar
and consider on floor
Filibuster = delay action in Senate to
kill bill
Cloture = force end to filibuster
under Rule 22 of Senate generally
needs 60 votes to pass
IV. How a bill becomes a law
p. 351

How a Bill
Becomes a
Law
Copyright 2013 Cengage



END