07 Congress(2)

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


McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

landmark Supreme Court case

laid groundwork for major expansion of

national government by its interpretation of

Article I & 10th Amendment of Constitution

Unanimous opinion by Court under

leadership of Chief Justice John 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

Let’s 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 Filburn’s 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


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, 1999–2000 (Washington, D.C.:

Congressional Quarterly Press, 2000), table 1-18; 2004 update by Marc Siegal.


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

Joint - 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 }



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 party’s 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)


b. Party leadership


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


Sources: Updated through 2008 by Zach Courser; NES data as reported in 2001–2002; 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 86th Senate (1959-61)

Ideology in the 111th 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

Don’t need really strong leaders to get party voting.


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.


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


END

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07 Congress(2)