POLS 102 1st EditionFinal Exam Study GuideCongress1. U.S. Code – The United States Code is a consolidation and codification by subject matter of the general and permanent laws of the United States. It is prepared by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the United States House of Representatives.a. Agencies engage in regulations: Authority to regulate comes from laws enacted by Congress; laws that go into the United States Code2. Problem Solving, Politics, and Interest Group benefits as bases for laws – a. One of the bases for laws:i. Problem Solving, or, “in order to form a more perfect union … provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our prosperity…”1. A hole in ozone layers spurred the Stratospheric Ozone Protection Act2. An economic crisis due to the housing bubble spurred the Toxic Assets Relief Program3. Student loan subsidies make it “cheaper” for students to go to college.ii. Politics: Members of Congress and Parties in Congress believe they will benefit electorally if they enact laws1. President Bush and Republicans in the creation of Medicare part D (helped senior citizens)2. President Obama and the Democrats Affordable Care Act3. Democrats and Republicans, under Reagan, and the Tax Reform Act of 1986 – simplifying the tax code to reduce taxes for most tax payers to stimulate the economy.iii. The combination of the need to solve problems and the Electoral Incentive of elected officials to associate themselves with solving these problems leads Congress to enact laws1. Sometimes/Often laws are transmogrified to serve organized interests (crop disaster insurance, a distributive policy)2. Nevertheless … most laws in fact address real problems.3. Majority Party –a. The Median Voter is always the majority party. However, the majority party isn’t always content with the Median Voter having the power of deciding the majority, so they bully them.b. Majority party wins a majority of the issues4. Authorization/Appropriation Laws –a. Appropriation is the act of setting apart something for its application to a particular usage, to the exclusion of all other uses.5. Making Moderates Comply –Majority Party Influence – The process of making moderates comply (Republican Example)1. The Republicans elect the speaker, majority leader and majority whip - The majority whip coordinates the bullying of median voter- These leaders are very conservative because the party itself is very conservative- AKA the 10 conservative outvote the 2 moderates in choosing these leaders.- See diagram on Ecampus – “A unified majority party can encourage its moderates to tow the party line”2. The Republican Steering Committee, which controls committee assignment, is formed. You can get assigned to an unappealing committee if you don’t vote with your party, as a consequence.- The speaker of the House has 5 votes on the Steering Committee; Majority Leader has 2 votes; Majority Whip has 1 vote.- Regional representatives to the Steering Committee are elected: mostly conservatives, too, since the Republican Caucasus is mostly conservative. Conservatives outvote moderates but you still need the moderates. 3. The RSC makes committee assignments (268-276 in the textbook)- Members of Congress value assignments greatly because they want to be oncommittees where they can make great improvements for their constituents.- In making assignments the RSC can punish moderates (or any member) by denying committee assignments if they don’t adhere to party positions4. The full Republican Caucasus votes to ratify (or not) the RSC choices5. The choices are ratified because the conservatives choices reflect the conservative preferences of the party6. The ratification of these assignments by the Republican Caucasus is their introduced as a House Resolution. It must be passed by a majority of members for the committee assignments to be made.7. Even though the Median Voters are moderate the bottom line, the ideologs control what the liberals what- Laws that are passed are sometimes not because the conservatives have control over things like committee assignments that moderates want8. Moderates don’t always do exactly what conservatives want. But conservatives in the majority party control the incentives to encourage moderates to come around9. Moderate Republicans could vote with Democrats to reject their parties choices for committee assignments (has occurred in the past, but is rare)6. Joe Barton / Heather Wilson –These two are Republicans that work together on the Energy and Commerce Committee. a. Rep. Heather Wilson (R-N.M.) voted with Democrats on a controversial bill, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) is pushing to get her removed from his powerful Energy and Commerce Committee.7. House Rules Committee – is a committee of the United States House of Representatives. Rather than being responsible for a specific area of policy, as most other committees are, it is in charge of determining under what rule other bills will come to the floor.8. Stalemate (Binder) –a. Stalemate - A situation in which there is heated disagreement between two parties that leads to an inability to progress as neither side is willing to compromise. a. Despite elongated negotiations, the Republicans and the Democrats could not reach an agreement on the Affordable Care Act, and the stalemate resulted in a 16-day-long federal government shut down.9. Distributive/Regulatory/Redistributive –a. Types of Laws and Agencies:i. Distributive Laws – the government provides payments to individuals/organizations1. Farm subsidies, defense contracts, bridges to nowhereii. Redistributive Laws – the government provides transfers of income/wealth to individuals to foster some minimum standard of living/condition1. Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, Deductions on Mortgage Insurance, Temporary Assistance to Needy Familiesiii. Regulatory Laws – stipulate what individuals and organizations (like corporationsand small businesses) can and cannot do (must and must not do).1. Federal crime laws; environmental laws; occupational, safety, and healthlaws; consumer product safety laws; automobile safety laws;2. Often these sets of laws have federal agencies charged with governing them: EPA, CPSC, MCSA, OSHA10. Reelection/Proximate Goal – the goal of a current office holding politician to be re-elected back into that position for the next