Chapter 6 Congress Examining the Electoral Connection Congress Representative body People s institution but we hate it But we love our incumbent 95 of incumbents who run win Example of Prisoner s Dilemma Members of Congress wants to bring back the bacon jobs roads federal money to their homeplace Congress in the Constitution a Congress centered nation seemed very important Article I Congress is referred to the 1st institution in our constitution We are o 20th century tricked us because we were always at war so president Congress is bicameral House of Representatives Senate o 2 senators per state size of senate grows as country grows Size of bodies Every 10 years we have a constitutionally mandated Census o As country grows House of Rep grows In 1911 House was limited to 435 Terms Senate 6 year terms Staggered term Every 2 years in Senate 1 3 of reps Dividing the pie Senate is up for election House is supposed to be responsive to public opinion o Have to be 25 years old and a citizen for 7 years have to be resident of state but your district doesn t matter Senate Have to be 30 years old citizens for 9 years o Senilus old men Senile old Term limits in Article of Confederation Congressional Districts only in House Geographic conditions of a state Some states only have 1 congressional district o 1 House Rep ex Alaska Wyoming Apportionment Process of allocating seats to a legislative body o Based on census determines how many seats each state can have which in turn means more districts This is a political process o States will draw district lines to benefit their preferred party o Gerrymandering drawing legislative districts in such a way as to give one political party a disproportionately large share of seats for the share of votes US Supreme Courts say that this is perfectly constitutional Preseats ex 3 4 of district is republican 1 4th is democrat 3 out of 4 seats should be allocated to republicans o Equitable Voters don t change but district lines can be changed rigged Courts say that this is a violation of 14th amendment equal Protection clause This goes for ex of making sure blacks don t get representatives due to gerrymandering Wesberry vs Sanders 1964 the court applied one person one vote to the congressional districts o Have to create districts for same amount of pp now equal distribution Thornbury vs Gingles 1986 Supreme Court construed the 1965 VRA to require that legislative district lines not discriminate even unintentionally against racial minorities o Thus a majority minority district was created States found out where all minorities live and drew district lines so that the minority had the majority o This was initially seen as a good thing to blacks o This was descriptive representation Does body look like the country Districts then seemed strange Below Shaw vs Reno 1993 bizarrely shaped districts designed to concentrate minorities is wrong This violates equal protection clause of whites o Two new rules now districts have to be compact and continuous Both parties support this dispute 4th district Louisiana This brings about substantive representation Mixed districts bring about more moderate representatives Gerrymandering causes polarization Miller vs Johnson 1995 race as dominate factor is stuck down as violating the constitutions equal protection clause o No more conservative democrats Changed in 1980s o No more liberal republicans conservative economically but liberl o Elections to determine candidates for a party o Republicans are the majority of the people Voting These are low turn out o Map 6 1 Political Polarization Gerrymandering socially Party Primaries elections Article I Section 8 Elastic Clause authorizes Congress to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers Article I each chamber has the power to organize itself and create its own rules of regulations Leadership of the US congress US house of Representatives o Speaker of the House John Boehner R OH Second in line for presidency if both president and VP died This position is attained by election after we elect Congress when new Congress comes in they elect new speaker of the house Each party proposes a name But members don t have to vote for the candidate in their party o Majority Party Leader Kevin McCarthy R CA Leads the party on floor speaks on their behalf o Majority Party Whip Steve Scalise R LA Whip informs members of the party about the party s position on issues and try to enforce party compliance inform compliance enforcement Term Whip comes from G Britain Fox hunting When hunting give the fox a head start and wait on the edge of the woods and send dogs in to chase fox out person in charge of dogs is called Whipper in But they don t have much power to enforce anything on the members o Minority Leader democrats currently Nancy Pelosi D CA 1st women to ever serve as speaker of the house highest ranking female official in history of US o Minority Party whip Steve Non voting member from Washington D C o Because they have no senators of the state US Senate Officers o President of the Senate Joseph Biden VP Democrat from Delaware Only job VP officially has Power means he can work debates in Senate VP can cast a ballot when there is a tied vote John Adams 1st VP did use this role in Senate o President Pro Tempore Orrin Hatch R UT Temporary president Ran the gavel when the VP isn t there The norm is that this position is given to the most senior members of the majority party Served in Senate the longest o Majority Leader Mitch McConnell R KY De facto in reality de facto leader of the senate He has authority controls if a bill comes up to the vote or not Leadership o Majority Whip John Cornyn R TX o Minority Leader Harry Reid D NV Pro life democrat o Minority Whip Richard Durbin D IL Congressional Committees Divides labor and therefore members of congress have an opportunity to become experts in their jobs committees Standing Committees fixed jurisdictions and stable membership o Authority over particular bills dealing with o Fixed and stable membership once you are appointed to a standing committee you have property rights over that seat as long as you re in congress it is yours creates experts o Originated in the 1830 s for 50 years we only had temporary committees not fixed o Ways and Means committee only in US H of Representatives because they are in charge of taxes In charge of studying taxation legislation Senate doesn t need it Select Special
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