Lecture 18 October 29 2013 U S Congress 1 Constitutional Provisions Exogenous Structural Rules Congress as First Branch powerful and important a Organizational structure bicameral two houses chambers i House of Representatives branch that is most direct of what the people want heart beat of the people s wishes 1 2 year term shortest term 2 Direct election we elect them because we want people who are most like us 3 Population based representative reapportionment every 10 years where there is a population count census taken to recalibrate how many people get the seats in the house every state has at least 1 seat in the house and California has about 10 of the people in the house as states grow and shrink in proportion to one another the number of people in the house increase as well 4 Chooses own leader Speaker of the House members get to choose who they re own leader is and people in one party vote for a speaker of their same party so the speaker is of the majority party ii Senate 1 6 year term long term view 2 Originally indirect now direct election 17th amendment chosen by state legislatives before so it could represent states but the states count equally in the senate 3 State based representation the states matter all equally no matter what size the state population is 4 Leader imposed by Constitution Vice President President of the Senate vice president needed something to do in case the president dies so they made him the president of the senate if we choose our own leader we can give and take power as we need but if we re given a leader we can t control what they do with their power b Temporal Structure chronological organization i Two year congress ends with each election 1 2013 113th Congress 1st session 2 Every time the house stands for reelection it s membership could completely change ii All internet rules adopted at start of new congress 1 Whenever the people in congress change then they aren t the same body of people develops a 2 year life cycle of congress so that every rule they make are readopted at the start of a new cycle iii All bills must pass within a congress or they die 1 Any bill introduced by a member of congress in any one congress has to be acted on completely during that congress or else it disappears and doesn t get passed c Important Powers enumerated powers defined in the constitution i Tax H R initiates 1 Power to force people to pay you money 2 Only the house can propose a tax because they represent the people 3 We re taking in more money than we used to 4 Harder to tax ourselves because we aren t making as much money as we did before ii Appropriation spend money 1 In the congress decide how much money to spend 2 Debt ceiling decides how much we can spend and now has to find the money that we spent iii Regulate Interstate Commerce 1 Trade that crosses state lines they don t want trade barriers preventing people from trading tariffs 2 People want free trade across state boundaries iv Declare War 1 Executives are too fond of the war so they aren t able to declare war 2 This power is in the hands of the people Congress v Organize Judicial and Executive Branches 1 Create departments vi Confirm Executive and Judicial Appointees Senate 1 Every federal employee was appointed by the senate 2 Who gets to work in the congress vii Removal Power of Executive and Judicial Officials 1 Power to say someone shouldn t work there any longer impeachment motions and get them removed from office viii Can Elect President H R and Vice President Senate 1 If the electoral college fails they get to elect the president 2 House of reps can choose president whenever there isn t a majority 3 Senate chooses the vice president ix Necessary and Proper Clause 1 Article I section 8 of the constitution 2 Congress can do things to fill in the gaps if they feel like they need to 2 Membership a Describing the Members of Congress i Demographic racial and gender and Occupational jobs and location Characteristics congress is predominantly white and male in congress 1 Descriptive representation shared traits 2 Policy representation shared views a Do the people reflect our views on policies b Do they vote the way we want them to c Republicans now have less than 50 approval ii Incumbents the person is already in congress when they ran for reelection they re running again 1 90 success for those seeking reelection 2 15 turnover rate due to retirements a People quit done with politics want to run for a higher position or other people lose b Few members of congress make it a career 3 10 15 serve 20 years a Natural in out flow of people in the congress b Member Goals and Their Implications i Reelection impact of seniority rule 1 They want to stay in office once they re in it 2 Good for us because they ll listen to what we have to say 3 Seniority rule power went to the people who had been there the longest power goes too the people who get reelected ii In house influence 1 Want people in your party to do things for you iii Make good policy 1 Members are driven by the idea that they want a legacy that proves they had been there 2 What one party thinks is good doesn t mean the other party agrees with it 3 People are there because they want to make a difference and have an impact on people s lives c How Members Get Selected i Single Member Plurality Districts System single member running from each party where only one person wins 1 One man one vote applied to House a Everybody s vote counts equally b Caused population shifts inside of states c Wesberry v Sanders 1964 members of congress have to represent equally sized districts d State legislatures are given the power to decide the size of how the district lines are going to be drawn Lecture 19 October 31 2013 2 Gerrymandering to draw district boundaries to the advantage of one party than the other you load up the representation of the party that you favor creates political advantage for one party Cracking the minority split minority up among majority high risk high reward strategy Packing the minority put most of the majority in one group low risk low reward They do this to make sure that they stay the majority Gives you an undefeatable majority Cracking the majority could have made seats for a minority party where they had the advantage ii Incumbency Advantage Name Recognition much better recognized by voters that are challengers favorable name recognition where people know them and want to vote for them because they re positive 1 Claim credit