U S Congress 12 10 2013 Constitutional Provisions Exogenous things Congress cannot change and Structural Rules Congress as First Branch powerful and important has most powers defined to it Organizational Structure Bicameral 2 Chambers o House of Representatives 435 Seats 2 year term Direct election supposed to be reflective of the people Population based representation Reapportionment every 10 years gain or lose seats based on population from census Chooses own leader Speaker of the House o Senate deliberative 6 year term Originally indirect new direct election 17th Amendment State based representation Leader imposed by Constitution Vice President President of the Senate Temporal Structure chronological organization o Two year congress Ends with each election 2013 113th Congress 1st Session o All internal rules adopted at start of new congress o All bills must pass within a congress or they die Important Powers Enumerated herein granted o Tax H R initiates o Appropriation spend money o Regulate interstate commerce o Declare war o Organize Judicial and Executive branches Congress o Confirm Executive and Judicial appointees Senate o Removal power of Executive and Judicial officials o Can elect President H R and Vice President Senate o Necessary and Proper clause Membership Describing the Members of Congress o Demographic and occupational characteristics Descriptive representation shared traits No Policy representation shared views More important hard to get a handle on o Incumbents Already in Congress 90 success for those seeking reelection 15 turnover rate due to retirements 10 15 serve 20 years Member Goals and Their Implications o Reelection impact of seniority rule o In house influence o Make good policy How Members Get Selected o Single Member Plurality Districts System one man one vote applied to House Wesberry vs Sanders 1964 Gerrymandering To draw a 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 o Incumbency Advantage Name Recognition Claim credit pork barrel Pork barrel getting federal dollars spent on your district Bringing home the bacon like you re getting all of the food stuff from paying money Casework Constituency service Helping people get an answer to their questions problems without forcing it upon them from the government Position taking When issues come along incumbents speak out and make their opinions known to people Government funded resources 1 3 million for House in 2012 e g staffing the franking privilege Staffing sending positive messages Franking privilege putting your name where the postage stamp goes means that he doesn t have to pay for your postage send out letters to be re elected where they tell people what they re going to do Campaign finance support 2 to 1 advantage over challengers Given more benefits for having the money Incumbents have a big advantage through everything Challenger intimidation Quality challengers wait for an open seat Quality ability to run a good race campaign are you known in the district and are there people willing to work for you fund you Open seat when there is no incumbent they either retire or decide to run for some other position in office Challengers come out when the incumbents are gone Wild Card national trends e g Iraq war in 2006 National trends can swamp them Political wave being on the wrong side can cause you to lose Institutional Characteristics Endogenous Structural Rules rules members make for themselves so they can be changed because they are readopted at the beginning of every 2 years of election Committee System o Description subsets of members authorized to perform functions for the chamber investigate issues recommend bills regulate legislative process House and Senate have their own committee systems o Reasons for Committees Workload specialization Congress makes too many decisions on a day that they need to specialize and assign people to different categories so they can work more efficiently They want more knowledgeable advice to come out of these decisions Chairs power opportunities In house influence Members gain power because they have what other people need o Types of Committees Standing One chamber Permanent Presumed to continue through the next congress unless Congress changes its rules Reports bills They vote on them and decide which ones they like don t like and when they like one they report it write a report on it and send it forward with their advice why it s good Vast majority of bills do not get reported Gatekeepers of the legislative process bills are trying to get in but they ultimately decide which ones are let in or not most bills dies here Temporary select of special one chamber investigates Joint usually does not report bills Created at a certain time and ends at a certain time not permanent Weakness do not report bills just investigates and provide information Two chambers Usually does not report bills Members from both houses Very rare don t have much power especially to report bills Conference Joint and temporary Reconciles House and Senate versions of bill They have starting ending date but also have members of the House and Senate in it One goal take bills by House and Senate and reconcile them compromise them together into an identical bill that includes both ideas and then they report it back to the Senate o Committee Functions especially Standing Committees Conduct research Collect analyze information Prepare members Hearing where members bring in speakers to talk to the committee and answer questions Provide expertise Recommend bills to chamber Bills they recommend carry weight because the expertise of the committee exceeds the expertise of anyone else Because it s continual Act as political agents Build support to bills Modify bills to reduce opposition o Consequences of Committee System Fragmentation and decentralization of chamber s power to subsets of members Power resides on floor at the beginning of congress until they split it up to committees Specialization of members in preferred policy issues Become specialized or experts in that area Reciprocity of influence Chamber defers to committees judgments about policy within their jurisdiction Reciprocity reciprocating influence I go along with what you want if you go along with what I want If the committee does not speak with a unified voice then they are undermined Party System o Structure