POLS 1101 1st edition Lecture 17Outline of Previous LectureI. DefinitionsII. Weaker Government vs. Stronger governmentIII. Governor PowerOutline of Current Lecture I. How is Congress organizedII. Congress’s GoalsIII. BarriersIV. Senate Party LeadershipCurrent LectureI. How is Congress organized Congress does not work on an annual budgeto The house voted to defund Affordable Care Act last week as part of a continuing resolution to keep government funded Partieso Parties in each chamber run the showo The Parties: Majorities enact bills, set rules, establish procedures, choose leaders, and decide how to organize their respective chambers The majorities dominate in congress and not so much in Senateo Congressional parties are increasingly unified and polarized along ideological lineso They find consensus on actions in absence of consensus on goalso Try to keep conflict off agendao Minimize transaction costs Coordination gets more difficult as workload increases, and division of labor becomes more complex Committees: they make the legislative process more efficiento Within committees you have subcommittees that do most of the worko Committees reduce transaction costso Each committee deals with different areas that specialize in a certain fieldo Information is crucial These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.o Committees are the workhorses of congresso Committee Jurisdictions Substantive: Jurisdictions over policy areas Money: Spending and revenues Housekeeping: printing, administration, ethics Rules: Determines where bills go, time for floor debates, whenthey happen Delegationo Members of Congress delegate a lot of their work o But they must be careful who they delegate their work to because thework needs to benefit that congress’s constituentsII. Congress’s Goals Acquire information: they have different divisions to inspect different areas Coordinate action: dividing work, flow of bills, and scheduling debates and votes Resolving conflicts: rules, customs, procedures, coalition-buildingo Members of Congress have their own individual goalso Collective action is used to get Congress to work towards common and personal goalsIII. Barriers Overcoming personal interests for the common goals Transaction Costs: Time pressures, effort, and bargaining resources Conformity Costs: you do not want to support legislation that conflicts with your district’s primary interests Committee and party systems Party obstacleso Ensure committee chairs are loyalo Party leadership can punish members for not voting the way they want them to. IV. Senate Party Leadership No Rules Committee because there group is smaller so they don’t need as many rules Leaders negotiate unanimous consent agreements to regulate legislative processStill know how a bill becomes law, how the bill markup process
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