congress, the first branch week of 4 april american federal government
TRANSCRIPT
• Congress, The First Branch
Week of 4 AprilAmerican Federal Government
Congress
• Bicameral institution– 435 seats in the House of Representatives
• approximately 650,000 persons in each district
– 100 seats in the Senate
Congress
• Fair Representation? – Women/Minorities
Congress
• Fair Representation?– States determine geography of House districts– Malapportionment – Gerrymandering & the Census
States Gaining/Losing Seats After 2000 Census
The Gerrymander
Congress: Representational Issues
– Majority-minority districts • Shaw v. Reno (1993)
• Miller v. Johnson (1995)
– Representing interests: • individual constituents
• organized interests
• geographic - district as a whole
– Delegate vs. trustee models of representation
Racial Gerrymandering? North Carolina District 12
How a Bill Becomes Law
How a Bill Becomes Law
How a Bill Becomes Law
Congress
• Committee Structure – Committees & Subcommittees
• standing
• select
• joint
• conference
• “prestige” committees
– The work of committees • hearings, markups
– The power of committee chairs
Congress
• Staff Agencies – Congressional Research Service (CRS) – General Accounting Office (GAO)– Office of Technology Assessment (OTA)– Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
Congress
• Organizing Congress: The Importance of Party – House: more majoritarian
• Speaker’s role
• majority leader & whips
• minority party - a life of frustration? – minority leader’s role: loyal opposition?
Congress
• Organizing Congress: Senate – majority leader vs. Speaker of the House
Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert of IL
Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist, M.D.,
of Tennessee
Congress
• Floor Proceedings– House
• quorum
• closed rules
• open rules
• restrictive rules – king of the hill and queen of the hill rules
• The importance of the Rules Committee
• discharge petitions
Congress
• Floor Proceedings – Senate
• no rules limiting debate
• germaneness
• amendments
• filibuster
• cloture = 60 votes
• unanimous consent agreements– the way much business gets conducted
Congress
• Types of Bills – Public – Private – Resolutions (HR 200, SJR 20)
• simple
• concurrent (joint)
Congress
• Voting – voice votes– roll-call votes
• How do members decide? – Representational view – Organizational view – Attitudinal view
Party Division in Congress
Congress
• The Rise of Party Unity Voting– 51% of members of one party voting against
51% of the members of the other party
• Leadership reforms in the House
Party Unity Votes 1954-72, U.S. House
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
Year
Per
cen
t P
arty
Un
ity
Vo
tes
r = -.549
Party Unity Votes 1973-96, U.S. House
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
Year
Perc
ent P
arty
Uni
ty V
otes
r = .791
Restrictive Rules, 1977-94
0
50
100
150
200
250
95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Total Rules % Restrictive Rules
Number of Rules
Percent Restrictive
Republican Seats in the U.S. House, 1953-98
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100
101
102
103
104
105
Congress
Perc
ent
r = .935
0.3
0.35
0.4
0.45
0.5
0.55
0.6
83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100
101
102
103
104
Congress
Mea
n Id
eolo
gica
l Spl
it
r = .628
Mean Ideological Split between Democrats and Republicans, U.S. House, 1953-96