1. Congress: The First Branch6
Congress:
The First Branch

2. Which of the following institutions do you trust the most?
Congress
The presidency
The Supreme Court
Discussion:
Most students usually respond that they trust the president or the Court the most and as the next slide shows, polling in the last couple of decades has consistently rated Congress’s job approval lower than the other two branches. This is interesting in two respects. First, members of Congress are routinely re-elected at very high rates. Second, the Congress is “the people’s branch.” This clicker question can be used to launch discussion on what students’ impressions of the Congress are and to use those impressions to discuss the Congress as we move through the various sub-topics in this unit.

3. Institutional Approval Ratings Gallup – September 5–11, 2011
Do you approve or disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job?
Approve – 15%
Disapprove – 82%
Do you approve or disapprove of the job that Barack Obama is doing as president?
Approve – 43%
Disapprove – 49%
Do you approve or disapprove of the way the Supreme Court is handling its job?
Approve – 46%
Disapprove – 40%

4. Institutional Approval Ratings Gallup, July 10–14, 2013
Do you approve or disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job?
Approve: 15 percent
Disapprove: 78 percent
Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as president? (tracking poll)
Approve: 46 percent
Disapprove: 46 percent
Do you approve or disapprove of the way the Supreme Court is handling its job?
Approve: 43 percent

5. Congress is the First Branch
The U.S. Congress is more independent and powerful than legislatures in other industrialized democracies
It is no accident that the makeup and powers of Congress are outlined in Article I of the Constitution and that Article I is, by far, the longest Article of the Constitution

6. The Powers of Congress: Article I, Section 8
Congress is given a vast array of powers:
Power to tax and spend
Power to raise an army/navy and declare war
Power to regulate commerce
Power to coin money (regulate the currency)
Power to make all laws “necessary and proper” (elastic clause)
Today, presidents play a bigger role in each of these areas

7. Congress and Representation
Congress is the most important representative institution in government
A member’s primary responsibility is to their constituency – the district making up the area from which an official is elected
Good representation encompasses a wide variety of activities

8. How Members Represent Their Districts

9. Forms of Representation
Agency Representation – The type of representation according to which representatives are held accountable to their constituents if they fail to represent them properly
Delegate – Legislators see themselves as perfect agents of others; they have been elected to do the bidding of those who sent them to the legislature
Trustee – Legislator votes based on what he/she thinks is best for the constituency

10. Descriptive Representation
Legislators not only represent others; they may be representative of others as well.
Descriptive representation refers to the idea that we seek to have a legislature that has demographic characteristics similar to the population it represents.

11. Demographic Summary of Members of Congress

12. House and Senate: Differences in Representation
Congress is a bicameral legislative assembly – composed of two chambers, or houses
The Senate is smaller and more deliberative
The House is larger, and thus power is more centralized and the process is more organized
Discussion:
The differences in how the two institutions operate is a good example of the institution principle at work. The House and the Senate differ in their numbers of members, their electoral rhythms, their different constituencies, and the differing roles set up for them by the Constitution. A good example of this principle at work can be seen in the way the Senate insisted on dividing up a portion of Homeland Security money equally among the states. A humorous take on this decision was offered by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show in July The video clip can be seen here: (caution: the very end of this clip has some inappropriate content).

13. House and Senate: Differences in Representation

14. The Electoral System: Who Runs?
Because members of Congress are agents, electoral considerations are very important
To win, candidates need:
ambition
money
name recognition / strong political base
charisma / strong personal organization

15. The Electoral System: Incumbency
Incumbency – holding a political office for which one is running – is a huge advantage in congressional elections
Some of the advantages include:
casework
patronage
pork-barrel legislation
early money
name recognition

16. Figure 6.2 Average Turnover in the House of Representatives
NOTE: Average turnover is the percent of new members in the House averaged over five House elections in a decade. In the period 1790–2012, the mean turnover was 30.7.
SOURCE: Based on John Swain, Stephen A. Borelli, Brian C. Reed, and Sean F. Evans, “A New Look at Turnover in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1789–1998,” American Politics Quarterly 28 (2000): 435–57, plus author updates. 16

17. Figure 6.3 The Power of Incumbency
SOURCES: Center for Responsive Politics, and author updates. 17

18. Money in Congressional Elections
One of the big reasons congressional incumbents are so safe is that they raise and spend more money than their opponents
In part, this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as campaign donors only want to give to those they think can win and incumbents usually win … so they get more money

19. Figure 6.4 House and Senate Campaign Expenditures
SOURCES: Norman J. Ornstein, Thomas E. Mann, and Michael J. Malbin, Vital Statistics on Congress, 2001–2002 (Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute, 2002), pp. 87, 93; and Campaign Finance Institute, (accessed 8/8/11). 19

20. The Electoral System: Congressional Districts
Every 10 years, House districts must be re-apportioned among the states and lines must be re-drawn to reflect population changes
There is a lot at stake in how these lines are drawn as voters can be arranged so as to give an advantage to one political party. This is called gerrymandering

21. Changing Apportionment of House Seats By Region
Discussion:
As the population has shifted from the Northeast and Midwest into the South and the West, congressional districts have been redistributed to reflect those changes.

22. Problems of Legislative Organization
Cooperation among many members is difficult for several reasons
Matching Influence and Interest: Each member has particular priorities but one vote on every issue
Imperfect Information: Legislators cannot be experts on every policy area
Compliance: Monitoring legislative deals and legislative outcomes requires collective effort

23. Legislative Organization: Parties
Members organize themselves into party coalitions in the House and Senate called a caucus (Democrats) or a conference (Republicans)
Members choose leadership (Speaker, Majority Leader, Minority Leader, Whips)
Members empower party leaders to influence the agenda and manage legislation

24. Legislative Organization: Committees
Members also organize themselves into standing committees divided by policy jurisdiction
There are similar jurisdictional committees in the House and Senate
Committees have gatekeeping authority – the right to decide if a change in policy will be considered

25. Legislative Organization: Committees

26. Legislative Organization: Staffers and Agencies
Each member of Congress has a large staff that provides assistance on everything from writing legislation to correspondence with constituents
Congress has also created staff agencies like CRS, GAO, and CBO to provide non-partisan policy advice to members

27. Clicker Question
Which of the following institutions serves as a solution to Congress’s collective-action problems?
party leadership
committees
congressional staffers
all of the above
Answer: D

28. How a Bill Becomes a Law: Committee Deliberation
Bills must first be introduced by a member of Congress and referred to committee(s)
Most bills die in committee
Some are referred to a subcommittee, are amended, and are reported out to the full chamber

29. How a Bill Becomes a Law: Debate in the House
Bills reported out of committee first go to the Rules Committee, which determines the rules under which the bill will be debated on the floor where the majority rules
The Rules Committee may provide
a closed rule – prohibits the introduction of amendments
an open rule – permits the addition of amendments

30. How a Bill Becomes a Law: Debate in the Senate
The Senate has a tradition of unlimited debate
It takes three-fifths of the Senate (60 votes) to invoke cloture (end of debate)
Recently, greater partisanship has meant the minority frequently uses the filibuster — a delaying tactic in which senators do not allow debate to end — to kill legislation

31. How a Bill Becomes a Law: Reconciling Bills
To become a law, a bill must be passed in exactly the same form in both chambers
Frequently, the two chambers send the bill back and forth until one chamber passes a version passed by the other
Sometimes, a conference committee is appointed with members from each chamber to work out differences

32. How a Bill Becomes a Law: Presidential Action
The president may veto legislation and Congress may only override the veto with a two-thirds vote in each chamber
Presidents generally use the threat of a veto to shape legislation and try to avoid the embarrassment of having a veto overridden

33. How a Bill Becomes a Law

34. Unorthodox Lawmaking: Health Care Reform Act
Getting legislation through this long process sometimes requires unorthodox procedures
The Health Care Reform Act is a good example of this:
Multiple referrals to committees
Use of reconciliation to pass changes to the bill that couldn’t overcome a filibuster

35. The Distributive Tendency in Congress
Building the super-majority coalitions in Congress necessary to pass legislation leads to a distributive tendency in legislation
This means that bills are frequently designed so as to distribute policy benefits as widely as possible

36. Clicker Question
Because it is very difficult to enact legislation in Congress, we tend to see
a lot of “unorthodox lawmaking.”
legislative institutions that organize action.
a distributive tendency in lawmaking.
all of the above.
Answer: D

37. How Members Decide
Constituency – Members care about what constituents will think on Election Day
Interest Groups – Groups educate the public, mobilize constituents, and make campaign donations
Party Voting – Members listen to party leaders more today than 50 years ago

38. Party Unity on the Rise

39. Widening Ideological Gap Between Parties in Congress

40. Causes of Increasing Partisanship in Congress
Greater power for party leaders:
Committee assignments
Access to the floor
The whip system
Logrolling
Increasing power and visibility for the president
Gerrymandering

41. Beyond Legislation: Other Congressional Powers
Advice and Consent (Senate only)
Ratification of Treaties (Senate only)
Impeachment

42. Congress and the Policy Principle
The Policy Principle states that “political outcomes are the products of individual preferences and institutional procedures.”
We have seen that individual preferences are very divergent and that institutional mechanisms have been developed in Congress to make collective action possible.
Free Response:
Ask students to outline the various reasons individual preferences in Congress are likely to be diverse and to outline the various ways institutional mechanisms in Congress help to make collective action possible. Ask students to put this all together and assess whether they think Congress is more or less capable of collective action than it was when the Constitution was designed in 1787.

43. In assessing the influence of political parties on legislative politics, political scientists often ask how parties affect outcomes in Congress. One approach might be to look for evidence of arm-twisting and promised favors by party leaders, both of which can be used to influence members’ roll-call vote choices. Yet, increasingly, scholars have responded to this question by looking for evidence of agenda manipulation by the majority party. If the majority party can control what gets voted on—through their control of the Rules Committee and other committees, combined with the party leaders’ scheduling power—then it can affect outcomes even where the party leaders cannot effectively twist arms and promise favors. Thus, a question
that has taken center stage in congressional research is, who controls the agenda in Congress? 43

44. Why is agenda control so important in Congress
Why is agenda control so important in Congress? Whichever party controls a greater number of seats in either the House or the Senate decides which issues will come to the floor for consideration. In addition to all the perks that come with majority control, the party with a majority is able to push items on its specific agenda. As we see from the tables above of the most prominent agenda items, there are clear differences between Republicans and Democrats in terms of what legislative policies they have elected to pursue.
SOURCES:
Republican and Democratic Agendas, 2011: Major Garrett and Susan Davis, National Journal, “The GOP Blueprint,” November 6, 2010.
House Rolls on Final-Passage Votes, 99th–111th Congresses: Gary W. Cox and Mathew D. McCubbins, Setting the Agenda: Responsible Party Government in the U.S. House of Representatives (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005); calculated by author. 44

45. One specific way of thinking about agenda control in Congress is in terms of the winners and losers on particular pieces of legislation, because this may tell us how much influence the majority party actually has. The most prominent example of this approach has been to look at partisan roll rates. A party (or group of members) is “rolled” when a majority of its members winds up on the losing side of a vote that passes. In focusing specifically on final-passage votes in the U.S. House, the political scientists Gary Cox and Mathew McCubbins have found that, at the aggregate level, the majority party is almost never rolled. In contrast, and as we see from the table above, the minority party is significantly more likely to be on the losing side on final-passage votes. This suggests that the majority party controls the agenda and prevents legislation that it opposes (and is likely to lose on) from coming to a vote. The dramatic increase in the minority party roll rate during recent congresses also most likely reflects high levels of partisan polarization within the House.
SOURCES:
Republican and Democratic Agendas, 2011: Major Garrett and Susan Davis, National Journal, “The GOP Blueprint,” November 6, 2010.
House Rolls on Final-Passage Votes, 99th–111th Congresses: Gary W. Cox and Mathew D. McCubbins, Setting the Agenda: Responsible Party Government in the U.S. House of Representatives (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005); calculated by author. 45

46. One specific way of thinking about agenda control in Congress is in terms of the winners and losers on particular pieces of legislation, because this may tell us how much influence the majority party actually has. The most prominent example of this approach has been to look at partisan roll rates. A party (or group of members) is “rolled” when a majority of its members winds up on the losing side of a vote that passes. In focusing specifically on final-passage votes in the U.S. House, the political scientists Gary Cox and Mathew McCubbins have found that, at the aggregate level, the majority party is almost never rolled. In contrast, and as we see from the table above, the minority party is significantly more likely to be on the losing side on final-passage votes. This suggests that the majority party controls the agenda and prevents legislation that it opposes (and is likely to lose on) from coming to a vote. The dramatic increase in the minority party roll rate during recent congresses also most likely reflects high levels of partisan polarization within the House.
SOURCES:
Republican and Democratic Agendas, 2011: Major Garrett and Susan Davis, National Journal, “The GOP Blueprint,” November 6, 2010.
House Rolls on Final-Passage Votes, 99th–111th Congresses: Gary W. Cox and Mathew D. McCubbins, Setting the Agenda: Responsible Party Government in the U.S. House of Representatives (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005); calculated by author. 46

47. THE MEDIAN VOTER IN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES
Figure 6.6
American Government, 12th Edition
Copyright © 2012 W.W. Norton & Company

48. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE HOUSE
AND THE SENATE
Table 6.1
American Government, 12th Edition
Copyright © 2012 W.W. Norton & Company