Unit 2 - Teaching Notes PDF

UNIT 2 - CONGRESS SLIDE TWO - The Founders did not intend to make Congress a privileged group, but they intended to give it more power than any other branch of government. The Constitution emphasized the importance of the lawmaking branch. James Madison said, Congress is “the First Branch of this G...

UNIT 2 - CONGRESS SLIDE TWO - The Founders did not intend to make Congress a privileged group, but they intended to give it more power than any other branch of government. The Constitution emphasized the importance of the lawmaking branch. James Madison said, Congress is “the First Branch of this Government.” The U.S. Congress is a bicameral legislature, meaning that it is made up of two houses—the Senate and the House of Representatives. In 1787 most delegates to the Constitutional Convention agreed that a bicameral legislature was best. These colonial legislatures were following the model of the English Parliament with its House of Lords and House of Commons. Today, Congress plays a central role in formulating national policies. It initiates and approves laws that deal with everything from health care to changes in our taxes. Congressional Sessions Each term of Congress begins on January 3 in years ending in an odd number and lasts for two years. For example, the 109th Congress began its term in January 2005, and the 110th Congress began in January 2007. Each Congressional term is two sessions, or meetings. A session lasts one year and includes breaks for holidays and vacations. Congress remains in session until its members vote to adjourn. Neither the House nor the Senate can adjourn for more than three days without the approval of the other house. If the Congress does adjourn, the president has the authority to call it back for a special session if necessary. SLIDE THREE - Membership of the House With 435 members, the House of Representatives is larger than the Senate. The Constitution does not set the number of representatives in the House. It simply states that House seats must be apportioned, or divided, among the states on the basis of population. Each state is entitled to at least one seat in the House, no matter how small its population is. Qualifications and Term of Office The Constitution sets the qualifications for election to the House of Representatives. Representatives must be at least 25 years old, be citizens of the United States for at least 7 years, and be legal residents of the state that elects them. Traditionally, representatives also live in the district they represent. Members of the House of Representatives are elected for two-year terms. Elections are held in November of even-numbered years—for example, 2004, 2006, and 2008. Representatives begin their term of office on January 3 following the November election. This means that every two years, all 435 members of the House must run for reelection. It also means that the House reorganizes itself every two years. Because more than 90 percent of all representatives are reelected, however, the House has great continuity. If a representative dies or resigns in the first session of Congress, the state must hold a special election to fill that vacancy. Procedures for filling vacancies that occur during the second session vary from state to state. SLIDE FOUR - Membership of the House With 435 members, the House of Representatives is larger than the Senate. The Constitution does not set the number of representatives in the House. It simply states that House seats must be apportioned, or divided, among the states on the basis of population. Each state is entitled to at least one seat in the House, no matter how small its population is. Qualifications and Term of Office The Constitution sets the qualifications for election to the House of Representatives. Representatives must be at least 25 years old, be citizens of the United States for at least 7 years, and be legal residents of the state that elects them. Traditionally, representatives also live in the district they represent. Members of the House of Representatives are elected for two-year terms. Elections are held in November of even-numbered years—for example, 2004, 2006, and 2008. Representatives begin their term of office on January 3 following the November election. This means that every two years, all 435 members of the House must run for reelection. It also means that the House reorganizes itself every two years. Because more than 90 percent of all representatives are reelected, however, the House has great continuity. If a representative dies or resigns in the first session of Congress, the state must hold a special election to fill that vacancy. Procedures for filling vacancies that occur during the second session vary from state to state. SLIDE FIVE - Congressional Redistricting After the states find out their new representation for the next 10 years, each state legislature draws the boundaries for the congressional districts—one for each representative. Representatives are elected from these districts. If a state is entitled to only one representative, it has one congressional district. The process of setting up new district lines after reapportionment has been completed is called redistricting. Over the years, some state legislatures abused the redistricting power. They did so in two ways— 1. by creating congressional districts of very unequal populations 2. and gerrymandering. During the early 1960s, for example, there were some states in which the largest district in the state had twice the population of the smallest district. Gerrymandering Historically, state legislatures have abused their power to divide the state into congressional districts by gerrymandering. Gerrymandering is drawing district boundaries to give one party an electoral advantage. When one party is dominant in the state legislature, it often tries to draw boundaries to ensure victory in future elections, resulting in oddly shaped districts. The term gerrymandering has been traced to Elbridge Gerry, an early Massachusetts governor who signed a redistricting plan that gave his party an advantage over the Federalists. “Packing” and “cracking” are ways to gerrymander. Packing a district means drawing the lines so they include as many of the opposing party’s voters as possible. Crowding the opposition’s voters into one district makes the remaining districts safe for the majority party’s candidates. Cracking means dividing an opponent’s voters into other districts to weaken the opponent’s voter base. The Supreme Court has ruled that congressional districts must be compact and contiguous, or physically adjoining. This requirement, plus the one-person, one-vote ruling, has cut down on some of the worst examples of gerrymandering. Nevertheless, the competitive struggle of the two-party system continues to fuel the practice of gerrymandering. Many districts today are still drawn in irregular shapes for political reasons. SLIDE SIX- SAME INFORMATION, VIDEO SLIDE SEVEN - Membership of the Senate According to the Constitution, the Senate “shall be composed of two senators from each state.” Thus, each state is represented equally. Today’s Senate includes 100 members—2 from each of the 50 states. Qualifications and Term of Office The Constitution provides that senators must be at least 30 years old, citizens of the United States for 9 years before election, and legal residents of the state they represent. All voters of each state elect senators at-large, or statewide—they have no particular district like congress has. Like those of the House, Senate elections are held in November during even-numbered years. Senators, too, begin their terms on January 3 after the election of the previous November. The Constitution provided for Senate continuity by giving senators six-year terms and providing that only one-third of the senators run for reelection every two years. In fact, the Senate has more continuity than the Framers planned because most senators win reelection. If a senator dies or resigns before the end of the term, the state legislature can authorize the governor to appoint a person to fill the vacancy until the next election. The governor can choose instead to call a special election to fill the seat. SLIDE EIGHT - A constitutional amendment on salaries for legislators was originally proposed by James Madison in 1789. The Twenty- seventh Amendment was finally ratified by the required 38 states on May 7, 1992. The amendment says that Congress cannot give itself a pay raise; the raise becomes effective only after another election. With the new amendment on the books, a group of plaintiffs then challenged the cost-of-living increases in salary that Congress members regularly received. These plaintiffs argued that even a cost-of-living increase was prohibited by the new amendment. A U.S. district court judge, however, ruled that salary increases to match the cost of living were allowed. Members enjoy other benefits and resources. These include stationery, postage for official business (called the “franking privilege”), a medical clinic, and a gymnasium. They also receive large allowances to pay for staff, trips home, telephones, telegrams, and newsletters. All members are entitled to an income tax deduction to help keep up two residences, one in their home state and one in the capital. When they retire, senators and representatives may be eligible for pensions of $150,000 or more per year for life. Privileges of Members The Constitution provides members of Congress with certain protections so they can carry out their public duties. Example: When they are attending Congress or on the way to or from Congress, they are free from arrest “in all cases except treason, felony, and breach of the peace.” Members also cannot be sued for anything they say on the House or Senate floor. This privilege does not cover what members say outside of Congress, however. This fact was established in a 1979 court case when the Court ruled that members of Congress can be sued for libel for statements in news releases or newsletters. Another privilege of members of Congress is that both the Senate and the House may judge the qualifications of new members and decide whether to seat them. Each house may refuse to seat an elected member by a majority vote. This power of exclusion was later defined in the Supreme Court case, Powell v. McCormack. Finally each house may punish its own members for disorderly behavior by a majority vote and expel a legislator by a two-thirds vote. Only the most serious offenses, such as treason or accept- ing bribes, are grounds for expulsion. Members who are guilty of lesser offenses may be censured. Censure is a vote of formal disapproval of a member’s actions. Reelection of Congress - An average of 90% get reelected Membership in Congress tends to change slowly because officeholders seldom lose reelection. Between 1945 and 1990, about 90 percent of all incumbents, members who were already in office, won reelection. In some elections, many seats went unchallenged because opponents knew that they would have little or no chance of winning. One analyst said that winning an election to Congress for most members was like removing olives from a bottle—“after the first one, the rest come easy.” Incumbents are reelected in part because (1) they can raise campaign funds more easily through personal contacts they made while representing their district. (Two), many districts have been gerrymandered in the incumbent party’s favor. (Three) incumbents are better known to voters, who see them on television and read about them. SLIDE NINE - As British subjects, the colonists in North America owed allegiance to the monarch and the British government. The colonies were supposed to serve as a source of raw materials and a market for British goods. The American colonies existed for the economic benefit of Great Britain. In practice, during the 150 years following the settling of Jamestown in 1607, the colonies in America did pretty much what they wanted. The colonies were more than 3,000 miles (4,828 km) from Great Britain. Orders from the monarch took two months or more to get across the Atlantic Ocean. Given this distance, only the governors of the colonies and the colonial legislatures were actually in a position to deal with the everyday problems facing the colonies. As a result, the colonists grew accustomed to governing themselves through their representatives. SLIDE TEN - Rules for Lawmaking The main task of each house of Congress is the same—to make laws. The House and Senate differ in many ways; each house has organized itself in a way that will help it carry out its chief obligations of making the laws. Complex Rules Each chamber has scores of precedents based on past rulings that serve as a guide to conducting business. The House and Senate each print their rules every two years. House rules are generally aimed at defining the actions an individual representative can take, such as limiting representatives to speaking for five minutes or less during a debate. The complex rules in the House are geared toward moving legislation quickly once it reaches the floor. House debates rarely last more than one day. Moreover, leaders of the House of Representatives have more power than leaders in the Senate. For example, the rules of the House allow its leaders to make key decisions about legislative work without consulting other House members. Committee Work It is the committees of Congress that perform most legislative activity. In the House, committee work is even more important than in the Senate. The reason has to do with size. Membership in the House is so large that members organize into committees. They can have more influence than on the House floor, plus they have the time to study and shape bills. In addition, representatives tend to specialize in a few issues that are important to their constituents—the people in the districts they represent. For example, Major R. Owens, a representative who served from the 1980s until 2007, was the only trained librarian in Congress. He often emphasized that libraries were important for promoting toward moving legislation quickly once it reaches the floor. House debates rarely last more than one day. Moreover, leaders of the House of Representatives have more power than leaders in the Senate. For example, the rules of the House allow its leaders to make key decisions about legislative work without consulting other House members. Committee Work It is the committees of Congress that perform most legislative activity. In the House, committee work is even more important than in the Senate. The reason has to do with size. Membership in the House is so large that members organize into committees. They can have more influence than on the House floor, plus they have the time to study and shape bills. In addition, representatives tend to specialize in a few issues that are important to their constituents—the people in the districts they represent. For example, Major R. Owens, a representative who served from the 1980s until 2007, was the only trained librarian in Congress. He often emphasized that libraries were important for promoting SLIDE ELEVEN - Importance of Party Affiliation Many procedures in Congress are organized around one political party. Party distinctions are physically obvious: In both the House and Senate, the Republicans sit on the right side of the chamber, and the Democrats sit on the left. In each house, the majority party gets to select the leaders of that body, to control the flow of legislative work, and to appoint the chairs of all the committees. The power to organize the House explains why some conservative Democrats switched to the Republican Party when it became the majority party in Congress after the 1994 election. When that happened, they began to make sweeping changes of the House rules in 1995. In their campaigning, the Republicans made a “contract with America,” promising to make the House more accountable. Their new rules concentrated more power in the speaker’s office, provided for fewer committees and fewer staff members, and limited the terms of committee chairs and of the Speaker. New rules also ended absentee voting in committees. Despite strong resistance from the Democratic leaders in the House, the new Republican majority was able to push through the changes. SLIDE TWELVE - House Leadership Leaders of the House coordinate the work of this large body of 435 individual members. It is helpful to think of the work of the leadership as meeting six kinds of goals: 1- Organizing and unifying party members 2 - Scheduling work 3 - Making certain that lawmakers are present for key floor votes 4 - Distributing and collecting information 5 - Keeping the House in touch with the president 6 - Influencing lawmakers to support their party’s positions 7 - The Constitution provides only for the presiding officer of the House. Other than that, the House chooses all of its leaders. The Speaker of the House The Speaker of the House is the presiding officer and its most powerful leader. The Constitution states that the House “shall choose their Speaker and other officers.” A caucus, or closed meeting, of the majority party chooses the House Speaker at the start of each session of Congress, and the entire House membership approves the choice of Speaker. As both the presiding officer of the House and the leader of the majority party, the Speaker has great power. Presiding over the sessions of the House, the Speaker can influence proceedings by deciding which members to recognize first. The Speaker also appoints the members of some committees, schedules bills for action, and refers bills to the proper House committee. Finally, the Speaker of the House follows the vice president in the line of succession to the presidency. Today, Speakers rely as much on persuasion as on their formal powers to influence other members. On a typical day, the Speaker may talk with dozens of members. Often the Speaker does so just to hear their requests for a favor. As former Speaker Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill once put it, “The world is full of little things you can do for people.” In return, the Speaker expects representatives’ support on important issues. SLIDE THIRTEEN - House Floor Leaders The Speaker’s top assistant is the majority leader. The majority leader’s job is to help plan the party’s legislative program, steer important bills through the House, and make sure the chair- persons of the many committees finish work on bills that are important to the party. The majority leader is the floor leader of his or her political party in the House and, like the Speaker, is elected by the majority party. Thus, the majority leader is not a House official but rather a party official. The majority leader has help from the majority whip and deputy whips. These whips serve as assistant floor leaders in the House. The majority whip’s job is to watch how majority-party members intend to vote on bills, to persuade them to vote as the party wishes, and to see that party members are present to vote. The minority party in the House elects its own leaders—the minority leader and the minority whip. Their responsibilities parallel the duties of the majority party, except that they have no power R over scheduling work in the House. SLIDE FOURTEEN - How House Bills Are Scheduled All laws start as bills. A proposed law is called a bill until both houses of Congress pass it and the president signs it. According to the procedure that is currently in place, to introduce a bill in the House, representatives drop it into a box that is accessible to all near the front of the chamber. After a bill is introduced, the Speaker of the House sends it to the appropriate committee for study, discussion, and review. Of the thousands of bills and resolutions that are introduced during each legislative term of Congress, only about 10 to 20 percent ever go to the full House for a vote. Bills that survive the committee process are put on one of the House calendars. Calendars list bills that are up for consideration. The House has five calendars. Three are used to schedule different kinds of bills for consideration. The Union Calendar lists bills that deal with money issues. Most other public bills are on the House Calendar. The Private Calendar lists bills that deal with individual people or places. If the House consents unanimously to debate a bill out of regular order, it is listed on the Consent Calendar. Finally, the Discharge Calendar is used for petitions to discharge a bill from a committee. SLIDE FIFTEEN - The House Rules Committee The Rules Committee is extremely important because it is a “traffic officer,” helping to direct the flow of major legislation. It is one of the oldest and the most powerful House committees. The representative who chairs this committee has great influence over legislative activity and how bills progress through Congress. After a committee has considered and approved a major bill, it usually goes to the Rules Committee. The Rules Committee can move bills ahead quickly, hold them back, or stop them completely. Function of the Rules Committee Major bills that reach the floor of the House do so by a rule—or special order—from the Rules Committee. As major bills come out of committee, they are entered on either the Union Calendar or the House Calendar in the order in which they are received. Calendars have so many bills on them that if they were taken up in calendar order, many would never reach the floor before the session ended. To solve this problem, the chairperson of the committee that sent the bill to the Rules Committee can ask for it to move ahead of other bills. The Rules Committee can also say how long the bill can be debated and revised. The Rules Committee also settles disputes among other House committees. For example, the Armed Services Committee may consider a bill that involves a subject that also is covered by the Veterans’ Affairs Committee. The Rules Commit- tee can help resolve any dispute between the two committees. Finally, the Rules Committee often delays or blocks bills that representatives and House leaders do not want to come to a vote on the floor. In this way, it can draw criticism away from members who might have to take an unpopular stand on a bill if it did reach the floor. SLIDE SIXTEEN - The House Rules Committee The Rules Committee is extremely important because it is a “traffic officer,” helping to direct the flow of major legislation. It is one of the oldest and the most powerful House committees. The representative who chairs this committee has great influence over legislative activity and how bills progress through Congress. After a committee has considered and approved a major bill, it usually goes to the Rules Committee. The Rules Committee can move bills ahead quickly, hold them back, or stop them completely. Function of the Rules Committee Major bills that reach the floor of the House do so by a rule—or special order—from the Rules Committee. As major bills come out of committee, they are entered on either the Union Calendar or the House Calendar in the order in which they are received. Calendars have so many bills on them that if they were taken up in calendar order, many would never reach the floor before the session ended. To solve this problem, the chairperson of the committee that sent the bill to the Rules Committee can ask for it to move ahead of other bills. The Rules Committee can also say how long the bill can be debated and revised. The Rules Committee also settles disputes among other House committees. For example, the Armed Services Committee may consider a bill that involves a subject that also is covered by the Veterans’ Affairs Committee. The Rules Commit- tee can help resolve any dispute between the two committees. Finally, the Rules Committee often delays or blocks bills that representatives and House leaders do not want to come to a vote on the floor. In this way, it can draw criticism away from members who might have to take an unpopular stand on a bill if it did reach the floor. SLIDE SEVENTEEN - As British subjects, the colonists in North America owed allegiance to the monarch and the British government. The colonies were supposed to serve as a source of raw materials and a market for British goods. The American colonies existed for the economic benefit of Great Britain. In practice, during the 150 years following the settling of Jamestown in 1607, the colonies in America did pretty much what they wanted. The colonies were more than 3,000 miles (4,828 km) from Great Britain. Orders from the monarch took two months or more to get across the Atlantic Ocean. Given this distance, only the governors of the colonies and the colonial legislatures were actually in a position to deal with the everyday problems facing the colonies. As a result, the colonists grew accustomed to governing themselves through their representatives. The British government was satisfied with this arrangement. The colonies were making it money. In addition, the British needed the colonists’ loyalty to counter the threat of the French in Canada. The colonists remained loyal in return for self-rule and protection from the French. SLIDE EIGHTEEN - The Senate is called a deliberative body because it deliberates, or formally discusses, public policies. Senators handle issues that are of specific interest to their committees, but they address many other issues, too. Because two senators represent an entire state, they are expected to be knowledgeable about many issues from national defense to farming. The Senate at Work Visitors going from the House to the Senate are often startled by the difference between the two chambers. The Senate is smaller, and usually only a few senators attend sessions. The Senate chamber has 100 desks (one per senator) facing a raised platform where the president pro tempore and another senator preside. Party leaders or their assistants stay in the Senate at all times to keep the work moving and to look after their party’s interests. In the Senate, the rules are more flexible than in the House to give all senators maximum freedom to express their ideas. For example, the Senate usually allows unlimited debate on bills. Senate rules are spelled out in about 100 pages, allowing a relatively informal atmosphere. Senators can debate a proposal on and off for weeks or even months. Senate Leaders Leadership in the Senate closely parallels leadership in the House, but the Senate has no Speaker. The vice president presides but cannot vote except to break a tie. Senate procedures also allow senators more freedom. Thus, Senate party leaders do not usually have as much influence over members as their counterparts in the House. The Vice President The Constitution names the vice president as the Senate’s president, but he or she does not have the same role or power as the Speaker of the House. The vice president may recognize members and put questions to a vote, but he or she is not an elected representative so this person may not take part in Senate debates or cast a vote except in the event of a tie. The vice president may, however, influence members through personal contact. Most vice presidents find Senate duties unchallenging and devote more time to executive duties. In the absence of the vice president, the president pro tempore-“pro tem” for short—presides. (The term means “for the time being.”) The Senate elects this leader from the majority party. Usually, it is that party’s longest-serving member. SLIDE NINETEEN - Majority and Minority Leaders The Senate’s most important officers are the majority and minority leaders. Elected by party members, these are officials of the party, not of the Senate. The job of the majority leader is to steer the party’s bills through the Senate, which is done by planning the work schedule and agenda in consultation with the minority leader. The majority leader also makes sure that party members attend important sessions and gets support for key bills. The minority leader has a different job—critiquing the majority party’s bills and keeping his or her own party united. As in the House, whips and assistant whips are very important because they do the detailed work that supports leaders. A key job is making sure that legislators are present in the chamber when key votes come up. How Senate Bills Are Scheduled As in the House, any senator can introduce a bill, but procedures for moving a bill through the Senate are less formal than in the House. Because it is smaller, the Senate has never needed a committee like the House Rules Committee. Instead, Senate leaders control the flow of bills to commit- tees and to the floor. They do this by consulting closely with one another. The Senate has only two calendars—the Calendar of General Orders, which W lists all the bills the Senate will consider, and the Executive Calendar, which schedules treaties and nominations. The Senate brings bills to the floor by unanimous consent, a motion by all members present to set aside formal rules and consider a bill from the calendar. This procedure has not changed much through the years. SLIDE TWENTY & TWENTY ONE - The Filibuster Because Senate rules usually allow unlimited debate on any bill, one way for senators to defeat a bill they oppose is to filibuster against it. To filibuster means to extend debate to prevent a bill from coming to a vote. A senator or group of senators could use a filibuster to extend debate for weeks or even months, perhaps by reciting Shakespeare as Huey Long did in the 1930s, or by just reading the phone book. In the 1970s, the rules were changed so that such drama was avoided. Only 41 senators had to say they intended to filibuster for it to accomplish its purpose. Why is the mere threat of a filibuster as good as an actual one? The rules say that once a filibuster is on, it can be stopped only by a vote for cloture. Cloture limits the debate by allowing each senator only one hour for speaking on a bill, but 60 senators must vote for cloture. When Democrats and Republicans are evenly divided, it is nearly impossible to get the necessary 60 votes. Bitter conflict between the parties in the last decade meant that many occasions arose when filibusters were threatened to prevent action on bills and many motions were made to stop them. One analysis found that in 2007, more than 70 motions were made to stop filibusters, most on the war in Iraq. Opinion polls showed that many Americans were upset at this degree of congressional gridlock where it seemed impossible to enact proposals or reforms. In 2005 the issue of filibusters arose over President George W. Bush’s appointments to federal judgeships. Democrats used the threat of the filibuster to hold up some appointments. Republicans then threatened the “nuclear option,” meaning they intended to get majority support for a new rule that filibusters could not be used on judicial appointments in the current Senate. The fight ended when moderates in both parties compromised. As long as Democrats and Republicans have sharp differences, the issue of how and when a filibuster should be threatened is likely to linger. SLIDE TWENTYTWO – CONGRESSIONAL COMMETTEES - A political party is a group of people with broad common interests who organize to win elections, control government, and thereby influence government policies. Although most nations have one or more political parties, the role that parties play differs with each nation’s political system. SLIDE TWENTY-THREE - Purposes of Committees Both the House and Senate depend upon committees to consider the thousands of bills that are proposed each session. Committees help ease the workload and are the key power centers in Congress. The committee system serves several important purposes. First, it allows members of Congress to divide their work among many smaller groups. Lawmakers can become specialists, over their years of service, on the issues that their committees con- sider. This system is the only practical way for Congress to operate because no lawmaker can possibly know the details of each of the thousands of bills that are introduced in each term of Congress. Second, from the huge number of bills that are introduced in each Congress, committees select those few that are to receive further consideration. Committees are the places in which lawmakers lis- ten to supporters and opponents of a bill. It is in committees where they work out compromises and decide which bills will or will not have a chance to become law. Most bills never get beyond the committee stage. Third, by holding public hearings and investigations, committees help the public learn about key problems and issues facing the nation. Congressional committees have called the public’s attention to such issues as organized crime, the safety of prescription drugs, hunger in America, airline safety, and many other concerns that have confronted the nation. SLIDE TWENTY-FOUR - Kinds of Committees Congress has four basic kinds of committees: (1) standing committees, (2) select committees, (3) joint committees, and (4) conference committees. Congress always has the right, however, to change the method of committee organization and the number of committees. Standing Committees Early in its history, Congress set up permanent groups to oversee bills that dealt with certain kinds of issues. These are called standing committees— they stand, or continue, from one Congress to the next. The House and Senate each create their own standing committees and control their areas of jurisdiction, occasionally adding or eliminating a standing committee when necessary. The majority party has the power to write the rules in Congress. Republicans made changes in the structure and titles of several committees when they became the majority in 1995. They also set six-year term limits for committee chairpersons. The last major realignment of standing commit- tees in the Senate took place in 1977. Because the majority party in each house controls the standing committees, it selects a chair- person for each from among its party members. The majority of the members of each standing committee are also members of the majority party. Party membership on committees is usually divided in direct proportion to each party’s strength in each house. For example, if 60 percent of the members of the House are Republicans, then 60 percent of the members of each House standing committee will be Republicans. Thus, a 10-member committee would have 6 Republicans and 4 Democrats. However, the party in power in the House will often have a supermajority on the most important committees. Subcommittees Nearly all standing committees have several subcommittees. Each subcommittee specializes in a subcategory of its standing committee’s responsibility. Like committees, they usually continue from one Congress to the next, although the majority party can make changes. For example, House Republicans in the 104th Congress limited most committees to no more than 5 subcommittees. The exceptions were Appropriations (13 subcommittees), Oversight and Government Reform (7 subcommittees), and Transportation and Infrastructure (6 subcommittees). SLIDE TWENTY-FIVE - Select Committees From time to time, each house of Congress has created temporary committees. Usually, these committees, called select committees, study one specific issue and report their findings to the Sen- ate or the House. These issues can include matters of great public concern at a given time, such as the cost of gasoline, problems that have been neglected for a while, or the problems of interest groups that are saying that Congress is not meeting their needs. Select committees usually cannot submit bills to their parent chamber, however. Select committees were set up to last for no more than one term of Congress. In practice, how- ever, select committees may be renewed and continue to meet for several terms of Congress. For this reason, both the House and Senate have reclassified several select committees, such as the Select Intelligence Committee, as standing committees. In the early 1990s, the House also terminated four select committees. Joint Committees Made up of members from both the House and Senate, joint committees can be temporary or permanent. Both parties are represented on them, just like other committees. These committees usually act as a kind of study group that reports back to the House and Senate on a topic or bill. For example, the Joint Economic Committee might report on the economic impact of the war in Iraq or the income trends for average Americans. In theory, joint committees coordinate the work of the two houses of Congress, but they do not have the authority to deal directly with bills or to propose laws to Congress. In practice, lawmakers usually limit joint committees to handling routine matters such as are handled by the Joint Committee on Printing or the Joint Committee on the Library of Congress; some joint committees study more volatile matters, such as atomic energy, defense, or tax reform. Conference Committees No bill can be sent from Congress to the president until both houses have passed it in identical form. A conference committee is a temporary committee that is set up when the House and Sen- ate have passed different versions of a bill. Its members, called conferees, usually come from the House and Senate standing committees that handled the bill. Democrats and Republicans are rep- resented in the same way as on other committees. The job of the conference committee is to resolve the differences between the two versions C of the bill. Conference committees play a key role because they work out a bill that both houses will accept and can then send to the president to be signed. To get such a bill, the conferees bargain over each section of the bill. A majority of the conferees from each house must accept the final compromise bill—called a conference report—before it can be sent to the floor of the House and Senate. When the conference committee’s report reaches the floor of each house, it must be considered as a whole and cannot be amended. It must be accepted or rejected as it is. TWENTY-SIX - Choosing Committee Members The career of a Congress member can be greatly influenced by the committees he or she is assigned. Assignment to the “right” committee can help a member’s career in several ways. First, membership on some committees can increase a lawmaker’s chances for reelection because it puts a congress- person in position to act on bills that are important to their constituents. A freshmen representative from a farm state, for example, might be eager to serve on the House Committee on Agriculture. Second, membership on some committees can mean the lawmaker will be able to influence national policies. Committees that often help formulate national policies include those dealing with education, the budget, health, the judiciary, and foreign policy. Third, some committees allow a member to influence many other members because they affect matters that are important to everyone in Congress. The House Rules Committee is an obvious example of a committee with wide powers. In the House, the key committees are Rules, Ways and Means, and Appropriations. In the Senate, the most prestigious committees are Foreign Relations, Finance, and Appropriations. Assignment to the Foreign Relations Committee, for example, will give a lawmaker a chance to influence American foreign policy directly. Senators on this committee usually receive a great deal of publicity, which is helpful in being reelected. SLIDE TWENTY-SEVEN - The Seniority System The unwritten rule of seniority has guided the selection of chairpersons in the past. This meant that the majority party member with the longest uninterrupted service on a committee was appointed leader of that committee. The seniority system has been criticized for giving a few congresspersons too much power. As a result, changes were made so that chairs are elected through a secret ballot. In 1971 House Republicans adopted this procedure, and in 1973 C the Democrats followed suit. In a historic action in 1975, House Democrats voted to replace three senior committee chairs. Then in 1995, several senior Republicans were passed over as chairs in their elections. In the same year, Republicans decided that the chairs of House committees could not serve for more than three consecutive terms. For the most part, however, members tend to cast their ballots for the longest-serving members to chair committees. SLIDE TWENTY-EIGHT – STAFF and Support Agencies The work of Congress is so extensive and complex that lawmakers have many resources to meet their obligations, including supporting agencies like the Library of Congress. Its key resource, however, is trained staff that can help them draw up bills, be informed on issues, and represent their constituents. Members rely heavily on staff in their committee work. Staff members research issues and topics on the committees’ agenda and schedule witnesses for hearings. Since World War II, the size of staff has grown, often because the legislative branch believed it needed more staff to match the resources of the executive branch. After the Republican victories in the 1994 election, however, the House leadership cut staff to reflect their promise to reduce the overall size of government. Total committee staff was cut by one-third in the House and by 15 percent in the Senate. Congress also adopted a resolution to cut the budgets of the legislative branch of the Government Accountability Office. Such staff reductions are rare. SLIDE TWENTY-NINE - Congressional Staff Role When Lowell Weicker of Connecticut was in the Senate, a woman wrote to him complaining about the way an airline had handled her dog. The dog, shipped as animal cargo, died during the flight. One of the senator’s secretaries mentioned the letter to the press secretary, who thought that the incident had news value. He phoned the Federal Aviation Agency and other government offices and found many similar cases. After informing the senator, the secretary wrote a draft of a bill to authorize the Transportation Department to regulate air transport of animals. Senator Weicker later introduced the legislation on the floor of the Senate. The story became headlines in Weicker’s home state, and he received many letters of appreciation. This story illustrates that staffers do much of the important work on legislation. Lawmakers rely on staffers to help them handle the growing work- load of Congress, communicate with voters, run committee hearings and floor sessions, draft new bills, write committee reports, and attend committee meetings. Staffers also help lawmakers get reelected. Staffers help members of Congress get publicity, keep an eye on political developments back home, and write speeches and newsletters. They also help raise funds for election campaigns and meet with lobbyists and visitors from home. SLIDE THIRTY - Congressional Staff Growth Congress has not always relied on staff to accomplish its work. For almost 100 years, senators and representatives had no personal aides. Occasionally they might hire assistants out of personal funds, but Congress provided no paid staff. Inadequate staffing became an urgent complaint by the time Congress considered the Legislative Reorganization Act in 1946. After that the number of staff members increased dramatically. The House and Senate employed 2,000 personal staff members in 1947, but more than 11,500 in 1990. Committee staff increased from 400 to more than 3,000 in that same period. Congressional staffs grew as lawmaking became more complex after the early 1900s. Lawmakers could not be experts on all the issues that came before their committees or that they needed to vote on in Congress. The demands that constituents placed on lawmakers also increased over the years. Members of Congress needed a large office staff simply to deal with the many letters from people in their states or congressional districts. Voters do more than write to representatives to voice their opinions. Sometimes constituents expect their representatives to help them solve a specific problem. One legislator commented that more than half his total staff time is devoted to resolving problems that come up between individual citizens and state or federal government. Personal Staff Congress includes two types of staffs: personal staff and committee staff. Personal staff members work directly for individual senators and representatives. Committee staff members work for the many House and Senate committees. The size of senators’ personal staffs varies because the allowances to pay for them are based on the population of the senators’ state and distance from the capital. Senators each receive a yearly budget to operate their offices. Most of this goes for staff salaries. About one-third of personal staffers work in the legislators’ home states. The rest work in the capital. Each House member has an allowance to pay for a personal staff. The House and Senate employ thousands of personal staff aides. Lawmakers can hire and fire staff members at will. SLIDE THIRTY – ONE - Administrative Assistants Lawmakers usually have three types of personal staff members in their offices. The administrative assistant, called an AA, is an important legislative aide. The AA runs the lawmaker’s office, super- vises the lawmaker’s schedule, and gives advice on political matters. A good AA also deals with influential people from the lawmaker’s congressional district or state, which may influence the lawmaker’s reelection. Legislative Assistants Legislative assistants, or LAs, are a second type of personal staff member. An LA makes certain that the lawmaker is well informed about the many bills with which she or he must deal. An LA does research, drafts bills, studies bills that are currently in Congress, and writes speeches and articles for the lawmaker. Another important part of the LA’s job is to assist the lawmaker in committee meetings and to attend them when the lawmaker cannot be present. Senators and representatives cannot possibly attend all the committee and subcommittee meetings they are assigned to. When they do attend, they often arrive at the last minute and briefly talk with their LA to find out what has taken place. The LA, who has followed the meeting and studied the bill in question, may have prepared a short speech for the lawmaker or made up a list of questions for the lawmaker to ask witnesses. Often the senator or representative has not seen the speech or the questions but relies on the LA’s judgment. LAs keep track of what is happening on the floor of Congress and of any bills that are in committee. While routine legislative business goes on, the lawmaker may be in a committee meeting or talking with voters. When the buzzer rings, signaling time for a vote, lawmakers rush to the floor of the Senate or House from their offices or commit- tee rooms. They might not know what the vote is about unless it involves a major bill that has been scheduled far in advance. As they walk, they look for their LAs. Caseworkers Some personal staff members are called case- workers, a term borrowed from the social services field, because they handle the many requests for help from a member’s constituents. In addition to their offices in Washington, D.C., lawmakers are likely to have offices in key cities in their home district. Caseworkers usually staff these offices. SLIDE THIRTY-TWO - Committee Staff Every committee and subcommittee in Congress has a staff. The larger a committee is, the more staff people it usually has. The committee chairperson and the senior minority party member of the committee are in charge of these staff members. Committee staffers draft bills, study issues, collect information, plan committee hearings, write memos, and prepare committee reports. They are largely responsible for the work involved in making laws. Some senior committee staff members are very experienced and are experts in the area their committee covers, whether it is tax policy, foreign affairs, or health care. Laurence Woodworth, who spent 32 years on staff of the Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation, is a good example of such an expert. As the committee’s staff director for 14 years, he was largely responsible for all changes in the tax laws. Later, Woodworth left the committee to become assistant secretary of the treasury. Do Staffers Have Too Much Power? Staffers are not elected, yet they play a key role in the House and the Senate. Some lawmakers think staffers have too much influence, but others disagree. They say that the staff is only collecting information and developing alternative courses of action for them. In the end, the lawmakers make the judgment calls and direct the next steps to be taken. SLIDE THIRTY-THREE - Support Agencies Several agencies in the legislative branch of government provide services that support the Congress. Some of their services are available R to the other two branches of government and to American citizens, too. The four important sup- port agencies created by Congress are discussed below. The Library of Congress Early in the nation’s history, Congress created the Library of Congress to purchase such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress and to serve as the research arm of Congress. Much of the library was destroyed when the British burned the capital during the War of 1812. Congress then authorized the purchase of Thomas Jefferson’s more than 6,000 books to rebuild the collection. Today, the Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, containing more than 100 million books, journals, music pieces, films, photographs, and maps. The Library is the administrator of the copyright law; as a result, it receives two free copies of most published works copyrighted in the United States. The Library of Congress has a Congressional Research Service (CRS) with hundreds of employ- ees. Every year, CRS answers thousands of requests for information from lawmakers, congressional staff, and committees. CRS workers will check out anything from the number of kangaroos in Australia to the crime rates in urban areas. Congress members use the CRS to research matters related to bills that are before Congress and to answer requests from voters. Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Congress established the CBO in 1974 to coordinate the budget work of Congress, to study the budget proposals put forward by the president each year, and to project the costs of proposed programs. The CBO counterbalances the president’s elaborate budget organization, the Office of Management and Budget. CBO staffers study economic trends, track how much congressional committees are spending, and report on the budget each April. They also calculate how budget decisions might affect the economy. Government Accountability Office (GAO) Established in 1921, this agency is the nation’s watchdog over how the funds Congress appropriates are spent. A comptroller general appointed to a 15-year term directs the GAO. The agency has a professional staff of about 3,000 people. They review the financial management of government programs that Congress creates, collect government debts, settle claims, and provide legal service. Many GAO staff members answer requests for information about specific programs from lawmakers and congressional committees. They also prepare reports on various federal pro- grams for lawmakers, testify before committees, develop questions for committee hearings, and provide legal opinions on bills that are under consideration. Almost one-third of the GAO’s work now comes from congressional requests for information. Government Printing Office (GPO) The Government Printing Office is the largest multipurpose printing plant in the world. It does the printing for the entire federal government. Every day the GPO prints the Congressional Record, a daily record of all the bills introduced in both houses and of the speeches and testimony presented in Congress. Members can amend the speeches they have made before they are printed in the Congressional Record. They can also have speeches they never actually made in the House or Senate printed there. Congressional staffers spend a good deal of time preparing speeches for legislators because those words will be published in the Record. When voters ask about the lawmaker’s position on a par- ticular issue, the staff can send a copy of the Record containing a speech the lawmaker made on that issue to the constituent who is making the request. Another valuable publication of the Government Printing Office is the Statistical Abstract of the United States, which has been updated and printed every year since 1878 and is now available online. Published by the Bureau of the Census, it gives a wealth of information about various topics related to the United States—population statistics, government expenditures, average personal income, levels of education, business, agriculture, law enforcement, elections, and many other topics. It is an invaluable source of data for congressional staff as well as the general public. These support agencies are vital for the Congress to function. They have helped the legislative branch become less dependent on the executive branch for information. This has helped Congress regain some of the power it held in earlier years. SLIDE THIRTY-FOUR - Government Accountability Office (GAO) Established in 1921, this agency is the nation’s watchdog over how the funds Congress appropriates are spent. A comptroller general appointed to a 15-year term directs the GAO. The agency has a professional staff of about 3,000 people. They review the financial management of government programs that Congress creates, collect government debts, settle claims, and provide legal service. Many GAO staff members answer requests for information about specific programs from lawmakers and congressional committees. They also prepare reports on various federal pro- grams for lawmakers, testify before committees, develop questions for committee hearings, and provide legal opinions on bills that are under consideration. Almost one-third of the GAO’s work now comes from congressional requests for information. Government Printing Office (GPO) The Government Printing Office is the largest multipurpose printing plant in the world. It does the printing for the entire federal government. Every day the GPO prints the Congressional Record, a daily record of all the bills introduced in both houses and of the speeches and testimony presented in Congress. Members can amend the speeches they have made before they are printed in the Congressional Record. They can also have speeches they never actually made in the House or Senate printed there. Congressional staffers spend a good deal of time preparing speeches for legislators because those words will be published in the Record. When voters ask about the lawmaker’s position on a particular issue, the staff can send a copy of the Record containing a speech the lawmaker made on that issue to the constituent who is making the request. Another valuable publication of the Government Printing Office is the Statistical Abstract of the United States, which has been updated and printed every year since 1878 and is now available online. Published by the Bureau of the Census, it gives a wealth of information about various topics related to the United States—population statistics, government expenditures, average personal income, levels of education, business, agriculture, law enforcement, elections, and many other topics. It is an invaluable source of data for congressional staff as well as the general public. These support agencies are vital for the Congress to function. They have helped the legislative branch become less dependent on the executive branch for information. This has helped Congress regain some of the power it held in earlier years.