Chapter 11: Congress

• Bicameral Congress 


  a legislature with two chambers (house of representatives, the senate)
• Enumerated Powers 


  powers of congress explicitly stated in the constitution
• Examples: Enumerated Powers of Congress [Article I, Section 8)

  power to: declare war, raise an army, raise revenue (taxation), pass federal budget (spend money), coin money, borrow money
• Implied Powers

  powers/actions not explicitly stated in the constitution that congress does to carry out their enumerated powers; derived from the elastic (necessary and proper) clause
• Examples: Implied Powers of Congress

  establish a national bank
• Examples: Powers of the House of Representatives

  power of the purse - initiate bills regarding taxation and revenue, power of impeachment, power of discharge petitions
• Examples: Powers of the Senate

  confirm presidential and judicial nominations (bureaucratic members, Supreme Court members), ratify treaties, impeachment trials, establish unanimous consent agreements for full debate, and to cloture & filibuster
• Cloture

  called by a 3/5 majority in senate to stop a filibuster; not commonly used by senators to not set a precedent
• Filibuster

  technique used by senators to use their unlimited debate to continuously talk in order to stop a bill from getting passed; commonly used by the minority party.
• Examples: Structures of the House

  committee of the whole, house rules committee, speaker of the house
• Examples: Structures in Senate

  president of the senate, president pro tempore
• President of the Senate

  role given to the vice president of the US; acts as a tiebreaker in congress; is not usually present due to being bus. if president of the senate is ever absent, their roles are given to the president pro tempore
• President Pro Tempore

  the acting president of the senate if they are ever absent (which is often)- would be acting president after vice president
• Congressional Caucuses

  essentially interest groups of congress members in congress to pass desired legislation
• Standing Committee

  committees with various policymaking areas that differ from the two houses - these are the main committees senators and representatives engage in. usually has sub-committees under it
• Conference Committees

  usually after initial floor debates, the committee that sifts out differences between the two proposed bills (from congress; each per chamber) of one issue and creates a compromised bill.
• Joint Committees

  committees whose policymaking area is shared between the two chambers, resulting in the two chambers to work together with committee staff. examples of joint committees include taxation and the economy
• Select Committees

  temporary or permanent committees with a very specific policymaking area
• Congressional Committees

  structures in congress who do main work of conducting legislative research, hold hearings, use legislative oversight, and work with congress members to formulate bills on their respective policymaking areas.
• Examples: Structure of Congress (Shared between Houses)

  house of representatives, the senate, committees, sub-committees, party leaders, party whips
• Speaker of the House

  the main leadership role of the house elected by representatives, resulting in the speaker always being in the majority party. their role is to assign committee assignments, schedule bills (when they are debated, therefore influencing legislation), appoint select committee members, and refer bills to committees
• Committee of the Whole

  essentially the house of representatives debate with only 100 representatives needed to conduct debate, revision, and approval. usually to smoothly pass legislation during times of crisis/need in America
• House Rules Committee

  the committee that, prior to full house, establishes rules representatives must follow during debate to ensure efficiency and successful compromise; they create guidelines to debate. They also decide which bills make it to floor for debate (can kill bill if wanted)
• Public Bill

  a bill that will impact everyone in the US (example: taxation, amendments to constitution)
• Private Bills

  bills that will only impact a specific group of citizens or places (example: bill on education)
• Appropriations Bill

  a bill that impacts the federal budget/government spendings (ex: specific spending area like environment)
• How a Bill Becomes a Law: Step (1)

  a bill is created by someone (citizen [initiative], president, lobbyist, etc.) and then introduced to congress by a congressional member.
• Bill

  proposed legislation that anyone can make but only members of the senate or the house can officially introduce a bill to congress.
• How a Bill Becomes a Law: Step (2A - Subcommittees)

  the bill is sent to its respective committee for committee action. the bill is normally then sent down to a subcommittee where they hold hearings (experts/specialists debate), revisions (amendments to bill), and cast a vote to pass or kill the bill.
• How a Bill Becomes a Law: Step (2B - Full Committees)

  once a bill is approved by its subcommittee, the full committee holds hearings, revisions, and cast a final vote whether to pass the bill or kill it.
• How a Bill Becomes a Law: Step (3H - House)

  the bill is sent to the house rules committee where its members create rules for debate on the legislation during full house. this includes debate start/end time and restrictions for debate & amendment proposals
• How a Bill Becomes a Law: Step (3S - Senate)

  the bill is passed to senate party leadership. of which they schedule the bill (when it will be debated).
• Committee Chairs

  the leader of the committee who oversees everything. they schedule hearings, hire staff, and appoint sub-committee members. they manage committee bills before they are sent to full house.
• Seniority System

  the procedure ran until the 1970s when the committee chair was given to committee members who stayed in that committee the longest.
• How a Bill Becomes a Law: Step (4H - House)

  full house debate occurs where all 435 representatives debate and create amendments for the bill & ultimately decide its approval or kills it,
• Who has the power of unlimited debate?

  the senate due to less members and therefore informal
• Who has 1 hour debate?

  representatives as there are more of them (435) therefore more formal
• Pork Barrel Spending

  an advantage to incumbency; when a congressional member dedicates the federal budget towards their own district/state to gain support in that district/state.
• Pork Barrel Spending Examples

  examples of pork barrel spending include: grants, construction of public services (bridges, schools, highways); general investments to that district/state.
• Casework

  an advantage to incumbency; the acts of services to an individual constituent (e.g. helping with social security checks).