Congress

• Membership of congress: 

  -Each house member represents 750,000 Americans currently whilst at the time of the 1911 

  -Apportionment act which set the number of the House of Representatives was only 215,000 

  -California has 53 house representatives with a population of 40 million 
• Incumbency: 

  -2016- average campaign cost of winning a senate seat was $10.4 million 

  -The campaign cost of winning a seat in the house is over $1 million 

  -In the 2016- Incumbents in the senate raised over 8X more than the average
• Incumbency: 

  -2016- average campaign cost of winning a senate seat was $10.4 million 

  -The campaign cost of winning a seat in the house is over $1 million 

  -In the 2016- Incumbents in the senate raised over 8X more than the average challenger 

  -2012- Congress spent $24.8 million o franking costs 

  -115th congress- Incumbency rate: 

  -In the House of Representatives: 97% 

  -In the senate: 93% 
• Concurrent powers:

  • 1/12 of Obama's vetoes were overridden; he attempted to veto the 9/11 victims bill, but bipartisan cooperation led to the override
  • All but 1 of Bush's vetoes came after he had lost control of both houses
  • Obama issued an executive order to ensure abortion would not be funded with federal money to allow his plan for Obamacare to pass in Congress
  • In the 116th Congress, only 2% of bills were enacted
  • Congress has not declared war since 1941
  • Congress has the power to subpoena witnesses and launch investigations; in 2017, 4 congressional committees investigated the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election
• Exclusive powers of the House of Representatives- 

  -Power of the purse- 2018 Trump requested that the budget for the EPA be cut by 13 

  however, the house republicans voted to cut it by only 6% 

  -Bring charges of impeachment 

  -Chose the president if electoral college is deadlocked 
• Exclusive powers of the senate: 

  -2012 rejected the UN convention on the rights of persons 

  -Confirm appointments- Senate rejected to hear nomination of Merick, Garland, carried out highly political and personal hearings for controversial candidates such as Clarence Thomas confirmed despite controversies surrounding his stance on abortion 
• Legislative process: 

  -¼ bills make it out of the committee stage 

  -Only 7% or less of bills will be voted on 

  -In 2018 the house rules committee set a record of the most amount of closed rule debates during a single congress- 83 

  -1957- Stern Thurmond filibustered for 24 hours in opposition to the civil rights act 

  -More than 2,000 filibusters since 1917 
• In the 115th congress, women made up 20.2% of congress, African Americans 9.2%, and Hispanics 8.2%
• In terms of population, women make up 50%, African Americans 12.6%, and Hispanics 17.3%
• In 2017, Cooper V Harris challenged the use of race alone in redistricting as racism
• Shelby County V Holder (2013) struck down aspects of the voting rights act
• 90% of the House of Representatives and 97% of the Senate have received pharmaceutical campaign contributions
• $4.1 billion was spent on lobbying in 2022
• Oversight: 

  -Trump had a record breaking low of 39% approval rating after 100 days 

  -Obama's popularity in 2010 was around 50% 

  -Obama able to enact to 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal with little oversight 

  -Obama failed to pass immigration and gun control reform 

  -George W Bush able to pass PATRIOT Act quickly as a response to 9/11- little oversight 

  -In 2020 Biden withdrew troops from Afghanistan without congressional approval