AP US gov Unit 2

• Branches of government


  • Legislative
  • Executive
  • Judicial
  • Bureaucracy
• Bicameral


  Congress is made up of two houses
• House of Representatives


  • Representatives are apportioned by the population of each state
  • Representatives serve 2-year terms
  • Representatives represent fewer people and know their constituency better
• There are 435 representatives in the House of Representatives
• Senate


  • Each state gets 2 senators
  • Senators serve 6-year terms
  • Senators have more constitutional responsibilities than House members
  • Senators represent an entire state and are less connected to their constituency
• There are 100 senators in the Senate
• Passing legislation


  1. Both houses of Congress must agree on identical versions of bills

  2. Coalitions are formed to make the process more efficient
• Enumerated powers


  Powers explicitly listed in Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution
• Enumerated powers of Congress

  • Federal funding
  • Foreign policy
  • Military legislation
• Implied powers


  Powers that Congress can exercise to carry out its enumerated powers, justified by the Necessary and Proper Clause
• Alexander Hamilton used the Necessary and Proper Clause to argue for the establishment of a national bank
• Speaker of the House

  • Leader of the House, always from the majority party
• House leadership positions


  • Speaker of the House
  • Majority leader
  • Minority leader
  • Whips
• Senate leadership positions


  • President of the Senate (Vice President)
  • President pro tempore
  • Majority leader
  • Whips
• Most of the work in Congress is done in committees
• Types of congressional committees

  • Standing committees
  • Joint committees
  • Select committees
  • Conference committees
• Committees serve the goals of the majority party
• House rules


  • Limited debate
  • House Rules Committee controls which bills make it to the floor
• Senate rules


  • Unlimited debate
  • Filibuster
  • Cloture rule
  • Unanimous consent
• How a bill becomes a law

  1. Bill introduced

  2. Assigned to committee

  3. Amended and voted on

  4. Sent to President for signing
• Passing a federal budget is one of the most important legislative tasks of Congress
• Mandatory spending


  Spending required by law, including entitlement programs
• Discretionary spending


  Remaining spending that Congress allocates
• As mandatory spending increases, discretionary spending must decrease
• Congress can increase discretionary spending by raising taxes or approving deficit spending
• Factors affecting Congress's efficiency

  • Ideological divisions and political polarization
  • Divided government
  • Trustee vs delegate models of representation
• The confirmation through without waiting on the outcome of the election so here you have a very good example of how a divided government can slow things down and how a unified government can speed things up
• Trustee model


  Representatives believe they have been entrusted with the people's faith to vote according to the representative's best judgment
• Delegate model


  Representatives believe they must vote with the will of the people even if it goes against their own better judgment
• Politico model


  Representatives vote depends on the situation, considering public opinion and acting like a delegate or trustee accordingly
• The constitution says that every 10 years a census must be taken to find out how many people live in the united states and where they live
• Based on the census information, the number of representatives for each state is apportioned to reflect the population
• Congressional districts are redrawn to reflect the new seats
• Reapportionment


  The doling out of representative seats
• Redistricting


  The redrawing of boundaries that representatives serve
• Baker vs Carr in 1962 ruled that districts must be drawn to evenly distribute voting power, establishing the one person one vote principle
• Shaw vs Reno in 1993 ruled that drawing districts solely based on race, even to help historically discriminated groups, was unconstitutional
• Gerrymandering


  Drawing districts in weird shapes to favour one group over another, either partisan or racial gerrymandering
• The president's formal powers are laid out in Article 2 of the Constitution
• Veto


  The president can refuse to sign a bill passed by Congress, preventing it from becoming law