U.S. Congress

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U.S. Congress
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Objectives To Understand

• The Constitutional Design of Congress
• Historical Development of Congress
• Styles of Representation
• Congressional Elections and the Incumbency Factor
• How Congress Works
• Structure of Congress - Committees
• Political Leadership in Congress and how leaders
  manage C.A. problems
• House and Senate Differences
• How Bills Become Law

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Constitutional Design

• Article I of the U.S. Constitution
• Bicameralism
• Qualifications of representatives
• terms of office
• total membership
• general and specific powers
• Article I, Section 8 enumerated powers

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Historical Development of Congress

• Premodern (1789-1880) Congress
• Modern (1880-current) Congress
• Turnover of members
• Finality of elections
• workload
• orderliness of the floor
• committee membership and committee chairs
• party leadership

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Historical Development, continued...

• Increase in size
• institutionalization and professionalism
• sharing power with the president

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Styles of Representation

• Delegate
• Trustee
• Politico
• Edmund Burke
• Hanna Pitkin
• Formalistic View
• Descriptive View
• Symbolic View
• Interest Responsiveness View

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Congressional Elections and Incumbency

• Reelection rates for Incumbents
• Franking privilege
• Richard Fenno and Homestyle
• Casework
• Pork Barrel Legislation
• examples?
• Logrolling

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How Congress WorksCongressional Committees

• Types of Committees
• Standing Committees
• Select Committees
• Joint Committees
• Conference Committees
• ad hoc task forces

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Political Leadership in the 108th Congress
Managing Collective Action and C.A. Problems

• Leadership in the House
• Speaker of the House
• House Majority/Minority Leaders
• House Majority/Minority Whips
• Leadership in the Senate
• Senate Majority/Minority Leaders
• Senate Majority/Minority Whips
• President Pro Tempore

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Speaker of the House

• Dennis Hastert (R-IL)

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House Majority/Minority Leaders
Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) House Minority Leader
Tom Delay (R-TX) House Majority (Floor) Leader
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House Majority/Minority Whips
Roy Blunt (R-MO) House Majority Whip
Steny Hoyer (D-MD) House Minority Whip
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Other Leaders in the House
Deborah Pryce (R-OH) Republican Conference Chair
Robert Menendez (D-NJ) Democratic Caucus Chair
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Senate Leadership

• Vice President Dick Cheney 
• President of the U.S. Senate

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Senate Majority/Minority Leaders
Bill Frist (R-TN) Majority Leader
Tom Daschle (D-SD) Minority (Democratic) Leader
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Senate Majority/Minority Whips
Harry Reid (D-NV) Assistant Minority Leader
Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Assistant Majority Leader
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Other Leaders in the Senate

• Ted Stevens (R-AK)
• President Pro Tempore of the Senate

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Senate Party Conference Leaders
Richard Santorum (R-PA) Republican Party
Conference Chair
Tom Daschle (D-SD) Democratic Party Conference
Chair
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House and Senate Differences

• House
• Rule-bound, hierarchical
• more specialized
• amendments must be germane
• limited time for debate
• restricted floor debate

• Senate
• Informal
• less specialized
• amendments need not be germane
• unlimited time for debate (filibuster, cloture)

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House Senate Differences, continued...

• House
• Adversary (responsiveness)

• Senate
• Unitary (responsibility)

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How Bills become Laws

• Introducing a Bill
• Hopper
• Committee Action
• Discharge Petition
• Floor Action
• Conference Committee
• Presidential Action

• Types of Legislation
• Bill
• Joint Resolution
• Concurrent Resolution
• Resolution

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The Nature of Congress

• Fragmentation v. Integration
• Fragmented chaotic, incoherent
• Integrated what would seem to be best
• F lt---------------------------------------------gtI
  
• -Fragmented policy is not always inferior to
  Integrated Policy.....Why?

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Fragmentation v. Integration, continued...

• Members of Congress elected from local
  geographical constituency
• Bicameralism
• What Congress does - increased agenda
• Divide and Defer
• Bureaucrats
• Interest Groups

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Fragmentation, continued...

• Weak Political Parties
• Personal Ambitions of Members of Congress