APAG Ch' 12 Congress

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APAG Ch. 12 Congress

• Assignment 2 Pages 368-376

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• 1. What does bipartisan mean? Give an example of
  partisanship.

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• Bipartisanship is something that has the support
  of both Democrats and Republicans.
• Judiciary committees vote along party lines.
• Impeachment of Clinton

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• 2. What is reapportionment? Redistricting?
  Justiciable Questions?

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• Reapportionment is the allocation of seats in the
  House of Rep. to each state after each census.
• Redistricting is the redrawing of the boundaries
  of the congressional districts within each state.
• Justiciable Question is one that may be raised
  and reviewed in court.

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• What was significant about these three cases
• a) Baker v. Carr
• b) Reynolds v. Sims
• c) Wesberry v Sanders

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• In Baker, the Court made reapportionment a
  justiciable question.
• In Reynolds, the Court held that both chambers of
  a state legislature must be apportioned with
  equal populations in each district- one person,
  one vote
• In Wesberry, the Court held that this one
  person, one vote applied to congressional
  districts too.

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• 4. What is gerrymandering? What did the Court
  say about it in Davis v. Bandemer?

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• Gerrymandering is the drawing of legislative
  district boundary lines for the purpose of
  obtaining partisan or factional advantage. A
  district is said to have been gerrymandered when
  its shape is altered substantially by the
  dominant party in a state legislature to maximize
  its electoral strength at the expense of the
  minority party.

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• The Court ruled in the Davis case that
  redistricting for the political benefit of one
  group could be challenged on constitutional
  grounds. However, in this particular case, the
  Court did not agree that the districts were drawn
  unfairly.

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• 5. What is packing and cracking? How many
  seats in the House of Rep. were open for real
  competition in the 2002 Congressional elections?

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• Packing and cracking is the use of powerful
  computers and software that packs voters
  supporting the opposing party into as few
  districts as possible or crack the opposing
  partys supporters into different districts.
• Only 30-50 seats out of 435 were really open in
  the 2002 Congressional election.

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• 6.What are minority-majority districts? What
  has the Court ruled about them?

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• They are gerrymandering districts to make sure
  that a minority population becomes the majority
  in order to win a seat.
• The Supreme Court has ruled consistently that
  race-based districting is unconstitutional.

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• 7. What are some of the pay, perks, and
  privileges that members of Congress receive?

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• In 2002, annual congressional salaries were
  150,000.
• They have access to a private gym, free parking
  at Dulles airport and on Capitol Hill, subsidized
  dining, free medical care, inexpensive but
  generous pensions, liberal travel allowances, and
  special tax considerations.

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• Franking privilege-free mail
• A large personal staff
• Average of 30 per senator
• Average of 15 per house member
• Protected from arrest except for treason, felony,
  and breach of the peace while in office.
• Protected from libel or slander suits while in
  office.

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• 8. Where is most of the work done for
  legislating? Who controls most bills?

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• In committees or subcommittees.
• Committees control most bills.
• Most bills die in the committees.

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• 9. What is required to get a bill out of a
  committee that doesnt want to release the bill?

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• Discharge petitionwhich must be signed by a
  majority of the House members (218) to release
  the bill.

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• What is the importance of each of these
  committees
• a) Standing Committees
• b) Select Committees
• c) Joint Committees
• d) Conference Committees
• e) House Rules Committee

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• Standing Committees are the most important of all
  committees in Congress. They are permanent
  bodies that are established by rules of each
  chamber and consider bills within a certain
  subject area. The most important of these are
  the Appropriations Committee, the Ways and Means
  Committee in the House, the House Education and
  Workforce Committee.

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• Select Committees are temporary and established
  for a limited time period and for a special
  purpose.
• Joint Committees are formed from both houses and
  deal with the economy, taxation, and the Library
  of Congress.

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• d) Conference committees are jointly formed to
  reconcile differences when bills pass the two
  chambers of Congress in different forms.
• e) The House Rules Committee is uniquely
  powerful in that it sets the time limit on debate
  and determines whether and how a bill may be
  amended. It can initiate legislation on its own.

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• What is the seniority system?

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• The seniority system is a custom followed in both
  chambers of congress specifying that members with
  longer terms of continuous service will be given
  preference when committee chair-persons and
  holders of other significant posts are selected.

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• 12. What is a safe seat?

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• A safe seat is a district that returns the
  legislator with 55 of the vote or more.