Congress:The People’s Branch

Reapportionment

• Apportionment is decided every ten years by the census.

• Congress is in charge of reallocation.

Redistricting

• Redrawing of congressional and other legislative district lines following the census, accommodating population shifts and keeping districts as equal as possible in population.

Texas Redistricting

Redistricting

• Follows the census.

• Final approval governors, redistricting commissions.

Gerrymandering

• Single party controlling both the legislative and executive branches of state governments. Extreme cases known as the above.

• Governor Elbridge Gerry of Massachusettes.

Rules

• Districts must be equal in population (one man one vote)

• Must be contiguous.

• Cannot be based on race.

14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause; “one man, one vote”; ordered state legislative districts to be as near equal as possible in population; reapportionment; example of Warren Court’s judicial activism

Built on Baker case; Required virtually every state legislature to be reapportioned; shifted power from rural to urban areas

Ordered House of Representative legislative districts to be as near in population as possible; extended Baker v. Carr (1962) to the national government

No racial gerrymandering; race cannot be the sole or predominant factor in redrawing legislative boundaries; majority-minority districts.

House v. Senate

• House • Senate

Two year term435 membersElected in districtsFewer personal staffTighter rulesTax bills start hereRules committee sets Terms of debateNo fillibuster

Six year term100 membersElected by statesLooser rulesMore personal staffForeign treaties mustBe ratified hereWhole senate sets rulesfillibusters

Speaker

• Presiding officer in the House

• Second in line of the presidency (after the vice president)

• Nothing laid out in Constitution, appoints members to committees.

Newt Gingrich

• Established authority

• Reorganized committees

• Resigned due to lack of ethics in use of tax-exempt funds.

Bye Bye: Nancy Pelosi

Majority Leader

• Helps plan party strategy, confers with other party leaders, and trieds to keep memers of the party in line.

• Assists the speaker

• Used to be almost exclusively picked on Seniority.

Currently: Eric Cantor

Minority Leader

• Usually steps into the speakership when his or her party gains the majority.

• Spokesperson of minority party.

Was:John Boehner, now speaker

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi

Whip

• Party leader who is the “helper” b/w the leadership and the rank-and-file in the legislatiure.

• Whipper-in “hunter who keeps the hounds bunched in a pack during a fox hunt”

Current Whips: House

• Democrat Steny Hoyer

• Republican Kevin McCarthy

Current Whips: Senate

• Richard Durbin Majoirty Whip

• Jon Kyl Minority Whip

President Pro Tempore

• Take the place of the Vice President

• Elected by the majority

Joe Biden, Patrick Leahy

Filibuster

• Practice in the Senate whereby a senator refuses to relinquish the floor and thereby delays the proceedings and prevents a vote on the controversial issue.

Cloture

• How you end a fillibuster. 16 Senators sign petition asking for cloture. 60/100 Senate vote for cloture.

Strom Thurmond

• Known for his long speeches. Once over 24 hours 18 minutes, trying to curtail the Civil Rights Act of 1957 allowing voting rights to minorities.

• Included the Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, Washington’s Farewell Address and seveal phone books.

Thurmond

Dixiecrats: Thurmond v. 1948 Civil Rights Speech

• Hubert Humphrey

Power to confirm

• Check on executive power

• Relevant Committee advises: Judiciary over Supreme Court Justices

• Usually gives president benefit of doubt on executive appointees

Committees

• Standing committees, just that.

• Select special: Come together to address temporary priorities

• Joint committees: have members of both houses

Authorizing committees

• Pass the laws that tell the government what to do.

• Senate education and labor committees: responsible for setting the rules governing Pell Grants

Appropriations Committee

• How much money government can spend.

• Sub committees underneath these for each subject area.

Revenue and Budget Com.

• Deal with raising and spending the money and set broad targets that shape the federal budget.

• House of Ways and Means: raises and authorizes spending. Only committee that can originate tax and revenue legislation, also responsible for making decision on SS and medicare.

Seniority Rule

• Member of the majority party that has been in committee the longest becomes chair upon the retirement of another.

Investigation and Oversight

• Conducts investigation to see if legislation is needed.

• Oversight:questions executive officials to see whether their agencies are complying with the wishes of the Congress and conducting programs efficiently.

“I’m Just a Bill”

• House introduces a bill by dropping it in a mahogeny box called a “hopper.”

• Senate introduces by presenting it to their colleagues in a floor speech.

• H.R. (House of Representatives)

Bill on its way

• Subcommittees look at bill, edits and send to Committee.

• Committee considers bill, if it is approved (in some form) sent to full House or Senate.

House Rules Com and on..

• Rules Committee issues a rule to govern debate on the floor and sends it to the rull house.

• Full House debates the bill and may amend. Sends to Senate if passed.

Senate

• Subcommittee-unanimous consent sends bill to full Senate

• Full Senate debates and may amend.

House v Senate

• Differences are heard in the CONFERENCE COMMITTEE

ON TO THE PRESIDENT

• If bill is approved, sent to President for signature of authorization.

• President can veto

• Congress can override by two third majority vote in both House and Senate

Mark-up

• What committees or subcommittees do before they pass the bill on. Change wording, amend.

Discharge petition

• Force bill out of committee to be heard by full House.

• Campaign Finance 2002

• Not used often, Senate does not use at all.

Questions?

• What is stated in Article I Section 3 of the Constitution?

• How was this changed by the Seventeenth Amendment?

Pork Barrel Politics

Pork Barrel

• A term referring to appropriation of government spending for localized projects secured solely or primarily to bring money to a representative’s districts.

Earmarks

Earmarks Definition

• Provision that directs approved funds to be spent on specific projects.