THE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH

Why is Election Day in

November?

• Why is Election Day always on the Tuesday after the

first Monday in November?

• The answer is simple. For most of our history, we have

been a country of farmers.

• Long ago, lawmakers felt that November was the best

month in which to hold elections. By then most crops

had been planted and harvested.

• Plus, the weather was still mild in most of the nation.

People who lived out in the country were still able to

travel even on dirt roads.

November Elections Continued

• But lawmakers did not want Election Day to ever

fall on November 1. It is All Saints Day, an

important religious holiday for many people.

• Also, man businesspeople were known to settle

their store bills on the first day of every month.

• So the Tuesday after the first Monday in

November became known as Election Day in the

United States ( =

• Now you know!!!!

MAJOR ROLES OF CONGRESS

• The legislative branch’s main

task is to make law. It also…

• Debates national issues

(foreign relations, taxes,

healthcare, etc).

• Conducts constituent service

(help to the voters back home)

• Its expressed powers come from

ARTICLE I of the

Constitution.

MAJOR POWERS AND DUTIES

• Under its expressed powers,

Congress can:

(1) Declare war.

(2) Override vetoes of the

President

(3) coin and print money

(4) create federal courts

(5) raise an army & navy

Powers & Duties of Congress (cont’d)

(6) Levy and collect taxes

(7) Regulate interstate commerce

(8) Borrow money

(9) Confirm presidential

appointments and ratify

treaties

(10) Conduct impeachments of

executive and judicial officials

-and other roles as per Article I -

Structure of Congress

• The legislative branch is

bicameral meaning it is

composed of 2 houses:

Senate and House of

Representatives.

• The term “Congress”

means both houses

considered as one entity.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

• This house is linked most closely

to the people.

• Members elected to this house

are called representatives.

• Qualifications to be elected:

- Age: At least 25

- Citizenship: At least 7 years

- Residency: Must be a citizen

of the state he/she represents

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES (CONT’D)

• The elected term of office is 2 years;

no term limits.

• If a vacancy opens up due to a death or

resignation, representatives are

replaced by a special election called

by the governor of the state the

representative was from.

House of Representatives (cont’d)

• Seats are assigned to states

based on population.

• Each state sets boundaries to

establish congressional

districts of equal population.

As of today, that amount is

about 709,000 persons.

• Each state must have at least

one representative even if its

total population is below the

established district amount.

How Are House Seats Determined?

- The 10-year census (held in years ending in zero) is used to determine which states gain or lose seats. This process is known as reapportionment.

- After reapportionment occurs, states must draw new district boundaries to ensure equal population distribution. This is called redistricting and occurs in the year following the Census (years ending in 1).

Illegal Redistricting

- Illegally changing

district boundaries for the

advantage of a political

party in getting elected is

called gerrymandering.

- This may also be done to

guarantee a seat to a

minority group that is

thought to be under-

represented in Congress.

But it’s still illegal!

Cracking and Packing

• Cracking- The party in power in the state legislature splits up and spreads out voters who support the opposition party.

• Packing- As many opposing voters as possible are “packed” into a single voting district by the majority party in the legislature.

Virginia in the House of Reps

• Total number of House seats is fixed by law at 435.

• Virginia has 11 U.S. congressional districts. You are

a constituent of Congressman Bob Goodlatte who

represents you in Virginia’s 6th District.

House of Representatives Leadership

• The main leader is the

Speaker of the House.

He/she comes from the

majority party.

• He/she is 2nd in line to

assume the presidency

after the vice president.

• The current Speaker is

John Boehner from OH.

The Senate

• The Senate has a smaller number of members than the House of Representatives does.

• It is perceived as being more powerful than the House when it comes to issues of national importance.

• A member elected to this house is called a senator.

• There is a total of 100 senators; each state is assigned 2 equally.

Qualifications and Terms of Office

• Age: At least 30

• Citizenship: Citizen for 9 years

• Residency: Must reside in the state they represent

• Term of office: 6 years (no term limits).

• 1/3 of all Senators are up for reelection every 2 years.

• Should a senator die or resign his office, the vacancy may be filled directly by the governor of the state affected or through a special election.

Virginia’s Senators

• Virginia’s two senators are

both Democrats:

Tim Kaine (Jr. senator)

elected in 2012; term of

office ends in 2018.

Mark Warner (Sr. senator)

re-elected in 2014; term of

office ends in 2020.

Senate Leadership

• The President of the Senate is

the Vice President of the U.S.

His main job is to preside over

the Senate and break tie votes.

• When the V.P. is not present,

the President Pro Tempore

takes his place. This is an

honorary title with no real

power given to the person in the

majority party with the most

time in the Senate.

Orrin Hatch- Pres. Pro Tem.

Joe Biden - Vice Pres.

Floor Leaders

• The Senate does NOT have a Speaker position. Its true head is the Majority Leader who is elected from the members of the Senate’s majority party.

• This position is currently held by Mitch McConnell from Kentucky.

Floor Leaders (cont’d)

Minority Leaders - Lead the members of the minority (opposition) party in each house. Their job is to get their party’s agenda passed or oppose the majority party’s agenda. They are elected by their party’s members. (Nancy Pelosi) (Harry Reid)

Whip - A majority leader’s or minority leader’s top assistant. Responsible for persuading party members to support and vote for legislation or key issues important to the party. (Cornyn/Durbin)

House of Reps Senate

MEETING TIMES

• Congress meets during a two year period of time called a term. Each term is divided into two sessions of 1 year each.

• Each term of Congress is given a sequential number. Today, the current term is the 114th. The next term elections are in 2016 when all House of Representatives and 1/3 of all Senators will be up for reelection.

• A member of Congress that currently holds office and seeks reelection is called an incumbent.

Immunities of Congress

• Members of Congress cannot be arrested for civil crimes while Congress is in session, but can be arrested for serious felonies.

• If Congress is adjourned, they can be arrested at any time.

• Members are immune from being sued for anything they say on the floor of Congress.

• Congress may exempt themselves from certain laws as they see fit. (Doesn’t this violate the Rule of Law?)

Punishment of Members of Congress

• Formal punishment types:

- Reprimand (least severe) is a letter issued to a member who has violated house rules or engaged in improper conduct.

- Censure is a vote of formal disapproval of a member’s actions that brings shame to that house. Usually read out in front of the member’s chamber.

- Expulsion (most severe) is kicking a member out of Congress usually as a result of criminal activity. This needs a 2/3 majority vote of the house’s members.

PRIVILEGES OF CONGRESS

Members of Congress enjoy privileges of office called perks.

- expense accounts

- Congressional bank

- barber/beauty shops, gym

- private car (of their choice) with a gas account

- free airport parking

- tax breaks on a second home

- medical insurance

- dining room (low meal cost)

- retirement pension (after 12 years of service)

- free official postage (called a franking privilege)

$$$ SALARY $$$

• Senators and representatives are paid a salary of $174,000 per year. Raises are subject to the 27th Amendment, but yearly cost-of-living raises aren’t.

• The Speaker of the House gets $217,000 plus his own jet and an expense account.

• Majority & minority leaders Get $193,400 plus expense accounts.

Membership Makeup

• Typical member of Congress is a white male over 50, college educated, and mostly from the upper middle class.

• Most have had previous state level political experience.

• Less than 25% of members have any military experience.

• Most members of Congress are Christian (85%).

Membership (cont’d)

• About 10% of Congress are minorities and 17% are women.

• Most senators were lawyers before getting elected; a majority of the House of Representatives were businessmen.

WHO MAKES UP CONGRESS Data based on 112th Congress

Member

Characteristics Senate House

Democrats

Republicans

Independents

51

47

2

193

241

1

Youngest

Oldest

Average age

45 years old

87 years old

65

29 years old

78 years old

58

Women

Men

15

85

73

362

African American 0 44

Hispanic 3 27

Asian 2 7

Native American 0 1

Catholic 24 132

Protestant 61 258

Jewish 12 27

HOW THE LAW-MAKING

FUNCTION OF CONGRESS WORKS

I. “THE COMMITTEE SYSTEM”

COMMITTEES

• Committees help ease the workload of Congress and act as its key centers of power.

• Committees perform 3 major functions:

- They allow Congress to divide up work among several smaller groups.

- They select bills that may deserve further consideration to eventually survive as laws.

- Most bills are “killed” in committees (they don’t proceed any further).

- Committees hold hearings and investigations about key national issues and problems.

TYPES OF COMMITTEES

• Standing – A permanent committee that oversees bills on certain issues

• Subcommittee – A smaller portion of a standing committee that specializes in a subcategory of its topic.

• Select – A temporary committee which studies 1 specific issue and then reports its findings to its respective house.

• Joint – Acts as a study group on an issue and has members of both houses as its membership. They are mostly temporary but can be permanent.

• Conference – A temporary committee that resolves differences in bills between different versions of a bill. These committees contain members of both houses

Committee Assignment

• It can help them get reelected by allowing

them to help the voters back home in issues

important to their state or district.

• Important committee assignments can make

lawmakers influential in national policy-

making and give them media attention

because the issues they deal with are

important to the nation.

Committee Chairmanships

• Standing committee chairmen are most powerful. No person can chair more than one of these committees.

• They make the key decisions about the work done in their committee and decide on which bills will be considered.

• They decide when hearings will be held, what witnesses will testify, and manage the floor debates on bills coming from their committee.

Chairmanships (cont’d)

• Chairmen are chosen on the basis of seniority. They are the persons who have the longest service on that committee. They also come from the majority party which chairs ALL committees in both houses.

II. LAWMAKING PROCESS

• The prime role of the legislative

branch is lawmaking.

• Each house follows a similar

process in passing bills, but may

follow different procedural

rules.

• Bills are unsigned laws and can

come from any source. Over

10,000 are introduced during

each 2-year congressional term.

• Less than 5% become laws.

Lawmaking (cont’d)

• Congress’ committee system acts as a filtering process advancing only the most worthy or relevant bills.

• Scheduling a bill’s passage is a matter of various steps. In the House, scheduling debate and voting on a bill is done by the Rules Committee. In the Senate, the majority leader does the scheduling.

• A bill cannot be voted on in either house unless a majority of its members are present. This is called a quorum.

Lawmaking Products

• There are 2 types of bills:

(1) Bills dealing with matters that

apply to the entire country are public

bills. These form the majority of bills.

(2) Bills that deal with individuals,

private organizations, or specific places

are called private bills.

• A resolution is a means by which Congress

- deals with temporary matters not requiring

a law;

- proposes constitutional amendments;

- expresses Congress’s opinion on an issue;

- creates a new legislative procedure.

Lawmaking Products (cont’d)

Lawmaking Products (cont’d)

• However, a joint

resolution has the

force of law because

it requires the

President’s signature

(e.g. Tonkin Gulf

Resolution).

Lawmaking Products (cont’d)

• Riders are amendments that can be added to a bill that have nothing to do with the bill’s subject.

• They are attached to popular bills that are guaranteed to pass, or are unlikely to be vetoed by the President.

- Riders can get legislation passed by going around the law-making process where it would probably fail to get approved on its own merits.

Bringing home the bacon…

• Members can also amend

bills involving budget issues

by inserting last minute

funding for pet projects.

• These additions to any

spending bills are known as

“earmarks” and commonly

referred to as “pork barrel”

politics.

III. Keeping Bills From the Vote

• Bills are subject to being “killed” at various stages in the law-making process.

• In the Senate, there are no strict rules for debating a bill. A single senator can stop a bill from being voted on through a procedure called a filibuster. This tactic is known as “talking a bill to death.”

THE FILIBUSTER

• In order for a senator to hold the floor during a filibuster

he must speak continuously, not sit down, nor leave the

chamber for any reason.

• Stopping a filibuster requires a vote of cloture which is

achieved when 3/5 of Senate members agree. This stops

the debate and brings the bill to a vote.

A bill can also die because…

• Bills are most likely to be killed in committee. The chairman can ignore a bill until it “dies” from inaction in his committee. This tactic is called “pigeon-holing.”

• A bill can be forced out of committee after 30 days of inaction by a discharge petition. The bill is then brought back to the house floor for debate and vote.

IV. The President’s Role

• Only one version of a bill can be given to the president for his signature, so a similar bill coming from each house must be absolutely identical.

• A conference committee is formed from members of both houses to overcome differences in each house’s bill and create one version acceptable to each house.

- This is called a compromise bill. If no agreement is reached, it dies!

President’s Options

• The President can:

- Sign the bill which then

immediately becomes law.

- Veto the bill and send it

back to Congress with his

reasons for not signing it.

- If he doesn’t sign it within

10 days it automatically

becomes law.

There’s always an EXCEPTION…

• The President can keep a bill without signing it if it was given to him in the last 10 days of a session of Congress and thereby automatically kill it.

- This action is called a pocket veto. Congress cannot override it.

THE LAST WORD…

• Congress has the last word as to whether a normally vetoed bill becomes a law.

• A presidentially vetoed bill can be overridden by Congress with a 2/3 majority vote of each house.

• The Framers intended on making the veto override a difficult thing to achieve. Less than 4% of all vetoed bills have been overridden.

THE END

Influencing Congress

• Voters

- Want members of

Congress to do constituent

service on behalf of them

and their state.

- Expect them to be role

models in their behavior.

Influencing Congress (cont’d)

• The President

- Can give or withhold support for lawmakers running for reelection.

- Can threaten to veto laws.

- Can go directly to the people and ask them to pressure Congress on certain situations he needs resolved.

Influencing Congress (cont’d)

• The media can…

- attempt to sway public opinion on congressional activities.

- report positively or negatively on a member of Congress’s personal problems or voting record.

- throw support to bills under consideration or undermine them.

Influencing Congress (cont’d)

• Interest groups

- Offer large campaign contributions to elected officials to make or change laws that benefit the group.

- Use advertisements that portray an official in a positive or negative way to influence voters.

Influencing Congress (cont’d)

• Political Parties

- Pressure members

of Congress to vote

along party lines

- Donate or

withhold money

from a member’s

reelection campaign.