Congress Flashcards
(21 cards)
House is more powerful than the Senate (impeachment)
The House has the exclusive power of impeachment.
Article 2, Section 4 of the US Constitution empowers the House with the ability of removing the President “from office for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanours”.
This can be interpreted as the House’s precedence over the Senate as, unlike the latter, the House is actually able to trigger the proceedings of impeachment which could result in the removal of the President and the transition of power to the Vice-President.
For example, Bill Clinton was successfully impeached in 1998 for perjury and the obstruction of justice following accusations of sexual misconduct.
House is more powerful than the Senate (impeachment) Evaluation
Articles of Impeachment passed by the House are then considered by the Senate which formulates the rules and procedures for holding a trial.
The trial is then held with the President, with all 100 Senators acting as jury.
If the Senate votes in favour of a conviction by 2/3 supermajority, then it will vote to remove the President from office.
Hence, as a trial by the Senate is necessary to carry out the act of removing the Head of State from power, the House can commence the procedure, but can be easily halted by the Senate so that no further action is taken.
Therefore, if it were not for the Senate, the House’s accusation would remain an accusation.
House is more powerful than the Senate (more structurally esteemed) 1
The House has a closer relationship with the public than the Senate does.
The 2-year term of each member of the House was decided by the Framers at the 1787 Constitutional Convention (Article 1, Section 2) as they believed that frequent elections would force House members to return to their congressional districts every other year.
Hence, Representatives would have more interaction with their constituents as well as be more responsive to their immediate needs than Senators who serve a 6-year term.
House is more powerful than the Senate (more structurally esteemed) 2
The average size of a congressional district is 710,767 which means that members of the House can target localised issues which can then be deliberated and resolved.
Thus, this can have an especially great impact on local communities who may feel alienated by the political establishment “inside the Beltway”.
Example of a direct response by a member of the House to the needs of their constituents was when city leaders in Paul Ryan’s town of Janesville (Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District) appealed to him over the city’s antiquated public bus system transit centre.
In response, a receptive Ryan secured a $3.8 million grant as well as a $1.4 million stimulus from President Obama to demolish and re-construct the centre.
However, Senators represent an entire state, which have an average population of over 6.3 million people.
Thus, addressing localised issues as a Senator is much more difficult due to the sheer number of people (almost 9 times more than in a congressional district), which means that they have an arguably much more distant relationship with the members of their states due to their inability to tackle specific issues targeting specific communities.
House is more powerful than the Senate (more structurally esteemed) Evaluation
The smaller size of the Senate make it more powerful than the House, as individual Senators wield greater voting power than individual Representatives.
As there are only 100 Senators, compared to 435 members of the House, a Senator’s vote is worth 1% compared to a member of the House’s, which is worth 0.0023% (435 times less than a Senator’s).
House is of equal power to the Senate (Constitutional amendments)
Initiating constitutional amendments is a concurrent power.
According to Article 3 of the Constitution, an amendment must be officially proposed by a 2/3 vote in both congressional chambers before it must be ratified by 75% of the state legislatures.
Given that an agreement is required on both levels of Congress, which represents the US public in the legislature, this is arguably most democratic as it exemplifies the views and the opinions of the people.
The ratification of the latest (27th) constitutional amendment was completed in 1992 and delays laws affecting Congressional salary from taking effect until after the next election of Representatives.
House is of equal power to the Senate (Constitutional amendments) Evaluation
There have only been 27 Amendments in the 230-year history of Constitution.
Thus, due to their scarcity, it can be argued that concurrent powers of both houses are not greatly significant. This implies than the exclusive powers of each chamber are therefore more important than them.
Therefore, the Senate is more prestigious than the House due to its more superior exclusive powers including the ability to confirm Presidential appointments and approve treaties negotiated by the Presidents; powers which the House doesn’t have access to.
Hyper-partisanship
40-years ago, during the 93rd Congress (1973-74), nearly 50% of the House and almost 1/3 of the Senate could be described as centrists; they constituted a significant overlap between the congressional parties.
In 2004, 28 Republicans were more liberal than the most conservative Democrat and 2 Democrats were more conservative than the most liberal Republican.
In 2013 however, both these numbers reduced to 0.
For example, the 35-day partial government shutdown that began in 2018 was due to Democrat refusal to approve $5-billion funding for Trump’s proposed border wall along the US-Mexico border.
Hyper-partisanship Evaluation
However, there have still been recent, though rare cases of bipartisanship.
For example, in December 2018, Trump signed the bipartisan “First Step Act” into law; a bill to reform the federal prison system and reduce sentences for certain drug offences.
In addition, in June 2019, with the Trump administration’s Middle East peace plan hitting a major roadblock after the announcement of new elections in Israel, Congress is taking its own initiative.
Senators and representatives from both parties reintroduced a bill on Wednesday that would allocate $50 million to investments in the Palestinian economy, as well as to programs that promote peaceful relations between Israelis and Palestinians.
Gerrymandering
Gerrymandering often blamed for the phenomenon of polarisation in the US Congress.
The argument is that incumbents tend to be more extreme if their districts are gerrymandered, because when they’re sure to win the election, they’ll focus on appealing to the more extreme members of their base in order to prevent a primary challenge
One of the most gerrymandered districts in the US is Texas’ 33rd, where Republican Justin Holland won a landslide victory in 2016.
The district, which encompasses parts of Dallas and neighbouring Fort Worth, was drawn by Republicans to give them an advantage.
Gerrymandering Evaluation
In May 2019, Ohio’s congressional map was struck down by federal judges who explained how Ohio’s map was rigged to ensure that 12 out of the state’s 16 seats in the House would go to Republicans despite voters’ fairly even red-blue divide.
Gerrymandering Counter-Evaluation
The Supreme Court agreed to pause the federal courts’ decision for Ohio, as well as Michigan, for them to redraw their district maps ahead of the 2020 election.
Political campaign financing
The increasing involvement in presidential and congressional campaigns of large donors, especially through Super PACs and politically-active nonprofit organisations, has raised serious concerns about the super-wealthy are purchasing American democracy.
Ideologically-based outside groups, financed by wealthy donors, wield disproportionate influence in party affairs.
The strategic benefits created by the campaign finance system, particularly since Citizens United v. Federal election Commission (2010), give them even greater leverage to pull parties towards their ideological polls.
For example, the 2018 midterms were the most expensive in US history, with more than $5.2 billion funnelled into the races.
Michael Bloomberg, billionaire businessmen, gave at least $20 million in the 2018-midterms to Senate Majority Pac, which supports putting Democrats in the Senate.
Sheldon Adelson, the largest individual donor to the 2016 Trump campaign, donated mostly to the Congressional Leadership Fund and the Senate Leadership Fund, both Super Pacs dedicated to electing Republicans; he gave $25m to each.
Political campaign financing Evaluation
In September 2018, Trump signed the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act which requires Senate-candidates to electronically file financial disclosure reports with the Federal Election Commission, making them immediately available to the public and increasing campaign finance transparency.
Providing public access to this kind of information about the flow of money in politics empowers oversight of Congress, by the electorate, and accountability in the government decision-making process.
The constitutional powers given to Congress are being effectively fulfilled / Not-broken branch (Legislation)
Article 1 of the Constitution establishes the legislative branch of the federal government, Congress; its most important power is the authority to make laws.
The 115th Congress (2017-19 session) was more legislatively active than its recent predecessors.
It enacted 442 public laws, the most since the 110th Congress (2007-09).
The most significant law was the $1.5 trillion Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, passed in December 2017, repealed the tax intended to enforce the 2010 Affordable Care Act’s mandate that most Americans carry health insurance.
The constitutional powers given to Congress are being effectively fulfilled / Not-broken branch (Legislation) Evaluation
On the other hand, nearly a 1/3 of the laws passed by the 115th Congress were ceremonial (ie.g. renaming buildings, awarding medals, designating special days) in nature; it the third Congress in a row in which the ceremonial share increased.
Those ceremonial measures include 109 that renamed post offices, courthouses etc…
In addition, polarisation and hyper-partisanship in Congress meant that the 115th Congress ended without the approval of 25% of government spending (including $5 billion to build the US-Mexico border wall) by the Democrats, resulting in the longest government shutdown in US history (35-days).
The constitutional powers given to Congress are being effectively fulfilled / Not-broken branch (Legislation) Counter-Evaluation
However, major legislation which did receive bipartisan support included the “First Step Act” (December 2018), a bill to reform the federal prison system and reduce sentences for certain drug offences.
In addition, in June 2019, with the Trump administration’s Middle East peace plan hitting a major roadblock after the announcement of new elections in Israel, Congress is taking its own initiative.
Senators and representatives from both parties reintroduced a bill on Wednesday that would allocate $50 million to investments in the Palestinian economy, as well as to programs that promote peaceful relations between Israelis and Palestinians.
The constitutional powers given to Congress are being effectively fulfilled / Not-broken branch (Oversight)
Although the U.S. Constitution grants no formal, express authority to oversee or investigate the executive, oversight is implied in Congress’s array of enumerated powers in Article 1 Section 8.
Most oversight takes place in Congressional committees, which are in an effective position to scrutinise because Congress is permitted to investigate scandals, hold hearings, and question members of the executive.
Oversight is most effective when there is a divided government; Congress is known as a watch-dog in this case.
For example, in a period of divided government, following the 2012 Benghazi attack, in which the US Ambassador was killed, over 30 congressional hearings were held on the attack.
One of these was held by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in October 2015 (with both the House and Senate controlled by the Republicans, under Democratic Obama) where then- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was one of the witnesses.
The constitutional powers given to Congress are being effectively fulfilled / Not-broken branch (Oversight) Evaluation
When there is a united government however, Congressional oversight has been known to relax, with Congress being regarded a lap-dog instead.
Between Trump’s rise to the executive in 2017 until the 2018 Midterms (united government), the Democrats were forced to sit on the sidelines due to a lack in the subpoena power that comes with control of the chamber.
Meanwhile, Republican scrutiny of the President was very weak.
For example, Trump’s closed-door talks with Putin in Helsinki (2018), during the Mueller Investigation, only briefly aroused the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Also, there was only 1 combative hearing with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (July 2018), before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee regarding the Trump administration’s hurried approach to foreign relations in terms of Russia and North Korea.
The constitutional powers given to Congress are being effectively fulfilled / Not-broken branch (Representation)
The 116th Congress is the most racially and ethnically diverse ever; non-whites now account for 22% of Congress.
There are also more women in the Senate than ever (25).
The number of women in Congress is also at an all-time high, with 127 women in the legislature, accounting a record 24% of voting lawmakers across both chambers.
There are also fewer military veterans than ever before, at 96 compared to 102 in the previous Congress.
Congress has also become slightly more religiously diverse, with the current Congress including the first 2 Muslim women ever to serve in the House (e.g. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan’s 13th congressional district ).
The constitutional powers given to Congress are being effectively fulfilled / Not-broken branch (Representation) Evaluation
Despite this growing racial and ethnic diversity, Congress still lags the nation as a whole; the share of nonwhites in the United States is nearly double that of the country’s legislative body (39% vs. 22%).
The gains for women have been relatively recent however. The House has seen slow but steady growth in the number of female members since the 1920s. Growth in the Senate has been slower: the Senate did not have more than three women serving at any point until the 102nd Congress, which began in 1991. The share of women in Congress also remains far below the share of women in the country as a whole (24% vs. 51%).
Religious “nones” are also underrepresented in Congress in comparison with the U.S. population. While 23% of Americans say they are atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular,” just one congressional member says she is religiously unaffiliated.
