Week 3 - Congress

Question 1

What two chambers is Congress composed of?

Answer 1

The House of Representatives and the Senate

Question 2

What are the two formal roles of Congress ?

Answer 2

1) Legislate

2) Provide Executive scrutiny

Question 3

How does Congress provide Executive Scrutiny?

Answer 3

i) VETO override
ii) governing effectively and independently
iii) power to investigate
iiii) senate confirmation
v) remove President and Federal officers

Question 4

How many members does the House of Representatives have?

Answer 4

435

Question 5

Who is the chairperson of the House of Representatives?

Answer 5

The Speaker of the House - these are the de facto leader of the majority party in the House

Question 6

What is the Hastert Rule?

Answer 6

The speaker of the House would never put forward a piece of legislation that does not have the approval from the majority of their own party.

Question 7

How many are in the Senate?

Answer 7

100 members

Question 8

Who acts as the PHYSICAL head of the Senate?

Answer 8

The majority leader

Question 9

Who is the ceremonial leader of the Senate?

Answer 9

This is the Vice President of the United States

Question 10

What power does the Vice President have in the Senate?

Answer 10

They are able to cast the tie - breaking vote on a particular bill

Question 11

What is the filibuster?

Answer 11

The filibuster is the power granted to the Senate which allows for unlimited debate over a bill - it is a form of a delay tactic.

The only way that the filibuster can be ended if by the Cloture vote - if 3/5’s of the Senators agree, the debate can be ended and a vote can be taken to end it.

Question 12

What are Committees and how do they work?

Answer 12

They are known as little legislatures - they are politically balanced and represent the membership in Congress.

This is where the scrutiny of bills takes place and the members within the committees become experts in those particular areas. They become experts in areas and therefore can be seen as effective in scrutinising the bills that are proposed

Question 13

What are Caucuses?

Answer 13

These are clubs that Members of Congress can join. Whilst they do not have a constitutional formatted role in legislation, they can shape the legislative agenda.

The largest of these groups are based on party groupings and ideological groups e.g. Progressive Caucus (left - wing Democrats), Monday Club (Moderate Republicans) and the tea Party Caucus (Right wing Republicans).

Nevertheless, there are also groups concerning representational groups (Congressional Black Caucus) and single - issue groupings (Congressional Bike Caucus).

Question 14

What is the Fenno Paradox?

Answer 14

This is a phenomenon where the members of Congress are re elected at high rates but the approval ratings of Congress as an institution are low

Question 15

What is one of the main reasons for a dip in approval ratings of Congress?

Answer 15

This is because they are unable to pass larger pieces of legislation - this is primarily as a result of a lack of bipartisanship, combined with ideological polarisation and poor legislative leadership

Question 16

What is an ‘Insecure Majority’ and how does it contribute to political polarisation?

Answer 16

Insecure Majority - from the 1990s, the success of the Democrats no longer became an expected outcome as the parties would take turns in office - ultimately became two national parties.

This changed the mentality of the parties as they became more antagonistic and therefore the focus became more on the short - term i.e. winning the next election.

Question 17

How can polarisation be beneficial?

Answer 17

Because there is a clear programmatic agenda which results in electoral sanctions over defectors, hence leading to a centralisation of Congress as party leaders now have more authority over their parties.

Question 18

What has the regional alignment of parties resulted in?

Answer 18

It has resulted in the parties being made more ideologically cohesive internally as well as being more differentiated from one another e.g. the realignment of White Southerner’s into the Republican Party made Republicans more uniformly Conservative and Democrats more uniformly liberal

Question 19

How does party competition for institutional control reduce incentives to engage in bipartisanship?

Answer 19

I) Deals between parties are politically dangerous as they disappoint party - based constituencies

II) Engaging in bipartisanship blurs the difference between parties, therefore rendering voters less able to perceive the electoral stakes in choosing one party over another - therefore making it harder to mobilise support for change

Question 20

Explain another barrier imposed by bipartisanship

Answer 20

It legitimises the other party by working with them and show voters that they are there and they can be voted for. By working with another party, it shows the voters that the parties are not that ideologically distinct and therefore could vote for either and still get similar results after election time

Question 21

Explain the meaning of Police Patrol Oversight regarding Congressional oversight

Answer 21

This focuses on oversight that is ‘looked for’; emphasising the idea that people will go out and check for violations of rules and procedures.

Question 22

Explain the meaning of Fire Alarm Oversight regarding Congressional oversight

Answer 22

This process is more reactive rather than proactive; this means that it waits for laws to be broken instead of going out and searching for violations.

So a unit of time spent on oversight is likely to yield more benefit for congressman under a fire-alarm policy than under a PP policy. As a result, FA policy enables congressman to spend less time on oversight, leaving more time for other profitable activities, or to spend the time time on more personally profitable oversight activities.

Under a realistic PP policy, congressman examine only a small sample of executive branch actions. As a result, they are likely to miss violations that harm their potential supports, and so miss opportunities to take credit for redressing grievances. Under a FA policy, potential supporters can in most cases bring to the congressman’s attention any violations that harm them and for which they have received no adequate remedy through the executive or judicial branch

Question 23

What are the assumptions attached to the different forms of Congressional oversight?

Answer 23

I) Technological Assumption: Congress can choose either form of oversight, or a combination of the two; thus making trade offs between them in two circumstances. (1) When writing legislation or (2) when it evaluates an agencies performance

II) Motivational Assumption: A Congressman seeks to take as much credit as possible for the net benefits enjoyed by potential supporters - this includes citizens and interest groups whose support can aid in reelections

III) Institutional Assumption: Executive agencies act as agents of Congress and especially of those subcommittees on which they depend for authorisations and appropriations

Question 24

How is Fire Alarm Policy more effective?

Answer 24

1) Legislative goals are often stated in such a vague way that it is hard to decide whether any violation has occurred unless some citizen or group registers a complaint
2) Fire Alarm Policy would pick up any violation of legislation goals that seriously harmed an organisation or group whereas PP policy would miss many violences, since only a sample of executive branch actions would be examined
3) Under a fire-alarm system, complaints against administrative agencies are often brought to the attention of congressional subcommittees by lobbyists for organised groups, and to the attention of administrative agencies by congressional subcommittees.
4) Congress has passed legislation to help comparatively disorganised groups to press their grievances against the federal government - McConnell shows how the agriculture, Labour and Commerce Departments act as lobbyists for farm, labour and small-business interests. Furthermore, Congress has also created new programs, such as the Legal-services corporation which organises and presses the claims of comparatively voiceless citizens.
5) As part of the fire-alarm system, district staff and case work help individuals and groups - some of them otherwise powerless - to raise and redress grievances against decisions by administrative agencies. Often, the fire alarm system allows for the redress of grievances by administrative agencies and courts, without the need for Congress to become involved. To facilitate levels of such redress, Congress has passed several laws, notably the Administrative Procedures Act of 1946 and the Environmental Procedures Act of 1969, that have substantially increased the number of groups with legal standing before administrative agencies and district courts reading bureaucratic controversies.
6) There are numerous cases in which violations of legislative goals were brought to the attention of Congress, which respond with vigorous remedial measures. The general impression that Congress neglects oversight, we have argued, is a perception that Congress neglects PP oversight.

Question 25

What is legislative Gridlock and when does it occur?

Answer 25

Gridlock is a process which results in the closure of Federal Departments alongside the halting of government activity. This happens when consensus cannot be reached within Congress over a particular issue. It is normally facilitated in a partisan environment where the parties are unwilling to cooperate in creating and passing legislation

Question 26

Why would a Member of Congress align more with the views of an interest group over their Constituents?

Answer 26

Because interest groups can offer large campaign donations and ‘votes’ in the form of the groups supporters - if the Members of Congress advocate their cause; even if it is different from the view of their constituents

Question 27

Outline the perks of office and other factors that can contribute to high incumbency rates

Answer 27

Perks of Office

• budget allotment
• ability to hire staff in Washington and their home districts
• travel allowances
• ability to send postage - free informational letters to their constituents on a regular basis

Other factors include:

VISIBILITY
INCUMBENCY - access to media and other forms of resources. Also means that they are probably not working another job and do not have to focus their attention elsewhere
MONEY - people will donate to incumbents because they know that they are more likely to be successful

Question 28

What is earmarking or pork - barrel politics?

Answer 28

Pork barrel politics is where a legislators constituents will benefit from the distribution of public work projects - the member of Congress will do this to try and show that they are ‘doing things for their constituents’, in an attempt to achieve re-election

Question 29

Give an example of pork - barrel politics

Answer 29

The most famous project was the ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ which connected a town and an airport at a cost of $320 million.