Congress, The First Branch

American Federal Government

You should remember from earlier

• Bicameral institution– 435 seats in the House of Representatives

• approximately 650,000 persons in each district

• Elected every 2 years

– 100 seats in the Senate• Elected every 6 years

So, how does Congress accomplish anything?

• Committees and Subcommittees– Senate Committee of Energy and Natural

Resources• Subcommittee on Energy• Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests• Subcommittee on National Parks• Subcommittee on Water and Power

• They have them in both the House and the Senate

Matthew, please tell me we don’t have to write all these down

• Committee of Agriculture

• Committee of Appropriations

• Committee of Armed Services

• Committee of the Budget

• Committee on Energy and Commerce

• Committee on Education and Labor

• Committee of Financial Services

• Committee on Gov’t Reform

• Committee of Homeland Security

• Committee on Foreign Affairs

• Committee of Rules

• Committee of the Judiciary

• Committee on House Administration

• Committee on Natural Resources

• Committee on Science and Technology

• Committee on Small Business

• Committee on Veteran Affairs

• Committee on Ways and Means

• Committee on Housing and Urban Affairs

• Committee on Commerce and Transportation

So how many of these things do we have?

• The House of Representatives– Committees: 22– Subcommittees: 106

• The Senate– Committees: 20– Subcommittees: 73

• Committees have 9 members and subcommittees have 5-9 members (depending on rules)– Average congressperson sits on 3 sub/committees

Are all committees the same?

• Committees and Subcommittees have a number of different structures

• Standing Committees: Permanent• Foreign Affairs, Ways and Means, Agriculture

• Select Committees: Permanent or Temporary• Ethics, Aging, Global Warming

• Joint Committees: Permanent from both chambers• Joint Committee of Printing

• Conference Committees: Temporary• Iron out issues if the House and Senate can’t agree

How a Bill Becomes Law

How a Bill Becomes Law

How a Bill Becomes Law

Believe it or not, there are rules

• Floor Proceedings– House: Rules are run by majority party

• quorum

• closed rules

• open rules

• The importance of the Rules Committee

I wanna talk for 24 hours…go for it!

• Floor Proceedings – Senate

• no rules limiting debate

• filibuster

• cloture = 60 votes

• unanimous consent agreements– the way much business gets conducted

So has congress always been the same?

• 19th Century Congress– High Turnover (30-60%)– Strong Party Leadership

• Speaker controlled Rule Committee

– Parties control nomination process and dominate electoral process

– Presidential/Congressional Power: One-sided

REVOLT!!!

• Transition Period (Revolt of 1910)– Speaker Joseph Cannon (Rep. IL) had both

Republicans and Democrats demand reforms to the system

• Speaker removed from Rule Committee

• “Seniority System” for chair placement

• Party can no longer punish individual members by skipping them over

• Decrease in turnover rates (beginning of “career politicians”)

• Insult to injury: Direct Election of Senators

And they lived happily ever after…not so much

• Congress became more difficult to control– Increased Presidential Power– Committee chairs become just as dictatorial as

the former Speakers of the House– Problem arises with “Seniority System”

• Southern Democrats through “Seniority System” managed to take over most chairs, but they don’t agree with the rest of the Democratic Party

Well, maybe those reforms weren’t such a good idea

• Starting in the 1970’s there comes a new wave of reform to congress– Liberal Democrats overhaul system to get

conservative Southern Democrats out of the committee chairs

• Reversed “Seniority” System (still largely followed)

• Proceedings became more visible (C-SPAN)

• Speaker could appoint Rules Committee

• Speaker can send bill to more than 1 committee