Ch. 11- Congress

Summarize both the advantages and disadvantages of PACs' growing influence.

Advantages to PACs influences include that candidates running for office can get support for their campaign by having similar opinions to groups of people. Disadvantages are that PACs usually donate money to the incumbents, providing the groups an in to congress because the bigger spenders normally win elections.

Explain the differences between the Senate and the House of Representatives with regard to the following characteristics: (a) Constitutional Powers (b) Centralization of Power (c) Role in policymaking (d) Procedures

Constitutional powers: house- revenue bills and passes all articles of impeachment. Senate- confirms president's nominations, approves treaties, tries impeached official. Centralization of power: House- more centralized/strong leadership (speaker of the house). Senate- less centralized/weak leadership (Vice pres & maj/min leaders). Role in policymaking: House- more influential on budget/more specialized. Senate- more influential with foreign affairs/less specialized. Procedures: House- limited. Senate- unlimited.

Outline the process by which a bill would move through the legislative process, from introduction to the point where it is sent to the President.

First a bill is introduced, then it's sent to a committee that usually refers it to a subcommittee. Next the subcommittee holds hearings and revisions until the bill is approved and goes to the committee where it can get revised some more and the committee decides whether they are going to recommend approval or kill it. If it's approved, the bill gets put on the calendar. The the House, the Rules Committee issues a rule governing debate on the floor and sends it to the full House. In the Senate, the party leaders schedule senate debate on the bill. During floor action, the bill is debated, amendments are offered, and a vote is taken. If it passes, the bill goes through the process again in the other chamber or if the other chamber passed a different version of the same bill, it gets taken to a conference committee where the differences are ironed out and the bill gets returned to both chambers. If it passes, the bill is sent to the president.

Explain why the president has sometimes been called the "chief legislator." In what concrete ways can the president try to influence the legislative process?

Have own legislative agenda based on party's platform and electoral coalition- their task is to persuade Congress: influence members directly (not often), work closely with party leaders. President (to be effective) should work in the margins building to recognize and exploit opportunities presented by configuration of political forces. Pres also facilitates and has a veto- likely to get their way if they have majority party in both chambers.

List and explain the several possible explanations for the success of incumbents.

Possible explanations for the incumbency advantage include their positions taking appealing to their constituents by taking a stance on controversial issues. Also having weak opponents who are inexperienced, unorganized, and underfunded, campaign spending and having support from more PACs than their opponent help. Plus advertising, where the goal is to be visual to constituents, added with the franking privilege, used for things like newsletters and surveys, frequent trips home, credit claiming, and casework where the incumbent specifically helps constituents get what they think they have a right to give the incumbents a success.

There are at least three theories on why members of Congress vote the way they do: representational, organizational, and attitudinal. Of these theories, which do you believe is practiced by most members of Congress during campaign season? Would you expect the longer term of Senators (6 years) compared to Representatives (2 years) to result in their practicing a different theory of representation?

Representational- views of constituents. Organizational- cues from colleges. Attitudinal- take some influence into account, but ultimately what they believe. Representational most during campaign season. House reps would practice rep more b/c spend a lot more time campaigning.

Review the four types of congressional committees and explain how they control the congressional agenda and guide legislation.

Standing Committees are the most important, having the power of life and death of a bill; they handle bills in different policy areas. Each house has its own standing committee and they don't go away. Joint committees have people from the House and the Senate who work together to create a bill, they exist in areas such as the economy and taxes. Conference Committees are formed when the House and the Senate pass different versions of the same bill and the members, appointed by the party leadership from both chambers, are supposed to iron out the differences in the bills. A select Committee may be temporary or permanent and are usually formed around a specific focus.

Contrast organizational style and procedures in the House of Representatives with those of the Senate.

The House of Representatives is organized as a more institutionalized- centralized, hierarchical, disciplined- chamber with procedures including the House Rules Committee that reviews most bills before they go to the full house, whereas the Senate is less disciplined and centralized, allowing the senators more of an equal chance to gain power: incoming senators can get more power than incoming representatives.

Identify the major leadership positions in the House and Senate and summarize the functions of each office.

The Speaker of the House presides over the House, plays major role in committee assignments committees help insure people;s reelection)/ appoints/plays key role in appointing party's legislative leaders and party leadership staff, and exercises substantial control over assigning bills to committees. Speaker is allied with the majority leader who is responsible for scheduling bills and rounding up votes on behalf of the party's position on legislation, who work with the party's whips who convey the word party's position to rank-and-file congresspersons. It also has a minority leader and his/her whips that basically have the same duties as the majority leader. The vice president is the president of the Senate, but all they really do is break ties and represent the president's views to the chamber. The majority leader and his/her whip control the votes, schedule floor action, and influence committee assignment with the minority leader having similar responsibilities.

Describe the essential roles and functions of a senator and a representative.

The essential roles and functions of a senator and a representative are that they need to make decisions about public policy and they need to represent their constituents. The congresspeople do this through descriptive representation, mirroring the their personal politically relevant characteristics in regard to their constituents, or substantive representation where they speak for the interests of groups of which they themselves are not members.

Appraise the influence of lobbyists and interest groups on the legislative process.

The influence of lobbyists and interest groups on the legislative process is that they provide legislators crucial policy information, political intelligence, and often assurances of money for elections, making the those who agree more effective in legislative process. Also lobbyists and their interest groups often ghostwrite for congress people such as during the 2009 debate on healthcare.