Congress
Why do House incumbents win re-election more often than their Senate counterparts?
A seat in the Senate is a more coveted position that a seat in the House, and Senate races generally attract higher-quality challengers than do House races. Better challengers yield more competitive elections and more defeats for incumbents. The ability of challengers to do better in the Senate than in the House is also a result of the additional media attention Senate races receive.
What effect would adopting each of those priorities have on the ways in which the winner of the district election would represent his or her constituents?
Adopting a partisan priority would mean that the winner may not represent all of their constituents accurately. Partisan gerrymandering keeps majority party in power and ignores the minority. Adopting a nonpartisan priority would mean that the winner will likely represent the majority of constituents, no matter their political affiliation or the affiliation of the majority party. Adopting minority-majority districts would mean that the winner would represent their minority group, which makes it easier for representatives to represent their constituents, but it is also unethical, and the geographic lines can make no sense.
How is the House of Representatives organized in the same way as the Senate?
Both the House and the Senate have the committee system, party organizations, floor procedures, and staff. The House and Senate both have party majority and minority leaders. The minority leaders in both houses organize minority party senators into a coherent group that can present viable alternatives to the majority party's proposals. Also, all legislation that passes the House or Senate goes through a committee, and different committees deal with different issues and areas of expertise. The party with the majority also gets the majority number of seats on each committee.
Why are committees important to Congress' organization?
Committees are important to Congress' organization because they are organized by policy area. There are many members elected to Congress, and they all have different knowledge in different subjects. They do not all know every subject. When breaking Congress into committees, each member of the committee can share their expertise on the specific subject they are, hopefully, most knowledgeable about.
What do congressional committees do?
Congressional committees review almost all legislation that passes the House or the Senate. There are many different kinds of committees. A standing committee is a permanent committee with the power to write legislation and report it to the full chamber. Select, joint, and special committees are usually focused on a more narrow set of issues, but do not have the same legislative authority as a standing committee. Committees hold hearings to consider members' bills, to conduct oversight of the executive branch, or to draw attention to a pressing issue. Committees also write the legislation that is eventually considered on the House and Senate floors.
Why are they organized differently?
Each chamber of Congress has its own separate party leadership structure designed to help party leaders keep rank-and-file members united and accomplish the party's policy goals. The House and Senate are organized differently because the Constitution establishes few guidelines for how they should operate. It was left to the members to determine how to choose their leaders and how much power to give them. Because of the differences in size, the two institutions have evolved very differently. Also, the majority party has a lot more power in the House than the Senate because they represent local districts.
How does a bill become a law?
If I were a member of the Senate, I could bring a bill about water conservation to the Senate committee chair whose jurisdiction includes water conservation. A member of the House would also bring a bill about water conservation to their House committee chair. If the committee chair says no, the bill is thrown out. If they say yes, the bill will go to a subcommittee chair, who can also throw it out. If they don't, then the subcommittee may hold hearings to obtain opinions about the bill. They may also consult the public. If changes to the bill are needed, then the subcommittee will mark up the bill. They edit the bill by public votes on amendments. The bill will then be voted on. If the bill wins a majority vote, the bill is taken back to the committee chair, who can say yes or no to the bill again. If they say yes, the bill is shown to the full committee. If the full committee says yes to the bill, then it goes through hearings, public review, and markup again. After that, if the committee votes yes to the bill then it is taken to the respective (House or Senate) floor. If it passes on the House floor, it goes to the whole House, and same with the Senate respectively. If it passes the whole House and the whole Senate, then the bill goes to the Conference Committee, which works to combine the two bills from the House and the Senate. After it is combined, the conference bill goes back to the House/Senate. The conference bill has to pass the whole House and the whole Senate. If it does, it is passed on to the president, who can either sign it or veto it. If he/she signs it, it is a law. If he/she vetoes it, Congress can override the veto with a ⅔ vote in both houses. If Congress vetoes it, then the bill becomes a law!
How is the House of Representatives organized differently from the Senate?
In the House of Representatives, the majority party holds all of they power, while in the Senate, the minority party has more say in the lawmaking process than their House counterparts. Floor procedure, the way they each treat bills for final passage, in the House is also a lot different than in the Senate. The House is hierarchical, and of the 12 people on the Rules committee, 8 of them are from the majority party. This means that the majority party can make the rules on the bill, regarding whether it is an open, closed, or semi-closed bill. The Senate is a much more open process because each member of the Senate is guaranteed floor time. The leader of the majority party in the House is the Speaker of the House, which is the only formal leadership position written into the Constitution. The Speaker has a lot duties and ways to maintain power in the House for the majority party. The Senate is also smaller than the House because it is not based off of population, instead each state gets two senators.
Why do the rules about floor procedure matter?
In the House, the Rules Committee sets a rule dictating how many amendments may be considered on any one bill. The majority party has learned over time how to use the Rules Committee to maintain policy advantages over the minority party. The majority party uses its numerical advantage on the Rules Committee to structure floor debate to limit the minority party's opportunity to amend or change a bill. The Speaker appoints all the majority party members to the Rules Committee, and they are expected to use their powers to advance the party's preferred version of a bill. In the Senate, each senator has a right to speak, indefinitely, on the Senate floor. Sometimes they use this power to delay or block legislation, or draw attention to an issue they see as important. Over time, senators have used this right to make speeches, offer amendments to bills, object to consideration of a bill on the floor, or engage in filibusters, which are extended debates that members start with the purpose of delaying or even preventing the passage of bills. All senators in the majority and the minority parties can use the filibuster. The only way to stop a filibuster is by invoking cloture, a motion to end debate that requires a supermajority of sixty votes to pass. Senators who oppose a bill can merely state their intention to filibuster, and that will be sufficient to block the bill from consideration on the floor. Senators also use the threat of a filibuster to block the president's judicial nominations.
How do the political parties organize themselves in the House and Senate?
Members of Congress align more closely with their political parties in the House and the Senate than in any time in the past 100 years. In the House of Representatives, the party leader for the political party in the majority becomes the Speaker of the House. The party leader for the minority party becomes the minority leader. In the Senate, the majority party leader becomes the Senate majority leader, and the party leader of the minority becomes the Senate minority leader.
How do members of Congress get assigned to committees?
Members of Congress are assigned to committees by their party leader. Typically, each House member or senator gives the party leadership a list of desired committee assignments, and the leadership assigns committee seats according to seniority and the availability of seats on specific committees. Members of Congress want to be on a committee that deals with their district and helps their constituents, which is also what their party leader wants so that they can become, or continue to be, the majority party.
What are three priorities a state could choose to use to guide its redistricting process?
One priority a state could choose to use to guide its redistricting process is a partisan priority. The state can gerrymander, which is when the majority party will construct each district in such a way that the majority of voters favors its party. A second priority a state could use is a nonpartisan priority. The state could have bipartisan redistricting commissions, which seeks to draw district lines in a nonpartisan way. A third priority could be to achieve greater minority representation. A state can do this by drawing majority-minority districts, where certain minority groups constitute a majority of the voters and have enough votes to elect a member of their minority group.
What is redistricting, who does it, and why?
Redistricting is the process whereby state legislatures redraw the boundaries of congressional districts in the state after the decennial census to make the districts equal in population size. State legislatures are responsible for completing this process. The official aim of redistricting is to try to keep districts equal in population, however the majority party in the state legislature tries to draw district lines in such a way as to make it easier for its candidates to win congressional seats.
What are the basic rules about floor procedure in the House? In the Senate?
Rules on floor procedure are different in both the House and the Senate. The House's floor debate is heavily structured, and most members are not allowed more than five minutes to speak on a measure. The Rules Committee in the House sets a rule dictating how many amendments may be considered on any one bill. A closed rule means that no amendments may be offered; a modified closed rule allows a few amendments; and an open rule, as its name suggests, allows any number of amendments. The most typical rule is a modified closed rule, which allows the minority party to offer at least one alternative to the bill supported by the majority party. The Senate has few limits on the time allowed for members to speak on an issue on the floor. If the Senate is operating under cloture, time is limited; if not, senators can make speeches and engage in active debate on an issue for much longer than members of the House.
Why do incumbents win re-election so often?
Since the 1960s, fewer and fewer congressional elections are competitive. The high rate of incumbent re-elections may suggest that the incumbents are doing a good job, but there are also a lot of advantages for the incumbents. Members of Congress try to stay in touch with their constituents, and their constituents then re-elect them. Incumbents also win re-election at high rates because their constituents know them. Name recognition is very important for getting re-elected. Another explanation is constituent loyalty that stems from direct help from a member of Congress, like a constituent that did not receive a Social Security check and gets help, for example. In addition, recent evidence suggests that members of Congress may be the beneficiaries of the migration of Americans. The assumption is that a Republican would rather migrate to Dallas than San Francisco to be surrounded with people that have similar ideals, making that congressional district more heavily Republican.
How are political parties important to the organization of Congress?
Since the Civil War, party affiliation and party loyalty have become the defining features of how a policy is made in the House of Representatives. Political parties controlled the nomination process for Congress back home in local districts, and anyone who wanted to run on a party ticket had to pledge support for the party's policies. If the majority party could pass policies that it favored and prevent the minority party from gaining any power, majority party members could return to their districts and claim credit for being effective legislators. Although the Senate also became more party-oriented at the end of the nineteenth century, its members never changed the rules of the chamber to give the majority party complete dominance. Because the number of senators has remained small, it is still possible to conduct legislative business in a personal manner, and each senator exerts individual influence over policy outcomes. Senators also have the chance to make individual impressions on voters over a longer time because they represent entire states rather than just one district. Consequently, senators have had fewer incentives to hand over their individual powers to a single party leader to accomplish party goals. As a result, members of the minority party in the Senate have far more power in the policy-making process than do their counterparts in the House.
Who has more effect on bill passage, the Speaker of the House or the Majority leader in the Senate?
The Speaker of the House has more effect on bill passage than the Majority leader in the Senate because the Speaker gets to decide what bills get onto the floor and controls all floor proceedings. The Senate majority leader has fewer formal powers to advance the party's agenda compared to the Speaker of the House. The Senate majority leader relies on the senators' voluntary cooperation to conduct the business of the Senate, so there are limits on how tough he or she can be on Senate colleagues. If a Senate majority leader tries to bully senators, they might retaliate by constantly using their individual floor powers to try to delay or block key legislation.
Why has the Speaker's power varied over time?
The Speaker's power has varied over time because it depends on the underlying coherence of the majority party during their years as Speaker. When the members of the majority party are unified in their policy goals, they hand more power to party leaders, especially the Speaker, to accomplish those goals. The power of the Speaker also depends on their ability to set the legislative agenda and provide services and organizational positions to party members in exchange for their loyalty. Republicans also follow the Hastert Rule, which states that when the Republicans are in majority control of the house, they will not bring a bill to the House without a majority of Republicans agreeing to do so. In adopting this rule, the House Republican Party as a whole ensured that the Speaker would only bring bills to the House floor that followed their preferences. The ability of the Speaker to make the most of party power also depends a lot on how unified the party is on any given issue and on whether he or she represents the same party as the president.
Describe the impact on law-making of each of these groups: the majority party in the House, the minority party in the House, the majority party in the Senate, or the minority party in the Senate?
The majority party in the House has a lot of impact on law-making. The Speaker of the House comes from the majority party, as well as the House majority leader. The House runs on majority rule, so it is so much easier for the majority party to pass laws and legislation that they want. The majority party also uses its numerical advantage to control committee and floor actions. The minority party in the House has very little institutional power. They rarely have the power to stop majority party proposals from passing. Their real power lies in making speeches, issuing press releases, and stirring up grassroots opposition to majority party proposals. The majority party in the Senate also has a lot of power. The oldest serving member of the majority party gets to be the President Pro Tempore. The Senate majority leader makes sure that the Senate functions well enough to pass necessary legislation, and does this by crafting legislation as close to the preferred policies of his or her party as possible. The minority party in the Senate has a lot more power than their House counterparts. If the minority party in the Senate has more than 40 members, then the minority senators are needed for cloture, giving them more power to negotiate on laws that they want passed. Also, all senators get floor time no matter their party, so they have more opportunity to express their opinions than minority members of the House.
How do voters decide who to vote for in a congressional election?
Voting is largely driven by two major forces: partisanship and incumbency. Voters follow party identification and vote for their party's candidates. Voters also tend to vote for incumbents. Voters usually re-elect House and Senate members. There is also the effect of presidential coattails, which is when a popular president running for re-election brings additional party candidates into office. The composition of Congress also changes in response to conditions in the country. If times are good, voters reward the party that controls the presidency. In general, the pattern of Republican and Democratic gains and losses indicates that voters hold members of Congress accountable and that Congress is a responsive institution.