POS TEST 2

Senate Leadership

( Rules / Individualism ) Presiding Officer - only votes to break tie (not make). Presides only on ceremonial occasions. President Pro Tempore - presides when PO is not present. (Majority senator with longest service) Deputy Pro Tempore - presides if both above absent. Majority Leader - head of the majority party, floor, and senate. Minority Leader - head of the minority party, floor, and senate. (They are more like Republican and Democrat leaders) *Majority and Minority leaders must consent on schedule. Majority & Minority Whip - (similar to House) counts votes before, monitors floor activity, and fostering party consensus. (Whips forms a team, deputy whips, etc., to carry out functions)

House Leadership

(Hierarchical) Speaker of the House- presides over house, rule on points of order, verbally votes and says results, refers legislation to committees, names lawmakers to serve on conference & select committees. They also control the Rules Committee, influence decisions of their parties committee panels. (Lead outside role more than inside) Majority Leader- floor leader (monitor), principle strategist and spokesperson for the party. Helps plan daily, weekly, and annual legislative agendas. (Functioning correctly). Majority Whip- liaison between the party rank and file members and leadership. Mobilize winning coalitions for partisan priorities. Minority Leader- floor leader of the opposition. Promotes unity unity among party colleagues, monitors progress of bills. Resolve conflicts of intraparty disagreements. Minority Whip- Liaison. Keeps track for house schedule.

Unanimous Consent Agreements

(time-limitation agreements) limit debate on the bill, any amendments, and various motions. They are like the special rules in the House.

How a Bill becomes a Law

1. Only a member of congress can sponsor/introduce a bill. (gets ideas from prez, constituents, etc.). But anyone can draft a bill. 2. Placed in House Hooper / Senate recognized on floor 3. All bills need to have clarification of congress. 4. Have a team of people (lawyers, lobbyists, etc.) writing legislation.) 5. Timing is very important when to present bill due to electoral circumstances.

Bill

A bill is proposed legislation. Public Bills - general questions & become public laws if approved by Congress & signed by prez Private Bills - deal with individual matters, claims against gov., immigration, and land titles.

Rules Committee

Arm of Speaker - gets to decide bill lives or dies. Determines schedule, debate, and amendment time.

Conference Committee

Bills must be passed in identical form. members of the pertaining standing committee often sit in conference. Conference Report = what comes out of the CC. Final vote on House and Senate; if not they can call for another conference. If yes in both houses - goes to president

Ways to bypass committee process

Discharge petition - takes bill out of committee. provides for a way to make bill go to floor despite the majority party wants. (requires 218 votes) (also applies towards the Rule Committee)

Committee of the Whole

Expedites consideration of legislation - with 100 members instead of the majority of 218 of full House. Speaker then appoints a majority party colleague to preside over the committee of the proposed bill.

How Assignments are Made

Formal Criteria - all members should be treated equitably. A, B, C rules of sitting on committees. Informal Criteria - party loyalty, geography, substantive expertise, gender, or electoral vulnerability. Determine merit and length of service.

Bargaining/Logrolling

Implicit bargaining target certain reactions from others (to push someone) Explicit bargaining split differences Logrolling Christmas Tree Bill Individual desires vs. collective action with party or against it

Committee Selection

Most wanted in House - Ways and Means (tax trade ss) Most wanted in Senate - Finance (tax trade ss) +both Appropriations (federal purse strings) attractiveness of committees changes by time (foreign affairs) members need appropriate committees in order to bring projects home. House n Senate- steering committee, selected by Speaker, selects members for committees.

Holds

One senator can ask to not schedule it, by threatening filibuster or unanimous consent agreements. Often leads to the delay or death of bill.

Types of Rules (open, closed, modified)

Open - anyone can propose germane* amendments Closed - no one can amend / prohibits Modified - open/closed aka more/few

Leadership Activities - Institutional Tasks

Organizing the Chamber: party leaders select top admins of both houses. Scheduling Floor Business: party leaders what, when, how and in which order measures should be considered for debate. Seek members to persuade votes. Consulting the President: discuss administrative roles & convey legislative sentiment about the executive branch. Consult more often with their own party leaders.

Leadership Activities - Party Tasks

Organizing the Party: select partisan colleagues for standing committees, revising party rules, appointing party committees. Promoting Party Unity: encourage party unity in Congress on priority legislation. Publicizing Party Views: expected to publicize their party's policies and achievements. Providing Campaign Assistance: must be energetic campaigners and fund-raisers on behalf of their partisan colleagues.

Voting Decisions

Party ID - strongest determination of voting Ideology - Rep vs Dem on gov spending Constituency - Reelection importance President - will never be as successful in his first 2 years since party house alignment.

Role of political parties in organizing congress

Party leaders assume 2 roles; inside and outside the institution. Inside; party leaders create the national policy agendas and use their procedural and organizational authority to advance them. Outside; party leaders articulate and publicize issue agendas in order to gain partisan support, fund raise for party memebers and swing voters. Locked in a role of permanent campaigning, leaders try to generate public momentum to either force legislative action on party priorities or create issues to take to the voters in the next election. The majority party in the House and Senate controls not only the top leadership posts and each chamber's agenda, but also the chairmanships and majorities on committees and subcommittees.

Pivotal Voter Theory

Policy outcomes on the floor rarely diverge from what is acceptable to the pivotal voter (218th vote caster) Rarely the majority party agrees with a legislation and so they form coalition with minority to win.

Work of Committees

Public Hearings - committees or subc. listen to a wide variety of experts or witnesses. (Bill's sponsors, federal officials, pressure groups representatives, business leaders, public officials, and citizens or celebrities. Mark-ups - decide actual language of the bill or amend it. Made public to citizens. Reports - if full committee votes to send bill to House or Senate, the staff prepares a report (committee approved), describing the purpose and provisions of legislation.

Joint Resoltuion

Requires approval of both houses and the prez signature. Has force of law. (usually deals with limited matters like a single appropriation for a specific purpose.)

Congressional Decision Making

Specialists vs. Generalists House sits on less committees - specialists Senate sits on more committees - generalists Timing early deciders: want to shape/lead the debate active players: delay decisions on bills to have leverage late deciders: last minute decisions due to torn & constituents. Sponsors Seniors get more exposure& consideration. Unless seniority, hard to pass bill. Amendments To win over members Voting If empty chairs, held against them at reelection

Germane

amendments that stick to the topic

Committee Type - Conference

bill must pass in identical form, and so conference committee is created. (3rd house of congress, since they change the bill up to agree or it dies.)

Resolution

deals with matters entirely within the prerogative of one house.

Committee Process

it is refereed to standing committee. Full committee must vote to be presented. Once on floor, debate and amendment process begins.

Committee Type - Standing

leaders choose who sits on which permanent entity created by public law or the House or Senate rules. (Continue throughout congress unless eliminated) Most have subcommittees (limit to 5 except in some cases like transportation that has 6) ex. ways n means, ethics, rules, budget.

Multiple Referrals

leaders sent the bill to many committees for it to be able to die. Due to overlapping jurisdiction bills will die.

Purpose of Committee - Distributional

legislators create committees to give lawmakers policy influence in areas critical to their reelection. "Bring home the bacon". Bring home projects for reelection.

Concurrent Resoltuion

must be passed by both houses but does not have to be signed by prez and no force of law. Used to make or amend rules of the houses or to express joint sentiment.

Purpose of Committee - Party Theories

oppose what is not in your parties interests and expected to advance your own party's interests.

Conditional Party Government Theory

party leadership is as strong as when there is party homogeneity within the party. Also affected by the extent of inter-party conflict between democrats and republicans. (allows for party cohesiveness to pass legislation without support of the minority. When otherwise there is small incentive to give leaders authority.)

Purpose of Committee - Informational

provide specialized expertise on different bills to make good judgement.

Motion for Cloture

requires 60 votes to end filibuster

Filibuster

right of extended debate (protects more in depth consideration of bill)

Committee Type - Joint

talk more about policy consists of members of both chambers. House members appointed by Speaker, Senate members appointed by the presiding officer (unless in statue) ex. Economic, Library, Printing and Taxation.

Committee Type - Select / Special

temporary panels that typically go out of business after the two-year life of congress. (Some take on attributes of permanent committees) ex. House permanent Select Intelligent Committee; but they can only study and recommend.)