Party Leadership in the House and Senate

1. Party Leadership in the House and Senate American Government Mr. Mongirdas

2. House of Representatives • Every 2 years, at the beginning of a new Congress, members of each party gather to elect their House leaders. This gathering is traditionally called a causes or conference • House majority also elects a majority leader, while minority party elects minority leader • Both parties elect whips to line up party members on important votes and relay voting information to the leaders • Whip system: primarily a communications network in each house of Congress, whips take polls of the membership in order to learn their intentions on specific legislative issues and to assist the majority and minority leaders in various tasks

3. Senate • Senate also has a party caucus to elect majority and minority leaders • Vice president - Under the Constitution, the Vice President serves as President of the Senate. He may vote in the Senate in the case of a tie, but is not required to. The President Pro Tempore (and others designated by him) usually perform these duties during the Vice President's frequent absences from the Senate. • President pro tempore - A constitutionally recognized officer of the Senate who presides over the chamber in the absence of the Vice President. The President Pro Tempore (or, "president for a time") is elected by the Senate and is, by custom, the Senator of the majority party with the longest record of continuous service.

4. Power of Party Leaders • In recent years, party leaders have sought to augment their formal powers by reaching outside of Congress for resources that might enhance their influence within Congress • Media: Increased use of national communications media (including televised speeches and talk show appearances) • Fundraising: congressional leaders have frequently established their own political action committees • Interest groups are eager to contribute to these “Leadership PAC’s” to establish favor with powerful members of Congress • Leaders in turn use funds to support various campaigns of their party’s candidates in order to create a sense of obligation

5. Legislative Agenda • In addition to the tasks of organizing Congress, congressional party leaders may seek to establish a legislative agenda • Since New Deal presidents have taken the lead in creating legislative agendas • However, in recent years congressional leaders (especially when facing a White House controlled by the opposing party), have attempted to devise their own agendas

6. Committee on Committee • Party Leaders assign members of Congress to the “Committee on Committee” whose tasks are to assign new legislators to committees and to deal with the requests of incumbent members for transfers from one committee to another • Speaker serves as chair of the Republican Committee on Committees • Minority leader chairs Democratic Steering and Policy Committee • Generally, representatives seek assignments that will allow them to influence decisions of special importance to their districts (For example: Representatives from farm districts may request seats on the Agriculture Committee)

7. Committee System: The Core of Congress

8. Committee • Committee - Subsidiary organization of the Senate established for the purpose of considering legislation, conducting hearings and investigations, or carrying out other assignments as instructed by the parent chamber.

9. Six fundamental characteristics define the congressional committee system:

10. Each standing committee is given a permanent status by the official rules, with a fixed membership, officers, rules, staff, offices, and above all, a jurisdiction that is recognized by all other committees and usually the leadership as well • The jurisdiction of each standing committee is defined by the subject matter of legislation. • Standing committees’ jurisdictions usually parallel those of the major departments or agencies in the executive branch.

11. 4. Bills are assigned to standing committees on the basis of subject matter, but the Speaker of the House and the Senate’s presiding officer have some discretion in the allocation of bills to committees. 5. Each standing committee is unique. No effort is made to compose the membership of any committee to be representative of the total House or Senate membership. Ordinarily, members can keep their committee assignments as long as they like 6.Each standing committee’s hierarchy is based on seniority. • Seniority is determined by years of continuous service on a particular committee, not years of service in the House or Senate

12. Series of Reforms in the 1970’s • Increase number of subcommittees • Greater autonomy for subcommittee chairs • Opening most committee deliberations to the public • Frequently criticized by members of Congress because they feel that media coverage makes deliberation difficult. Members “grandstand” for the camera—renders compromise impossible because rival constituency groups often view any compromise as a betrayal of principle • System of multiple referral of bills which allowed several committees to consider one bill at the same time

13. Power of Committee Chair • One of the driving impulses behind reforms was an effort to reduce the power of committee chairs. In the past committee chairs exercised considerable power: • Determined hearing schedules • Selected subcommittee members • Appointed committee staff • Some chairs used their power to block consideration of bills they opposed

14. America’s Next Top Party Leader!

15. Time to Choose a Leader!!! • Get into your political party group • Take five minutes to answer the following: • What qualities does a good leader have? • How do these qualities come across? • Do you have what it takes? Nominate yourself or a classmate in your political party for party leader • Discuss the qualities in your writing in regards to qualities in your groups. • As a group designate a leader and be prepared to explain the process you used to elect this person and what qualities as a group you felt were necessary.

16. Informal Organization: Caucus • Caucuses (formally known as Legislative Service Organizations (LSOs): are groups of senators or representatives who share certain opinions, interests, or social characteristics • Ideological caucuses: Democratic Forum, Moderate Republican Group • Economic caucuses: Travel and Tourism Caucus, Steel Caucus • Social Caucus: Congressional Black Caucus, Women’s Issues, Hispanic Caucus

17. Staff System: Staffers and Agencies

18. Staff Members • Every member of Congress employs a large number of staff members, whose responsibilities include • Handling constituency requests • Dealing with legislative details and activities of administrative agencies • Formulate and draft proposals • Organize hearings • Deal with administrative agencies • Negotiate with lobbyists

19. Staff Members • Staff members have a good deal of influence over the legislative process • Committee Staffers: • Responsible for: • Organizing hearings • Drafting legislation • Researching issues

20. Staff agencies: Designed to provide the legislative branch with resources and expertise independent of the executive branch

21. Staff Agencies • Congressional Research Service: which performs research for legislators who wish to know the facts and competing arguments relevant to policy proposals or other legislative business (Enhance Congress’s capacity to oversee administrative agencies and to evaluate proposals) • General Accounting Office: through which Congress can investigate the financial and administrative affairs of any government agency or program • Congressional Budget Office: which assesses the economic implications and likely costs of proposed federal programs, such as health care reform proposals

22. How Congress Decides

23. Constituents • Constituency: the district comprising the area from which an official is elected • Want to be re-elected and although the percentage of the constituency which actively pays attention to legislative proceedings is small, their decisions may be scrutinized in the future • Legislators are more likely to act in accordance with constituent issues if they think that voters will take them into account during elections

24. Interest Groups • Interest Groups: a group of individuals and organizations that share a common set of goals and have joined together in an effort to persuade the government to adopt policies that will help them • Interest groups have ability to mobilize followers in a district by making connections with constituents on problematic issues • Lobbyist/ interest groups help craft specific language into legislation

25. Operation of Interest Groups • Lobbying • Organize process in which an individual tries to influence legislation or policy • Electioneering • Actively and publicly supporting a candidate • PAC’s – Political Action Committees donate money to political candidates\

26. Litigation • Using the courts when Congress does not support its causes • Class-action lawsuits – a lawsuit brought by a person or group both on their behalf and on behalf of many others in similar circumstances • Brown v. Board of Education and NAACP

27. Shaping Public Opinion • Buying broadcast time on radio and television or ads in newspapers and magazines • Publish studies • Stage media events to draw pubic attention (Greenpeace)

28. Logrolling • Logrolling: an agreement between two or more members of Congress who have nothing in common except the need for support (“You support me on bill X and I’ll support you on another bill of your choice) • Party leaders are the center of the communications networks in the two chambers, they can help members create large logrolling coalitions • Hundreds of logrolling deals are made each year, and while there are no official record-keeping book, usually whips are aware of what is owed what to who

29. Political Ideologies

30. Ideology • Ideology – consistent and coherent body of political beliefs

31. Liberalism • Stresses the importance of individual rights for ordinary people • Original liberals believed that government should stay out of people lives – Jefferson and Jackson

32. Liberalism • Today’s liberals believe that government should enforce equality of opportunity and justice by helping the disadvantaged (New Deal) • Support affirmative action, foreign aid to needy countries, minority rights

33. Conservatism • Believe in representative democracy where decisions are made by political leaders and not by the masses • Opposed to the New Deal because they believe that human needs should be taken care of by families and charities, not by government

34. Conservatism • Today believe in capitalism, free enterprise, and private property rights; oppose abortion, roll back welfare, gun rights, school prayer

35. Political Spectrum • Most people claim to be in the middle between liberals and moderates • Radicals – want to make a lot of changes • Reactionaries – believe that we should return to the old ways

36. Political Party Alignment • Radicals : Communists, Green • Liberals : Democrats • Moderates : Republicans and Democrats • Conservatives : Republicans • Reactionaries : Fascists, Pat Buchanan