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Lecture 4 : Congress. POLI 10: Introduction to American Politics Summer Session I 10 July 2013 Prof. Justin Levitt. Today’s myth:.
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Lecture 4:Congress POLI 10: Introduction to American Politics Summer Session I 10 July 2013 Prof. Justin Levitt
Today’s myth: Congress doesn’t do anything. Lawmakers go to parties sponsored by lobbyists instead of solving real problems. And when they do actually pass a bill, they water it down rather than stand up for their convictions.
Lecture Overview • The centrality of Congress • Representation and interest groups • Development of the modern Congress • How a Bill becomes a Law
From Last Week: • Congress is a compromise between big states (who wanted influence equal to population) and small states (who wanted equal influence by state) • Article I specifies the creation of a two-chambered legislature authorized to make national decisions concerning a list of Enumerated Powers (section 8) • This section also gives Congress an “elastic” clause (“Necessary and Proper”) to extend this mandate • However, it also places restrictions on what Congress does
Remember Federalist 10? • The federal Constitution forms a happy combination in this respect; the great and aggregate interests being referred to the national, the local and particular to the State legislatures. • James Madison, Federalist 10 • With less power, therefore, to abuse, the federal representatives can be less tempted on one side, and will be doubly watched on the other. • Alexander Hamilton, Federalist 52
The House of Representatives • Lucky Number: 435 • Selection: Direct election, by single-member district • Term of Office: 2 Years • Division: By population, apportioned according to a decennial Census* • Eligibility: 25 years old, citizen for 7+ yrs • Favorite color: Green • *Free persons count as one person, slaves as 3/5ths (until 1863), and Indians not at all (until 1924)
The Senate • Lucky Number: 100 • Selection: Direct election (since 1914), originally by state legislature • Term of Office: 6 Years* • Division: By state, two per state • Eligibility: 30 years old, citizen for 9+ yrs • Favorite color: Red • *Terms must be staggered so that 1/3 of all seats are up for election each cycle
Consequences: Chambers Compared • The House is susceptible to national mood swings while the Senate is more stable • The House tends to try focus on local and national concerns, while the Senate is more responsive to state pressure • The larger size of the House tends to empower leadership, while the smaller Senate emphasizes personal connections
Politics: A Full-Time Job • We (the people) hire Congressmen as our elected representatives because making political decisions requires dedication of time and energy • Congressmen face significant pressures from different sources • The job of the congressman is to balance all of the various demands made of him or her, to determine which best serves both the public interest widely conceived and their narrow self-interest • We can also think of this in terms of Federalist 10
The Electoral Connection • In the mid-1970s, two scholars began to think systematically about what Congressmen do. • Richard Fenno argued that Congressmen have three goals: • Enact good public policy • Acquire power and influence within Congress (may be in the form of money or higher office) • Win reelection • David Mayhew countered that the first two were only possible if you achieve the third. • That is to say, (re)election is what drives Congressmen’s behavior
Electoral Rules • Since the 1840s, Congress has required that states elect House members from single-member districts • A single-member district is an electoral district from which only one individual is elected. • Congressmen are elected through a first-past-the-post or plurality voting rule, in which the candidate with the most votes wins, regardless of whether he or she won an outright majority
From People to Seats • Apportionment is the term for allocating seats in the House of Representatives. • Each decade, a Census of the Population is taken • Everyone is counted (including visitors staying in hotels!) • Most recent Census found 309,183,463 residents of the United States (excluding DC, Puerto Rico, and minor outlying territories) • Each state begins with one seat. The remaining 385 seats are apportioned according to a complex formula • The average district will have 710,767 persons, but some states like Montana have nearly 1,000,000 per district, while Rhode Island has 530,000 per district—California has just about the ideal number
Redistricting • Once seats are apportioned to the state, the state’s legislature has the authority to divide them, or district them (hence redistricting means re-drawing boundaries) • These seats must contain equal population • In many states, the legislature has delegated this power to an independent or bipartisan commission • http://redistrictinggame.org/
Gerrymandering • Not all districts are gerrymanders • Gerrymandering refers to drawing districts designed to advantage a specific interest group • This could be a party (as your text describes on pp. 240-1), but it could also favor a particular ethnic group or incumbent
Gerrymandering strategies • Cracking refers to dividing a community into two or more districts so as to prevent it from electing a candidate • Packing refers to stuffing a district full of one particular group so as to minimize its influence elsewhere • However, Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act is designed to help prevent cracking and packing of minority communities • Political gerrymandering, on the other hand, is legal
Accountability • Accountability is what keeps representatives well-behaved • How do we figure out whether (if) representatives are doing a good job? • Let’s break this down into two questions: • How do we decide what constitutes a “good” job? • How can we measure a “good” job?
What constitutes a good job? • Representation Theory discusses two standards: • Descriptive representation is whether the representative looks like the people he or she represents. • Does the representative have shared interests? • Does the representative come from the same background? • Substantive representation is whether the representative behaves as the people he or she represents • Does the representative support the same bills his constituents would? • Does the representative advance the agenda his constituents want?
How can we tell if it’s a good job? • Let’s brainstorm—I bet we already have an intuition! • Here are some ways political scientists, legislators, and interest groups have come up with: • Who she is (background, gender, race, etc) • What he did (i.e. bills sponsored, events attended) • Ratings – How she voted on bills of interest • Where his money comes from • Whether she followed through on pledges • Personal services (he helped me with my IRS issues) • Political science uses Poole-Rosenthal scores which look at how liberal/conservative a member is
So how do we feel about our lawmakers? • We’re always more positive about our own representative than about Congress in general • Since we only vote in one district, we have no direct connection to 434/435 members • We may dislike Nancy Pelosi/Paul Ryan, but the question is not whether we’d vote for them, but whether they fit their constituencies • Incumbency advantage is the tendency for incumbents to win in their districts—why? • Many reasons include: personal contact, national concerns, name recognition, “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t”
Part III: The Institutionalization of the House of Representatives
The Evolution of Congress • Congress has evolved to reflect the needs of its members • Congress vs. the President: as the Executive Office of the President grew in the 1930s, Congress responded by professionalizing—hiring staff and extending working time • Division of labor: implementation of a strong Committee system which allows legislators to specialize and develop expertise (and minimize the burden on other legislators) • Congressional organization: As parties become more or less divided, institutions like the seniority system and the filibuster change to reflect circumstances
What do staff do? • Three types of staff: • Capitol staff deal with matters related to legislation • Give members recommendations on voting in Committee, on the floor • Often have experience working in other jobs on Capitol Hill • District staff deal with matters related to constituents • Constituent services are functions that help members of the public deal with the Federal Bureaucracy (also called casework) • Often handle local matters and scheduling while the member is home • Committee staff deal with matters related to their committee • Only members that chair/are ranking member on a committee have committee staff • Write bill analyses and give amendment recommendations prior to hearings
More on Committees • Committees provide opportunity for members to specialize • Most members serve on one or at most two committees in the House, but more in the Senate • Standing Committees are permanent committees that have jurisdiction over areas of policy (except the Rules Committee that has jurisdiction over how the House and Senate itself is run) • Select Committees are temporary committees with limited scope • Joint Committees contain members from both chambers on issues concerning the entire Legislative Branch
Strategic Committees: Division of Labor • Problem: I represent a farming district in Iowa. I don’t know (or care much) about your mass transit needs in Los Angeles. So when a bill to provide funding for light rail in LA comes up, I don’t know how to vote. • Solution: Deference. I agree to trust you on light rail if you trust me on farming. • Further solution: Me waiting to see how you vote before casting my vote is inefficient, so we give you a chance to vote before I even see the bill so I can plan in advance.
Changing pressures, changing norms • At the height of the “Classical” Congress (c. 1940-1970): • Decentralized leadership in both Houses • Strong Committees, powerful committee chairs • Low party unity (members of the same party did not vote together) • Rigid seniority system, in which those who served longer got better positions • Post-Republican Revolution (1994-present) • Resurgent Speaker of the House • Filibuster frequently used to block Senate legislation • High party unity (members of the same party do vote together) • Ideology is rewarded instead of seniority
Polarization: A new phenomenon? • Since the mid-1990s, there has been not only a marked uptick in party unity, but also a marked decrease in split ticket voting, where a person votes one party for Congress and another party for President. • Public perception of the ideological gap between the parties has also grown • Scholars have called this polarization, where there is an increasing alignment between ideology and voting behavior
That’s a lot. What do I need to know? • For the purposes of this class, we will look at three aspects: • Outline of the Process • The role of individual actors • Differences between the House and Senate • Two themes: veto pointsand bargaining • Veto points (marked by the red hands) are places where the bill can be killed • Bargaining is a key strategy used by politicians to avoid veto points and get their bill through
General principles • Only members of Congress can introduce and vote on laws, but the public, interest groups, and even the Executive Branch play an important role in the process! • Only the President can sign a bill, but he can only sign or veto what Congress puts before him • Congress operates under its own rules, and these rules contain procedures for circumventing those rules when necessary for emergencies
Outline of the Process I • A Bill is introduced by a member in his or her chamber • In the House, the Speaker’s office assigns the Bill to one or more standing or special committees • In the Senate, the Majority and Minority Leaders decide which (if any) committee should hear the bill • The Committee(s) hold a hearing where they take public comment and amend the Bill before voting • Following the committee vote(s), it goes to the Floor for a vote of all the members • Once it passes one chamber, it goes to the other chamber, where it must follow the procedure of that chamber
Outline of the Process II • After passing both chambers, if there are differences between the House and Senate version, they are resolved either via the initial chamber adopting the amended Bill or through Conference • Once the House and the Senate have passed the same version of the Bill, it goes to the President for a signature (within 10 days) • If the President signs, we have a Law! • If he vetoes the Bill, it is returned to Congress • Congress can override the presidential veto with a 2/3 vote in each chamber
Bargaining strategies • Bargaining is essential—few bills make it through the process without some amendments • In particular, overcoming the hurdles of veto points such as the filibuster and committee system generally require concessions such as • Logrolling, trading votes on two bills • Pork barrel spending, buying votes using earmarks, dedicated funds to a particular project, district, or state
