1 / 32

How Congress Works Part 1:

How Congress Works Part 1:. Structure, Organization, & Legislative Process. Who’s in Congress?. Age Groups. Party. Gender. Ethnicity. Demographic Profile of Congress. Source: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/demographics.tt. House 435 members; 2 yr terms Low turnover

pegeen
Télécharger la présentation

How Congress Works Part 1:

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. How Congress WorksPart 1: Structure, Organization, & Legislative Process

  2. Who’s in Congress?

  3. Age Groups Party Gender Ethnicity Demographic Profile of Congress Source: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/demographics.tt

  4. House 435 members; 2 yr terms Low turnover Speaker bill referral hard to challenge Scheduling/rules controlled by majority party with powerful Rules Committee (controls time of debate, amends., etc) Senate 100 members; 6 yr terms Moderate turnover Referral decisions easily challenged Scheduling/rules agreed to by majority & minority leaders House-Senate Differences

  5. House Debate limited to 1 hour Members policy specialists Emphasizes tax & revenue policy More formal & impersonal Senate Unlimited debate unless cloture invoked Members policy generalists Emphasizes foreign policy More informal & personal House-Senate Differences

  6. Party Leadership Bicameral Democratic Leadership 112th Congress Senate Republican Leadership 112th Congress

  7. HOUSE LEADERSHIP Speaker (majority party) Republicans: • Majority Leader • Majority Whip • Chairman of the Caucus • Steering & Policy Committee • Republican Congressional Campaign Committee Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) Eric Cantor Majority Leader (R) Kevin McCarthy Majority Whip (R)

  8. HOUSE LEADERSHIP Democrats: • Minority Leader • Minority Whip • Chairman of Conference • Policy Committee • Committee on Committees • National Democratic Congressional Committee Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) Assistant Minority Leader James Clyburn (D-SC) Majority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD)

  9. House Party standings (at the beginning of this Congress)    193 Democrats 242 Republicans

  10. SENATE LEADERSHIP President of the Senate (Vice President) President Pro Tempore (majority party) Democrats: • Majority Leader • Majority Whip • Chairman of Conference • Policy Committee • Steering Committee • Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee President of the Senate Joe Biden (D-DE) Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) Assistant Majority Leader/Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-IL) Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

  11. SENATE LEADERSHIP Republicans: • Minority Leader • Minority Whip • Chairman of Conference • Policy Committee • Committee on Committees • Republican Senatorial Committee Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Minority Whip John Kyl (R-AZ)

  12. Senate Party standings (at the beginning of this Congress)    51 Democrats   2 Independents, both caucusing with Democrats  47 Republicans

  13. Strength of Party Structure? • Measure of party strength: • Ability of leaders to control party rules and organization • Extent to which party members vote together in the House and Senate • Senate: less party-centered and leader oriented

  14. Party Unity • Lower today than 100 years ago, but….. • Ideology important variable explaining party voting (members vote with their party 80% of the time) • Party polarization - vote in which majority of Democrats oppose majority of Republicans • Polarization trends: • 1976 HR = 36%; S = 37% • 1995 HR = 73%; S = 69% • 2000 HR = 43%; S = 49%

  15. CAUCUSES • Groups (may be bipartisan) meeting to pursue common legislative objectives • Rivals to parties in policy formulation • Examples: Democratic Study Group, Women’s Caucus, Congressional Black Caucus, Tuesday Lunch Bunch, Human Rights, Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues, Out of Iraq Caucus, Rural Caucus, Travel & Tourism Caucus, House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children

  16. Legislative Committees: Function and Purpose

  17. 1. Consider bills(a.k.a. “mark-up” bills) Legislative Committees:Function & Purpose A bill with a member’s mark-up notes

  18. 2. Maintain oversight of executive agencies Legislative Committees:Function & Purpose Secretary Donald Rumsfeld testifies before a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing re: the Department of Defense Budget (May, 2006)

  19. 3. Conduct investigations Legislative Committees:Function & Purpose New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Hurricane Katrina (Feb., 2006)

  20. Types of Committees • Standing Committees- permanent panel with full legislative functions and oversight responsibilities • Subcommittees – formed to tackle very specific tasks within the jurisdiction of the full committees • Select or Special Committees- groups appointed for a limited purpose and limited duration • Joint Committees - includes members of both chambers to conduct studies or perform housekeeping tasks • Conference Committee - includes members of House & Senate to work out differences between similar bills

  21. Standing Committees

  22. Agriculture Appropriations Armed Services Budget Education & Workforce Energy & Commerce Financial Services Government Reform House Admin. International Relations Judiciary Resources Rules Science Small Business Standards of Official Conduct Transportation & Infrastructure Veterans Affairs Ways & Means House Standing Committees

  23. Agriculture, Nutrition, & Forestry Appropriations Armed Services Banking, Housing, & Urban Affairs Budget Commerce, Science, Transportation Energy & Natural Resources Environment and Public Works Finance Foreign Relations Governmental Affairs Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Judiciary Rules and Administration Small Business and Entrepreneurship Veterans Affairs Senate Standing Committees

  24. House Select Committee on Energy Independence & Global Warming Senate Select Committee on Ethics House & Senate Select Committees on Intelligence Special, Select Committees Gen. Michael Hayden is sworn in during a full committee hearing of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee on his nomination to bedirector of the Central Intelligence Agency.

  25. Joint Committees • Joint Economic Committee • Joint Committee on Printing • Joint Committee on Taxation Joint Committee on Taxation hearing

  26. The Legislative Obstacle Course

  27. How A Bill Becomes Law About 5,000 bills are introduced in Congress every year, but only about 150 are signed into law. Explain why so few bills become law. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Should the legislative process in Congress be reformed? If yes, what changes would you recommend? If not, why not? Source: http://acswebcontent.acs.org/olga/legissummbilltolaw.pdf

  28. Title: Resolution Artist: Bob Gorrell Date: 12/28/06 Source: http://www.gorrellart.com/

  29. Artist: R.J. Matson, New York Observer & Roll Call Date: 1/18/07 Source: http://www.cagle.com

  30. Title: Imagine there’s no Congress Artist: Joe Heller, Green Bay Press-Gazette Date: 6/06/07 Source: http://www.politicalcartoons.com/

  31. Title: Senator Reid Can Handle the Truth Artist: RJ Matson Date: 6/18/07 Source: http://www.politicalcartoons.com

  32. Source: http://bigpicture.typepad.com/Date: 5/6/06

More Related