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Chapter 11: Congress
• The Representatives and Senators• Congressional Elections• How Congress Is Organized to Make
Policy• The Congressional Process• Understanding Congress• Summary
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Chapter Outline and Learning Objectives
• The Representatives and Senators• LO 11.1: Characterize the backgrounds of
members of Congress and assess their impact on the ability of members of Congress to represent average Americans.
• Congressional Elections• LO 11.2: Identify the principal factors
influencing the outcomes in congressional elections.
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Chapter Outline and Learning Objectives
• How Congress Is Organized to Make Policy• LO 11.3: Compare and contrast the House
and Senate and describe the roles of congressional leaders, committees, caucuses, and staff.
• The Congressional Process• LO 11.4: Outline the path of bills to passage
and explain the influences on congressional decision making.
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Chapter Outline and Learning Objectives
• Understanding Congress• LO 11.5: Assess Congress’s role as a
representative body and the impact of representation on the scope of government.
The Representatives and SenatorsLO 11.1: Characterize the backgrounds of members of Congress and assess their impact on the ability of members of Congress to represent average Americans.
• The Members of Congress• 535 Members – 100 Senators and 435 Reps.• House members – At least age 25 and U.S.
citizens for 7 years.• Senators – At least age 30 and U.S. citizens for
9 years.• All members must reside in state from which
they are elected.To Learning Objectives
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Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Longman
The Representatives and Senators
• The Members of Congress (cont.)• African Americans make up about 10% of
the House members and 13% of the total population and 1 Senator is African American.
• Hispanics make up 5.5% of the House members and 15% of the total population and 3 Senators are Hispanics.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.1
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The Representatives and Senators
• The Members of Congress (cont.)• Asian Americans – 4 House members
and 2 senators.• Native Americans – 1 House member.• Females make up more than 50% of the
population, but only 17% of the members of Congress with 72 in the House and 17 senators.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.1
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The Representatives and Senators
• The Members of Congress (cont.)• Descriptive representation is representing
constituents by mirroring their personal, politically relevant characteristics.
• Substantive representation is representing the interests of groups.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.1
Congressional ElectionsLO 11.2: Identify the principal factors influencing the outcomes in congressional elections.
• Who Wins Elections?• The Advantages of Incumbency• The Role of Party Identification• Defeating Incumbents• Open Seats• Stability and Change
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Congressional Elections
• Who Wins Elections?• Incumbents – Those already holding
office.• In congressional elections, incumbents
usually win.• House elections – 90% of the incumbents
seeking reelection win and most of them win with more than 60% of the vote.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.2
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Congressional Elections
• The Advantages of Incumbency• Advertising – Ads in newspapers and on
television.• Credit Claiming – Servicing the
constituency through casework and pork barrel.
• Position Taking – Voting and responding to constituents’ questions.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.2
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Congressional Elections
• The Advantages of Incumbency (cont.)• Weak Opponents – Not well known or well
qualified and lack experience and organizational and financial backing.
• Campaign Spending – The typical incumbent outspent the typical challenger by a ratio of more than 3 to 1 in Congressional races in 2008.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.2
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Congressional Elections
• Role of Party Identification• Most Congress members represent
constituencies in which their party is in the clear majority.
• Most people identify with a party, and they reliably vote for their party’s candidates.
• About 90% of voters who identify with a party vote for the House candidates of their party.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.2
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Congressional Elections
• Defeating Incumbents• One tarnished by scandal or corruption
becomes vulnerable to a challenger.• Redistricting may weaken the incumbency
advantage.• Major political tidal wave may defeat
incumbents.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.2
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Congressional Elections
• Open Seats• Greater likelihood of competition.• Most turnover occurs in open seats.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.2
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Congressional Elections
• Stability and Change• Incumbents provide stability in Congress.• Change in Congress occurs less frequently
through elections.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.2
How Congress Is Organized to Make PolicyLO 11.3: Compare and contrast the House and Senate, and describe the roles of congressional leaders, committees, caucuses, and staff.
• American Bicameralism• Congressional Leadership• The Committees and Subcommittees• Caucuses: The Informal Organization
of Congress• Congressional Staff
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Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Longman
How Congress Is Organized to Make Policy
• American Bicameralism• Bicameral Legislature – A legislature
divided into two houses.• The U.S. Congress and all state
legislatures except Nebraska’s are bicameral.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.3
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How Congress Is Organized to Make Policy
• American Bicameralism (cont.)• House Rules Committee – The committee
in the House that reviews most bills coming from a House committee before they go to the full House.
• Rules Committee is responsive to the House leadership because the Speaker of the House appoints the committee’s members.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.3
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How Congress Is Organized to Make Policy
• American Bicameralism (cont.)• Filibuster – A strategy unique to the
Senate whereby opponents of a piece of legislation use their right to unlimited debate to prevent the Senate from ever voting on a bill.
• Sixty members present and voting can halt a filibuster.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.3
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How Congress Is Organized to Make Policy
• Congressional Leadership• Speaker of the House – An office
mandated by the Constitution and chosen by the majority party.
• Majority leader – The principal partisan ally of the Speaker of the House, or the party’s manager in the Senate.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.3
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How Congress Is Organized to Make Policy
• Congressional Leadership (cont.)• Whips – Party leaders work with the
majority leader or minority leader to count votes beforehand and lean on waverers for votes on bills favored by the party.
• Minority Leader – The principal leader of the minority party in the House of Representatives or in the Senate.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.3
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How Congress Is Organized to Make Policy
• Congressional Leadership (cont.)• President of the Senate – The Vice
President• Vice presidents can vote to break a tie.• Modern vice presidents are active in
representing the president’s views to senators.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.3
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How Congress Is Organized to Make Policy
• Congressional Leadership (cont.)• Despite their stature and power,
congressional leaders cannot always move their troops.
• Power in both houses of Congress is decentralized.
• Leaders are elected by their party members and must remain responsive to them.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.3
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How Congress Is Organized to Make Policy
• Committees and Subcommittees• Standing committees – Subject matter
committees that handle bills in different policy areas.
• Joint committees – Few subject matter areas with membership drawn from House and Senate
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.3
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How Congress Is Organized to Make Policy
• Committees and Subcommittees (cont.)• Conference committees – Formed when
the Senate and the House pass a bill in different forms to iron out the differences and bring back a single bill.
• Select committees – Created for a specific purpose, such as the Watergate investigation.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.3
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How Congress Is Organized to Make Policy
• Committees and Subcommittees (cont.)• More than 9,000 bills are submitted by
members in the course of a two-year period.
• Every bill goes to a committee, which has virtually the power of life and death over it.
• Legislative oversight – How the Congress monitors bureaucracy.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.3
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How Congress Is Organized to Make Policy
• Committees and Subcommittees (cont.)• Committee assignments help members get
reelected, gain influence, and make policy.• New members express committee
preferences to party leaders.• Those who have supported their party’s
leadership are favored in the selection process as parties try to grant committee preferences.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.3
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How Congress Is Organized to Make Policy
• Committees and Subcommittees (cont.)• Committee Chairs – Dominant role in
scheduling hearings, hiring staff, appointing subcommittees, and managing committee bills on the floor.
• Seniority System – Members who have served on the committee the longest and whose party is the chamber majority become chair.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.3
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How Congress Is Organized to Make Policy
• Caucuses: The Informal Organization of Congress• Caucus (congressional) – A group of
members of Congress sharing some interest or characteristic.
• Caucuses are composed of members from both parties and from both houses and their goal is to promote the interests around which they are formed.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.3
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How Congress Is Organized to Make Policy
• Congressional Staff• Personal staff – They provide constituent
service and help with legislation.• Committee staff – They organize
hearings, and research and write legislation.
• Staff Agencies – CRS, GAO, and CBO provide specific information to Congress.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.3
The Congressional ProcessLO 11.4: Outline the path of bills to passage and explain the influences on congressional decision making.
• Bill• A bill is a proposed law drafted in legal
language.• Anyone can draft a bill, but only a member
of the Congress can introduce a bill.• About 9,000 bills are introduced in each
Congress.
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Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Longman
The Congressional Process
• How a Bill Becomes a Law• Bill Introduction – By a member.• Committee Action – Subcommittee
hearings and committee rewrites.• Floor Action – Votes, debates, and
amendments offered.• Conference Action – Compromise bill to
iron out differences. • Presidential Decision – Sign bill into law or
veto bill.To Learning Objectives
LO 11.4
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The Congressional Process
• Presidents and Congress: Partners and Protagonists
• Party, Constituency, and Ideology• Lobbyists and Interest Groups
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.4
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The Congressional Process
• Presidents and Congress: Partners and Protagonists• Presidents attempt to persuade Congress
that what they want is what Congress wants.
• Presidents have many resources to influence Congress.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.4
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The Congressional Process
• Party, Constituency, and Ideology• Party Influence – Party leaders cannot
force party members to vote a particular way, but many do vote along party lines.
• Polarized Politics – Differences between Democrats and Republicans in Congress have grown considerably since 1980.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.4
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The Congressional Process
• Party, Constituency, and Ideology (cont.)• Constituency Opinion – On the
controversial issues, members are wise to vote based on their constituency’s opinion.
• Member Ideology – The dominant determinant of a member’s vote on most issues is their ideology.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.4
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The Congressional Process
• Lobbyists and Interest Groups• 35,000 registered lobbyists represent
12,000 organizations seeking to influence Congress.
• The bigger the issue, the more lobbyists will be working on it to influence legislators’ votes.
• Congress can ignore, reject, and regulate the lobbyists.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.4
Understanding CongressLO 11.5: Assess Congress’s role as a representative body and the impact of representation on the scope of government.
• Congress and Democracy• Congress and the Scope of
Government
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Understanding Congress
• Congress and Democracy• Not representative – Leadership and
committee assignments.• Congress does try to respond to what the
people want, but some argue it could do a better job.
• The 535 members of Congress are responsive to the people when they make clear what they want.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.5
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Understanding Congress
• Congress and Democracy (cont.)• The central legislative dilemma for
Congress is combining the faithful representation of constituents with making effective public policy.
• Congress tries to be both a representative and an objective policymaking institution.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.5
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Understanding Congress
• Congress and the Scope of Government• More policies by Congress means more
service to constituencies.• More programs that get created, the bigger
the government gets.• Contradictory – Everybody wants
government programs cut, but just not their programs.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.5
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LO 11.1Summary
• The Representatives and Senators• Congress has proportionately more whites and
males than the general population, and members of Congress are wealthier and better educated than the average American.
• Although they are not descriptively representative of Americans, they may engage in substantive representation.
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Descriptive representation is representing the
A. constituents by mirroring their personal, politically relevant characteristics.
B. interests of groups.
C. party platform and ideology.
D. none of the above.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.1
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Descriptive representation is representing the
A. constituents by mirroring their personal, politically relevant characteristics.
B. interests of groups.
C. party platform and ideology.
D. none of the above.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.1
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LO 11.2Summary
• Congressional Elections• Incumbents usually win reelection, because
they usually draw weak opponents, are usually better known and better funded than their opponents, typically represent constituencies where a clear majority share their party affiliation, and can claim credit for aiding their constituents.
To Learning Objectives
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LO 11.2Summary
• Congressional Elections (cont.)• However, incumbents can lose if they are
involved in a scandal, if their policy positions are substantially out of line with their constituents, or if the boundaries of their districts are redrawn to reduce the percentage of their constituents identifying with their party.
To Learning Objectives
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All of following are true of incumbents in Congress EXCEPT
A. Most incumbents decide to run for reelection.
B. Most incumbents’ views on policy are well known to their constituents.
C. Most incumbents win reelection with more than 60 percent of the vote.
D. Most incumbents have more campaign contributions to spend than their opponents.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.2
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All of following are true of incumbents in Congress EXCEPT
A. Most incumbents decide to run for reelection.
B. Most incumbents’ views on policy are well known to their constituents.
C. Most incumbents win reelection with more than 60 percent of the vote.
D. Most incumbents have more campaign contributions to spend than their opponents.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.2
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LO 11.3Summary
• How Congress Is Organized to Make Policy• House is larger, characterized by greater
centralization of power in the party leadership, and has more party discipline than the Senate.
• Senators are more equal in power and may exercise the option of the filibuster to stop a majority from passing a bill.
To Learning Objectives
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LO 11.3Summary
• How Congress Is Organized to Make Policy (cont.)• Congressional leaders are elected by their party
members and must remain responsive to them.• Congressional leaders cannot always depend on
the votes of the members of their party.• Committees consider legislation and oversee
administration of policy.
To Learning Objectives
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LO 11.3Summary
• How Congress Is Organized to Make Policy (cont.)• Committees chairs have the power to set their
committees’ agendas.• Congressional Caucuses are composed of
members of Congress who have a shared interest or characteristic.
• Personal, committee, and agency staff provide policy expertise and constituency service.
To Learning Objectives
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When the House and the Senate pass different versions of a bill, these versions are to be reconciled by a
A. Joint Committee.
B. Conference Committee.
C. Select Committee.
D. Reconciliation Committee.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.3
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When the House and the Senate pass different versions of a bill, these versions are to be reconciled by a
A. Joint Committee.
B. Conference Committee.
C. Select Committee.
D. Reconciliation Committee.
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.3
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LO 11.4Summary
• The Congressional Process• The process for considering a bill has many
stages.• Presidents try to persuade Congress to support
their policies, which usually earn space on the congressional agenda.
• Parties are more homogeneous and polarized and provide an important pull on members on most issues.
To Learning Objectives
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LO 11.4Summary
• The Congressional Process (cont.)• Constituencies have influence on
congressional decision making on a few visible issues, while members’ own ideologies exert more influence on less visible issues.
• Interest groups play a key role in informing Congress and sometimes the threat of their opposition influences vote outcomes.
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Only a member of the can officially propose a bill.
A. House
B. Senate
C. House or Senate
D. staff
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LO 11.4
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Only a member of the can officially propose a bill.
A. House
B. Senate
C. House or Senate
D. staff
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.4
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LO 11.5Summary
• Understanding Congress• Congress is an elite institution and responsive
to the public when the public makes its wishes clear.
• Congress is open to influence, which makes it responsive to many interests but also may reduce its ability to make good public policy.
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LO 11.5Summary
• Understanding Congress (cont.)• Members of Congress often support expanding
government to aid their constituents, generally in response to public demands for policy, but many also fight to limit the scope of government.
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Congress tries to be both a and an objective
policymaking institution.
A. representative
B. disposition
C. direct
D. fragmented
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.5
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Congress tries to be both a and an objective
policymaking institution.
A. representative
B. disposition
C. direct
D. fragmented
To Learning Objectives
LO 11.5
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Text Credits
• David Samuels and Richard Snyder, “The Value of a Vote: Malapportionment in Comparative Perspective,” British Journal of Political Science, v. 31, n. 4, October 2001, p. 662. Copyright © 2001 Cambridge University Press. Reprinted with the permission of Cambridge University Press.
• “Incumbency Factor in Congressional Elections” adapted from Harold W. Stanley and Richard G. Neimi, Vital Statistics on American Politics, 2007-2008, CQ Press, 2008. Used with permission.
• “Incumbency Factor in Congressional Elections” adapted from VITAL STATISTICS ON CONGRESS by Norman J. Ornstein, Thomas E. Mann, and Michael J. Malbin. Copyright 1998 by AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INST FOR PUBLIC POLICY RES. Reproduced with permission of AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INST FOR PUBLIC POLICY RES in the format Other book via Copyright Clearance Center.