Congress
Contents:
1. Power of the purse
2. Gerrymandering
3. Pork Barrel Politics
4. Government Shutdown
5. Presidential Veto
6. Impeachment
7. Confirmation of appointments
8. Filibuster
9. Bipartisan Policies
10. Representative function of Congress
11. Select Committees
12. Leadership
Power of the Purse:
In the 1980s, the Iran-Contra scandal saw Congress deny further aid to the Contras in Nicaragua.
Unwilling to accept the will of Congress, members of the Reagan administration solicited private
donations, set up elaborate corporate schemes and brokered illegal arms deals with Iran in order to
generate unofficial funds that could not be regulated by Congress.
The Foreign Assistance Act of 1974 eliminated all military funding for the government of South Vietnam,
thereby ending the Vietnam war.
Gerrymandering:
In New York state, the late Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) once represented what was called the Earmuff
District. It took in a round part of Buffalo, a similarly shaped one in Rochester 60 miles away, and joined
them with a narrow strip drawn along the Lake Ontario shore. This helped to produce a 73% Democrat
majority in the 2006 US House election.
In the 2012 elections, Wisconsin held state legislative elections following a redistricting process that
heavily favoured the Republican Party. The redistricting plan, drawn by Republican lawmakers, was
widely criticised for its partisan gerrymandering, hence Republicans won 48.6% of the statewide vote for
State Assembly seats but secured 60 out of 99 seats.
Pork Barrel Politics:
,The $750 billion Inflation Reduction Act passed in August 2022, however it had to be heavily watered
down from its previous form of the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better Act. This was due to a lack of support
from fellow Democrat Joe Manchin, who refused to pass it unless amendments were made, including the
addition of funding for Black Lung clinics in his state of West Virginia, which had a large mining
population.
Max Baucus, Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, was largely responsible for writing the Affordable
Care Act bill in 2010. He ensured that a provision was included to expand Medicare coverage to those
living near an asbestos mine in his own state of Montana.
Government Shutdown:
(Regularly agree, but becoming more frequent that they don’t)
Government shutdown in October 2013 for 16 days. It cost the government $2bn in lost productivity.
Prior to that, government shutdown for 22 days under President Clinton in 1995. Before Clinton, the
government had only ever shut down for a maximum of 2 days, yet the following president Trump saw
another shutdown for 35 days.
Presidential Veto:
January 2016 Obama vetoed plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act following a warning in December
2015. As they went ahead, he vetoed and wasn’t overridden. This proves the legitimacy of such a threat,
as the bill was passed thanks to Republican majorities in both houses, however they fell short of the
required majority to overturn the veto. As, for example, the GOP only had 54 senators.
September 2016 was the only time Obama had his veto overturned, as The Senate voted 97 -1 and the
House of Representatives voted 348 -77 voted to overturn President Obama’s veto of the ‘Justice Against
Sponsors of Terrorism Act’ which would allow families of the victims of the September 11 terrorist
attacks to sue the Saudi Arabian government suspected of involvement in the terrorist attack. Obama
argued that the legislation would put American diplomats at risk as they would no longer receive
diplomatic sovereign immunity.
Impeachment:
th
On January 11 2021, 3 representatives introduced an Article of Impeachment against Trump, charging
th
him with “incitement of insurrection” on January 6 2021, as he urged his supporters to march on the
Capitol building. A total of 218 House Democrats co-sponsored the article of impeachment, ensuring its
passage.
,President Bill Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives on December 19, 1998, on
charges of perjury to a grand jury and obstruction of justice regarding a lawsuit filed against him relating
to the Lewinsky scandal. He was acquitted by the Senate just a few months later however.
No US president has ever been removed from office through impeachment.
Confirmation of appointments:
In 2021, Neera Tanden pulled out as director of the office of management and budget, as, despite being
a former advisor to Hillary Clinton, select committee investigations revealed she had a history of spiky
social media postings targeting both Republicans and Bernie Sanders. She was therefore forced to
withdraw her name before it went to a vote, as it she was already facing resistance from Democrat and
Republican Senators
Loretta Lynch was nominated by Obama and confirmed by 56-43 after a 5-month partisan deadlock,
longer than the last 7 attorney generals combined.
Filibuster:
In 2014, the Republicans blocked the Paycheck Fairness Act four separate times due to the filibuster,
because the bill would have levelled harsher penalties for discrimination and required employers to
account for any pay gap between male and female workers, preventing financial freedom. The bill never
made it to the final vote.
In 2017 Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell used a procedural legislative maneuverer known as the
‘nuclear option’ to change the filibuster rules so that Supreme Court nominations could be approved
with a simple majority of votes rather than the 60 that is usually required. This was important for the
Republicans as they only had 52 Senators and could not have stopped Jeff Merkley (Democrat Senator
for Oregan) for filibustering against the appointment of Gorsuch any other way.
In May 2022, the House’s ‘Protecting Our Kids Act’ passed but contained too many elements that Senate
Republicans opposed. The Senate put forward its own version, which watered down the bill by taking
away the option to ban any weapons or force ‘red-flag’ laws across the US, allowing it to pass with 65-33
support in the Senate as the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.
Bipartisan Policies:
Following the Uvalde school shooting, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act was passed as the first
agreement on gun violence in 30 years. It raised the age of semiautomatic rifles to 21, required safe
, firearms storage and seeks to cut down on illicit firearm trafficking. The bill was passed in the House with
the support of only 14 of the 212 Republicans, 6 of whom are members of the moderate Tuesday group.
In March 2022, The Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act passed 422-3 in the House and unanimously in the
Senate after more than a century and 200 attempts to ban it. It made lynching a federal hate crime.
Momentum was gathered to pass it after the death of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter protests.
Representative function of Congress:
Each Congress since the 112th has broken the previous session's record for the most racially diverse
member makeup, with the 55% of Democrat representatives being non-white in the current 118th
Congress
The 118th Congress saw 28% of women, the highest ever. (analysis - However, 41% of Congressional
Democrats are women, compared to 16% of Republicans).
As very diverse - In March 2022, The Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act passed 422-3 in the House and
unanimously in the Senate after more than a century and 200 attempts to ban it. It made lynching a
federal hate crime. Momentum was gathered to pass it after the death of George Floyd and Black Lives
Matter protests.
Despite being diverse… - Women’s Health Protection (House 219-210 Senate 49-51) (Manchin) and
Ensuring Access to Abortion Bill will not pass in the Senate, if voted on, as it will not receive the support
needed from Republicans to avoid the filibuster. This is despite the 117th Congress being the best in
terms of female representation, with there being 144 women in total. No abortion legislation passed.
Select Committees:
Encouraging Bipartisanship:
In 2015, members of the Republican Controlled Appropriations Committee voted to remove
Cuba-America travel restrictions and removal of the trade embargo was passed 18-12 when 4
Republicans joined 14 Democrats to pass the bill.
Presidential Appointments:
Blocking - Merrick Garland was not even considered by the Senate Judiciary committee in 2016 after
being nominated by Obama after the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, has argued that the next
president should be the one to nominate a replacement to a court - referring to the “Thurmond rule” as
a precedent for the Senate resisting appointments in the final months of a presidency. He will now be
Biden’s Attorney General
