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Summary Congress notes
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in depth notes on congress in the US
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Congress: SummaryBicameral chamber and popular sovereignty: derived from the consent of the people
House of Representatives: 435 reps, 2yr cycle, directly elected
Senate: 2 senators per state, 1/3 is elected every 2yrs (6yr), unelected until 1913, appointed by state legislatures
From 1969 to the present – the government has been divided 72% of the time and in 6 of these congresses
the houses have been controlled by different parties
Membership of 117th congress:
Senate = 24% women, 3% AA, 7% Hispanic, 2% Asian
HOR = 29% women, 13% AA, 10% Hispanic, 3% Asian
Reality = 51% women, 14% AA, 16% Hispanic, 0.8% Asian
Concurrent powers: passing legislation (equal legislative power), amending the constitution (2/3rds in both houses),
declaring war, approving the VP
Exclusive powers of HOR: impeachment (Andrew Johnson 1868, Clinton 1998, Trump 2019), initiate
appropriation bills, elect the president if the EC is deadlocked (1800 and 1824)
Exclusive powers of the Senate: confirmation of appointments (potentially 1000+), try impeachment cases
(2/3rds), approve treaties by 2/3rd majority (contributed why they aren’t signatory to some significant
treaties like the international criminal court, rejected the Nuclear Ban treaty 1999)
Incumbents: 2016 incumbents raised an average of $12mil compared to $1.5mil for first-timers
Easily expound their beliefs, easy to get in contact with, franking privileges – helped by gerrymandering
Representation Legislation Oversight
Constituency representation: Tom Petri only House rules committee: Kevin Impeachment: congress can impeach
spent 1/3rd of his time in his state, Paul Ryan Macarthy 2023, 15 rounds of voting and remove members of the
(chair of budget committee) spent 218 days to get him in, republicans said they executive and federal judges
there. need more floor time and influence (supreme court too). No president or
Party representation: political beliefs in on what is discussed. justice has been removed.
order to represent constituents that elected Double layer of
them. Higher levels of partisanship, higher concentrated power Investigation: congressional
levels of polarisation. Only 2 independent committees can launch investigation
members of senate in 115th congress. Pidgeon-holing: dying in the into the executive – Russia
Descriptive representation: Clinton – ‘a committee investigations and Trump 2016
cabinet that looks like America’
Functional representation: representation Filibusters: 2013 Ted Cruz green eggs Ratification: exclusive power of the
through economic or social groups and ham senate – ratify treaties and various
Majority-minority districts – 2017 2017 – the use of filibuster executive and judicial appointments
Cooper v Harris saw this as racist was prevented on supreme (SC)
Congressional caucuses – Women’s court nominees
caucus, Steel caucus (Trump Cloture motion – requires 60 War: congress has the power to
introduced a 25% tariff on foreign senators declare war
steel imports because of them),
Black caucus (Rangel: ‘Whatever the Pork barrel politics – wins favour In national emergencies congress
tea party is doing with votes, the acts in deference
black caucus could make that look Unanimous consent – only takes 1 Patriots act – 9/11
like a kindergarten class’) senator Hurricane Katrina
Lobbyists: pharmaceutical companies have
donated $2.5bn to congress in the last 10yrs EXECUTIVE ORDERS
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