The Legislature Et Cetera

Incumbency Has Its Benefits Candidate 1: The Challenger Has trouble raising money. Spends it on campaign ads and mass mailings. Known locally. Wants to see change in the government.

Incumbency Has Its Benefits Candidate 2: The Incumbent Has a fund-raining network in place. Has a war chest from the last campaign. Gets to use the mail for free. Name recognized statewide; maybe even nationally. Can get your grandmother a visa to visit from the old country; can get you a tour of the Capitol Building. Brought $20 million in federal spending to your city last year.

Incumbency Has Its Benefits

Congressional Oversight A Check on the Executive Branch Congress reviews, monitors, and supervises the numerous US federal agencies (which operate under the Executive Branch.) They can look at programs, activities, and implementation of policy by these agencies. This is mostly done through the extensive committee system. Congress gets to make sure that the Executive Branch is doing what it intended when it wrote the law!

The Distributive Tendency The tendency for bills to be written or revised so as to spread benefits widely among states and districts. Two reasons: -To spread the tax responsibility for a pet project more widely. -To spread the benefit of a bill so that it includes more people. If an idea sounds good, you can take credit for bringing it to your electorate. If a bill is likely to pass, you can get it amended to include something you want, and this guarantees your vote for it. Pork Barrel!

Reciprocation Log-Rolling! I don’t care about your bill. It doesn’t affect me, my district, or the budget, in any significant way. You don’t care about my bill. It doesn’t affect you, your district, or the budget in any significant way. We agree to vote for each other’s bill so that our bills get passed. “"A family comes to sit in the forest," wrote an observer in 1835. "Their neighbors lay down their employments, shoulder their axes, and come in to the log-rolling. They spend the day in hard labor, and then retire, leaving the newcomers their good wishes, and a habitation.”

Who Writes the Bill? Legislators – because it’s kind of their job. Congressional Staff – because legislators have a lot of things to do. Interest Groups – because they want certain things out of the legislation. Industry Groups – because they know what the legislation needs to do to work. The People – Especially in the age of information. The President (or, the President’s staff) – because they get to propose legislation to Congress.