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Contents Chapter Focus Section 1Section 1Constitutional Powers Section 2Section 2Investigations and Oversight Section 3Section 3Congress and the President Chapter Assessment

Why It’s Important

Section 1-5 D.Congress has important powers in foreign policy and national defense, such as the power to approve treaties, to declare war, and to create and maintain an army and a navy. E.Congress has power over naturalization of citizens and the admission of new states to the Union II.Legislative Powers (pages 158–163)

Section 1-8 A.If no presidential candidate has a majority of the electoral votes, the House of Representatives chooses the president from the top three candidates III.Nonlegislative Powers (pages 163–165) B.Congress has the power to settle problems arising from the death of candidates or the president’s incapacity or resignation. C.Congress has the power to remove officials of the executive or judicial branches from office by the process of impeachment.

Section 1-9 D.The Senate has the power to approve officials appointed by the president. E.The Senate ratifies treaties between the United States and other nations. III.Nonlegislative Powers (pages 163–165)

Section 1 Assessment-5 5.Describe the process by which Congress may remove a member of the executive or judicial branch from office. Checking for Understanding By majority vote the House impeaches, or charges an official with wrongdoing. The Senate can convict by a two-thirds majority.

Section 2-2 A.Standing committees or select committees of Congress investigate the conduct and ethics of government officials and members of Congress. I.The Power to Investigate (pages 167–169) B.Investigations have a variety of consequences that range from proposing new legislation to removing officials from office. C.Congressional investigations collect evidence, subpoena witnesses, and grant witnesses immunity, but they are not trials.

Section 2-3 The Fifth Amendment protects individuals from being forced to testify against themselves. Yet Congress may grant witnesses immunity, in order to obtain testimony. Do you agree or disagree with this practice by Congress? Explain. Answers will vary. For discussion of this issue see text pages 168–169. I.The Power to Investigate (pages 167–169)

Section 3-1 The Watergate scandal in marked the end of a long, bitter struggle between Congress and the president. By then, relations between a Republican president and a Democratic-controlled Congress were seriously strained. President Nixon had refused to spend funds appropriated by Congress to carry out its programs. But when Congress passed bills to end this practice, Nixon vetoed them. Angry members of Congress charged that Nixon had established an “imperial presidency.”

Section 3-3 E.Members of Congress often serve in government longer than any president and may resist the president’s timetable for enacting laws. I.Cooperation and Conflict (pages 172–174)

Section 3-5 A.Throughout the nation’s history, the balance of power has shifted back and forth between Congress and the president. II.The Struggle for Power (pages 174–176).

Section 3-7 G.History of Presidential Vetoes. II.The Struggle for Power (pages 174–176)

Section 3 Assessment-2 2.Define national budget, impoundment. Checking for Understanding The national budget is the yearly financial plan for the national government..

Section 3 Assessment-5 5.How does the political party system contribute to conflict between the president and Congress? Checking for Understanding When different parties control Congress and the White House, party politics adds to congressional opposition to the president’s proposals.

Section 3 Concepts in Action Checks and Balances One struggle for power that exists between the president and Congress is the president’s right to send armed forces overseas. When has the president committed military forces overseas without a declaration of war? Create a time line indicating the year and the reason for these military involvements.

Chapter Assessment 4 3.List five nonlegislative powers of Congress. Recalling Facts Congress chooses the president and vice president if no candidate has a majority in the Electoral College; charges federal officials suspected of misconduct in office and removes them if guilty; and proposes amendments to the Constitution. Furthermore, the Senate confirms presidential appointments of federal officials and ratifies treaties.

Chapter Assessment 14 If Congress never issued a declaration of war, how did the United States wind up sending troops to fight in Vietnam? When North Vietnamese patrol boats allegedly attacked American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin in August 1964, Congress passed a resolution that gave President Lyndon Johnson power to “take all necessary measures” to protect American forces. By the following spring, Johnson was sending American soldiers to Vietnam in ever-increasing numbers.

Section Focus 3 1) The House voted to override one veto, but the bill stalled in the Senate. 2) Possible fear of a pocket veto 3) One possibility is by making vetoed bills part of other bills, which later become law

Cover Story 1

Law and You 6-1 More About Minimum Wage Laws The first minimum wage laws in the United States were made by state governments and applied only to women and minors. In 1923 the Supreme Court declared such laws unconstitutional. The Court also invalidated the federal government’s first attempt to establish minimum wage scales for men and women in Not until 1938, with the enactment of the Fair Labor Standards Act, was a national minimum wage fixed—25¢ per hour for workers in interstate commerce. As the text points out, even today there are many exceptions to the minimum wage standards.

Political Profiles 6-1 Jeannette Rankin (R-Montana), the first woman elected to Congress, was a pacifist who once commented, “You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.” She voted against the United States’s entry into World War I and was the only member of Congress to vote against the United States’s entry into World War II. Jeannette Rankin