Chapter 6: Leaders and Parties in Congress

First… Building electoral majorities, managing internal party politics, and presiding over the House and its internal rules are among the Speaker’s wide ranging duties. These responsibilities must be carried out with careful attention to the two Congresses. Leaders must facilitate law-making, while at the same time, attending both to party members’ representational ties and to the party’s public image.

The Two Congresses Taking account of the two Congresses requires party leaders to assume roles both inside and outside the institution. – Inside role: Formulate policy agendas and use their procedural and organizational authority to advance them. – Outside role: Articulate and publicize issue positions designed to galvanize partisan support and swing voters. Help recruit candidates and assist campaigns. These roles can often be intertwined. They serve as their party’s link to the president, the press, and the public.

Some Questions I want to walk through this chapter with a series of questions aimed at the key points the text makes.

Question 1 How can Congressional Leaders mobilize a majority to pass legislation for the collective or public good when it is in the self-interest of lawmakers to reject the difficult trade-offs that are frequently required?

Answer 1 Two main ways: – Devising Sufficient Incentives: political, policy, or procedural-to attract majority support – Coordinating the work of the bill’s champions (sponsors) to win desired objectives Mobilizing winning coalitions is not easy. Party leaders must convince members who represent different constituencies, regions, ideologies, values, and interests, to support legislation that addresses national concerns.

Question 2 Who controls everything in the House and the Senate?

Answer 2 The Majority Party – Congress is a partisan institution, the majority party in the House and the Senate controls not only the top leadership posts, but also the chairmanships and majorities on committees and subcommittees. With these tools the majority party can control the legislative agenda.

Question 3 What are the main tasks for the Speaker of the House?

Answer 3 Presides over the House Rules on points of order Announces the results of votes Refers legislation to committees Names lawmakers to serve on conference committees and select committees Controls the Rules Committee Chair or influences the decisions of their party’s committee assignment panel Bestows or withholds various tangible and intangible rewards Coordinates policymaking with Senate counterparts Presents party and House positions to the public

Answer 3 Cont. House rules permit a determined majority to achieve its policy goals, but this means strong leadership and starts with the Speaker. No other member possesses the visibility and authority of the Speaker.

Question 4 Explain Newt Gingrich’s role in creating the “contemporary Speaker.”

Answer 4 Gingrich created a policy agenda called “The Contract with America.” The goal was to pass the entire thing within the first 100 days of Congress if the public would put the Republicans in the majority for the first time in 50 years. Because of this, he was widely credited with the GOP’s sweeping victory in the 1994 elections.

Answer 4 Cont. Once this was accomplished, Gingrich obtained strong influence over the members of his party. This was due to three factors: – Recognition by most GOP lawmakers that they owed him for their majority status – A broad commitment on their part to the GOP’s legislative agenda – The new majority’s need to succeed in governance

Question 5 What measures did Gingrich take to solidify his control of the Republican Party in the House?

Answer 5 He adopted a wide array of institutional changes that centralized power in the Office of the Speaker. – He curbed the independence of committees by personally selecting committee members and chairs who would strongly support his agenda (sometimes ignoring seniority) – He required GOP members to sign a written pledge that they would heed the leadership’s directives for spending reductions – He often bypassed committees entirely by establishing leadership task forces to process legislation – He changed the House rules to impose a six-year term limit on all committee and subcommittee chairs