1. United States Congress
Structure of Congress
Powers of Congress
Role of the House of Representatives
Role of the Senate

2. Introduction Congress is where the USA’s laws are made
535 Members of Congress
100 Senators (2 from each state)
435 Representatives (based on population of each state)
Founding Fathers wanted a federal government characterised by ‘limited government’ and ‘checks and balances’
Congress has an intended in-built negative bias

3. Origins Vision of the Founding Fathers Compromise
House of Representatives to be directly elected with states represented proportionally to their population
Senate to be indirectly elected through appointment by state legislatures with all states to be equally represented. (this ended in 1914 with the 17th Amendment)
House of Representatives is reapportioned after each 10 yearly census.

4. 111th Congress ( )
D – 193, R - 242
D – 51, R - 47

5. United States House of Representatives
United States Senate

6. Powers of Congress
Role and Function of Congress laid out in Article 1 of the Constitution
Powers laid out in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution

7. Your Task Read Article 1 of the United States Constitution.
Complete the table I have given to you showing the exclusive and concurrent powers of the House and the Senate
Also – try to break them down into domestic/foreign powers.

8. Powers of the House Exclusive Powers: Initiate money bills
Power of Impeachment
Electing president in electoral college deadlock

9. Powers of the Senate Confirm appointments made by the president
Ratify treaties
Try case of impeachment
Choose VP in Electoral College deadlock

10. Concurrent Powers Power to pass legislation
Power to override Presidents veto of Congress
Power to initiate constitutional amendments
Power to declare war
Power to confirm new appointment VP

11. Which is more prestigious and why?

12. Homework P. 234 – 235 (blue book)
Any other reading you would like to do
Both internally and externally, what checks and balances are their on Congress? (i.e. what are the limitations on Congressional power?).

13. Distribution of Power within Congress
Speaker of the House of Representatives
Majority Leader
Minority Leader
Standing Committee Chair in House and Senate
Committees

14. House Speaker Elected at the start of Congress (every 2 years)
Likely – will be nominee of the majority party in the House
Newt Gingrich 1994 – 1998 – highly partisan, which is a problem for the speaker
Nancy Pelosi – very left-leaning. CPC
John Boehner current speaker

15. Powers of the Speaker Presiding officer in House
Interprets and enforces rules of the House
Refers bills to standing committees
Appoints select committees and conference committee chairs
Appoints the majority party members of the House Rules Committee
Next in line to Presidency after VP (although because of 25th Amendment, this role hardly ever used).
Exercise influence on the flow of legislation through the house
Award committee assignments to majority party members and House standing committee chairs
Speaker acts as ‘leader of opposition’ when president and majority parties are different.
Gingrich and Pelosi did this for Clinton and Bush respectively.

16. Majority and Minority Leaders
Elected every 2 years
Act as ‘director of operations’ on the floor of respective house
Press briefings to talk about their party policy’s agenda
Liaison between House/Senate & White House
Bring bills to Senate floor
House Majority Leader – number 2 to the Speaker
Launch pad for presidential campaigns. E.g. Dick Gephardt was House Minority Leader for 6 years before 2004 presidential campaign.

17. House Majority Leader:
Steny Hoyer
Senate Majority Leader:
Harry Reid
House Minority Leader:
John Boehner
Senate Minority Leader:
Mitch McConnell

18. Committee System of Congress
The Committee system of Congress is made up of many different types of committees which perform legislative and investigatory functions. The most important type of committee are the STANDING COMMITTEES, which are policy specialists.
The fact that it is only in the committee rooms that members of the executive branch can be directly questioned gives the committee system an added importance

19. 111th Congress – House: Senate
23 Congressional Committees (20 Standing, 3 Select)
Senate
21 CCs (16 Standing, 5 Select)

20. Standing Committees Permanent bodies. Policy-specialist committees
Party balance in standing committee is the same proportion as that in the chamber
At the beginning of the 111th Congress the Democrats had a majority in Congress - therefore they had a majority in each standing committee
House and Senate members seek assignments on committees closest to the interest of their state (e.g. Both senators from Iowa are on the Senate Agricultural Committee)
Some committees are more prestigious than others

21. Powers of Standing Committees in the House and Senate
Conduct the committee stage of bills in the legislative process
Holding hearings on the bill at which witnesses appear
Conduct investigations with the committee’s policy area

22. Begin the confirmation process of numerous presidential appointments
Limitations of Congressional Committees power
Cannot legislate
Cannot require the executive to comply with their wishes
Cannot implement policies once they have been approved.

23. House Rules Committee
A standing committee in the House of Representatives
Responsible for prioritising bills coming from the committee stage on to the House floor for second readings
Vital role because of high queue of bills waiting to be passed.
Gives a ‘rule’ to the bill – bills have to go through the HRC if they are to reach final passage
Membership smaller and more skewed to the majority
111th Congress – 13 members on the HRC (9 majority, 4 minority)
Chaired by Louise Slaughter.

24. Homework Read and make notes on: For Thursday
Leadership and Committees in Congress
What their role is
What their powers are
Any limitations to power?
For Thursday