1. How Congress Attempts to Influence the Executive Branch (President/Bureaucracy)
Main Duties/Roles
Power of the Purse
appropriating funds
Cutting off funding
controlling funding
Approving funding/the budget
Legislative Oversight
Calling members of the executive branch before them to testify regarding their actions
GAO helps with legislative oversight in regard to the budget
Law Making
Passing laws
Confirmation of Appointees (Ambassadors, Bureaucratic Agency Heads, Judges/Justices)
SENATE ONLY
Senatorial Courtesy for LOWER COURT (district courts and circuit courts of appeal) nominees

2. How the following Executive Branch Actions/Powers Influence/Affect Congress
Veto threats
Forces congress to negotiate, bargain, and/or compromise on legislation
Just the threat of the veto can for them to make changes to a bill
Executive Orders (Domestic Policy)
Allows congress to not have to make policy on controversial issues
Congress can preempt the president and pass legislation BEFORE a president issues an executive order
Commander-in-Chief
Through legislative oversight, congress can call in members of the executive branch (Secretaries of State, Defense) to testify about issues related to this presidential power
Approve/Modify/Withhold funds related to this power (deployment of troops)
Clarify their role with regard to their power to “declare war” (War Powers Resolution)
Pass resolutions that authorize/limit the president’s actions related to this power

3. How the President attempts to Control or Influence the Bureaucracy
Appointment Power
Appointing agency heads who share the same philosophy as the president regarding that agency’s role
Creating the budget
Through the presidents power to create the budget, they can increase/decrease an agency’s budget request based on how the president feels about that agency’s mission
Reorganize the Bureaucracy
Post 9/11, the entire intelligence community was reorganized
Issuing Executive Orders
Executive orders are legally binding orders given by the President, acting as the head of the Executive Branch, to Federal Administrative Agencies. Executive Orders are generally used to direct federal agencies and officials in their execution of congressionally established laws or policies

4. How Congress Exercises Influence/Checks the Judiciary
Article III of the Constitution ONLY created the Supreme Court. Congress (both Houses) establishes lower federal courts
SENATE confirmation of all federal judicial appointees
Senatorial Courtesy for LOWER FEDERAL COURTS ONLY
Senate Judiciary Committee holds hearings
Can question a nominees qualifications/past rulings/writings on issues that may come before the court
If a nominee is qualified, they can question their judicial philosophy or their character (Bork)
Blue Slips (Informal Power based on a tradition)
Device used by the Senate Judiciary Committee Only to communicate with the home-state Senators about a nomination to the U.S. courts of appeal or district courts
If a home-state-senator disapproves of a nominee, they most likely will not even get a hearing
Jurisdictional Stripping
Altering (changing) the appellate jurisdiction of federal courts
Impeachment
Federal Judges are subject to impeachment

5. Impeachment
Both the President/Federal Judges are subject to impeachment for “high crimes and misdemeanors”
Two Stages
Stage One
A simple majority (218) of the House introduces articles of impeachment
Simply means there is enough evidence to bring the case to trial (equivalent of a criminal indictment)
Clinton and Johnson are the only presidents to be impeached
Stage Two
Impeachment Trial takes place in the Senate
Takes 2/3 of the Senate to convict
No president has ever been convicted

6. Amending the Constitution
Proposing a constitutional amendment
2/3 of both houses of Congress
Presidents DO NOT sign these as they would legislation
Ratifications
¾ of the State Legislatures

7. Difference between the House and the Senate
2 year term
435 members
usually, smaller constituencies
More centralized, seniority- based
Less visible
House Rules Committee
More influential on the budget
Germaneness rule
6 year term
100 members
Larger constituencies
Less centralized and seniority- based
More high profile/visible
Unlimited debate, filibuster
More influential in foreign policy
Advice and consent role

8. Difference Between Executive Orders and Executive Agreements
Executive Orders (Domestic Policy)
Executive Agreements (Foreign Policy)
legally binding orders given by the President, acting as the head of the Executive Branch, to Federal Administrative Agencies
Have the force of law
Bypass Congress and their power to pass legislation
Examples
9066 – Japanese Internment
9981 – Integration of Armed Forces
Obama Executive Order on Immigration
Legally binding agreement between the president and the leader of one or more foreign governments
Less formal than a treaty
future presidents can rescind the agreement
Bypasses the constitutional requirement of 2/3 of the SENATE needed to ratify a treaty
Examples
The Iranian Nuclear Agreement
Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with Iraq

9. Advantages of Having a Majority in Either House of Congress
Control leadership positions
Control committee and subcommittee chairmanships
Have a majority of members on committees and subcommittees
More control over the policy agenda and policy making

10. Party Systems and Elections in the US
The US has a two-party (majoritarian) system
A party system where two major parties tend to dominate a party system
Most European countries have multi-party systems
A political system in which more than two parties tend to dominate government
One party may control enough (a majority) legislative seats to control government alone or may have to enter into a coalition with one or more parties to cumulatively control a majority of legislative seats
The US has winner-take-all (sometimes called first-past-the-post) elections in which it only takes a plurality (more votes than anyone else) to win elections
Legislative seats are awarded in single-member districts, meaning only one person can win the seat
Is an obstacle to the success of minor/third parties in the US; discourages them from even running sometimes
Some countries have proportional representation elections
Legislative seats are awarded in multi-member districts, based on the % of the vote the party
Leads to multi-party systems

11. Iron Triangles Iron Triangle
the name given to the cozy relationship that can develop between a regulated industry’s interest groups, the regulating agency, and the committees and subcommittees in Congress that make policy in this area
Each part of the triangle provides services, policy, information and resources (including $$) to the others
Iron Triangles make it difficult for Congress to attempt to control the bureaucracy
The mutually beneficial relationship keeps others inside congress from influencing the policy area in which that Iron Triangle is functioning
In recent years a number of well-established Iron Triangles (tobacco industry) have been broken up

12. Issue Networks Issue Networks
The name given to the networks of different interest groups and individuals that align on both sides of an issue in a particular policy area (healthcare)
The disparate interests come together due to an emotional or ideological attachment to an issue
Issue networks include interest groups, academics, media, white House staff, career bureaucrats, policy consultants
Once one issue network dissolves, the various actors move on to the next issue network or go back to doing what they did before the network came together