1. Congress, The First Branch Week of 4 April American Federal Government

3. Congress Bicameral institution –435 seats in the House of Representatives approximately 650,000 persons in each district –100 seats in the Senate

4. Congress Fair Representation? –Women/Minorities

6. Congress Fair Representation? –States determine geography of House districts –Malapportionment –Gerrymandering & the Census

7. States Gaining/Losing Seats After 2000 Census

8. The Gerrymander

9. Congress: Representational Issues –Majority-minority districts Shaw v. Reno (1993) Miller v. Johnson (1995) –Representing interests: individual constituents organized interests geographic - district as a whole –Delegate vs. trustee models of representation

10. Racial Gerrymandering? North Carolina District 12

11. How a Bill Becomes Law

14. Congress Committee Structure –Committees & Subcommittees standing select joint conference “prestige” committees –The work of committees hearings, markups –The power of committee chairs

15. Congress Staff Agencies –Congressional Research Service (CRS) –General Accounting Office (GAO) –Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) –Congressional Budget Office (CBO)

16. Congress Organizing Congress: The Importance of Party –House: more majoritarian Speaker’s role majority leader & whips minority party - a life of frustration? –minority leader’s role: loyal opposition?

17. Congress Organizing Congress: Senate –majority leader vs. Speaker of the House Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert of IL Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist, M.D., of Tennessee

18. Congress Floor Proceedings –House quorum closed rules open rules restrictive rules –king of the hill and queen of the hill rules The importance of the Rules Committee discharge petitions

19. Congress Floor Proceedings –Senate no rules limiting debate germaneness amendments filibuster cloture = 60 votes unanimous consent agreements –the way much business gets conducted

20. Congress Types of Bills –Public –Private –Resolutions (HR 200, SJR 20) simple concurrent (joint)

21. Congress Voting –voice votes –roll-call votes How do members decide? –Representational view –Organizational view –Attitudinal view

22. Party Division in Congress

23. Congress The Rise of Party Unity Voting –51% of members of one party voting against 51% of the members of the other party Leadership reforms in the House

24. Party Unity Votes 1954-72, U.S. House

25. Party Unity Votes 1973-96, U.S. House

26. Restrictive Rules, 1977-94

27. Republican Seats in the U.S. House, 1953-98

28. Mean Ideological Split between Democrats and Republicans, U.S. House, 1953-96