1. CHAPTER 6 LEGISLATIVE BRANCH 6.4

2. PART ONE: BASIC STUFF 1.Congress’s primary job is to MAKE LAWS. 2.House of Representatives and the Senate are the two houses in Congress. 3.HoRs = 435 members, 2-year terms 4.Senate = 100 members, 6-year terms Note: “HoRs” is the House of Representatives. Not overly-promiscuous females… silly perverts.

3. PART ONE: BASIC STUFF 5.Leader of the HoRs is the SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE. This is considered to be the most powerful position in all of Congress. JOHN BOHNER Speaker of the House

4. PART ONE: BASIC STUFF 6.The Senate has two leaders. The “day-to- day”, “ceremonial” leader of the Senate is the President Pro Tempore. The actual, “technical” leader is the U.S Vice- President. The VP only participates however, to break a tie in Senate vote. 7. Floor leaders are members of Congress with considerable influence, party whips help the floor leaders.

5. ORRIN HATCH PPT JOE BIDEN US VP

6. PART TWO: ELECTIONS 8.Members of Congress are elected to serve a specific district. Those who live in a Congressman/woman’s district are called constituents.

7. Previous Districts Richard Hudson (R) Represents MOST of Robeson County (8) David Rouzer (R) Represents a small part of Robeson County (7)

8. Proposed New Districts Robert Pittenger (R) Would represent all of District 9.

9. PART TWO: ELECTIONS 9.“Gerrymandering” is drawing up districts with irregular shapes – with the purpose of giving an advantage to a certain political party. Since the Republican Party took most of the seats in the state legislation branch – guess which party they drew up the districts to favor?

10. PART TWO: ELECTIONS 10. The census is done every 10 years, or every decade. While there are several reasons this is done – the main reason is to determine if states need to have their representation change in the HoRs. For example – it is possible for a state to gain a seat in the HoRs while another state loses a seat.

11. PART THREE: CONGRESS AT WORK 11. Every year, Congress has to contend with numerous BILLS (ideas for laws). They primarily deal with these bills in COMMITTEES. There are three types of committees: STANDING - permanent SELECT - temporary JOINT – consisting of both the Senate and HoRs

12. PART THREE: CONGRESS AT WORK 12. What committee a member of Congress is put on depends on how long they’ve served in Congress (seniority) and their expertise in that area. Each committee has a chairperson, who is the “leader.” 13.CASEWORK is what a member of Congress does to benefit their home district or constituents. More often than not, their performance in this area can determine whether or not they can get re-elected.

13. PART THREE: CONGRESS AT WORK 14. PORK-BARREL PROJECTS are projects of Congress that only benefit a certain group or district. These are usually done in secret or agreed upon to get “future favors” from another representative(s). EXAMPLESEXAMPLES: (source: InvestingAnswers.com)

14. PART THREE: CONGRESS AT WORK Pork Barrel example 1: Government-Funded project: Teaching monkeys how to gamble and play video games… for the purpose of figuring out how to unlock free will….. $171,000

15. PART THREE: CONGRESS AT WORK Pork Barrel example 2: Government-Funded project: Giving Swedish massages to rabbits… part of an attempt to develop an Ebola vaccine $387,000

16. PART THREE: CONGRESS AT WORK Pork Barrel example 3: Government-Funded project: Teaching mountain lions to use a treadmill… to see how long they can run…. $856,000

17. 6.1-6.3 REVIEW 1.What are the three types of committees in Congress? 2.What is a bill? 3.What is the purpose of doing a census? 4.How many people serve in Congress? 5.Who is the technical leader of the Senate? 6.Who is the leader of the House of Representatives? 7.What is the purpose of gerrymandering? 8.What is the primary job of Congress? 9.What is a constituent? 10.What is casework? WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

18. PART FOUR: POWERS OF CONGRESS 15. Congress has two types of powers: legislative and non-legislative. There are two types of legislative powers: EXPRESSED: listed in Article I IMPLIED: not specifically stated, assumed powers from the “NECESSARY AND PROPER” CLAUSE

19. PART FOUR: POWERS OF CONGRESS 16. Primary non-legislative power of Congress is to investigate and punish members of government who commit wrongful actions. 17. Impeachment is a two-step process – STEP ONE: The HoRs vote to determine if the accused has committed a wrongful act. – STEP TWO: Senate votes to determine punishment for that individual.

20. The two U.S. Presidents who have been impeached. Both were acquitted by the Senate. (Left: Andrew Johnson, Right: Bill Clinton)

21. PART FOUR: POWERS OF CONGRESS 18. The Senate has to approve the overwhelming majority of Presidential actions.

22. PART FOUR: POWERS OF CONGRESS 19. Congress has three limits to their power: – They cannot suspend a writ of habeas corpus. “Habeas corpus” is a court order requiring a suspect to be brought before a judge to have their charges explained to them – They cannot pass a bill of attainder. This is a law that would punish someone without a trial. – They cannot pass ex post facto laws. These are laws that would allow someone to be punished for committing an act BEFORE it was against the law.

23. PART FIVE: HOW A BILL BECOMES A LAW 20. STEP ONE: INTRODUCTION

24. PART FIVE: HOW A BILL BECOMES A LAW 21. STEP TWO: COMMITTEE WORK

25. PART FIVE: HOW A BILL BECOMES A LAW 22. STEP THREE: DEBATE

26. PART FIVE: HOW A BILL BECOMES A LAW 23. STEP FOUR: VOTE – Do note that the bill is voted on in both Houses. In order for it to move on, the bill in the House and Senate has to be identical. If it isn’t, a conference committee (joint committee) is formed to resolve the differences and the bill is voted upon again.

27. PART FIVE: HOW A BILL BECOMES A LAW 24. STEP FIVE: PRESIDENTIAL ACTION – Can sign the bill into law – Can veto it (kills it, but can be overturned with a two-thirds vote from Congress). – Can ignore it for ten days. IF Congress is IN SESSION, the bill automatically becomes a law. IF Congress is NOT in session, the bill dies (pocket veto).

28. 6.4-6.5 REVIEW 1.What are the two non-legislative powers of Congress? 2.Give an example of an ex post facto law. 3.What is the purpose of a filibuster? 4.What are the two steps of the impeachment process? 5.What is the purpose of a conference committee? 6.Who has to approve the majority of Presidential actions? 7.What happens if the President receives a bill and does nothing for 10 days? (two answers) 8.What is habeas corpus?