July 2 2010

Friday, July 02, 2010

9:03 AM

Composition of Congress
a. Mostly white men
b. Other countries, women have been able to overcome the gender obstacle, some have
quotas that some of representation has to have a certain amount of female
i. Need women in office to ensure their liberty and women's voice is heard so policies
can serve their rights.
ii. Suffrage movement - collective action - ????
c. Most representatives don’t represent the population, most reps are college grads, while
most ppl in US only high school grad.
i. Most reps are lawyers and businessmen, who know how to organize money to run
for office and get into office
ii. All humans are biased to what they are, their culture, etc…

How do members of Congress vote? (House of Reps and Senate)

a. Constituents interest
b. Political party interest <=========================Most important factor
c. Personal beliefs and ideas (re-election)
d. "Ill vote for you if you vote for me"
e. Other members they respect opinions/views (Continue cause from the past)
f. Interest Groups - give what you need to succeed if you help us out
i. Average election, $800,000 to one million is average cost of an congressional
election

Why members of congress most vote with Political Parties

a. They give money to run for election
b. Credibility
c. Committees
i. Everything starts in committees
ii. Can be discussed, table, shot down
iii. A more specific discussion, efficiency
iv. Early there were no committees as the legislature was small enough
v. 1809: The house is the first to create a permanent committee system
vi. Types of committees
1) Standing committees
a) Fixed jurisdiction
b) Policy experts on such areas
c) A good Rep in committee can't be knocked off unless their party suffers a
loss
2) Special (Select) committee
a) Operates for limited time and purpose
b) Established to deal with specific probs, when prob resolved the
committee dissolves.
3) Joint Committee
a) Composed of members from both the house and senate
b) Leadership is rotated around

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 a) Composed of members from both the house and senate
b) Leadership is rotated around
c) Like conference, except point D
4) Conference Committee
a) Between both house and senate
b) Designed to get agreement on a bill, from house and senate
c) Once things are done, the committee dissolves
d) Final arbiter on bill language
5) Ad Hoc
a) Come and go, limited existence
b) Created for any odd topic policies
c) Sensitive issue
vii. Committee Hierarchy
1) Exclusive
a) Can only be on one exclusive committee, and one committee only
b) Rules committee
c) Commerce committee
2) Major
a) Can be on one major committee, and one non-major committee
b) Energy committee
c) Agriculture committee
3) Non-Major (House cleaning)
a) Can be on multiple non-major committee
b) Veteran Affairs
4) Sub committees of each committee

viii. Appointment to committees

1) Match up by expertise
2) Experience, living in particular community, granting them insight (like some1
living in coal producing region can be on a energy committee
a) District concerns
3) Seniority
4) Member request
5) Party loyalty

Terms of office
a. House of Rep is 2 year term
i. Want to extend term length because there are simply too many elections, voter
fatigue. Too many elections, cant devote time to writing good legislation, taking too
much time to get re-elected; "endless campaign"
ii. Good thing about 2 year term is that if ppl don’t like rep, then ppl can replace him
quickly instead of waiting.
b. Senate is 6 year term
i. Good thing to keep so that they can be the "calm headed" leaders and focus on
national legislation
c. Incumbents: Single-minded re-election seeker

1. Term Limits: Incumbent rate is 95%

Pro Con
New blood, Fresh ideas, Diversity More experience (institutional memory)

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 New blood, Fresh ideas, Diversity
Room for new types of leadership,
diverse leadership
Increase voter participation
More experience (institutional memory)
Diminish pursuit of time
consuming/difficult legislation
Deny right to pursue chosen professional
interest
Deny punishing bad representatives

PRESIDENT
1. Congress was conflicted over the powers of the president
2. Figure head of nation, representative, but not too much power
3. Little law making responsibilities, more of a manager
4. "Necessary and expedient"
5. Can declare war, congress gives funds for war
6. Appoints supreme court justices, but congress confirms
7. Fed paper #69 - can only be a leader as long as ppl keep voting him in to office
8. Constitution doesn't really specify powers of president, opened door for president to claim more
power, more elasticity in his authority
9. "Take Care " Clause
i. President : Article 2 Section 3
1) "He shall take care that all laws will be faithfully executed
ii. Executive privilege
iii. Executive order
1) Pass laws without the approval or inclusion of congress
iv. Executive agreement
10. Congress did not want a vigorous and energetic president (president that could just make things
happen)
11. Fed Paper #70
i. Larger congress gets, the slower progress
ii. One man institution of presidency will move faster than multi-man institution of the
legislature.
iii. In times of war, presidency has power to make fast decisions
12. War powers resolution
i. Ability of congress to slow president's pace by approval of military funding
ii. But hard to prove when military has already been dispatched as soldiers would have no
weapons or ammo
13. Receive foreign diplomats and diplomacy
14. Make policy (executive order)
i. Treaties

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