UNIT 4: BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT

U.S. GOVERNMENT | Peterson

Chapter 10 Congress
Why Was Congress Created?
The founders of the American Constitution believed that the bulk of government power should be in the
hands of the legislative branch. The large and small state division at the constitutional convention
created a bicameral Congress, with one house, the House of Representatives, based on population and
the other, the Senate, based on equality. A significant difference between the institutions is a two-year
term for Representatives in the House and a six-year term for Senators.

The Functions of Congress

Congress has six basic functions, which include lawmaking, service to constituents, representation,
oversight, public education, and conflict resolution. Lawmaking is an essential function of Congress,
although the ideas for legislation frequently originate outside of Congress. Service to constituents is
vital to getting reelected and is accomplished by acting as the peoples advocate and performing
casework, assisting the folks back home with the myriad of problems they encounter. Members of
Congress can represent their constituency by acting as an instructed delegate, and voting according to
the will of the people, or by being a trustee and acting according to their own conscience and the broad
interests of the nation. Most legislators act in the politico style, in which they combine the trustee and
delegate styles of representation. The oversight function ensures that the laws are being enforced and
administered in the way Congress intended. The public education function is an important aspect of
setting the public agenda. The final function is to resolve conflicts in society, which frequently arise
based on the scarcity of resources and differences in ideology.

The Powers of Congress

The first seventeen clauses of Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution specify the enumerated powers of
Congress. The final provision in Section 8 allows Congress to engage in actions that are necessary and
proper to carry out the enumerated powers. The necessary and proper clause has allowed Congress to
greatly expand its power and when Congress makes use of the necessary and proper clause, it is said to
be exercising its implied powers.

House-Senate Differences
Congress is composed of two very different but coequal chambers. The House is much larger at 435
members. The Senate has 100 members, with each of the fifty states having two members. The major
differences between the House and Senate are presented in Table 11-1. The hefty size of the House of
Representatives requires the Rules Committee to impose considerable procedural requirements and
limited debate. The Senate allows unlimited debate, which sometimes gives rise to the filibuster, a
delaying tactic designed to block legislation. The Senate, with its smaller size and impressive slate of
constitutional powers, is considered the more prestigious of the institutions.

Congressional Elections
The process of electing members of Congress varies according to the election laws of each state. Many
congressional candidates are self-recruited and have ties to the local district. In recent years, the costs
of campaigns have greatly escalated. Congressional elections may be influenced in presidential election
years by the coattail effect. However, midterm elections frequently go against the congressional
candidates from the presidents party. Incumbents, those who occupy the seat in Congress, enjoy
enormous advantages and usually parlay those benefits into reelection. The incumbent can take
advantage of name recognition, claim credit for government programs that benefit the constituents, and
usually have more money than their challengers. In spite of the advantage of incumbency, voters

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U.S. GOVERNMENT | Peterson

occasionally grow disenchanted with incumbents and replace them with challengers from the other
party. This happened in 1994 as voters swept the Democratic majority in Congress out of power and
again in 2006 as the Republicans lost control of both the House and Senate.

Congressional Apportionment
After the census is conducted every ten years, the seats in the House must be reallocated according to
the latest population figures, a process called reapportionment. The state legislatures will redistrict or
redraw the political boundaries to match the changes that have occurred in population. Legislatures
have not always carried out this responsibility in a fair and acceptable manner. In Baker v. Carr (1962),
the Supreme Court ruled that this matter could be reviewed by the court and that the legislatures had to
use the principle of one person, one vote to redistrict. Even though the issue is reviewable by the
judiciary, nevertheless the Supreme Court has been reluctant to become involved in these matters.
Thus, gerrymandering, the drawing of legislative lines for partisan advantage, continues.

The Committee Structure

The committees and subcommittees of Congress perform most of the actual work of Congress. There
are five types of committees: standing, select, joint, conference, and the House Rules committee.
Standing committees are permanent committees which are given a specific area of legislative expertise.
Select committees are created for a limited time period and for a specific purpose. A joint committee is
composed of members of both the House and Senate. A conference committee is a special joint
committee created to achieve a compromise on different versions of the same bill. The House Rules
Committee is unique to the House and is necessary to set rules for the 435 members of the body. The
Rules Committee defines the conditions under which legislation will be considered. The leaders of House
and Senate committees, called chairpersons, are usually selected according to seniority.

The Formal Leadership

The political parties organize the formal leadership of Congress. The leadership in the House is made up
of the Speaker of the House, the majority and minority leaders, and party whips. The Speaker of the
House is the presiding officer of the House, a member of the majority party, and the most powerful
member of the House. The majority leader is the leader on floor debate and cooperates with the
Speaker. The minority leader is the leader of the minority party and speaks for the president of the
United States if the minority party controls the White House. Party officials called whips assist the
leaders in Congress. The two most important formal leaders in the Senate are both ceremonial figures.
The Constitution established the vice-president as the presiding officer or president of the Senate. The
vice-president is rarely present for a meeting of the Senate. The Senate elects a president pro tempore
(pro tem) to preside in the absence of the vice-president. The real leadership power in the Senate is
with the majority and minority floor leaders, who are assisted by whips.

How a Bill Becomes Law

The process of a bill becoming a law begins with the introduction of the bill in the House, or the Senate,
or both. A bill is referred to the appropriate committee and subcommittee, where the heart of the
legislative process occurs. The committee closely examine the bill. If the bill is approved and reported by
the committee, it will be sent to the Rules Committee in the House or scheduled for floor debate in the
Senate. The bill will be debated and voted on by the entire House and Senate. If a bill has passed the
House and Senate in different forms, it will be sent to a conference committee so that a compromise
can be hammered out. If that compromise is approved by both the House and Senate, the bill will be
sent to the president for his signature or veto. See Figure 11-3 for an illustration of this entire process.