House: 25 +

Senate: 30+ 

House: 7 + years

Senate: 9 + years 

House: 2 years

Senate: 6 years 

House: Districts

Senate: States 

1. initiate revenue bills

2. impeach public officers 

1. confirm presidential appointees

2. try impeachments

3. ratify treaties 

House: Speaker

Senate: Vice Presdient of President Pro Tem 

House: Speaker

Senate: Majority Leader 

• Presides over Senate when Vice Presidency is vacant
• elected by chamber
• by custome, the most senior majority party Senator

1. Finance (tax and borrow)
2. To fund welfare (including grants to states)
3. Commerce and Economy (regulatory powers)
4. Personnel (confirm, impeach, try)
5. Courts (establish, limit, fund)
6. Armed Forces (establish, regulate, fund, declare war)
7. World Beyond the States (treaties, foreign aid, commerce, territories, seas)
8. Beauracracy (establish, authorize, fund)
9. Political System

1. Caucuses
2. Speaker
3. Majority and Minority Leaders
4. Whips
5. Committee on Committees
6. House Campaign Committee

• Republicans call theirs a conference
• comprimise all members of a given party in the House
• meet once a year to elect their leader
• if majority party they elect the Speaker
• also elect deputies, Majority Leader and Minority Whip

• deputies
• helps leader control and stay informed about individual party members

• makes committee assignments
• makes a Policy Committe that runs the party in the House when caucus is not convened
• have final word on chairmanships if majority party
• have final word on ranking memberships of legislative committees

• Speaker elected formally by the House
• Rules Committee
• Legislative Committee
• Charimen of committess and subcommittees

• gate keeping committee
• says what bills come up, when ad in what form
• limits debate and amendments

• International Relations, Agriculture, Ways and Means, etc
• have specific jurisdictions that sometimes overlap
• All have subcommittees

House Chairmen of Committees and Subcommittees

• Chosen by majority party caucus, usually by senority
• control committee agenda
• act as floor managers of bills reported by their committees

Senate Organization

• organized like House except no Rules Committee or limit on debate and amendments
• scheduling made by Majority Leader in consultation with Minority Leader
• more comity in Senate

1. Organize Party- allocate jobs to party members
2. Schedule Business
3. Monitor attendance- ensure party membes show up to vote on issues the party cares about
4. Disseminate Information- ensure party members know party's position and how others are planning to vote
5. Work with President- both party leaders are invited
6. Whip- round up, persuade and importune members to vote by their party lines

Subcommittee Bill of Rights

• est. in 1970s
• speaker and party caucuses gain control over chairmenships and scheduling
• diffussion of power down to subcommittee chairmen
• subcommittees grew and more members got to serve as chairmen

• decentralized- each committee has seperate jurisdiction
• have agenda control- impossible to vote on a bill unless a committee sends it to the floor
• reciprocity among members- committees respect eachother's turf.

• Each party's committee on committees makes assignments
• Congressmen usually get the committee they want
• Each representative makes a list of committees he wants to serve on
• Party makes assignments based on demand and senority
• junior members will try to get on committees that benefit his constituency

• draft law, a law in the making

1. Introduced by member of House or Senate or passed in the other house
2. Assigned to a Committee of Subcommitee or drafted there
3. Hearings
4. Mark up
5. Positive Report
6. Scheduled for Debate (if in House limits on debate and amendments set)
7. Postive Vote
8. If House and Senate have same versions goes to President, if different verions must go to a House-Senate conference committee and then pass through both houses wth no amendments before going to President
9. President can sign bill, sit on bill for 10 days while Congress is in session, or vetoes
10. House and Senate can override veto by 2/3 vote

• if Congress submits a bill to President but goes out of session before 10 days President can not sign the bill which vetos the bill and cannot be overridden

• pass revenue or debt ceiling bills to tax or borrow to get money needed to run the governement

• establish executive units, their programs and their powers
• creates administrative agencies and tells them what they can and/or must do

• gives money to agencies and programs it has authorized
• appropriations are annual and must be renewed each year
• if program does not get money it must shut down

• also known as backdoor spending
• exception to appropriation bills
• certain people are entitled to certain amounts of money whether or not Congresshas appropriated enough money
• Medicare, Social Security, Veterans Pensions, Pell Grants, farm subsidies
• responsible for most deficit spending
• non-discretionary spending in federal budget

• Budget Act of 1921 requires executive budget initiative
• each year the President must submit a single comprehensive budget saying how much will be spent on what
• Congress modifies this baseline to make an overall decision what to tax and spend

• created by the Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974
• Formally known as the Bureau of Budget
• coordinates all executive budget requests and submits budget to Congress

Budget Process

• OMB prepares executive budget proposal in January
• Congressional Budget Office (CBO) prepares a report on President's proposal by Febuary 15th.  Questions President's assumptions about economy.  Made of nonpartisan economists
• Legislation writing committees make reports on aspects of proposal pertainign to their jurisdiction by Feb. 25th
• reports and proposals of these three groups submitted to House and Senate Budget Committees.  These committees must report by April 1st. 
• First Concurrent Budget Resolution is suppossed to pass Congress by April 15th
• Throughout summer new bills prepared in committees pertaining to agencies and programs under their jurisdiction
• Second Concurrent Budget Resolution reflecting new laws is passed in September
• Reconciliation act is usually needed to to revise new laws just passed to conform to new budget resolution
• Fiscal year begins October 1st

• Congressmen want to hold onto their jobs
• In Congress, parties are weaker
• Congressmen must see themselves as agents of their constituency more than his party to get reelected

• congressmen try to take credit for every good thing the governement does for his district
• He is the first to announce any federal benefits for his district

• Try hard to show his constituency he has fought for the right thing
• Includes voting for losing propositions and making public statements

• locally targeted benefits
• pork barrel legislation and case work

• Pork is money spent on seperate tangible projects in a district
• roads, hospitals, bridges, schools, etc
• Pork Barrel Legislation are laws that authorize these projects

• acting as an intermediatary between constituents and the federal bureacracy
• buracracy is usually responsive because congress appropriates their budget

• shared incentive of congressmen to get goodies for their constituency
• to avoid fighting over benefits pass laws fat with pork
• IE interstate highways bring pork to everyone

1. Sincere Voting
2. Strategic voting
3. Cooperative Voting

• Votes against an option he likes in order to accomplish something bigger or to avoid a greater evil
• bases his vote on the consequences rather than the content of alternative choices

• makes a deal with others to trade votes, or logrolls
• Example: Farm subsidies and food stamps

• all the offices and civil servants who do most of day to day work of regulating behavior and providing services
• makes up most of the government

• establishes executive branch
• President is Commander in Chief

• power to enforce the law
• appoint top subordinates and judges
• negotiate treaties
• recieve foreign diplomats
• commission officers
• Convene Congress
• veto legislation

1. President
2. Executive Office of the President
3. Departments and Agencies
4. Vice President

• people who work in or near the White House
• report directly to the President
• Advisory
• Help President do his job but have no operational authority

• White House Staff
  • Chief of Staff
  • Speech Writers
  • Counsel
  • Legislative Liason
  • Press Secretary
• Counselors to the President

• State, Defense, Treasury, etc
• Make up the Cabinet
• can also include OMB director, Chief of Staff, and others

• GSA, EPA, CIA, FDA, etc.
• heads appointed by the Presdient
• heads not in Cabinet
• similar to executive departments

• Federal Reserve Board and Securities Exchange Commissions
• more politically independent
• heads cannot be fired by President

• IE Postal Service
• much like private corporations but owned by Congress
• Heads cannot be fired by the President

1. Chief of State
2. Head of Government
3. Chief Executive
4. Commander in Chief
5. Party Leader
6. National Political Leader

• ceremonial duties and is figurehead embodying the state
• Pardons
• Commissions officers

• like prime minister, leads a government that administers acts of legislature

• Like a CEO, sole top exectutive
• does not need vote of cabinet
• executes and enforces law
• demand opinion od his cabinet
• appoints and fires executive branch employees

• Although a civilian, acts as general
• Commands all armed forces, including state militias when in federal service

• head of his party
• however, cannot order party members to vote a certaine way like Prime Ministers can

• leads people and explains governments policies to them

• Unless Congress has declared or authorized war, the President must notify Congress within 48 hours of troop deployment overseas
•  after 60 days of deployment he must either secure Congressional approval or bring troops home
• If he does not get consent he has 30 days to bring them home

• must be ratified by a 2/3 vote in Senate
• can override state laws

1. Pure
   1. about issues within Presidents jurisdiction
   2. usually about things on which the President needs to take quick action
2. Congressional- Executive
   1. about any issue within fed gov jurisdiction
   2. requires congressional majority vote
   3. IE trade agreements

• how a principal gets an agent to do something
• how the government gets ppl to do things

Police Patrol

select and examine a sample of bureacratic actions to look for violations

• Congress establishes rules and procedures for citizens to complain about bureacracies
• citizens, corporations, labor unions, and interest groups become the monitors of bureacracies

1. Subgovernments
2. Organization of Interests
3. Casework
4. Administrative Procedures Act of 1946
5. Direct Congressional Intervention

• iron triangles
• a bureacratic agency, its relevent congressional committee staff, and its clientele(industry, interest group) work together

• Congress initiates effort to organize an otherwise unorganized group in order to regulate the beauracracies regulating them

• Bureacrats want to please Congress who controls their funding
• Congress wants to take credit for helping constituents

• gives citizens legal staning before agencies and courts to complain about noncompliance by government agencies
• Requires that before an agency implements new regulations or procedures they must notify the people it affects and give them time to take action

1. lends money to banks and sets interest rates-spurs economy but can cause inflation
2. set reserve ratio- can change amount they require banks to keep in reserve
3. conduct open market operations- sells and buys government bonds.

1. Register to vote
2. go to the polls
3. Choose a subject to vote on
4. Make a choice

Who is more likely to vote

1. More educated people
2. Age- people around 40 to 50 years old
3. Sex- after age 65, women are more likely to vote
4. Married people
5. People who move alot are less likely to vote
6. People employed in public sector

1. lower since 1976.  around the time 18 year olds given the vote and Vietnam and Watergate
2. Lower in South-lower education and used to be one party system and blacks used to be discouraged from voting
3. Lower in midterm elections- interest is lower

What Do Parties Do

• Legal Vehicles for Nomination- done in primaries or conventions
• Recruit candidates and supporters
• Raise money for campaigns
• Organize the electorate
• Training and help with campaigns
• Provide platforms
• Whipping- party's effort in legislature to coordinate information and direct actions among members
• Assign members to committees in Congress

• Federal- national party level sitting atop lower levels
• Same set of actors at different levels: chairmen, committees, conventions, and primary voters
• National Chairman appointed by Presidential nominee
• National Committee consists of committee man and committee woman from each state chosen by a convention

• leaders and caucuses

• combination of plurality rule and single member districts gives rise to the 2 party system
• plurality rule is that most votes win, not a majority
• SMD is small parties have a very small chance of winning so ppl dont want to waste their vote on a party that wont win

• US parties are federal and decentralized
• US has weak disipline. Not everyone votes on their party lines
• US has weak responsiility. Us parties less accountable for their member's actions in office
• US has weak unifying ideologies. Conservative Democrats close to Liberal Republicans
• Only 2 major partie

• economy
• running foreign and defense matters
• fighting crime and drugs
• promoting morality

Democrat Issues

• social and welfare issue like education, healthcare and enviroment

• created Federal Election Commission

Federal Election Commission

• oversees money contributions to campaigns
• Limits
• 1000 to candidate
• 2000 to parties
• 5000 to pacs
• no limit on candidate giving to self
• no limit on unaffiliated groups if they work independently
• no money from corporations or unions

• redrawing of district lines in order to help incumbent party maintain or increase power

• People without strong party ties look for someone with charisma and success
• That explains why model prior job of Presidents is Govenors
• Being Govenor shows leadership experience

• Different parties are supported by certain groups and own certain issues
• Can predict elections by what is important at that time

Parties must retain the groups they traditionally own and make inroads into the other parties supporters

• A party will do well when its issues are the most important of that time

• Incumbent party wins if economy is good 9 months prior to the election

• every voter has a favorite point on the liberal-conservative continuum and votes for the candidate closest to that point
• Try to align policies with the median voter

• Mobility- move toward median
• Persuasion- pull the median toward you
• Sling mud- push your opponent away from the median

• Conscience- candidate may not want to change his positions
• Committment- candidate may have won party primary by committing to certain thing that he cannot change
• Credibility- may not want to harm reputation for keeping his word and sticking to principals