1. What are the three exclusive house committees and what are their main tasks?

1. Rules (Designates guidelines for passing legislation)
2. Ways and Means (Tax Writing)
3. Appropriations (Dishing out money)

2. List and describe three reasons for why women are not as likely to run for office.

1. Female roles and obligations
1. Childcare
2. Housework
3. Pregnancy forces delay of entrance into public life
2. Self-evaluations of qualification
1. Women are less likely to believe they are qualified, even when compared to men of the same educational and professional background
3. Political Recruitment
1. Parties and associates are less likely to suggest or recruit a woman for a political run

1. Cross- Partisanship
1. President works with a segment of the opposition party
1. Typically does not include opposition leaders
2. Co-Partisanship
1. Very little cooperation and communication between president and congress
3. Bi-Partisanship
1. President works with oppositions majority to get work done

4. Name four ways in which congress can exercise power over the courts

1. Confirmation of nominations
2. Structure of Federal Courts can be changed by congress
3. Jurisdiction of the courts can be decreased
4. Congress can amend the constitution

1. Armed Services
2. Foreign Relations
3. Reasons
1. Nominations for Secretary of Defense and State originate in the Senate
2. The President is more likely to be an alum of the Senate and a history in either of these committees is helpful in their campaign.

True or false

1. Americans have a solid set of beliefs that they stick to and define their ideologies by.

true or false

Madison believed in a Top to Bottom approach to American politics

true or false

1. Americans in general do not trust their government

true or false

Executive orders are one of the Constitutional Powers of the president

False. Executive orders are one of the formal powers of the President.

true or false

Committees and Subcommittees have the same general structure with a head and ranking member.

true or false

 The Ranking Member of a committee is typically the second most senior member of the majority party.

False. The ranking member is typically the most senior member of the minority party.

true or false

Democrats tend to consider Seniority more important in committee head assignment than do Republicans.

true or false

The Republican Party has no set term limits for Committee Chairs

False. Republicans do, democrats dont.

true or false

Hearings, Markups and Oversight are the three main tasks of committees.

true or false

The Constitution clearly defines and establishes the committee system in both chambers.

False. There is nothing explicitly defining committees but it does give both chambers the right to make their own rules.

true or false

Ad Hoc committees are permanently established for a new or high priority issue

False. Ad Hoc committees are created for a specific task. After completion of that task the committee is disbanded.

true or false

All of the committee chairs in the House are Republicans

1. True.
2. Only one woman.
3. All white.

true or false

The Rules committee is highly influential because it plays a role in a majority of legislation.

False. It is involved in ALL legislation.

Are executive orders a Formal or Constitutional Power of the President? Give an example of a previous exercise of this power.

1. Formal
2. Truman’s integration of the military
3. FDR’s internment of the Japanese

The President’s office is comprised of two major structures. What are they? Give an example of an individual or institution that falls under each title.

1. The bureaucracy
1. Departments and Agencies
2. Department of Justice, FDA...etc
2. The executive office
1. Specific Advisors and Cabinet
1. Headed by Chief of Staff

• Constitutional powers of president

1. Treaties

  2. Veto/Sign Legislation (Legislator in Chief)

  3. State of the Union

4. Nominations

  5. Power to call Congress back into Session

• Formal powers of president

1. President submits budget/reports on economy
2. Ask for declariation of war
3. Executive Orders
1. Force of law until Congress passes legislation to trump the president’s interpretation of law (but then the president can veto legislation which means the Congress needs 2/3 vote to overrule president’s veto)
4. Signing statement
1. President signs legislation and that is it BUT sometimes president signs bill and explains what the legislation translates to him

e. purchasing territory outside the US

1.  Submits budget (reports on economy)

2. Ask for a Declaration of War

3.  Executive Orders (Freq. has force of law)
o   Desegregated Military
o   Internment Camps

4.  Signing Statement

5. purchasing territories outside the U.S

"BAES"

• Informal powers of the president

1. setting on agenda : 1.senate beginning point, 2. incentive point, persuade through party apparatus to act on legislation 
2. Bargaining: Focusing on legislation that works for both parties; cutting a deal
3. Vote Trading: taking into consideration the second piece of legislation; trade one vote for a trading of another vote
4. Personal Favors
5. “To go public”: going to public so they can put pressure on their representative to get something president mentioned passed

Ø  Ability to put something on the Agenda
o   Service to MOCs – gives a starting point
o   Incentive for MOCs to act
o   Persuade MOC to act on Presidential legislation
Ø  Ability to bargain
Ø  Vote trading
Ø  Provide personal favors
Ø  “go-public” – pressure from the American people

• Congressional powers over the president

 1.  Override veto

2.  Impeachments (Cong’s only real punishment)

3.  Confirm appointments

4. Salary (can’t decrease)

5.  Structure (If president wants to change anything in executive or bureaucracy, it has to go through congress introduced as a bill)

• Congressional influence on the courts

1. Impeach judges
2. Confirmation
3. Salary: salary cant go down
4. Size/ number of justices: add but can’t subtract (size can decrease by impeachment)
5. Structure: imperial courts/federal courts
6. Amend Constitution
7. Passing legislation: clarify law if justices see it as something else

• Court influence on Congress

1. Jurisdiction: can restrict informal powers of congress

1. Judicial Review: can declare Congress amendment constitutional
2. Statutory Interpretation: how statues of law are interpreted
3. Investigate Legislation/hinder legislation
4. Elections: how they are conducted but ultimately house determines elections NOT courts
5. Carrying out judicial decision (Ex. Brown II: told congress to fix problem not HOW to fix it)

Ø  Sec. 3 – Art. 2 of Constitution

Ø  First was given by George Washington in New York City

Ø  John Adams was first in Washington, D.C.

Ø  Jefferson started to write the S.O.U. because he was a bad orator

Ø  Woodrow Wilson started to speak the S.O.U. again in 1913

Ø  1947 the S.O.U. was broadcasted on TV

constitutional power of the president

  Discharge Petitions: Hurt committees, helps individuals

  Self-Executing Rule: Hurts Committees, helps party leader (Rules Comm.)

  Task Forces: Hurts Committees, helps party leaders

Omnibus bills: Hurts committees, Helps ?

  Multiple Referrals: Helps Part leader, hurts committees

  Special special rule: Helps Party leaders, hurts individuals/committees

Holds: Helps individuals, hurts party leaders

  F?: Helps individuals, hurts party leaders

Amend to death: Helps Individuals, hurts party leaders

  Amendment tree: Helps party leaders, hurts individuals

  Gangs: Helps individuals, hurts party leaders

  Chair – Majority Party (MOC w/ most seniority)   

        
  Ranking member – Minority Party (MOC w/ most seniority)

  Republicans have term limits on committee chairs

  Democrats don’t have term limits on committee chairs

1. Sub-Chair (most senior)

2. Sub-R.M. (most senior)

1.     HoldHearings: gather information from experts, interests groups, private citizens

2.     Mark-up : process by which congressional committee debates, amends, and rewrites proposed legislation within the committee. process is similar but does not perfectly replicate process of amending measures on the house floor

3.     Oversight :

congressional oversight :
refers to oversight by the United States Congress on the Executive Branch, including the numerous U.S. federal agencies.

there was ad hoc committees (conference committees), introduced by henry clay..standing committees for certain issues. (tariffs,money) purposes for one bill

henry clay recognized there was a new threat, his colleagues were getting power hungry,

so he introduced a type of committee system where he will assign certain issues to certain committees who dealt with these issues (foreign policy, finance tc) and he assigned chairs to these committees, so they wouldn't be hungry for his personal position.

then the reorganization act of 1946 - went from 80 in the house to 20, and 60 in the senate to 16.

1st day in the house was elected speaker

Ø  Standing committees to ward off competition, sway competitors from running against him.

He was also a warhawk (funfact)

 House committeess

  House: 20 committees

o   3 Exclusive
§  Rules – involved with every piece of legislation
§  Ways and means – tax writing
§  Appropriations – Distribution of $$$

o   Policy and Constituency

  Budget
  Commerce
  Armed Services
Agriculture
Interior (Fed. Lands)
  Judiciary

o   Minor
  Small Business
  Veteran’s Affairs
  Ethics

Prestige
1.  Finance
2.  Armed Services
3.  Appropriations (13 subcommittees – sub-chairs called “cardinals”
4.  Foreign Relations

o   Policy/Const.

  Agriculture
Judiciary
  Interior
  Transportation
  Education

o   Minor
  Ethics
  Small Business
  Veterans
  Rules (Similar to House Administration)

Ø  Unified (Congress and President in the same party)

o   Ex. FDR (democrat) – able to easily pass the “New Deal”

Ø  Divided (At least one chamber is different than the President)

o   Cross partisanship – Targets segment of minority party (not leaders)
§  Ex. Reagan Tax Cuts

o   Co-partisanship – little bargaining and communication between congress and president
§  Ex. Last 2 years of Bush administration

o   Bi-partisanship – Majority party and President work together
§  Ex. Bill Clinton welfare reform w/ Newt Gingrich

1.     Not uniquely an American problem

2.     Not unique to politics :
trust churches more, corporations, etc. (other institutions).
                                              i.     Kids don’t play little league as we used to—don’t participate in life as much

3.     Never waivered belief in democratic principles (never been democratically committed)

we are just as democratic as we’ve always been. In fact, Americans have always maintained high knowledge of our bill of rights. Problem of politics is not that our commitment to democracy has gone down at all.

1.     Stupid people cancel each other out

2.     Two faces of democratic accountability

Ø  MOC doing well for his/her district, then people reelect them
Ø  MOC lose sight of his constituents needs, then voted out
Ø  Ex. Congressional Pay
Ø  Ex. Campaign Finance system
Ø  Ex. Civil service reform
Ø  Ex. Term Limits

3.     Potential Preferences and Audits
Ø  Thinking about constituents’ reaction to certain choices, worrying about future consequences of MOC’s actions
Ø  Audits – MOC weighs whether or not to act according to whether or not he can justify his actions if the prove to show him/her in a negative light.

4.     American Public becomes activated
Ø  Ex. Gun control (Newtown tragedy)

5.     With little information, we can become informed
a.     Heuristic – mental shortcut   V

b. party cues ( D or R next to the representatives names) lets you know whats up

Few interest groups in the 1970s, implementation of the law spurred. By the mid 1980s there has not been much change of groups that are represented. they grew iceasingly where they are today.

Kinds of Interest groups
  Corporate – 39%
  Labor – 7%
  Trade Mem./Health – 22%
  Cooperative – 1%
  Corp. w/o stock – 2%
  Non-connected -29%
  ^ ex. Animal rights groups, NRA

OVERSIGHT

1. Police Patrol – constant oversight, systematic checking
o   Ex. Interest groups, Media

 
  2. Fire Alarm – Attention raised on a certain issue.
o   American people – put pressure on an issue.

Things like Queen of the hill rule

• They will consider multiple pieces of legislation
• They will vote on them separately
• The one with the highest number of votes is the version we are going to go with
o King of the hill
• When you have A versus B and the winner takes on C

1.     Took what had become to 80 committees in the House and 60 in the Senate, which most had a lot of overlapping purposes. Task force ideas, named new committees that kept fighting for jurisdiction.

                                   2.     Got rid of committees: 20 in the House and 16 in the Senate

Congress – House Prestige Committees leaders

majority : republicans, minority: democrats

Ways and Means: Chaiman, Dave Camp and Ranking Member, Sander Levin.

Leg: TAX Legislation – Tax reforms H.R. 3/Energy Tax Policy and Tax Reform

Appropiation: Chairman, Hal Rogers and Ranking Member Nita Lowey

Rules Comm: Chairman, Pete Sessions, and Ranking Member, Slaughter

Head of committee-committee chair

Ranking member- of the minority party

3 main roles of committees: 1. Hearings. 2. Markups 3. Oversight

Constitution- congress makes its own rules

LAWS: why are they so complex?
a.     A lot of bargaining goes into it; need to please the opposing party
b.     Principal-agent relationships
c.      Time
                                   1.     Future is unknown
d.     Proponents have different goals
                                   1.     IE: in favor of Health care but have a different goal in mind.
e.     Cater legislation to opposition party
                                   1.     Sometimes you’re relying upon opposition party to get their vote
f.      Killer amendments
                                   1.     Losers try to sabotage the legislation.
g.     Why do we talk about the complexity of laws? Because of Supreme Court, try to figure out what laws means. Could write clear laws if not for above.

laws include
Ø  Bargaining
Ø  Principle-Agent relationship
Ø  Future
Ø  Proponents have different goals
o   Ex. Healthcare
Ø  Cater legislation to opposition reform
Ø  Losers sabotage legislation