* how does congress really affect you? * congress: the big picture *

*Congress https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5M50xBz1cU&index=4&list=PL3JRHgTyDqdZlzmomddsdElydZ6l5Jh9T

*Congress and Your Daily Life

http://www.centeroncongress.org/print/135

*How does Congress really affect you?

*How To Understand

Congress

*Congress: The Big Picture*http://www.centeroncongress.org/print/29

*Here’s an Idea for

Congress: Try

Democracy

*Lee Hamilton: Director of Center on Congress at Indiana University. Member of U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years*Read/Annotate Text*Highlight Claims*Opinion Statement

* The Representatives and Senators

*Benefits:*Salary is same for everybody: $154, 700 (2003)/ $174,000 (2013)*Also have perks:*Free mailing*Travel Allowances*Office staff and office at home and D.C.*Generous Retirement

*Members

*535 members; none from D.C.*Usually have substantial incomes and high status*Often have business or law background*Does this substantiate the elite theory?*House of Representatives:*435, set in 1929 by Congress*Qualifications: 25 years old, American citizens,

resident from district elected*2 year terms*No term limits

*Senators:*100 members/2 per state (no districts)*Qualifications: 6 year terms, no term limits

*114th Congress: A Profile

*Read the current Congressional Profile*Analyze the following categories:*Party Breakdown*Age*Occupations*Education*Congressional Service*Religion*Gender and Ethnicity*Foreign Birth*Military Service*Response(Typed): Consider whether "good representation" requires that

Congress "mirror" the country as a whole, or whether an "atypical" Congress can represent all interests in society. Find examples of this, such as men who champion women's rights, or wealthy legislators who fight for the interests of the poor. Do these examples undermine the view that Congress members and senators should be more diverse? Why or why not? Consider the issue as what "good representation" really means, and what it requires in practical terms.

*Who are our Leaders?

*Complete the activity to determine current leadership of this nation and shifts in political leadership

*Video with Questions

*Congress at Work*http://www.learner.org/courses/democracyinamerica/dia_6/dia_6_video.html *Segment 1

*Video with Questions

*Congress and its constituents*http://www.learner.org/courses/democracyinamerica/dia_6/dia_6_video.html *Segment 2/3

*Congressional Elections

*Who wins?*Incumbents: People who were already in office seeking re-election*They almost always win; more important than $ or charisma*90% of incumbents win*More difficult for Senators*State more diverse than a House district*Has less contact with constituents*Get more press coverage*Challengers more visible

*Advantages of Incumbents

*Voters usually don’t know how representatives vote*People generally know their names and general feelings on issues*Advertising increases advantage; goal is visibility*Frequent home visits/Franking privilege*Credit claiming*Serving constituents: Casework and Pork barrel spending*Claiming to work hard for them*Don’t want to state voting records because this can create enemies

*Advantages

*Position Taking: Stating position on issues important to voters *Yucca Mountain*Abortion*Gun Control*Weak Opponents*Usually not well known*Usually not well financed*Usually not well informed

*Defeating Incumbents

*Challengers naïve about their chance of winning*Disadvantaged if they redraw district lines*Disadvantage if they do something ignorant…*Most turnover happens because they choose not to run*Incumbents typically will be the cause of their downfall

* Money and Congressional Elections

*Extremely costly (anywhere from hundreds of thousands to millions to one billion)*PACs (30% of donations come from PACs)*PACs give overwhelmingly more to incumbents, even if they have opposing views*Do PACs buy votes??????

*Federal Election Campaign Act: control campaign costs and donations (FEC)*Soft Money: No limit/Non-disclosure*Hard: $1000 per individual; $5000 PACs per individual*McCain-Feingold Act 2002 (Campaign Reform Act): Bans Soft Money*Doubled hard money to $2000 to individual candidates and indexed to inflation (2014 2,600)*No change on PAC limits; still $5000*Unions and corporations banned from giving soft money to parties …2010 Changes this: Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission

*Analysis

*No limit on spending in Congressional Campaigns-Incumbent advantage*No subsidies for Congressional campaigns: Incumbent Advantage*No limit on independent expenditures: Money spent on behalf of candidate*Increases candidate dependence on PACs*Candidates/challengers need to spend more time fundraising*PAC money mostly goes to incumbent: further disadvantage to challenger

*Stability and Change

*What is the advantage for Americans when incumbent wins?*Creates stability in Congress*Helps build knowledge base*Should there be term limits?*Help or hurt NV?*Why do people want them?

*Free Response

*The graph on p. 359 shows re-election rates for incumbents in the House and Senate. From this information and knowledge of U.S. politics, perform the following tasks.*Identify two patterns displayed in the graph*Identify two factors that contribute to incumbency advantage. Explain how each factor contributes to incumbency advantage.*Discuss one consequence of incumbency advantage for the U.S. political process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGUAW34Edp0

*It’s Time to Govern the Flow

of Political Money

*Campaign Essentials: Follow the Money Video Introduction*Lee Hamilton: Director of Center on Congress at Indiana University. Member of U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years*Identify Claims*Do you agree or disagree?

*Pork Barrel Spending

*Campaign Finance Reform

*Buckley v. Valeo*Read Background

*The Budget: How to Spend a Trillion

Dollars Activity

*Follow the Money Trail Activity

*Special Interest Groups and Their Impact Overview

*The Many Roles of a Member of Congress

*Discussion: What Makes a Good Leader?*What Makes a Congressional Leader?

*Leaders?

*Summarize the leadership qualities identified by the Congressional leaders. *Compare/contrast the qualities each of the leaders identified. How do the qualities identified by each differ? How are they alike? *Does leading Congress differ from other forms of leadership? If so, how?

*House v. Senate

*Read the differences between the House and the Senate p. 365*Why do you think there are differences for each? Explain.

*How Congress is Organized

*House: *Framers thought it would represent the masses??*More Centralized*More Party Loyalty*More Specialized in Committees*House Rules Committee: Most Powerful Committee: Reviews and Schedules Bills

*Congress

*Senate:*Framers thought it would protect the elite*Less Disciplined*Less Centralized*More Independent*More Equal in power than representatives*No House Rules Committee*Filibuster: Unique to Senate: Retains independence;

Strom Thurmond record (1957): 24 hours, 18 minutes regarding civil rights legislation. Opposition of Civil Rights Act*Cloture: Limits Debate; 16 members must request

within two days before the filibuster; 60 senators must vote on the floor in favor the day of the filibuster; Limits total floor time to 30 hours.*Cartoon Analysis*Compare and contrast senate and house positions and

powers chart p. 366

*Congressional Leadership

*Speaker of the House: Most powerful man in Congress, second in line for Presidency. Presides on floor, strict control, makes committee assignments.*Majority Leader and Whip*Minority Leader and Whip*Senate: *President of Senate: VP*Majority Leader and Whip: Most powerful in Senate*Minority Leader and Whip

*FRQ House/Senate

*Congress is organized in such a way that its leaders have important roles.*A. Describe how the Speaker of the House of Representatives is selected and describe that position’s power*B. Describe how the President of the Senate is selected and describe that position’s power.*C. Identify another leader, other than the Speaker of the House or President of the Senate, and describe that position’s power.

*Committees

*Most work done in committees; 11,000 bills submitted every 2 years. All bills go to committee review process*Control congressional agenda and guide legislation *Standing Committees (most important)*Handle bills in different policy areas*Divide bill in categories*House members sit on 2 committees*Sub-Committees: smaller units of a committee*Number vary, p. 369: Senate 16, House 19*Review which committees would be the most powerful and best for NV

*Committees: Hand-Outs

*Joint Committees: House keeping; a few policy areas. Both Houses sit on, not as many standing (taxation and economy)*Conference Committees: Iron Differences in Bills*Select Committees: Specific purpose, investigative. Watergate examples. Can be joint or from one house.

*Committees at Work

*Bills go to committees and then to sub-committees*Mark-up sessions review bills*Hearings are held*Research is conducted*Leaving the committees, committee members hold floor leaders as floor managers hustle votes*http://www.centeroncongress.org/committees

*Legislative Oversight

*Congress is responsible for bureaucratic oversight*Done by the Committees*Not a favorite function: too difficult* Done mostly through reporting by agencies in hearings*Congressional staff used for oversight*Voters historically don’t understand and/or value this function of their Congressmen.*Tighter budgets and a call to cut waste has placed more value on this function and Congress is getting better at it.*Saving and Loan problem cost $100 billion (oversight could have prevented)

*Seniority System

*Chairmen overseeing committee agendas, hiring committee staff, and assigning.

*Until 1970s very powerful*Chair controlled almost all decisions and chair was guaranteed.*Advantages:*Experience*Expertise*Stability*Reduces fighting for chair positions*Disadvantages:*Regardless of competence, party loyalty, ability, etc.*Rural Bias*Conservative Bias

*Cartoon Analysis

*Decentralization

*1970s*Criticisms of committee system:*Meeting held behind closed doors*Domineering chairmen*Less powerful members given almost no power*Reforms of the 1970s *Chairmen elected by secret ballot*Sub-committee chair positions for junior members*All hearing open to the public*No member could chair more than one committee*Members received at least one position on a major

committee

*Caucuses

*Groups that share an interest and characteristic*Characteristics: Black caucus, Hispanic caucus, Congresswomen caucus*Region: Sunbelt: Northeast-Midwest Caucus*Ideology: Moderate-Conservative Caucus*Economic Interest: Iron workers, Tourism, Mushroom Caucus, Sugar Caucus*Party Caucus are used to pre-select party leaders before sessions.

*How a Bill Becomes a

Law/Staff

*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUDSeb2zHQ0 *http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyeJ55o3El0*It’s Hard to Write Laws*http://www.centeroncongress.org/print/88

*Hand-Outs: The Legislative process*How a Bill becomes a Law*Compromise is Key!!*http://www.centeroncongress.org/print/71

*Practical Politics

*The Practical Politician Decisions*You Decide!*Create your own Bills!

*Frequently Asked Questions

*Common Questions Regarding Congress…

*Senate Debate!