In the news

Auto industry bailout – Obama takes a tough line. GM CEO Rick Wagoner forced to resign.

Washington Post/ABC News poll. Who do you trust to do a better job handling the economy - Obama or the Republicans in Congress)? Obama 58%, Reps 25%, neither 14%.

Duke conference on Congress

Congressional Behavior

PS 426

March 31 – April 2, 2009

Influences on member behavior

Constituency: Ambiguities in determining constituent preferences. The division of labor in members’ offices: district communication is filtered through various layers of the staff hierarchy (Paul Schlomer’s research).

Members’ preferences (ideology, religion, career background). Barry Burden’s work on this subject: Rick Santorum and Arlen Specter.

Party (leadership and general party identification). Committee membership Interest groups – link to district is important. President – obviously more influential with own party.

Deciding how to participate

Members’ goals: reelection, policy, power within the institution (Fenno).

Voting (or abstain). Cosponsor a bill. Speak on behalf of a bill and try to build coalitions for its

passage. Sponsor a bill – actively involved in writing the bill and

amendments. Participate at the committee level. Non-legislative behavior: constituency service (we will

cover this in the next topic on the syllabus).

Putting it all together

Process is decentralized, deference to committees, serial process of many stages: much opportunity for delay and many veto points.

John Kingdon’s model of consensus and roll call voting.

– Cue taking and the “field of forces”– Salience of the issue, positions of the relevant actors.

Tie Kingdon’s theory to the members’ goals. Link to the constituency and the reelection goal: the “string of votes” that may get the member in trouble.

Accountability and the legislative process

Doug Arnold and the importance of the potential challenger. Activates the latent opinions of the public, so the incumbent has to be responsive even if it looks like the public isn’t paying attention.

Members try to avoid “traceability” on controversial issues: can allow more responsible behavior, but not necessarily. Closing bases versus pay raises.

Other aspects of floor behavior

Calendars: bills move from the committees to calendars, from which they are called up in order. Non-controversial bills are considered under “suspension of the rules.” Controversial bills are usually considered under a “rule.”

Amending bills– Special orders or rules (House) and unanimous consent

agreements (Senate). Committee of the Whole in the House to consider amendments (under 5 minute rule). May ask for revote of the entire House, but rarely done. Controversy over House delegates in 1993 led to dozens of revotes.

– The amendment tree. Deliberation (Quirk) – makes policies more legitimate,

educates the public, and helps Congress reach intelligent decisions. Many obstacles to good deliberation.

The House also allows amendments to the substitute, which would be voted on second, after the “perfecting amendment.”

The actual vote

After all of the amendments are voted on in the Committee of the Whole, the bill is considered by the floor. Amendments are approved as a block and then the vote on final passage. Senate doesn’t have a Committee of the Whole.

Types of votes:– Voice vote, division vote, and recorded vote (electronic voting

system in the House, manual roll calls in the Senate). 44 House members and 11 senators may call for a roll call (one-fifth of a quorum; 25 House members needed in the Committee of the Whole). When would this be done?

– Roll calls in the House are held open for 15 minutes, but usually takes longer in the Senate.

Typical use of UCAs in Senate

ORDER OF PROCEDURE -- (Senate - January 16, 2007) Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the time today from 4:30

to 5:30 be equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees, and that 10 minutes of the majority's time be allocated to Senator Feingold.

The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered. Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the majority leader be

recognized at 12:30 p.m. today. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered. Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I note the absence of a quorum. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.

The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.

UCAs and the filibuster

U.S. ATTORNEYS -- (Senate - March 13, 2007) Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, let me add to the majority leader's

observation that with regard to the U.S. attorneys bill this morning, we have copies of a couple of amendments that will be offered to that bill. That should allow us to go forward with the unanimous consent agreement, as I indicated to the majority leader yesterday, which may allow us to vitiate cloture on that measure.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, we agree generally with the amendments. They appear to be reasonable. I think it would be a good way to set this matter aside. We should be able to vitiate cloture. As we speak, the persons interested in the bill are looking at the amendments and, hopefully, the unanimous consent can be done rapidly.

A modified closed rule

PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 985, WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTION ENHANCEMENT ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - March 14, 2007)

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 239 and ask for its immediate consideration. The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:    H . Res . 239

Resolved, That at any time after the adoption of this resolution the Speaker may, pursuant to clause 2(b) of rule XVIII, declare the House resolved into the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union for consideration of the bill (H.R. 985) to amend title 5, United States Code, to clarify which disclosures of information are protected from prohibited personnel practices; to require a statement in nondisclosure policies, forms, and agreements to the effect that such policies, forms, and agreements are consistent with certain disclosure protections, and for other purposes. The first reading of the bill shall be dispensed with. All points of order against consideration of the bill are waived except those arising under clause 9 or 10 of rule XXI. General debate shall be confined to the bill and shall not exceed one hour and 20 minutes, with one hour equally divided and controlled by the chairman and ranking minority member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and 20 minutes equally divided and controlled by the chairman and ranking member of the Committee on Homeland Security. After general debate the bill shall be considered for amendment under the five-minute rule. An amendment in the nature of a substitute consisting of the text of the bill, modified by the amendments recommended by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform now printed in the bill, shall be considered as adopted in the House and in the Committee of the Whole. The bill, as amended, shall be considered as the original bill for the purpose of further amendment under the five-minute rule and shall be considered as read. Notwithstanding clause 11 of rule XVIII, no further amendment to the bill, as amended, shall be in order except those printed in the report of the Committee on Rules accompanying this resolution. Each further amendment may be offered only in the order printed in the report, may be offered only by a Member designated in the report, shall be considered as read, shall be debatable for the time specified in the report equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an opponent, shall not be subject to amendment, and shall not be subject to a demand for division of the question in the House or in the Committee of the Whole. All points of order against such further amendments are waived except those arising under clause 9 or 10 of rule XXI. At the conclusion of consideration of the bill for amendment the Committee shall rise and report the bill, as amended, to the House with such further amendments as may have been adopted. The previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill and amendments thereto to final passage without intervening motion except one motion to recommit with or without instructions.

Bargaining and coalition building

Nature of bargaining and eventual chances of passing the bill depend on:– Topic of the bill – what is at stake? Salience of

the bill for the public.– Number of intense supporters.– Who the supporters are – leadership, key

committee members, president.– Intensity and size of the opposition.

Types of bargaining

Non-negotiated– Unilateral action (leadership summits)– Anticipated reaction (same, but leaders take into

account preferences of others).

Negotiated– Simple logrolling (reciprocity norm)– Time logrolling– Compromise– Side payments (Iraq vote)

Race and Representation in Congress

How to measure behavior in Congress? Problems with relying on roll call voting. Selection bias and bias of interest group support scores (exaggerates ideological extremity and mischaracterizes racial issues).

Alternative measures of member behavior: co-sponsorship and sponsorship of legislation; speeches on the floor, committee assignments, leadership positions.

What do these measures add to the study of racial representation?

Which of these measures could be dismissed as “symbolic” behavior? Do they matter anyway?

Race and Representation, cont.

Aggregate-level and individual-level. Overall impact of the CBC: cohesion on roll call votes (better to be unified or have diversity?), impact on the passage of legislation, patterns of committee membership, leadership positions.

Behavior of commonality vs. difference members of the Congressional Black Caucus (and older members) and the extent to which white members represent the interests of African American constituents.

Implications for influence districts and black majority districts.

The collective dilemma in Congress

Example of the institutional dilemma: reporting campaign finance data in the Senate. Debate on electronic filing of information with the FEC – Feingold bill, S. 482.

Example of the policy dilemma: transportation bill and the “bridge to nowhere” (more on this later).

Enhancing responsiveness, undermining responsibility: changes in norms, campaign finance, media access.

“Running scared” article: “America’s problem of governance is not insufficient responsiveness on the part of its elected leaders. On the contrary, America’s problem is their hyper-responsiveness.” Agree or disagree?