Two Political Branches, Two Chambers

Two Political Branches:

• Express power: Article I of the Constitution
• Implied powers: Is a health insurance mandate constitutional?
• Inherent powers

Two Chambers:

Bicameralism and Federalist 51:

But it is not possible to give to each department an equal power of self-defense. In republican government, the legislative authority necessarily predominates. The remedy for this inconveniency is to divide the legislature into different branches; and to render them, by different modes of election and different principles of action, as little connected with each other as the nature of their common functions and their common dependence on the society will admit. It may even be necessary to guard against dangerous encroachments by still further precautions.

House-Senate Differences

Size:

A Senate session.

A House session:

One major difference between the chambers is that few House members run for president, and seldom get far when they do (see Duncan Hunter and Dennis Kucinich). But a fairly large fraction of senators have gone for the White House or are thinking of doing so.

• Lamar Alexander (R-TN) 1996, 2000
• Ted Cruz (R-TX) 2016
• Lindsey Graham (R-SC) 2016
• Orrin Hatch (R-UT) 2000
• John McCain (R-AZ) 2000, 2008
• Rand Paul (R-KY) 2016
• Marco Rubio (R-FL) 2016
• Bernard Sanders (I-VT) 2016
• Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) 2016

And of course rememember President Obama, Vice President Biden, and Secretary of State Clinton.

"Institutionalization" of Congress

Characteristics of Congress

Careers

• Washington Program Info Session
• Journalism v. PR
• Jobs Internships (ask if you want to be on my email list for either or both)

Descriptive Reprsentation

General Demographics (and CRS data here)

From Talking Points Memo:

Polarizing Camps:

Religion:

For the first time ever, the House has more Catholic Republicans than Catholic Democrats:

• Congressional pay and benefits
• Wealth of members

• Burke's speech to the electors of Bristol
• Chu webpage
• Congressional staff titles
• Congressional staff salaries

Congress Is...

 Compare and Contrast Prime Minister's Questions with the State of the Union

 

House of Cards, Season 3

What Do the Clocks Say?

From the Capitol Vistors Center:

Reconsiderations

When citing a work, make sure you put the words in context.

On November 19, 1999, candidate George W. Bush said:

Sometimes the defenders of freedom must show patience as well as resolution. But that patience comes of confidence, not compromise. We believe, with Alexander Hamilton, that the "spirit of commerce" has a tendency to "soften the manners of men." 

But read Federalist 6:  what did Hamilton really mean?

Inherent limitations of Congress:

• Except in simulation, legislation is slow. (And swift action is not necessarily smart action.)
• In a body resting on geographic representation, parochialism is inevitable. (And it is often legitimate.)
• A multi-member, bicameral institution will have a hard time planning.  (And planning is overrated.)

Reform proposals:

• End the Tuesday-to-Thursday club.
• Return to regular order and limit restrictive rules.
• Change filibuster rules.

JFK on the complexity of courage:

• The pressure to "go along" -- but we "should not be too hasty in condemning all compromise as bad morals."
• The pressure to seek reelection -- but lawmakers "who go down to defeat in a vain defense of a single principle will not be on hand to fight for that or any other principle in the future."
• The pressure to serve interest groups -- but "they are the articulate few whose views cannot be ignored and who constitute the greater part of our contacts with the public at large, whose opinions we cannot know..."

On January 12, 1991, House Speaker Tom Foley (D-WA) and Republican Leader Bob Michel (R-IL) spoke about the impending Gulf War. Click for video of their remarks, so you can see what grownups look like:

• Tom Foley
• Bob Michel

The COIN & STAMP bills may not have been so unrealistic after all...

Except in this case, it's the GOP trying to trick the Tea Partiers:

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/04/immigration-reform-conservatives-106213.html

"In the aftermath, they are stepping up their efforts to thwart any plan that might be afoot among House leadership to jam reform through the House by the end of this year. A group of conservatives plans to meet and strategize this week, and are scouring bills searching for offending language that might somehow slip through their gates. [my emphasis]

“We have to man the watchtowers 24/7,” said Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), referring to a feeling among hard-liners that House leaders will try to sneak through immigration measures."