Throughout history, there have been many factors that seem to have influenced the operations of Congress. Some of these factors have been the committee system, seniority, and political parties. These are only a few of the factors that actually have an influence on Congress’s decisions of certain operations.
The first factor that seems to have influenced the operations of Congress is the committee system. Congress has four different types of committees. The four committees are the joint committees, conference committees, standing committees, and select committees. The standing committee has an influence on Congress because of the fact that they have jurisdiction over all the bills of a given type. Select committees, however, influence congress because since they study and investigate rather than consider legislation, congress has to take into consideration of who is making sure that they have to make careful decisions with these operations with according to what is considered “right and wrong”. The joint committee has to give a full congressional overview to a complex subject to Congress and to the public. This influence congress because again it shows Congress that they are being watched and cannot make any decisions that might seem unfair or unfit. Both houses because they were created to make sure that both the House and the Senate agree on passing a bill, or for them to produce a version that would pass the Conference committee influences co...
The excerpt “Congress: The Electoral Connection” written by David Mayhew centers around the fundamental arguments that discusses how members of congress are self-interested for reelection. Mayhew further elaborates on his idea by discussing the electoral activities that congress members devote their time into and resource from, which are advertising, credit-claiming, and position taking. Mayhew’s excerpt further examines the framework in how congress operates which contributes to the explanation of how and why congress partakes in the certain electoral activities.
What motivates members of Congress to act the way they do? Mayhew would argue in Congress: The Electoral Connection that members of Congress are ‘’single-minded re-election seekers’’ and that re-election is their one and only goal. Whilst the assumption that all members of Congress are ‘‘single-minded re-election seekers’’ does go some distance in analysing the motives behind members of Congress, the reading fails to take into account the other key goals of members of Congress. Other goals include good policy and future career positions. It is important to remember that the achievement of both re-election and other goals are not exclusive, members of Congress often are motivated by more than one goal.
The committee system is necessary in order to ensure that each piece of legislation receives the consideration that it deserves. Judy Schneider summarizes that, “Due to the high volume and complexity of its work, Congress divides its legislative, oversight, and internal administrative tasks among committees and subcommittees” (The Committee System in the U.S. Congress 1). It would be a daunting task for each member of Congress to personally review each piece of legislation that is introduced each year. The purpose of the committees is to review legislation, based on the committee’s area of responsibility, and determine whether or not the bill will go through for voting to the whole congress.
In the past century, people continued to express an increasingly discontent view of Congress especially true when one looks back before the Clinton Impeachment debacle As the size of the nation and the number of congressman have grown, the congress has come under attack by both public influences and congressman themselves. Yet looking at one congressman's relationship with his or her constituents, it would be hard to believe that this is the branch of government that has come under suspect. In “If Ralph Nader says congress is 'The broken branch,' how come we love our congressman so much?” author Richard F. Fenno, Jr., provides insight into this view and why, through congress coming under fire, constituents still feel positively about there congressmen. Although congress is often criticized, its fine tuned functioning is essential in checking the power of congress without hindering the making of legislation.
...ilities of Congress is that minorities and factions exist: dissent takes place, not disagreements. Verbal brawls take place rather than actual argumentation, and that is what kills democracy. That is why things never get done.
Congressional committees are the part of the iron triangle that puts bills into the legislative process after they work with interest groups. A member of a congressional committee proposes a bill into the committee to be voted on. Members of congressional committees are members of the legislative branch, so when they propose the bill into their committee they work with the other members to get it passed. If one member doesn't like the bill they can try to get the bill maker to change it to his liking so he will vote for it. For example in my congressional committee, the judiciary committee, congressman Mclenan proposed a bill to give tax cuts to banks who approve a certain amount of low income people's loans. We all thought that other people that needed loans might be overlooked just because they were not low income people. We made him make guidelines for that issue, so we could vote for it.
The Constitution gives powers to Congress in order to execute its many responsibilities. These responsibilities are necessary and proper for carrying out its policies such as, imposing taxes and regulating interstate commerce. The constitution has 435 members in the House and 100 more in Senate. Congress faces issues with action problems and the solution to correcting these collective problems are at the expense of the incentive members. The Cabinet, President, state and federal courts, political groups, media, etc. all have input when determining a political decision in the United States. Open arrangement is an objective arranged strategy that the legislature follows in managing an issue or issue in the nation. Open approaches are focused around law; however numerous individuals other than officials set them. People, gatherings, and even government organizations that don 't follow strategies can be punished. This confounded procedure has been concluded with an anticipated arrangement of steps.
The Senate has the power to approve treaties proposed by the president as well as confirming the president's choice for judges, cabinet members and other officials.(Burns, 308) It also has the power to perform hearings, after the House has voted to impeach a president or federal judge. The House of Representatives has the authority to propose taxes, but the Senate must approve the bill first. In the House of Representative, the Speaker has a lot more say in how things are run than Senate leaders, who have to rely on persuasion to manage business.(Burns, 306) The House members form committees and subcommittees to debate issues. "Congress tends to have more power in domestic than foreign affairs."
From the inception of the Constitution, there has always been a power struggle between the President and Congress. In the beginning, Madison and the Jeffersonians were placed in a gridlock with Hamilton and his school of political philosophy. Andrew Jackson fought to extend the powers of the President, then Congress spent 50 years fighting to repeal the powers of the Executive. Abraham Lincoln refined Jacksonian presidential politics, then Congress impeached his successor, Andrew Johnson, for fear of another quasi -- tyrannical President. Even today, a Congress, whose majority is of the same party as the President, fights 24 hours a day to check the power of President George W. Bush. But why, and how? Inherent Power Struggles Within the Constitution: Article I, Section I -- "All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives" VS. Article II, Section I -- "The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America" Article II, Section II -- "The President shall be the Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States" - The Founders' ambiguous and contradicting language sets the stage for a power struggle between the Executive and the Legislative branches - Being that the Founders were political masterminds, they realized that unique circumstances would demand some deviations from the restraints that the Constitution places on both the Executive and the Legislature - Founders anticipated that during times of crisis', the nation would need ...
Congress is split into two large bicameral legislatures, the house of representatives and the senate. The Constitution grants Congress the sole authority to enact legislation and declare war, the right to confirm or reject many Presidential appointments, and substantial investigative powers which shows how they have too much power because even though they are split into two separate entities, they can share and overtake other parts of the government and basically do whatever they want from making laws to declaring war.
As long as there has been a two party system there has been party politics. This phenomena by definition is a Congressmen (Be him or her Democrat or Republican) is so loyal to the party that they will vote for those bills, or resolutions, or whatever just because their party supports it. This becomes problematic when you want to express what is best for your constituents, but may not be what the party is pushing for. This makes a very lazy Congress no matter the party, bills can go through that are not what are best for his or her distract but for the good of the party. Out of the three factors, this is the one that hinders Congressional oversight the least. While this is a problem it doesn’t hit the factor of oversight hindrance as much as the other two. This practice is becoming more common every year, and because of that it’s almost unheard of for Democrats or Republicans to vote outside of their party lines.
There are only a few things keeping the Legislative branch from getting out of control and that is its size and the implied powers that they have given to the other branches. Currently the United States congress is comprised of two houses, The Senate, and The House of Representatives. In which the senate is made up of one hundred people, fifty from each state. And the House of Representatives is made up of four hundred and sixty five publicly elected officials. With so many conflicting ideologies, because of geography and other factors, it is hard to please enough people to sway into deci...
American politics is often defined by a continuing power conflict between the executive and the legislative branches of the government. This struggle for political power between the two stronger branches of the three is inherent in the Constitution, itself. The concepts of separation of powers and checks and balances ensure that the branches of government will remain in conflict and provide a balance that keeps the entire government under control. As it was first established, the executive branch was much smaller and weaker than as we know it today. Consequently, the legislative branch was unquestionably dominant. Over the course of history, the executive branch grew in both size and power to the point where it occasionally overtook the legislative and today rivals the legislative in a much closer political battle. Today both branches have major factors that contribute to their power, but on the whole the legislative remains the lastingly dominant branch.
In our countries government, Congress plays a major role in decision making. They’re primary role is to pass laws. These laws start off as bills. Bills can only be introduced by members of Congress. Although these bills only come from Congressman, there are many people who influence these bills. Such as the president, regular citizens, offices in the executive branch, and many others. The bills right off the bat do not have a very good chance of passage. Only one out of every ten bills even gets any attention at all. This is because they must go through many tests and hearings before they even have a chance of landing on the president’s desk. These steps in a bill becoming a law are very important, and make sure that all bills passed into law are the best of the best.
This analysis begins by exploring the major differences between the U.S. Congress and British House of Commons in terms of political accountability, committee importance, and party loyalty to the President/Prime Minister. The basic political structures of both the House of Commons and the House of Representatives are very similar in structure and function and this most likely stems from the fact that the United States Congress is based, at least in principle on that of the British House of Commons, however those similarities soon diverge from each other rather quickly and both implement policy and law in a very different fashion. Just as there are similarities between the Congress and House of Commons there are striking similarities between the House of Lords and the United States Senate. These types of political systems found both in the United Kingdom and the United States are referred to as “bicameralism” (congresslink.org n.d.). Bicameralism is defined as a government body that consists of two chambers. Congress, like most of the world's legislatures, is bicameral, that is, it is composed of two chambers, just as the British Parliamentary system. In the United States there are two chambers, One consisting of the House of Representatives, and the other consisting of the senate. The British parliament also consists of a two chamber system which includes the house of the lords (the equivalent of the United States Senate), and the House of Commons (which is the equivalent of the United States Senate). Not only do these systems parallel each other in their make-ups of legislative bodies but they are also similar in that they both were set up to accomplish similar work which consists of creating legislation, and enacting or amending...