Professional Documents
Culture Documents
I) Membership
A) Formal Qualifications
a) must be at least 25
b) US citizen for 7 years
c) resident of the state they intend to represent
(i) usually they live in the same district they represent, but that’s a custom, not a
requirement
d) with a 2/3 vote, the House can expel one of its members for any reason
(i) has only happened 5 times (for crimes)
B) Informal Qualifications
a) must be able to appeal to voters of the district to win votes
(i) in the past, athletes, celebrities, and people with military experience have all been
popular
(ii) today, Representatives must be able to raise money to win
1 on average, House elections spent 1.5 million per person to win
II) Reapportionment and Redistricting
A) Changes in Population
a) the Constitution requires the government to take a census every 10 years to determine
our population across the states and in individual districts
(i) the seats in the House are determined by population
1 if the percentage of people living in a district changes enough, that district
might be absorbed into another or get broken up into new districts
B) Gerrymandering
a) state governments get to decide where district boundaries are
(i) whoever is in power tends to draw the boundaries to ensure their party has
advantage
1 redrawing district lines for political advantage is called gerrymandering
C) One Person, One Vote
a) early on, the Supreme Court ignored gerrymandering
b) in the last 50 years, gerrymandering has become such a problem that they have had to
set some limits
(i) these limits don’t keep districts safe from gerrymandering, they only keep them
from getting too out of hand
III) Leadership in the House
A) The Speaker of the House
a) this person is the most powerful in the House
b) elected by the Representatives and comes from the political party with the highest
majority of seats
(i) when the majority changes (which can happen every two years), the Speaker
changes with it
1 currently, the Speaker of the House is Paul Ryan
c) the primary job of the Speaker is to preside over debates and recognize speakers
(people who want to speak on the House floor on public record)
(i) also assigns bills to committees for review and changes
1 also decides who is in temporary committees
d) the Speaker is also the third in line for the presidency (if both the president and vice
president die suddenly)
B) Other Leadership Posts
a) each party elects floor leaders to act as assistants to the Speaker
(i) the majority party has the majority leader, the minority party has the minority
leader
1 minority leaders in particular try to keep their party together and unite around
common positions to increase the power of the party overall
b) each party also elects whips (majority and minority whips)
(i) the whips collect information on what members are thinking about a bill or
position and report to the floor leaders
1 they also sometimes try to convince people to vote a certain way
C) House Rules
a) Representatives can be voted out of office with a 2/3 majority in the House
b) Reps can also be issued a reprimand for breaking a rule
(i) Reps who break bigger rules, but not big enough to be removed, are censured
c) the House has a separate Rules Committee
(i) this group decides how a bill will be debated, for how long, and how it will be
amended
1 they can speed up or delay the passage of a bill, and are often close with the
Speaker
this is how if the House is one party but the Senate is another, they can
hold up almost all legislation
IV) The Role of Committees
A) Standing Committees
a) there are 20 permanent committees
(i) these are over areas where most laws fall, like agriculture, budget, military, etc
b) these typically have at least 4 subcommittees that focus on particular things and
report back to the main committee
B) Other Committees
a) when issues come up that need a new committee (like investigations), the House
creates select committees
(i) these have a limited duration and are fully appointed by the Speaker
b) joint committees combine people from the House and Senate to discuss issues that
affect both groups
C) Committee Chairs
a) every committee has a leader called a chair or chairperson
(i) because so much happens in committees, the chair is a powerful person
1 the chair is the most senior person on the committee (who has been there the
longest)
in the 1970s, they changed the rules from just being the most senior person
to the person being elected- they are still the most senior person, but it
could be different
D) Committee Membership
a) most people request to be on certain committees
(i) standing committee members are chosen by vote in the House
1 this means people often must campaign with their colleagues
b) House members can serve on up to 2 standing committees and 4 subcommittees
(i) each committee also has a number of paid staff to do the grunt work
4- The Senate
I) Bills in Congress
A) Introducing Bills
a) both Senators and Representatives can introduce bills
(i) the one exception is tax bills, which must start in the House
b) bills proposed in the House are assigned H.R. and a bill number
c) bills proposed in the Senate are assigned S. and a bill number
d) bills can be public or private
(i) private bills usually only affect a small number of people, like granting residency
to an illegal alien
(ii) most bills are public (affect everyone)
e) in the 111th Congress, 6400 bills were introduced by the House, and 4000 by the
Senate (we’re currently in the 115th Congress)
f) during the process, people may add riders to the bill
(i) riders add something that isn’t related
1 usually this is to get something unpopular added to a bill likely to pass so it
“rides” into becoming law
2 sometimes these are added to specifically kill a bill
B) Other Types of Action
a) joint resolution
(i) passed much like a law, but typically faster and only used for out of the ordinary
things
b) concurrent resolutions
(i) deal with operations within Congress or to express Congressional opinions, but
does not have the power of law and are not signed by the president
II) Bills in Committee
A) Referral
a) the Speaker decides which committee of the House studies a bill, while the majority
leader does the same for the Senate
(i) sometimes bills go to multiple committees if dealing with multiple subjects
b) once in a committee, the bill can be assigned to a subcommittee if needed
B) Committee and Subcommittee Hearings
a) committees hear testimony from people who might be affected by the bill, special
interest groups, or other members of government
(i) usually this is voluntary, but the committee can require that people show up by
issuing a subpoena
b) committee chairs can decide who testifies, so minority party members have little
control over the process
C) Subcommittee’s Report
a) after the hearings, the subcommittee makes an official report to the full committee
(i) if they vote against it, the bill dies here
(ii) also the subcommittee can add or subtract things
D) The Markup Process
a) the full committee hears the report and begins to make changes
(i) if they’re happy, they can submit the bill to the House or Senate (depending on
where it came from)
b) if the committee wants, they can decide to take no further action on the bill, which
shelves the issue until they decide to reopen it (there is no expiration date)
E) House Rules
a) if the bill goes to the House, it first goes through the Rules Committee
(i) they determine how long the bill can be debated and if it can be changed
1 if they want, the Rules Committee can prevent a bill from being debated at all
III) The Bill on the Floor
A) The Bill in the House
a) once the Rules Committee allows, the bill then goes to the House floor
(i) few bills are considered by the entire House- most are only heard by about 100 of
the 435 members
b) time is divided evenly between the two parties
(i) both debate the bill and any amendments made
c) if the group of around 100 vote to pass the bill, it will then be heard by the entire
House next time they are in session
(i) the entire House then can vote on the bill and any amendments
1 if it passes, it goes on to the Senate to go back through committees
B) The Bill in the Senate
a) after the committee and subcommittee hearings, the bill then goes directly to the
Senate floor (no Rules Committee) and debate starts
(i) just like the House, amendments can be added or subtracted and both parties can
debate
1 if able, sometimes the minority party might choose to filibuster the bill and
kill it
b) if the majority of the Senate agrees, the bill moves on
(i) if the bill has already been through the House, it goes to the president, otherwise it
goes through the House
IV) The Conference Committee
A) bills must be passed identically by both the House and Senate
a) if either makes any changes, it must then go back through the other chamber
B) for major bills, any differences of opinion means both chambers will come together in a
conference committee
a) this committee has members of both chambers who meet and hash out the details
(i) once they agree, they file a report and send it back to the Senate and House floors
1 if an identical bill is passed in both chambers, the bill goes to the president
V) Presidential Action on a Bill
A) sign the bill into law
B) pocket veto- don’t sign the bill or veto
a) if Congress remains in session for 10 days, the bill becomes law
b) if they adjourn, the bill is vetoed
C) veto the bill- send it back to the chamber in which it started
a) at this point Congress can override the veto with a 2/3 vote, but that has only
happened a little more than 100 times out of over 2500 vetoes
BE ABLE TO TRACE A BILL FROM THE HOUSE TO BECOMING LAW