Ch.

7 – Congress
1) The House and the Senate
a) Congress is a bicameral legislature. It has:
i) House of Representatives
(1) Requirements:
(a) Be 25 years or older
(b) Be a US citizen for at least 7 years
(c) Re a resident of the district and state that elects them
(2) Elections:
(a) Are elected “by district, by state.” Each state is divided into election districts,
each district equal in population. Each district has its own list of candidates
running for US Representative and each voter votes in their own district.
(b) The nation census is done every 10 years and may shift districts as population
shifts
(3) Representation:
(a) Based on the state’s population. Some states only have one representative.
Louisiana has 7; California has the most at 53.
(4) Membership:
(a) Today, the House membership is 435. When first instituted, the ratio of US
Reps to population was 1 to 30,000. Now the ratio is 1 to 60,000. The ratio
will increase as population does.
(b) Reps are elected to a term of 2 years and then run for re-election. There are no
term limits.
ii) Senate
(1) Requirements:
(a) Be 30 years or older
(b) Be a US citizen for at least 9 years
(c) Be a resident of the state that elects them
(2) Elections:
(a) Are elected by the citizens of the state in state-wide elections
(3) Representation:
(a) Every state has two senators
(4) Membership:
(a) Senators are elected for a term of 6 years and then run for re-election
b) Salary and Benefits of Congress
i) Salary of $169,300 - $217,400 depending on time in office and position in leadership
ii) Benefits:
(1) $1 million per year for office space in home state/district b/c the Constitution
requires that Congress members must be available to the voters
(2) $1 million per year for housing in home state/district and Washington DC b/c the
Constitution requires that Congress members must return the home state/district
yet must be Washington DC while Congress is in session
(3) Free travel to/from Washington DC and the home state/district b/c the
Constitution requires that the Congress members must be in contact with the
home state/district
 (4) Free junket trips for member, spouse and family so long as the trip is “fact
finding” and less than seven days
(5) Free medical/dental for member, spouse and kids under 18
(6) Franking privilege of mailing official mail without a stamp
(7) Congressional immunity that prevents the member from being arrested for minor
crimes on the way to work
(8) Expense allowances for phone, international postage, car transportation, and other
items
c) If a member of Congress does something illegal:
i) Censure – public humiliation in front of Congressional members (for minor crimes or
breaking of Congress’s procedures)
ii) Expulsion – taken from Congress, voters may re-elect them if they are not in jail
(major or broke criminal law)
2) How Congress is Organized
a) Work Year:
i) Term = is a term is actually two years long and it is shown as a number (EX: Jan
2007 – Jan 2009, 110th term)
ii) Each term is broken down into 1-year halves known as sessions. Jan 2007 – Jan 2008
is the 110th term, 1st session etc. Each session, Congress is only actually at work for
90 days. Sometimes, they are at their home state/district, other times the members are
really on vacation
b) House Leadership
i) Speaker of the House: top position in the House
(1) Current speaker is Nancy Pelosi
(2) Duties: Assigns bill ideas to a standing committee
(3) Speaker is always from Majority party and is voted by congressmen
ii) Majority/Minority Leaders of the House: each person, for their party, leads their party
in the House and is the “face” of their party to the nation. Each is supposed to get
laws passed that their party wants.
(1) House Majority Leader: Steny Hoyer
(2) House Minority Leader: John Boehner
iii) Majority/Minority Whips of the House: each person, for their party, ensures that their
members show up on days that bills are being voted on and that their members vote
the way the party wanted them to votes
c) Senate Leadership
i) President of the Senate: always the VP, today it is Dick Cheney
(1) Not a US Senator so cannot debate on bills and can only vote to break a tie. Must
assign bill to correct standing committee
ii) President Pro Temp of the Senate: Runs senate when POS isn’t there. Can debate on
bills, can vote on bills, and can assign bill to wrong standing committee
iii) Majority/Minority Leaders of the Senate: same as leaders of the house
(1) Senate Majority Leader: Harry Reid
(2) Senate Minority Leader: Mitch McConnell
iv) Majority/Minority Whips of the Senate: same as whips of the house
d) Majority/Minority
 i) The majority in Congress is Democrat. There is no law which requires one party to be
the majority; it is based only on voter preference.
ii) The benefit of the majority is that the chairmen are always from the majority party
and the majority party has overwhelming numbers
(1) If the committee has 30 members, the chairman is from the majority party and 22
are from the majority party and 17 are from the minority party
e) Committees (both House and Senate have these committees)
i) Standing Committees – these committees always exist because they reflect the US.
They have 30 – 40 members.
ii) Subcommittees – smaller, working units of standing committees. They gather
information for the writing of the bill. These have 10 – 15 members.
iii) Select Committees – temporary committees formed to deal with one time problems
iv) Joint Committees – has both H&S members on it. Formed at the beginning to speed
up bill writing process. Bills in this process take 9-10 months to reach the President’s
desk; regular bills take 18 months
v) Conference Committees – joint committee formed at the end of the bill writing
process. They have both H&S members on them and now need to work together
3) Powers of Impeachment
a) Steps:
i) House investigates wrongdoing, creates the charges of impeachment against the
official. 1 more than half of the House must approve the impeachment charges
ii) Senate holds impeachment trial and acts as a jury. 2/3rds of the Senate must vote
guilty for ht person to be considered guilty of the charges and removed from office.
iii) (congress members cannot be impeached)
b) Powers Unique to House:
i) Starts impeachment process, creates impeachment charges
ii) Starts the bill-making process if the bill raises citizen’s taxes
iii) Chooses the US Pres if no candidate receives the required number of Electoral
College votes of if the pres election end in a tie.
c) Powers Unique to Senate:
i) Holds all impeachment trials, acts as impeachment trial jury
ii) Approves all presidential nomination for US Ambassador, US federal court judges,
and high US govt officials
iii) Approves all treaties or international agreements negotiated by the US President
iv) Filibuster power to hold up debate or vote on bills
v) Chooses the US Vice President if no candidate receives required number of Electoral
College cotes or if the VP election ends up in a tie. This power is not possible to use
in modern elections
d) Limitations on the Powers of Congress:
i) Cannot pass Ex Post Facto laws (laws after the act has already been committed)
ii) Cannot pass Bills of Attainder (laws that would allow an accused party to go to jail
without a jury trial)
iii) Cannot set aside or suspend the Writ of Habeas Corpus (process that starts 24 after
your arrest and requires that you be put in front of a judge, told the charges against
you, and given (or denied) bail)
iv) Cannot tax exports (US businesses who sell overseas)
 v) Cannot pass any law that violates the Bill of Rights
vi) Cannot favor the trade of one state over other states
vii) Cannot withdraw money from the US Treasury without a law
4) How a Bill Becomes a Law
a) (Bill can start in the Senate or House) Bill ideas is introduced and the Speaker assigns the
bill idea a number starting with the letter H and a standing committee. The standing
committee can be the correct one and the bill continues on or it can be the wrong one and
the bill idea ends there. The standing committee doesn’t have to work on it.
b) The standing committee takes bill idea and breaks it down into parts and assigns each
part idea to subcommittees of the House Standing committee
c) All of the subcommittees hold hearings. Experts testify and give information which will
be needed to write the bill. Subcommittees reform into standing committees.
d) The standing committee takes hearing info, write the bill and votes on the bill. If the
majority votes against the bill, the bill “dies in committee.” If the majority votes for the
bill, the bill is “voted out of committee.”
e) All members of the House debate bill and vote on the bill. If a majority vote against the
bill, the bill dies. The majority vote for the bill, the bill continues the process, repeating
steps 2-5 as steps 6-10, only now in the Senate
f) The bill idea is introduced. The POS or PPT will assign the bill idea a number with S in
the front. It does not have to be the same number as the House. It is assigned to a
standing committee.
g) The Senate Standing Committee gets the bill idea and breaks it down into parts and
assigns each part to a subcommittee of the Standing committee.
h) The subcommittees hold hearings, come back into the standing committee
i) The standing committees take hearing info, writes the bill and votes on the bill. Voting is
the same as house.
j) All members of the Senate debate the bill and vote on the bill. If a majority votes against
the bill, the bill dies. If a majority votes for the bill, the bill continues the process, going
to the Conference Committee.
k) The Conference Committee convenes and writes a compromise 3rd version of the bill
because almost always the House and the Senate approved different bills. If both the
House and Senate approve the compromise, the bill will be passed on to the President
l) The President has 4 options:
i) Can sign bill into law
ii) Can veto law and send it back to Congress. If 2/3rds of the House and Senate vote to
override the veto, it becomes a law.
iii) If the President is at work and Congress is on vacation, the President can let the bill
die of a pocket veto. After 10 days, it dies and Congress cannot do anything to
override it. Congress must start over on the bill.
iv) If Congress is at work and the President is on vacation, after 10 days of the bill sitting
on the President’s desk, it automatically becomes a law and the president cannot veto
it.
5) Lagniappe
a) 17th – Direct Election of Senators
b) 27th – Pay of Congress
6) Vocabulary
a) Adjourn: suspend, as in a session of Congress
b) Committee of the Whole: a committee that consists of an entire legislative body; used for
a procedure in which a legislative body expedites its business by resolving itself into a
committee of itself.
c) Constituency: the people and interests that an elected official represents.
d) Discharge petition: a procedure enabling members to force a bill that has been
pigeonholed in committee onto the floor for consideration.
e) Engross: to print a bill in its final form.
f) Franking privilege: benefit allowing members of Congress to mail letter and other
materials postage free.
g) Gerrymander: to draw the electoral district lines to the advantage of a party or group.
h) Impeach: to bring formal charges against a public official; the House of Representatives
has the sole power to impeach civil officers of the United States.
i) Implied powers: those delegated powers of the National Government that are suggested
by the expressed powers set out in the Constitution; those “necessary and proper” to carry
out the expressed powers.
j) Off year elections: Congressional election that occurs between presidential election years.
k) Partisan: lawmaker who owes his/her first allegiance to his/her political party and votes
according to the party line.
l) Party caucus: a closed meeting of a party’s House or Senate members; also called a party
conference.
m) Quorum: Least number of members who must be present for a legislative body to conduct
business; majority.
n) Reapportion: redistribute, as in seats in a legislative body.
o) Resolution: a measure relating to the business of either house, or expressing an opinion;
does not have the force of law and does not require the President’s signature.
p) Rider: unpopular provision added to an important bill certain to pass so that it will “ride”
through the legislative process.
q) Seniority rule: unwritten rule in both houses of Congress reserving the top posts in each
chamber, particularly committee chairmanships, for members with the longest records of
service.
r) Strict Constructionist: one who argues a narrow interpretation of the Constitution’s
provisions, in particular those granting powers to the federal government.
s) Cloture: vote of 3/5ths, 60 of the 100, of the full Senate to end a filibuster.