House and Senate Differences The smaller Senate encourages

House and Senate Differences • The smaller Senate encourages deliberation and debate. It discourages specialization on particular issues because senators serve large, often diverse, statewide constituencies. In the Senate, less power is concentrated in the leadership’s hands. • The larger, more centralized and organized House gives the leadership more legislative control and allows for specialization. Differences in terms of office and requirements for eligibility and representation determine how both houses develop their constituencies.

Sociological Representation and Social Composition of Congress • Sociological representation is a type of representation in which representatives have the same racial, gender, ethnic, religious, or educational background as their constituents. It is based on the principle that if two individuals are similar in background, character, interests, and perspectives, then one could represent the other’s views. • Congress is not a sociologically representative assembly. Religious affiliations of members of both houses are first overwhelmingly Protestant, then Catholic, and then Jewish; this religious distribution is close to that of the population at large. Women and minorities in Congress are greatly underrepresented according to their proportion in the general population.

The Future of Congress: Kyrsten Simena Member of Congress, U. S. House: 9 th Congressional District of Arizona Democrat 1 st Bisexual Member of Congress The only open Atheist serving in Congress 1 st Member of Congress from the Millennial generation (1979 – 1996) During her House campaign, Simena was attacked for being an “anti-American hippie” and accused of practicing “pagan rituals. ”

Worst Congressional Scandals in History • Rep. Dan Sickles kills Phillip Barton Key—He was also involved in an affair with Rep. Dan Sickles wife in 1859. When Sickles found out about the affair, he forced his wife to sign a confession, and he then shot and killed Key when Key came over for a rendezvous. • Barney Frank’s prostitution ring—Long before he was caught up in the middle of the subprime mortgage crisis, Barney Frank was making headlines for a different, much seedier reason. In 1989, Frank admitted to having a lengthy relationship with a male hooker who was running a prostitution service out of Frank’s apartment. • Sen. Kennedy drives car off bridge, woman drowns—It was July 1969. Senator Edward Kennedy offered a 28 year old secretary a ride home from a party. What took place in the car has never been fully explained, but what we do know if that Kennedy’s car went off a bridge and was submerged under water. Kennedy got out of the car, fled the scene, and didn’t report the accident until the next morning. • Congressional page sex scandal rocks Congress in 1983—The 1983 Congressional page sex scandal was just another black eye for Congress. The House Ethics Committee recommended that Rep. Dan Crane and Rep. Gerry Studds be reprimanded for engaging in sex with minors who were congressional pages. • Rep. Hays hires unqualified secretary for sex acts–In 1976, Rep. Wayne Hays’s mistress told the Washington Post about her story of working for Hays. She said Hays hired her as a secretary even though, as she put it, “I can’t type. I can’t file. I can’t even answer the phone. ” As it turns out, Hays didn’t hire her for her secretarial skills. He hired her to have sex with him and his friends.

The Electoral Connection • • • Who runs for office? Voters’ choices are restricted by who decides to run for office. Today, political parties ensure that well qualified candidates run for Congress, but running for office is a personal choice ignited by the individual’s ambition, potential for raising funds, and support. Incumbency - This is defined as holding the political office for which one is running. Incumbents provide constituents with services to ensure reelection. The services include taking care of individual requests and regular communications with constituents to establish a personal relationship with them. Apportionment and Redistricting - Apportionment is the process, occurring after every census, (every 10 years) which allocates congressional seats among the fifty states according to population changes. Redistricting is the process of redrawing election districts and redistributing legislative representatives. This happens every ten years to reflect population shifts or in response to legal challenges to existing districts. Gerrymandering - Redistricting can also give an advantage to one party by clustering voters with some ideological or sociological characteristics in a single district, or by separating those voters into two or more districts. The manipulation of electoral districts to serve the interests of a particular group is known as gerrymandering.

The Organization of Congress • Party Leadership in the House. The elected majority leader is automatically elected by the whole House as the Speaker of the House, the chief presiding officer of the House of Representatives. • Party Leadership in the Senate. In the Senate, the office of the president pro tempore is a ceremonial position, held by the most senior member of the majority party. In the Senate, the real power lies in the hands of the majority leader and minority leader, who perform tasks equivalent to their counterparts in the House. Along with these organizational tasks, congressional party leaders may control or try to set the legislative agenda.

The Speaker of the House • Paul Ryan– Speaker of the House. • The presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives. • The Speaker, a member of the House, is elected by a majority party caucus. In addition to being chief spokesman for the majority party, the Speaker runs the proceedings of House debate and voting, appoints committee members, refers bills to committees for research and development, and has an influential voice in all stages of a bill's consideration. • The Speaker is second in the United States presidential line of succession, after the Vice President and before the President pro tempore of the U. S. Senate.

The Majority and Minority Leaders of the U. S. Senate • Mitch Mc. Connell – Senate Majority Leader. • The Senate Majority and Minority Leaders are two United States Senators who are elected by the party conferences that hold the majority and the minority respectively. • These leaders serve as the chief Senate spokesmen for their parties and manage and schedule the legislative and executive business of the Senate. • By rule, the Presiding Officer (President of the Senate) gives the Majority Leader priority in obtaining recognition to speak on the floor of the Senate.

The Committee System • 1. Standing committees are permanent in nature. They have the power to propose and write legislation. The jurisdiction of each standing committee covers particular subject matter, such as finance, tax, trade, Social Security, and Medicare. Among the most important standing committees are those in charge of finances, such as taxation and trade. • 2. Select committees. These are usually temporary legislative committees set up to highlight, investigate, or address a particular issue not within the jurisdiction of existing committees. • 3. Joint committees are legislative committees formed by members of both the House and Senate. There are four of these committees concerned with economics, taxation, library, and printing. • 4. Conference committees are temporary joint committees created to work out a compromise on the House and Senate versions of a piece of legislation.

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How Congress Decides • Constituency. The constituency influence is not straightforward. Most constituents do not know what policies their representatives’ support. Still, in order to be re-elected, members of Congress spend much time anticipating which policies constituents like. • Interest Groups with the ability to mobilize followers can be very influential in decision making. These groups lobby Congress by informing their membership by simulating grassroots pressure (called astroturf lobbying, this technique can include mass mobilization via collective mail) or by using congressional scorecards rating members’ voting decisions. • Party Discipline. Party leaders exert influence over party members’ congressional behavior.

Other Congressional Powers • Oversight: Through hearings, investigations, and other techniques, Congress exercises control over the activities of executive agencies. This means Congress supervises how legislation is carried out by the executive branch. • Advise and Consent: Special Senate Powers: The Constitution grants the president the power to make treaties and to appoint top executive and judicial offices only “with the advice and consent of the Senate” (Article II, Section 2). For treaties, a two thirds consent in needed; for appointments, a simple majority is required. • Impeachment: The formal charge by the House of Representatives that a government official has committed “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors. ”