Congress of the United States.

Congress of the United States. I INTRODUCTION Congress of the United States, legislative branch of the United States government. Congress is composed of two chambers with equal powers: the 100-member Senate and the 435-member House of Representatives. The primary duty of Congress is to write, debate, and pass bills (proposed laws), which are then passed on to the president for approval. Once the president approves the legislation, the executive branch enforces the new laws and the judicial branch interprets them. Other congressional duties include investigating pressing national issues, supervising the executive and judicial branches, and shaping U.S. foreign policy. II POWERS OF CONGRESS The Constitution of the United States grants Congress "all legislative powers" in the national government. Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution lists a wide range of congressional powers, including printing money, maintaining a military, declaring war, and regulating interstate and foreign commerce. Congress also controls federal taxing and spending policies--one of the most important sources of power in the government. The Constitution also gives Congress the authority to "make all laws which shall be necessary and proper," an implied source of power sometimes called the Elastic Clause. One of the most important implied powers is Congress's authority to investigate and oversee the executive branch and its agencies, such as the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice. As part of this responsibility, which is known as oversight, Congress summons senior officials to answer questions from members, orders audits of agencies, and holds hearings to air grievances of citizens. Congress also holds hearings on matters of general public concern. Sometimes members of Congress conduct these hearings to identify problems that create a need for new laws. In other cases Congress holds hearings to raise public awareness about an issue. Sometimes members of Congress conduct hearings in an effort to bolster their reputations and improve their election prospects. Congress reviews the professional conduct of its own members but usually punishes only the most egregious violations of House and Senate rules. Congress certifies the election results of its own members as submitted by state officials. Certification is usually routine. Some congressional powers remain rarely used. Congress can impeach the president and other federal officials for treason, bribery, and other serious offenses, but it rarely does so. Although members of Congress discuss impeachment from time to time and have initiated proceedings in many cases, there have been only 14 formal impeachment trials. Of the 14 officials tried, only half were convicted and removed from office. The House of Representatives votes on whether to charge officials with impeachable offenses. If the House votes to impeach, then the Senate conducts the impeachment trial itself. The vice president of the United States presides over the Senate during impeachment proceedings, except when the president is impeached. In an impeachment of the president, the chief justice of the Supreme Court presides over the proceedings. A two-thirds majority vote of senators present at an impeachment trial is necessary to secure conviction. In 1868 President Andrew Johnson was impeached on charges of defying the authority of Congress and of violating a federal law, the recently enacted Tenure of Office Act. Johnson was acquitted by a single vote, but his victory established the precedent that presidents should not face impeachment for purely political reasons. In 1974 the House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment (charges) against President Richard Nixon, who soon resigned rather than face further congressional action based on his involvement in the Watergate scandal. In 1998 the House passed two articles of impeachment, for lying under oath and obstruction of justice, against President Bill Clinton amid a scandal surrounding his affair with a young White House intern. Following a brief trial in early 1999, the Senate declined to convict him. See Impeachment: The Clinton Trial. Congress also rarely uses its power to amend the Constitution. The Constitution permits Congress to propose new constitutional amendments through a two-thirds vote of both chambers, which then must be ratified by three-fourths of the states. The difficulty of amending the Constitution stops Congress from proposing new amendments very often. Congress shares many powers with the president. Congress takes equal responsibility with the president in framing U.S. foreign policy. The president and his representatives negotiate treaties with other countries, but the treaties go into effect only when the Senate approves them. Similarly, the president appoints ambassadors, federal judges, and many other government officials, but they must be confirmed by the Senate. Congress also shares control over the military with the president. Congress has the authority to declare war and provide funding for soldiers and weapons, but the president serves as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Congress has declared war on five occasions: the War of 1812 against Britain (1812-1815), the Mexican War (1846-1848), the Spanish-American War (1898), World War I (1914-1918; U.S. involvement 1917-1918), and World War II (1939-1945; U.S. involvement 1941-1945). In more than 200 other instances, however, presidents have sent armed forces into hostile situations in other countries to protect U.S. lives or property, without a declaration of war. Many of these were brief rescue or peacekeeping missions. Some, such as the Korean War (1950-1953) and the Vietnam War (19591975), were full-blown conflicts. III LIMITS ON THE POWERS OF CONGRESS The Constitution limits congressional power. The original articles of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights--the first ten amendments to the Constitution--bar Congress from passing some types of laws. The First Amendment, for example, prevents Congress from creating a national religion or interfering in lawful religious practices. It also declares that Congress cannot infringe on certain basic freedoms such as freedom of the press, speech, association, and petition. The Eighth Amendment specifies that Congress cannot impose "cruel and unusual" penalties on law-breakers. Other amendments create basic rights for people accused of crimes and limit the government's power to take a citizen's property. The judicial branch--including federal district courts, appeals courts, and the Supreme Court of the United States--interprets laws, sometimes in ways not intended by Congress. The courts also shape laws by deciding whether they conform to the Constitution. This power, known as judicial review, is a powerful institutional check on Congress. Perhaps the most substantial limit on Congress is the president's power to veto legislation, which Congress can override only by a two-thirds vote of both chambers. The president also has informal power over Congress. The power and prestige of the White House gives the president an edge over Congress in attracting public attention, so the president can often press Congress to accept legislative proposals. The president has no constitutional authority to compel Congress to consider a specific legislative agenda, but members of the House and Senate often propose legislation on the president's behalf. IV MEMBERSHIP The House and the Senate have similar membership requirements. The Senate includes two senators from each of the 50 states, elected for six-year terms. To be a senator, a person must be at least 30 years old, a citizen for nine years, and a resident of the state from which he or she is elected. Most members of Congress have served in state legislatures, city councils, or other elected bodies. See United States Senate: Campaigning for the Senate; United States House of Representatives: Campaigning for the House. The 435 House seats are divided among the states in proportion to each state's population. Every state is guaranteed at least one seat. States entitled to more than a single seat must create districts of roughly equal population from which members are elected. The United States Bureau of the Census counts the population of the states every ten years to determine how many seats each state is entitled to. Representatives, elected for two-year terms, must be 25 years old, a citizen for at least seven years, and a resident of the state from which they are elected. Five additional members--from Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia--represent their constituencies in the House but do not vote in the chamber. Most members of Congress work very hard. Daily tasks typically include: (1) meeting with constituents to discuss issues, (2) attending committee meetings, (3) meeting with government officials and lobbyists, (4) studying and discussing legislation, (5) working with informal groups of colleagues, (6) assisting constituents with problems, (7) managing the congressional office and staff, (8) raising money for the next campaign, (9) working with party leaders to build support for bills, (10) overseeing how agencies are carrying out laws, and (11) appearing publicly outside the state or district to address issues. Members of Congress rely on staff aides to help them with their heavy workload. House members are allotted up to 18 staff members, who work in local district offices or on Capitol Hill--the location of House and Senate chambers and offices. Senators' staffs vary according to their states' populations. About a third of congressional aides work in state offices, and the rest on Capitol Hill. V CONGRESSIONAL SESSIONS A new Congress begins in January every two years following congressional elections, in which voters choose all representatives and a third of the senators. The entire House membership faces reelection every two years, but the Senate is a continuing body because there is never an entirely new Senate. Since the First Congress, which met from 1789 to 1791, all Congresses have been numbered in order. The members elected in 1998 served in the 106th Congress, which convened in 1999 and 2000. Congress usually holds one session a year. Originally, most congressional sessions lasted from the first Monday in December until the following March 4. The 20th Amendment, which was adopted in 1933, changed the beginning of the congressional session to January 3, but permits Congress to select a different date. There is no fixed adjournment date. During the annual session Congress takes several recesses to allow members to return to their home states. Besides the regular sessions, the president can call special sessions of Congress. The House and the Senate each convene in their own chambers in the Capitol. On rare occasions they gather for a joint session in the House chamber, usually to hear a speech by the president or by a dignitary from another country. Congress also meets in joint session to count the electoral votes for presidential elections. VI STRUCTURE AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE SENATE The Constitution grants the Senate special powers not shared by the House. Only the Senate has the power to approve treaties proposed by the president. The chamber also has the sole authority to confirm the president's choices for diplomats, federal judges, cabinet members, and other important federal officials. The Senate also conducts impeachment hearings against the president and federal judges, but only after the House has voted to proceed with impeachment. Under the Constitution, the vice president of the United States has formal control of the Senate and is officially known as the president of the Senate. In practice, the vice president comes to the chamber only for important ceremonies and to cast tie-breaking votes. The Senate's majority party appoints its most senior member to assume the vice president's leadership duties, taking the title president pro tem (temporary president). This office is also primarily ceremonial. Normally, recentlyelected senators--sometimes called junior senators--take turns presiding over the Senate, aided by experts in Senate procedure called parliamentarians. Most Senate power rests in the hands of the floor leaders--that is, the leaders of the majority and minority parties. Floor leaders and their assistants, known as whips, try to organize members' support behind their party's legislative program. The floor leaders and whips also arrange the Senate schedule, make procedural motions to support or block legislation, and try to prevent the Senate from taking action that absent senators might find objectionable. These leaders also head up key party committees, make appointments to special committees, and speak to the news media on behalf of their parties. The Senate is organized into 16 permanent committees, which in turn have nearly 70 subcommittees. These committees and subcommittees hold hearings, conduct research, and supervise the executive branch. Key committees include the appropriations, budget, and finance committees, and those specializing in agriculture, armed services, banking, commerce, and foreign affairs. The committees and subcommittees make many of the Senate's most important legislative decisions. The average senator sits on three to four committees and about six subcommittees, so most senators work on a wide range of issues. In addition to their committee work, senators often try to affect legislation being considered by committees on which they do not serve. VII STRUCTURE AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE HOUSE The House enjoys the sole authority to propose tax legislation, but the Senate must approve tax bills as they would any other type of legislation. By tradition, all bills funding government activities also originate in the House. The House also has the power to initiate impeachment proceedings against the president and other federal officials, but the Senate conducts the actual impeachment trials. The Speaker of the House leads the House of Representatives, scheduling debates, assigning bills to House committees, and appointing members to special committees. The majority party nominates the Speaker, who is then confirmed by a vote of the entire House, which almost always follows party lines. Because of the office's extensive powers, the Speaker stands as the most visible and important figure on Capitol Hill, and one of the most powerful leaders in the country. The Speaker manages House business more tightly than is possible in the Senate. Members of the House can address the chamber only when the Speaker recognizes them (calls on them), and the Speaker also has strong influence on committee appointments. Within limits, the speaker can block a bill by sending it to a committee likely to vote down the proposal, or the Speaker can support a bill by directing it to a receptive committee. The Speaker can also kill a bill by choosing not to put it on the House schedule for a vote. The Senate's floor leaders, in contrast, must rely much more on consensus and persuasion to manage Senate business. As in the Senate, the House's majority and minority parties each choose floor leaders and whips to organize party members. Party committees plan party policy and recommend members for committee assignments. The House has 19 committees. Most of these committees in turn have subcommittees to consider narrower topics. On average House members work on two committees and three subcommittees. Because of the House's large size, its committees usually frame issues for debate in the chamber. In contrast, major issues are sometimes shaped by the Senate as a whole. The House as a body usually defers to decisions made by individual committees, making House committees even more powerful than those in the Senate. The majority party dictates how many majority and minority members sit on each committee. The political parties decide which committees their representatives will sit on. The most sought-after committees are appropriations (which oversees federal spending), ways and means (which oversees federal revenues, including taxes), transportation, commerce, and rules (which sets the terms of debate in the House chamber). VIII THE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS Each Congress proposes thousands of new laws, but only a small percentage win the approval of both chambers and the president. At every stage of the lawmaking process, these proposals are amended, modified, and refined. To become law, a measure must make it through committee and floor debates, win the support of important interest groups, gain a majority of votes in the two chambers, and then win the president's signature. A Proposing New Laws Only a member of the House or Senate can sponsor new laws. Members of Congress sometimes sponsor legislation at the request of the president. They also sponsor bills requested by interest groups, businesses, labor unions, and many other groups. Sometimes identical or similar bills are introduced simultaneously in each chamber. A bill's backers may try to find additional members to cosponsor the legislation to demonstrate its broad support. To introduce a bill, a member hands it to the Senate clerk or puts it in the House hopper (a mahogany box at the Speaker's podium). The bill is then assigned a number, such as HR 205 (House of Representatives number 205) or S 100 (the 100th bill introduced into the Senate during the session). Most proposals are public bills, which means that they apply to large classes of people. Members of Congress may also sponsor private bills, which affect small numbers of people and often involve immigration status, patents, or claims against the government. A bill, whether public or private, must pass both chambers in identical form to become law. Congress also passes joint resolutions, often to enact temporary legislation such as short-term budget extensions. Joint resolutions have the force of law when signed by the president or when passed over the president's veto. Congress sometimes expresses its opinions through concurrent resolutions, which do not require the president's approval and do not carry the force of law. In 1998, for example, more than three dozen senators sponsored a concurrent resolution that condemned Iraq's "continued threat to international peace and security." If both chambers approve a concurrent resolution, it is published by the archivist of the United States. The House or the Senate can vote on its own to pass a simple resolution, which affects only the chamber that passes it. Of the thousands of bills and resolutions proposed in each session of Congress, less than 10 percent are approved by both chambers and signed by the president. Many measures fail because they are seen as too extreme or because they are not seen as addressing pressing issues. Members of Congress sometimes propose laws they know have little chance of enactment, usually to draw attention to a problem, to stake out their position, or to curry favor with an interest group. Years or even decades may pass before public or group support pushes the bill to enactment. B The Committee System Congress conducts most of its work through two major types of committees. The most common are standing committees, which are usually permanent. Each standing committee takes responsibility for a particular subject area. Congress creates temporary committees, usually called select or special committees, to write bills on a particular topic or to conduct investigations. Both chambers, for example, have select committees to authorize and oversee the nation's intelligence-gathering operations, including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency. Most standing committees have the power only to authorize government action and cannot commit funding to implement the policy. Before most laws can be carried out, they must receive an appropriation of funding, processed and brought to the floor by the House and Senate appropriations committees. This occurs during Congress's annual budget process. The amount of money in the budget depends on the level of taxes and other revenues brought in by law processed by the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee. Much of a committee's work is handled by a sizable number of professional staff assistants. In 1999 there were nearly 1,300 House committee aides and more than 900 Senate committee aides. Some of the staff are experts in technical areas, such as military weapons, farming, and international finance. They guide lawmakers--especially those who are new or inexperienced--through the web of issues handled by the committee. After a bill is introduced, the presiding officer--the Speaker of the House or the president pro tem of the Senate--refers it to a specialized committee to review the measure. Most bills die at this stage when committee members simply ignore them or vote to take no action or to table (kill) the proposals. Most committees conduct much of their business through subcommittees, in which the subject matter of the committee is further broken down. Complex bills receive attention from several committees and subcommittees. A farm trade bill, for example, might be considered by the House's agriculture, commerce, and small business committees. Committee review of a bill may involve hearings, staff research, revision, amendments, and then a final recommendation to approve or reject the measure. Hearings sometimes highlight support for a measure, but they can also point out flaws and spark conflicts within Congress and the country at large. Hearings usually affect the committee's main decision, whether to report (recommend) the bill to the full chamber or to reject it entirely. Very few bills are sent to the full chamber without changes. C Final Action on Bills Once a committee reports a bill or resolution, it must be placed on the Senate or House agenda before the chamber can vote on the measure. Treaties and presidential nominations for federal offices reported by Senate committees must also be put on the agenda for a vote. The Senate has a simple scheduling system, with two calendars (lists of measures ready for floor consideration). The main Senate calendar, called the Calendar of General Orders, includes all public and private bills. The other Senate calendar, the Executive Calendar, is set aside for treaties and nominations proposed by the president. The House and Senate pass many routine bills with the agreement of all members, using a procedure called unanimous consent. Senate leaders especially seek consensus among senators concerning the arrangements of debate for controversial bills. Without a unanimous consent agreement, the Senate must debate and vote on a bill under rules that permit all senators virtually unlimited debating time. Even a small number of senators can use this rule to filibuster--to block a measure by speaking on the Senate floor for hours or even days on end. Filibusters can be halted by invoking cloture (closure), which requires a petition signed by 16 senators followed by a three-fifths vote of all senators. Because of the flexibility of the Senate's debating rules, a bill's sponsors usually try to postpone a vote until they have secured a unanimous consent agreement, which is sometimes called a time agreement because it limits the time for debate. Failing that, a bill's sponsors will try to ensure that an overwhelming number of their colleagues want the bill to be considered by the chamber. The House deliberates much faster. Nearly two-thirds of all House measures are approved through two mechanisms: unanimous consent and suspension of the rules, a procedure that passes bills quickly but requires approval of two-thirds of the chamber. Controversial bills (about one in every ten) are considered under a special rule granted by the House Rules Committee. Approved by the full chamber, these rules govern floor debate--setting time limits, limiting amendments, and sometimes barring objections to portions of the bills. Dominated by the leaders of the majority, the Rules Committee tries to arrange debate that favors the majority view of the legislation. The bill's managers--its sponsors or senior committee supporters--control House floor debate. These managers allocate debating time to strong supporters of the measure and other allies who ask to address the House. Leading opponents of a measure allocate the opposition's speaking time. Debates change few minds and are usually directed at the news media and outside observers. In exchanges called colloquies, members question one another to place their views on the public record. Finally, members vote on amendments and final passage of the bill. The Senate has about 300 recorded votes in every Congress, and the House of Representatives has 500 or more. Voting may be by voice, by division (standing to indicate support or opposition), or by individually recorded votes. Most important votes are recorded individually. When a bill is approved on the floor of one chamber of Congress, it passes over to the second chamber for consideration. The bill again faces introduction, committee referral, committee action, placement on the calendar, floor debate, and floor vote. If the bill passes the second chamber in original form, it is sent to the president for signature or veto. If the president vetoes a measure, Congress can override the veto only through a two-thirds vote of both chambers. See President of the United States: Legislative and Judicial Responsibilities. If the second chamber modifies the bill in any way, it must then be sent back to the first chamber. Sometimes sending the bill back and forth results in an agreement by both chambers. Or the chambers will create a conference committee, which brings together members of both chambers. The conference committee tries to agree on a compromise bill that is acceptable to both the House and the Senate. The bill produced by the conference committee must then be approved by both chambers, and then sent to the president. IX INFLUENCES ON THE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS Power is widely scattered in the U.S. political system. Four main sources of influence on Congress are political parties, the president, interest groups, and public opinion. Of all the branches of government, Congress is the most open to pressures of all kinds. A Political Parties Most lawmakers have long-term attachments to the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. It is possible to run for Congress as an independent, but few independent candidates have been elected. In recent decades, only two true independents, Bernard Sanders of Vermont and Virgil H. Goode, Jr., of Virginia, have won election to Congress. Congress is organized and led by its political parties: the Republicans and the Democrats. Even before newly elected members arrive on Capitol Hill, they are likely to have received their party's help in running and financing their campaigns. In both chambers, parties award committee assignments to their members. The majority party provides chairpersons for all the committees and subcommittees. In the House, the majority party draws up the rules and specifies the party balance of committees. These powers to organize House business give the parties power over individual members. In the Senate, the majority and minority party leaders negotiate with each other on the size and party balance of committees, although the majority party controls a larger portion of the committee staffs and budgets. Members tend to cast legislative votes along party lines. In the 106th Congress (1999-2001), for example, roughly half of the floor votes in the House and Senate were party-line votes in which a majority of Democrats opposed a majority of Republicans. The average Republican lawmaker followed his or her party on nine out of ten of these floor votes; the average Democrat, on eight out of ten. B The President Beginning with George Washington, virtually all presidents have tried to influence lawmaking on Capitol Hill. Presidents shape the legislative agenda, and they try to persuade members of Congress to support particular bills. Presidents prevail on about three-fourths of the House and Senate votes on which they take a position. Some presidents--for example, Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s and John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson in the 1960s--enjoy extraordinary success in steering their proposals through Congress. Presidents do better with members of their own party than with opposition party members. As a result, the best predictor of a president's success on Capitol Hill is the numerical strength of the president's party in Congress. Shifts of party control on Capitol Hill can dramatically change a president's fortunes. For example, President Bill Clinton's legislative success rate with the 103rd Congress (1993-1994), when his fellow Democrats controlled both chambers, was the best in nearly 30 years. After the Republicans captured Congress in 1994, Clinton's success rate fell to a modern-day low. A president's skill at dealing with members of Congress can determine the fate of bills whose legislative support is unclear. Some presidents, such as Dwight Eisenhower and Lyndon Johnson, work closely with members of Congress. Others, such as Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter, seem ill at ease and ineffective in contacting lawmakers. Presidents can also veto (reject) legislation that has been passed by Congress. When both houses approve a bill or resolution and send it to the president's desk, the president has ten days to sign it into law or return it to Congress. If the president fails to either sign or return the measure within ten days, it becomes law anyway--unless Congress is out of session. If the president opts not to act on a bill for ten days after Congress has finished its session, it is automatically vetoed. This is known as a pocket veto. On average, presidents veto about 5 percent of the measures sent to the White House, but this varies with different presidential administrations. The veto's most potent use is as a threat. As a bill wends its way through the House and Senate, its sponsors want to know whether or not the president is likely to sign it. Congress can override a presidential veto only through a vote of two-thirds of both chambers. This high threshold makes overrides quite rare--only about 4 percent of presidential vetoes are successfully overcome by Congress. Because of the difficulty in overriding a veto, a bill's sponsors try to secure the president's support before Congress votes on the measure. The veto is a blunt tool because presidents must either accept or reject the entire contents of a bill, which may include hundreds or even thousands of provisions. This is especially true of federal spending bills, which are usually made up of thousands of line items (entries for individual programs) and their corresponding funding limits. In 1996 Congress passed the Line-Item Veto Act, which gave the president the power to veto individual items in funding or tax bills. In 1998, however, the Supreme Court ruled that the act was unconstitutional. C Interest Group Pressures About two-thirds of all Americans are members of one or more groups, such as churches, sports teams, school clubs, labor unions, and business associations. Not all these groups seek political influence, but each has the right to do so. The First Amendment to the Constitution protects not only free speech and the right of assembly but also people's right to "petition the Government for a redress of grievances." This First Amendment right allows interest groups to pressure Congress in many ways and on any issue. Throughout U.S. history, groups have pressed Congress to take action on issues such as slavery, import tariffs, women's right to vote, taxes, gun control, and abortion. Groups often send representatives to Capitol Hill to speak directly to lawmakers. This is called lobbying, because interest group representatives once crowded into the lobbies outside legislative chambers in the hopes of catching lawmakers as they came and went. Buying a lawmaker's support--that is, bribery--was once common but is now illegal. Lobbyists are most persuasive when they can supply facts and arguments for lawmakers to use in defending their vote. Two variants of lobbying include grassroots lobbying and coalition lobbying. In grassroots lobbying, an interest group uses a campaign of phone calls, telegrams, e-mail, and letters from citizens to persuade members of Congress to act in a certain way. Because grassroots campaigns can be especially persuasive, since the early 1990s business groups have orchestrated campaigns so that they appear to emanate from the public. Critics label the practice "AstroTurf lobbying," because they see it as artificial as imitation grass. In 1995, for example, telecommunications companies sent nearly 500,000 telegrams to Congress favoring relaxed controls on their industry. But thousands of people listed as senders of the telegrams had not authorized the sending of telegrams in their names, and some of those listed as senders had died months earlier. In coalition lobbying, interest groups join forces with like-minded groups to increase their influence. For example, in 1997 medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturers got together to press Congress to limit their legal liability when their products failed to work. Interest groups also try to win congressional support by contributing money to the electoral campaigns of individual members. Because members of the House and Senate face limits on campaign donations, interest groups may also mount their own campaigns (termed issue advocacy) that are often indistinguishable from the candidate's efforts. In addition to printing leaflets and running radio and TV ads, many interest groups hire organizers to work in the candidate's state or district. About 100 groups create "report cards" on congressional members' voting records, selecting issues and scoring members' "right" or "wrong" votes. Increasingly, congressional races are influenced by political action committees. These groups do not usually lobby Congress directly. Instead they try to influence the congressional agenda by raising money to support candidates sympathetic to their cause. Nearly two-thirds of political action committees represent business groups, such as chemical manufacturers and cigarette makers, but there are also groups devoted to the interests of labor unions, women candidates, and environmental protection. D Public Opinion Congress responds directly to the activities of individuals and groups. No major issue is resolved before members have tested the public's opinion. Senators and representatives listen carefully to their constituents--people who live in the states or congressional districts that they represent. Keeping in touch with popular opinion can be difficult, because each of the 435 congressional districts contains approximately 650,000 people, and the average state includes more than 5.5 million people. More direct avenues of communication exist between constituents and lawmakers than ever before. Citizens can write or phone the offices of senators or representatives in Washington, D.C., or in home states. Members regularly travel back and forth between Washington and their home bases to meet with constituents. Computers and electronic technology such as faxes, e-mail, the Internet, electronic town halls, and radio and television talk shows enable members of Congress to take the nation's political pulse quickly. X CONGRESS IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE Congress shares its bicameral (two-house) structure with many legislatures throughout the world, but it differs from most legislatures in other important respects. Most legislatures around the world follow the so-called Westminster model, named for the United Kingdom's Parliament. In the United Kingdom and other Westminster-style systems, legislatures elect the country's chief executive, usually called the prime minister, from the ranks of the majority party in the parliament. The prime minister then selects cabinet ministers, mainly from among members of parliament, so the parliamentary majority also runs the executive agencies. The U.S. Constitution, in contrast, specifies that Congress and the president be elected separately, and that members of Congress cannot serve in the executive or judiciary while in office. The separation of Congress and the executive means that presidents are never assured that their legislative proposals will be accepted. Indeed, many presidential initiatives are declared "dead on arrival" when they reach Capitol Hill--that is, they are unlikely to be approved by Congress. The close association between the chief executive and the legislature in the Westminster system leads to another important difference between that system and the United States Congress. In many Westminster systems the prime minister and the cabinet write most legislation, but in the United States, Congress drafts most of legislation that becomes law. Because of its relatively large role in writing legislation, Congress divides its workload among a number of specialized committees and subcommittees that are aided by professional staffs. Although most legislatures use specialized committees, none are as powerful as those in the U.S. Congress. In the Westminster system, the prime minister holds power at the will of the parliamentary majority party or coalition. Parliament can decide to issue a vote of no confidence, which removes the prime minister and cabinet from their jobs. Congress, in contrast, has only limited power to remove the chief executive, which makes the U.S. system more stable. The separation of the legislative and executive branches in the United States can also lead to divided government, in which a president of one party confronts one or both chambers of Congress controlled by the opposition. This division has occurred in about two-thirds of the congresses since World War II (1939-1945), often producing delay and stalemate. XI CONGRESS THROUGH HISTORY During the 17th century and most of the 18th century, representative assemblies in Great Britain's American colonies wielded broad powers of taxing, spending, and public policy. Assemblies operating under written charters governed local governments, companies, and even churches. When conflicts arose with Britain, the colonial assemblies and legislatures--and later the Continental Congresses--supported the rebels' cause and eventually approved Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence. The Congress that emerged from these colonial legislatures was the sole organ of government under the nation's first charter, the Articles of Confederation, which governed the country from 1781 to 1788. Eventually the Articles proved too weak to enable Congress to direct the economy, deal with foreign powers, and put down civil unrest. In 1787 the Constitutional Convention gathered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to revise the Articles of Confederation, but it quickly concluded that the document was too flawed to repair. Instead, the convention debated and wrote a new constitution with strong executive authority, but balanced by a strong, autonomous Congress. "In republican government," wrote statesman James Madison in The Federalist Papers (1787), "the legislative authority necessarily predominates." The states ratified the new charter--the Constitution--in 1788. A Early Years From its earliest days, Congress helped set the national political agenda. The landmark First Congress, which met in New York City from 1789 to 1790, created three executive departments (state, treasury, and war), set up the federal judiciary, accepted the economic plan of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, adopted and sent to the states the Bill of Rights, and decided to locate the nation's capital at a site on the Potomac River, which became Washington, D.C. During the Congresses of the late 18th century, the House of Representatives emerged as a lively and sometimes rowdy deliberative body and sponsored most of the legislation of the period. The Senate, in contrast, revised bills drafted in the House and acted as an advisory panel to the president. After a few brief years of nonpartisanship in the 1780s, political parties emerged in Congress during the 1790s. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison led the Democratic-Republican Party, which advocated limited federal government, a minimal role for the government in the economy, and a foreign policy that allied the country with France. Alexander Hamilton led the opposing Federalist Party, which favored a strong federal government, a strong role for the Treasury Department in the economy, and a pro-British foreign policy. The Democratic-Republicans dominated Congress after Thomas Jefferson won the presidency in 1801. This party was the forerunner of today's Democratic Party, although in the early 19th century it was sometimes called the Jeffersonian Republican Party, or simply the Republican Party. Congress asserted a central role in the political process during the early 19th century. United States policy toward Britain, for example, dominated congressional debates for much of 1811 and 1812. These debates grew heated as the country became involved in the War of 1812 against Britain. Congress also acted to encourage the Western expansion of the United States by establishing a procedure for admitting new states to the Union and by moving Native Americans off much of the territory slated for new settlement. Congress's increased workload in the early 19th century led both chambers to create specialized committees to make the legislative process more efficient. B Civil War Years By the 1850s, Western expansion prompted the question of whether slavery would be permitted in the new territories. Congressional debates over slavery frequently led to bitter personal attacks, and these sometimes sparked fistfights in the House and Senate chambers. The debates over slavery also led to the formation in 1854 of a new political party, the Republican Party, which opposed slavery, favored cheap Western land grants, and supported high tariffs to protect domestic industries against foreign competition. When House and Senate committees failed to find a compromise on slavery that would satisfy both abolitionists and the Southern states, the American Civil War (1861-1865) erupted, deciding the question once and for all. During the war, President Abraham Lincoln asserted powers beyond those given to the president by the Constitution, suspending habeas corpus (the right against arbitrary arrest), spending money not authorized by Congress, and expanding the army beyond legal limits. Congress created the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War to supervise the president's actions, but the committee took no steps to stem what amounted to an executive seizure of power from the legislative branch. Vice President Andrew Johnson became president in 1865 after John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln. Johnson favored the interests of Southern states in the struggle over Reconstruction--the process of rebuilding the South's tattered economic and political system. Congress moved to curb Johnson's authority, passing a law over his veto that restricted the president's power to remove appointed officials. Johnson fired Secretary of War Edwin Stanton in 1867, which spurred Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against the president. The Senate acquitted Johnson by a single vote. Johnson's ordeal established the principle that presidents would not be stripped of power merely because they differed with Congress. In the wake of the Civil War, Congress passed, and the states ratified, three amendments to the Constitution: the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery; the 14th, which defined the rights of citizens; and the 15th, which established voting rights for African Americans. Although Congress was granted power to enforce these amendments, it failed for nearly a century to guarantee racial equality. Beginning in 1870, however, African Americans secured voting rights in sufficient numbers to send 20 African Americans to the House and two to the Senate over a period of two decades. But these gains proved temporary. After 1876 Reconstruction policies were formally ended in the South, and the troops that were supposed to enforce the policies were withdrawn. The end of Reconstruction was a byproduct of the contested 1876 presidential election: Democrat Samuel Tilden won a majority of the popular vote over Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, but Republicans charged Democrats with voting fraud in Southern states and used various stratagems to retain the White House. In exchange for acquiescing to a Hayes victory, Southern Democratic leaders were promised the withdrawal of federal troops from Southern states and the provision of federal aid for economic development. With the heavy hand of Reconstruction removed, the Democratic-controlled Southern states began to erect a wall of so-called Jim Crow laws that discriminated against African Americans. Many Southern states enacted poll taxes (a tax on voters), discriminatory literacy tests, and other measures to prevent African Americans from voting. Support for African American members of Congress dwindled along with the number of African American voters. The last of the first wave of African American House members left office in 1901, and another did not win election until 1929. Hiram Revels of Mississippi, the only African American senator in the 19th century, left office in 1871, and no other African American won election to the Senate until 1966, when Edward Brooke of Massachusetts won a seat. C The Progressive Era In the last quarter of the 19th century, members of Congress became increasingly preoccupied with narrow issues. Many devoted their time to obtaining pensions for Civil War veterans, winning special tax breaks for constituents, and pressing other claims against the government. The two chambers were frequently controlled by different parties, blocking most substantial legislation. Members of Congress sometimes came to the chambers while drunk and continued carousing during official sessions. Newspapers ridiculed Congress's poor performance and shabby conduct, prompting a groundswell of public pressure for change. The selection of senators became one of the most contested issues of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Constitution originally gave state legislatures the power to select U.S. senators. Progressive-era reformers, who supported more accessible government and increased controls on large business, attacked the Senate for its lack of public accountability. Pressure for change also mounted as more and more state legislatures found it impossible to settle on their Senate choice, sometimes resulting in seats remaining vacant. Many states devised ways of allowing citizens to express their preferences for Senate contenders. In the early 20th century the House of Representatives and many state legislatures repeatedly pressed the Senate to accept a constitutional amendment that would change the selection process for senators. The Senate refused these pleas for change until finally the states threatened to call a constitutional convention to deal with the issue. The Senate, fearing that a convention could push through sweeping reforms, opted to support the 17th Amendment. The amendment, which the states ratified in 1913, specified that senators be elected directly through a popular vote. The shift to direct election of senators signaled one of the most important structural changes in the history of Congress, substantially modifying the Founding Fathers' elitist design of the Senate. Republican president Theodore Roosevelt supported the Progressive reform movement, and he successfully prodded Congress to enact a wide range of regulations between 1901 and 1908. Congress passed laws that ensured the safety of food and drugs, stopped unfair railroad pricing practices, and preserved scenic lands throughout the country. The laws made history not only because of their direct effects on the nation's economy and natural environment, but also because they set a precedent for increased congressional regulation of U.S. economic affairs. Congress took an even larger role in American politics as the century wore on. Democrat Woodrow Wilson won the presidency in 1912, and the Democratic-controlled Congress supported his wide-ranging legislative agenda. Under Wilson's leadership, Congress created a national income tax, slashed tariffs (taxes on imports), established the Federal Reserve System to govern banks, prohibited child labor, and stiffened regulations against monopolies. Subsequent presidents Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover, all Republicans, tended to defer to Congress in the legislative process. Compared to the first two decades of the century, Congress passed little significant legislation under these presidents. The Republicans controlled the Congress for much of this period, but the party lacked the unity necessary to win passage of much of its limited agenda. Many Republicans shunned government activism, believing that problems should be solved by private enterprise. D The Great Depression and World War II The aimlessness of Congress in the 1920s became an acute problem following the stock market crash of 1929, which plunged the nation into the most serious economic crisis in its history, the Great Depression. President Hoover at first hesitated to take steps to confront the crisis, and his inaction helped the Democrats win control of the House in 1930. As the crisis continued, Democrats demanded that the federal government distribute cash to the ranks of the unemployed. Hoover refused, and he proposed relatively modest measures to improve the economy. Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt capitalized on the growing public discontent, winning the White House in 1932. Roosevelt proposed a massive economic package to Congress. The 1932 elections had also delivered Congress to the Democrats, and they quickly passed programs of public works projects, unemployment insurance, banking insurance, aid to farmers, and grants to states. Roosevelt won passage of many of his emergency proposals in just 100 days, establishing a new benchmark for successful cooperation between the legislative and executive branches. Under Roosevelt's leadership, Congress also passed a vast array of other programs, which the president dubbed the New Deal. Congress established the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to regulate financial markets, created the Social Security Administration to provide pensions for the elderly, and set up the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to protect the rights of labor unions and arbitrate labor disputes. Taken together, these and other New Deal measures constituted the greatest expansion of government power in American history. After his landslide reelection in 1936, Roosevelt's congressional Democratic supporters--a broad group that embraced urban liberals and Southern conservatives--began to fall apart. Roosevelt's greatest dispute with Congress came in 1937 when he attempted to gain control of the Supreme Court. His proposal, which critics dubbed the "Court packing" plan, would have allowed Roosevelt to appoint enough new justices to create a majority sympathetic to his policies. Even many of Roosevelt's allies in Congress opposed the plan, and it failed miserably in both chambers. The New Deal measures boosted the sagging economy, but a full recovery only came with the massive military spending for World War II. Congress resisted Roosevelt's efforts to involve the United States in the war in the late 1930s and 1940. Instead, Congress passed measures that provided weapons and munitions to U.S. allies, created the Selective Service Administration to draft soldiers, and increased American military spending on warships, aircraft, and other military equipment. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 stunned the nation, and Congress approved Roosevelt's request for a declaration of war. Congress allowed Roosevelt to lead most of the war effort, challenging him on only a few fronts. Americans chafed at early military defeats at the hands of Japan, spurring Congress to debate whether to devote more U.S. forces to Europe or the Pacific. The debates proved inconclusive, however, and Roosevelt retained control of troop deployment decisions. Congress agreed to his 1942 request to bolster the ranks of the armed forces by lowering the draft age, but resisted his subsequent calls to expand the draft. Roosevelt enjoyed broader discretion in military spending. Congress reviewed defense appropriations, but generally allowed the president and his military advisors to spend whatever they felt necessary. E Cold War Years In 1945 Congress began studying ways that it could restructure itself to improve efficiency. The expansion of federal authority under the New Deal had increased the congressional workload, but substantial structural reform of Congress came only after the war. Under the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946, Congress cut the number of its committees, added more support staff, regulated lobbying, and enlarged the Library of Congress's Legislative Reference Service to provide research help for members of Congress and their staff. In the following years, each chamber created subcommittees to replace some of the committees that the law had eliminated, consequently blunting the effect of the committee reform. Some of the other changes proved more effective. Skilled committee staffs, for example, made it easier for Congress to marshal evidence in debates with the White House on complex and technical policy issues. Members of Congress historically had little interest in events beyond U.S. borders. After World War II, however, the United States emerged as a superpower whose actions influence events in every part of the globe. Global Communism emerged as the dominant foreign policy issue after the war. Fear of Communist infiltration and spying for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) swept the nation in the late 1940s and the 1950s, spurring Congress to embark on wide-ranging inquiries. House and Senate hearings identified a handful of Communists, such as Alger Hiss, who may have had ties to the Soviet Union. The investigations also spread fear and suspicion through many quarters of U.S. society and ruined the careers and personal lives of scores of innocent people. The recklessness of many of the charges, particularly those of Senator Joseph McCarthy, damaged Congress's reputation for fairness. But it was the Senate itself that in 1954 censured McCarthy for bringing the body "into dishonor and disrepute," ending his political clout. F 1960s and 1970s President John F. Kennedy proposed many new laws to Congress during the 1960s. Kennedy, who called his program the New Frontier, persuaded the House and Senate to pass measures that established the Peace Corps, raised the minimum wage, and expanded Social Security benefits. Kennedy's assassination in 1963 shocked the nation, and his vice president, Lyndon Johnson, capitalized on the nation's grief to push the remainder of Kennedy's agenda through Congress. Johnson, a native of Texas and a former Senate majority leader, won passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 despite resistance from Southern members of congress. Johnson's blustery style and mastery of the legislative process enabled him to push through many other major proposals. Johnson's program, which he called the Great Society, included Medicare and Medicaid, the creation of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of Transportation (DOT), food stamps, Head Start, Legal Services, and many other reforms. In 1964 Johnson persuaded Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave him nearly total freedom to increase U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War (1959-1975). In passing the resolution, Congress in effect transferred to Johnson its constitutional power to declare war. As U.S. involvement in Vietnam continued, Congress became skeptical of unilateral military action by the president and enacted the War Powers Resolution of 1973 over Nixon's veto. The resolution required congressional approval for extended military operations. Although presidents have not followed all of the resolution's provisions, some administrations have abided by the requirement to notify Congress before sending troops into hostilities. (In two cases--a Lebanon peacekeeping deployment in 1983 and the Persian Gulf War in 1991--Congress expressly approved presidential deployments of troops.) The resolution marked Congress's reassertion of its constitutional right to declare war, but the resolution's vague language and uneven implementation still left presidents with nearly unilateral authority to order soldiers into battle. In 1970 Congress underwent sweeping institutional reforms. The 1970 Legislative Reorganization Act encouraged open meetings and required that committee votes be made public, allowed for radio and television coverage of committee sessions, and expanded the Legislative Reference Service (renamed the Congressional Research Service). The act also increased the number of recorded votes on the House floor. Later actions in both chambers expanded staffing, redefined committee jurisdictions, and enhanced the power of individual members and party leaders at the expense of committee chairs. In 1973 the Watergate Scandal erupted, including allegations of burglary, obstruction of justice, and wire-tapping against Republican president Richard Nixon and his aides. Congressional committees investigated the White House, sparking one of the most dramatic political showdowns of the 20th century. In May 1973 White House officials told a Senate committee that Nixon and his staff had directed the illegal activities, leading the Senate to subpoena tapes that Nixon had made of White House meetings. Nixon refused to hand over the recordings, asserting executive privilege and national security concerns. A district court ordered Nixon to release the tapes, and an appeals court affirmed the decision. The recordings confirmed the president's active role in the scandal. The House Judiciary Committee voted to go ahead with impeachment proceedings, leading Nixon to resign in August 1974 rather than face the impending House and Senate action. The confrontation established the limits of presidential power and confirmed Congress's right to aggressively investigate the executive branch. The court's support of the congressional inquiry affirmed the value of the separation of powers, but the scandal fed public cynicism about government. G Recent Events Riding the coattails of the enormously popular president Ronald Reagan, Republicans gained control of the Senate in 1981 for the first time since 1954. Reagan pushed for sweeping tax cuts and sharply increased military spending, and the plan won congressional approval after some House Democrats joined their Republican colleagues to support the measure. As the 1980s wore on, the increased spending and decreased government revenues created huge budget deficits. The increased deficits left little discretionary spending in the budget, dramatically altering the law-making process in Congress. Congresses since World War II confronted national problems by creating new federal programs, but the budget crunch in the 1980s prevented Congress from creating many new programs and forced Congress to devote most of its attention to spending cuts. In the late 1980s and the 1990s Congress faced a series of scandals relating to questionable fund-raising practices and abuses of congressional privileges. House Speaker Jim Wright resigned from Congress in 1989 after an ethics investigation into a controversial book deal that he used to get around fund-raising limits. In 1991 investigations revealed that several hundred House members had written bad checks that had been paid by the House "bank," in effect taking personal interest-free loans from the government. Voters replaced many members implicated in the affair. The bank was actually a House business office that offered check-cashing services. Dating back to the 1830s, the office had for about 40 years honored overdrafts from members of Congress as an advance against their next month's salary deposits. The next major scandal arose when Representative Newt Gingrich, who had pushed for Wright's resignation, organized a political action committee that allegedly violated tax laws. In 1997 Gingrich, who had become Speaker of the House, was censured by his colleagues for providing false information to a House panel investigating the matter. A personal scandal led Gingrich to resign in late 1998. A combination of Capitol Hill scandals and the failures of President Bill Clinton's first two years in office unexpectedly brought the Republicans control of both houses of Congress in 1994 for the first time in 40 years. In 1998, after Clinton admitted to having an affair with a White House intern, partisan rifts deepened as Republicans in the House pressed for Clinton's impeachment on charges that he lied under oath about the affair and obstructed justice. The House, voting along party lines, passed two articles of impeachment against Clinton, moving the case to the Senate for trial. In 1999 the Senate voted to reject both articles of impeachment. See Impeachment: The Clinton Trial. In the years following the impeachment proceedings, Congress was marked by fierce combat between political parties that were substantially equal in strength. The 2000 election results were called "a perfect tie" by some observers. Republican George W. Bush won the presidency with a one-vote margin in the electoral college, although he trailed Democrat Al Gore by half a million popular votes. In the Senate, both parties wound up with 50 seats, marking the first time since 1881 that the Senate was evenly divided between the two major parties. The Republicans' majority in the House also narrowed. At the start of 2001, Republicans controlled the White House, the House, and the Senate (given that Vice President Dick Cheney served as the tie-breaking vote) for the first time in nearly 50 years. However, Democrats gained control of the Senate in mid-2001 when Senator James Jeffords of Vermont, a Republican, announced his decision to become an independent. In the 2002 elections, Republicans recaptured control of the Senate and maintained their majority in the House, allowing their party to control the legislative agenda. Republicans strengthened their control of Congress in the 2004 elections, expanding their majorities in both the House and Senate. The Iraq war and corruption scandals cost the Republicans control of Congress in the 2006 midterm elections. The Democrats easily regained control of the House and narrowly won the Senate by virtue of two seats held by independents who agreed to caucus with the Democrats, indicating that they were likely to vote with the Democrats. In the Senate the midterm elections resulted in a tie with 49 Republicans and 49 Democrats, but the two independents--Bernard Sanders, a self-described socialist from Vermont, and Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, who lost the Democratic primary but ran as an independent--tilted the Senate to the Democrats. The unpopularity of the war and corruption scandals that led to criminal indictments of Republican congressmen appeared to have undermined the Republican Party. See also U.S.-Iraq War. XII CHALLENGES FACING CONGRESS American citizens harbor mixed feelings about Congress. Public opinion surveys show that people not only believe that Congress wields great power but that they also prefer that Congress take the lead in policy-making. But Americans also tend to distrust politicians and hold them in low regard. From Mark Twain and Will Rogers to Jay Leno and David Letterman, humorists have used Congress as the butt of many jokes. Restless voters sometimes take their anger out on Congress. Incumbent members of Congress in the early 1990s, for example, became prime targets for voter unrest, and many were turned out of office. At other times voters seem content with the nation's affairs, although Congress as a whole rarely receives rave reviews in public opinion surveys. Typically, fewer than half the citizens rate the performance of Congress positively. But as many as two-thirds of those questioned in polls approve of the job their own lawmakers are doing in Washington. Financing congressional campaigns presents another problem. Winning a seat in Congress has become very costly. In 2000 the average winning Senate campaign spent more than $7 million, and the average successful House campaign more than $800,000. This means that lawmakers spend large amounts of time raising money for their next campaign or paying off debts from the last one. It also raises the possibility that members of Congress will cater to the lobbyists and interest groups who donate money to their campaigns. See Political Campaign. On a daily basis, senators and representatives must juggle the task of making laws with the need to keep in touch with the voters who elected them. Members spend much time and energy traveling to and from their home states, talking with citizens, and explaining their votes and other actions. Voters expect lawmakers to pay close attention to what local folks think, and are ready to turn out of office anyone who seems to "lose touch" with popular views. But some critics wonder if lawmakers are too tightly bound to their constituents' wishes, so that broader public interests are neglected. Some critics also wonder whether an elected assembly of citizens can form policies to cope with today's complex, rapidly changing world. Are senators and representatives--who are mostly generalists elected from geographic areas--capable of resolving complex issues dealing with areas such as science, technology, economic regulation, or international affairs? Those who believe in representative government answer yes. But the final test, as always, lies in the wisdom and effectiveness of the laws themselves. Contributed By: Roger H. Davidson Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.