220 American Government and Politics
Spring, 2000

Kenneth Janda, Instructor
Week 7: Congress and the Presidency
Lecture 2: The Operation of Congress

May 9

 
Some facts about the 106th Congress

  • House has 231 Republicans and 203 Republicans and 1 Independent
  • Senate has 55 Republicans and 45 Democrats

Every legislative body needs two characteristics to carry out its functions:

  • Division of Labor -- e.g., distributing work among committees
  • Centralization of Authority -- e.g., party leaders and chamber leaders

The Division of labor in Congress

  • A system of committees based on subject matter specialization, for example:
    • Agriculture
    • Banking
    • Science
  • See http://www.congresslink.org/committees106.html
    • House of Representatives
      • 19 standing committees
      • 1 select committee
      • About 80 subcommittees
    • Senate
      • 17 standing committees
      • 4 select and special committees
      • Almost 90 subcommittees
  • Total of about 200 committees and subcommittees
    • Committee assignments are determined by committees on committees,
      • seniority an important factor when vacancies occur
    • The party in control of Congress holds all committee chairs
      • seniority on the committees is the main factor in determining the chair.
    • But seniority is no longer the only factor:
      • In the 99th Congress, House Democrats voted in a secret ballot in caucus to remove 80-year old Melvin Price as Chair of the Armed Services Committee (118-121)
      • Passed over the member next in line in favor of seventh-raking Les Aspin of Wisconsin, who campaigned for the post.
      • In the 102nd congress, the Democratic Caucus ousted two aging chairs whose leadership had been deemed ineffective:
        • Frank Annunzio (IL, House Administration
        • Glenn Anderson (CAL), Public Works
      • In the 104th Congress, Newt Gingrich departed from seniority in three cases
        • Robert Livingston (LA, Appropriations, passing over 3 more senior Republicans.
    • The power of the chair in the past has been vast, but now the chairs of subcommittees have become more important, and sometimes senior members will relinquish the opportunity to chair an unimportant committee in preference for the chair of an important subcommittee.
    • Committees and subcommittees have great power over legislation.
      • Upon introduction, bills are referred to committee for deliberation.
      • A study of legislation from 1955 to 1964, shows that 90 percent of all House bills that went through the normal committtee process and came to a vote passed the House.
      • 70 percent of all House bills reported from committee passed the chamber unamended.
      • 65 percent of all Senate bills reported pass unamended.
  • An alternative committee system: British House of Commons
    • Only 6 or 7 general standing committees, ranging in size from 16 to 50 with membership proportional to party representation.
    • Committees have no jurisdiction over the major principle of the bill, for it is voted on by the house BEFORE being sent to committee.
    • The principle in parliament is that the government is responsible to the house as a whole rather than part of the house (a committee).
    • Moreover, these committees have no subject-matter jurisdiction (A, B, C, designation), bills are assigned by rotation, and appointment of members varies from bill to bill.
  • Consequences of the American system of legislative committees
    • Extreme decentralization of authority in considering legislation.
    • Specialization of knowledge and acquisition of expertise among committe members.
    • Fixed and relatively stable committee membership means that each committee and even subcommittee is a "little legislature".

The Centralization of authority in Congress

  • A multiplicity of positions, mostly elected (See http://www.congresslink.org/leaders.html
  • Two types of positions
    • Chamber leaders--elected by the entire membership of the House or Senate
    • Party leaders--elected by the party membership in each body
  • HOUSE:
    • Chamber Leader:
      • Speaker -- Dennis Hastert (IL)
    • Party leaders
      • Majority Leader -- Richard Armey (TX)
      • Majority Whip -- Tom Delay (TX)
      • Conference Chair -- J.C. Watts (OK)
      • Minority Leader -- Richard Gephardt (Mo)
      • Minority Whip -- David Bonior (MI)
      • Caucus Chair -- Martin Frost (TX)
  • SENATE:
    • Chamber lead
      • President Pro Tem -- Strom Thurmond (SC)
    • Party leaders
      • Majority Leader -- Trent Lott (MS)
      • Majority Whip -- Don Nickles (OK)
      • Conference Chair -- Connie Mack (FL)
      • Minority Leader -- Tom Daschle (SD)
      • Minority Whip -- Harry Reid (NV)
      • Conference Secretary -- Barbara Mikulski (MD)
  • The changing locus of power within the Republican Party
    • The phrase "Solid South" used to mean solidly Democratic.
    • Since the 1960s, the Republican Party has made a steady increases in the south
    • Data from Hamang Patel's Senior Thesis:
      • The percent of House Districts from the four regions represented by Republicans has equalized.So has the precentage of Senators.
      • Also, in both chambers, southerners claim a larger percentage of the leadership positions in both the House and the Senate.
  • Powers of leaders are considerable but not determining
    • House leaders usually exercise more influence than Senate leaders.
    • Main power is agenda-setting, inviting bi-partisan cooperation.
    • Leaders do not have the power to make committee assignments.
  • Comparisons of leadership powers
    • More centralization within House than Senate
    • In the past, there has been more centralization within Democratic party than Republican, but the 104th Congress has changed that.
  • The power of the party in affecting legislative output:
    • Comparison with British parliament: 95 percent of all votes are party votes, 90 percent of one party voting against 90 percent of the other.
    • Within congress, only about 15 percent meet this strict criterion.
    • Using a looser criterion of 50 percent of one party voting against 50 percent of the other, approximately 50 percent in both House and Senate until the Reagan era.
      • 73% in House for 1995
      • 69% in Senate
    • Another view of partisanship: the percentage of party-unity votes on which a member agreed with a majority of his party (abstentions count against the member):
      • House
        • Average Democrat: 80%
        • Average Republican: 91%
      • Senate
        • Average Democrat: 81%
        • Average Republican: 89%
    • But in comparison with the British parliament, these figures are not high.
  • Party as the "unifier" of the separation of powers:
    • The president as party head usually gets cooperation from chamber leadership when his party controls the chamber.
    • But obviously, party is not enough to command support for the president's program.
  • Bicameralism
    • Passage in one chamber does not guarantee passage in the other -- even when the same party controls both chambers.
    • Coordination of House-Senate differences is in the hands of the conference committee appointed to resolve differences between the House and Senate.
  • Consequences of the lack of central authority
    • The POLICY MAKING function is impaired
    • The REPRESENTING function is advanced