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CONGRESS PART 2

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Congress is designed to legislate to enact rules for governing ... Nancy Pelosi (CA) POLITICAL PARTIES--LEADERSHIP. OTHER POSITIONS. 1) Caucus/conference chairs ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: CONGRESS PART 2


1
CONGRESS PART 2
  • FIRST SYSTEM OF ORGANIZATIONTHE PARTIES

2
CONGRESSSOME IDEAS
  • Congress is designed to legislateto enact rules
    for governing
  • Before anything happens, it must go through an
    intricate system which is called the legislative
    process
  • Congress gets its power from legislatingwhen
    Congress is in gridlock, the executive branch has
    more policy-making power

3
CONGRESSSOME IDEAS
  • What motivates Congress to legislate?
  • 1) Who will provide money for my campaign?
    What policies satisfy the interests of potential
    campaign contributors?
  • 2) Why did I win my last election? What
    policies will get me re-elected? What policies
    will help me live up to my campaign promises?
  • 3) What do I want to see accomplished as an
    individual? What policies are important to me?

4
CONGRESSSOME IDEAS
  • Congress is a motley crew of legislators. Each
    is motivated by different desires.
    Representatives must pick their battlesthey must
    decide what battles they have to win
  • COOPERATION IS ESSENTIAL TO PASS LEGISLATION

5
POLITICAL PARTIES
  • ABOVE ALL, Political parties are vehicles for
    collective actionthey are the fundamental
    building blocks from which policy coalitions are
    fashioned for political action

6
POLITICAL PARTIESTHE CAUCUS/CONFERENCE
  • Every two years, at the beginning of a new
    Congress, members of each party gather to select
    their leadership, plan strategy, and make
    decisions
  • 1) The Republicans refer to this as their
    Conference
  • 2) The Democrats refer to this as their caucus

7
POLITICAL PARTIES--LEADERSHIP
  • Leadership positions are
  • 1) Speaker of the House
  • --Chief Presiding Officer of the House
  • --Elected at the beginning of every Congress on
    a straight party vote
  • --Influences the agenda, the debate, and
    members positions within the House
  • --This position is UNIQUE to the House

8
POLITICAL PARTIES--LEADERSHIP
  • 2) Majority Leaderthe elected leader of the
    party holding a majority of seats in the House OR
    Senate

Bill Frist (TN)
Roy Blunt (MO)
  • Minority Leaderthe elected leader of the party
    holding the next largest
  • majority of seats in the House or Senate

Harry Reid (NV)
Nancy Pelosi (CA)
9
POLITICAL PARTIES--LEADERSHIP
  • OTHER POSITIONS
  • 1) Caucus/conference chairs
  • 2) Committee on Committees (Republicans) and
    Steering and Policy Committee (Democrats)the
    chairs of these two committees are the Speaker of
    the House/minority leader
  • --These committees assign legislators to
    committees and handle transfer requests

10
POLITICAL PARTIES--LEADERSHIP
  • WHY IS LEADERSHIP SOUGHT?
  • --Representatives want committee placements that
    will give them the ability to influence
    legislation affecting their constituenciesleaders
    hip gives you say in what committees you and your
    friends sit on
  • --Agenda controlsince the New Deal, the
    President has taken on an expanded role in
    initiating legislation, but party leaders also
    have the ability to create consensus amongst the
    party and push a legislative agenda of their own
  • --The Speaker determines where bills go after
    they are submittedthe committee that debates the
    bill has a lot of influence as to how it will
    look when it leaves committee

11
INCREASING POLITICAL POWER
  • Aside from positions in Congress, legislators try
    to increase political power through means outside
    of Congress
  • 1) Televisionthe more recognizable a
    legislator is, the more power he has
  • 2) Leadership PACspolitical action committees
    established by a Congressman to raise funds that
    the individual can then donate to the campaigns
    of other party members
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