Congress Questions

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Congress Questions

• How many member of each house?
• How long do they serve?
• How old does one have to be?
• How are Senators elected?
• What are some enumerated powers?
• What are some differences between the House and
  Senate?

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Congress Questions

1. How many members of the House?
2. When does the vice president get to vote in the
   Senate?
3. Who tries to maintain party communication and
   discipline?
4. What percentage of the the House and Senate are
   up for election during each congressional
   election?

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What do the following terms mean?

• Constituent
• Logrolling
• Markup
• Pork
• appropriations

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Congress Notes

• Characteristics of the House and Senate
• Organization and leadership
• Powers of Congress
• The committee system

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Topics

• Committees
• Special issues/vocab
• What are the demographics of Congress?
• Caucuses

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The Filibuster

• A speech of unlimited length
• ONLY IN THE SENATE
• record is 24hrs 18 minutes

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The Filibuster

• Fillibuster may be stopped by
• Cloture- vote of 60 to cut off debate

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The Filibuster

• Getting 60 votes becomes crucial-
• Recent examples include Ben Nelson and Joe
  Liberman

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Rider

• An attachment to a bill that may have nothing to
  do with the bill itself.

Rider attached to the bill
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Rider

• Example
• A bill for Defense Department spending.

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Rider

• Example
• A bill for Defense Dept. Spending
• Rider Stronger penalties for indecent language
  in the media

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What are the demographics of Congress?

• House
• Democrats-256
• Republicans-178
• Vacancy-1

• Senate
• Democrats- 58
• Republicans-40
• Independents-2

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Other characteristics

1. How many women?
2. What is the average age?
3. Minority representation?

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Below is a list of population statistics for the
United States generated by the U.S. Census Bureau
in 2006

• Total Resident Pop. (Apr. 2008 est.) 303,763,031
  
• Median age 36.4
• Males 147,434,940 (49.2 of pop.)
• Females 151,963,545 (50.8 of pop.)

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Below is a list of population statistics for the
United States generated by the U.S. Census Bureau
in 2006

• White 221,331,507 (73.9 of pop.)
• Black 37,051,483 (12.4 of pop.)
• Asian 13,100,095 (4.4 of pop.)
• American Indian and Alaska Native 2,369,431
  (0.8 of pop.)
• Hispanic/Latino1 44,252,278 (14.8 of pop.)
• Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
  426,194 (0.1 of pop.)

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Demographics

1. What do you think? Can Congress represent us
   if Congress doesnt look like us?

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Theories of Representation

• Trustees
• Delegates
• Politicos

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Congressional Caucuses

• A group of members of Congress sharing some
  interest or characteristic. Most are composed of
  members from both houses and both parties. (more
  informal than committees)
• Ex. Congressional Black Caucus, Womens Caucus,
  Arts Caucus, College Caucus
• http//www.thecongressionalblackcaucus.com/

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How Congress is Organized

1. Constitutional organization
2. By party
3. By committee
4. By caucuses

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How Members Make Decisions

• Create a mind map or graphic organizer showing
  the people who influence the decisions of a
  member of Congress.
• Pp. 260-263

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Congress and the Executive

• Oversight (Congressional investigation)
• Foreign policy
• War Powers Act
• Confirmation of appointments
• Impeachment
• Budget control

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Incumbent

• An incumbent is a person who holds an office and
  is running for re-election

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Review! Summarize the information weve learned
about Congress.

• You may
• Write a summary paragraph about each house and a
  paragraph about issues that are common to both
  houses.
• Or
• Create a graphic organizer or Venn diagram
  showing the main characteristics of each house
  and issues that are common to both houses.

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Example