CONGRESS

CONGRESSIn this unit we will cover…• Powers of Congress• Incumbency and Congress• Organization of Congress• Responsible Party Model

Powers ofCongress

Tax and Spend

deficit

Lawmaking DeclareWar

Regulate CommerceOversight

CreateCourts

Make all laws "necessary and proper" to carrying out

the enumerated powers

Projected Budgets

The Reality: Are Congressional Elections Competitive?

• Percentage of Votes Congressperson Received

39% 41%

20%

Incumbents winning with more than 60% of the vote have 5 times

more money

Incumbents winning with less than 60% of the vote

have 1.8 times more money

When Challengers win incumbents have 1.2

time more money

Campaign Finance Institute

Incr

easi

ng D

iffer

ence

Bet

wee

n In

cum

bent

and

Cha

lleng

erAre Elections Competitive?

• B. Does gerrymandering reduce competition?

The Reality: Are Congressional Elections Competitive?

• Gerrymandering– Redrawing Congressional district lines to benefit one

party over the other– Reapportionment of Seats after every census

• Principles: compactness, equal population & contiguity

The Reality: Are Congressional Elections Competitive?

The Reality: Are Congressional Elections Competitive?

• C. Name Recognition– Franking privilege– Media exposure

• D. Constituency Service

The Reality: Are Congressional Elections Competitive?

• E. Poor Quality of Challengers• F. Committee Appointments

The Reality: Are Congressional Elections Competitive?

The Reality: Does the Majority Party Organize the House of Representatives?

Steering Committee

• Party Unity has been increasing since the 1970s

The Reality: Do Party Members Vote with Their Party?

• Presidential Success with Congress– In Unified and Divided Government

The Reality: Do Party Members Vote with Their Party?

The End