The Legislative Branch

Nuts and Bolts

The Constitution (for reference)

Discuss in your groups:

Why is the Legislative Branch discussed in Article I and why is Article I the longest?

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Branches of Government

House of Representatives

• 435 members
• # of reps = state’s pop.

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• Wisconsin has 8 (was 9)
• Brian Steil - R - 1st Dist.
• Mark Pocan - D - 2nd Dist.
• Derrick Van Orden- R - 3rd Dist.
• Gwen Moore - D - 4th Dist.
• Scott Fitzgerald – R 5th Dist. (since 2021)
• Glenn Grothman - R - 6th Dist.
• Tom Tiffany - R- 7th Dist.
• Mike Gallagher - R- 8th Dist.

Contd.

• Districts are represented with 1 non-voting member
• can participate in House committees
• CANNOT vote on bills
• District of Columbia
• Puerto Rico (commonwealth)
• US Territories
• American Samoa
• Guam
• Northern Mariana Islands
• US Virgin Islands

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Article 2, Sec 2

Requirements to serve

• 25 yrs. Old
• US citizen for 7 years
• Legal resident of state they represent

Term limits

• Two year terms
• No term limits

Pay

• $174,000/yr.

Note* I added the following to the build

• 23” rims
• designo Black Piano Lacquer "Flowing Lines" wood
• Wood/leather steering wheel
• folding table for rear seats
• champagne flute holders
• refrigerator box for rear cabin
• trailer hitch…

Senate

• Two Senators per state
• Wisconsin
• Tammy Baldwin - D - since 2013
• Ron Johnson- R- since 2010

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Requirements

• 30 years old
• US citizen for 9 years
• Legal resident of state they represent

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Pay

$174,000/yr.

Term limits

Six year terms

Elected every 2 yrs.

(⅓ of Senate elected every two years)

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Some perspective…

• 82 games/season
• 4 quarters/game

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Lebron makes $294k+ per quarter played

Wisconsin STATE SENATE

• 33 Members
• 4-year terms
• $55,141/year

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• President: Chris Kapenga (R)
• Majority Leader: Devin LeMahieu (R)
• Minority Leader: Dianne H Hesselbein (D)

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Wisconsin STATE ASSEMBLY

• 99 Members
• 2-year terms
• $55,141/year

Speaker of the House: Robin Voss (R)

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Majority Leader: Tyler August (R)

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Minority Leader: Greta Neubauer (D)

Major offices within Congress

House of Representatives

• Speaker of the House Mike Johnson
• leader of majority party
• recognize who gets to speak during debates
• assigns people to committees
• Majority Leader Steve Scalise
• spokesperson for maj. party
• organize legislative plan (what to accomplish)
• Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries
• spokesperson for min. party
• keep party together
• work to stop legislation if it goes against party values

Major offices within Congress

Senate

• President of the Senate (Kamala Harris - D)
• is Vice President
• casts tie-breaking vote
• Majority Leader (Chuck Schumer - D)
• recognizes who speaks during debates
• Minority Leader (Mitch McConnell - R)
• Party Whips (House has them, too)
• work to keep party members in sync

The Powers of Congress:

What do they do with their Expressed and Implied Powers?

Expressed Powers: powers specifically mentioned in the Constitution

1. Financial powers
2. Sovereign powers
3. Regulating and promoting trade
4. Power over the courts
5. Advise and Consent
6. Impeachment
7. Other Powers …

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1. Financial Powers

• Set/collect taxes
• Import taxes (taxes on imports)
• Excise taxes (taxes on specific goods/services)
• Borrow money
• Appropriations (how money is spent)

How is Money Spent?

• Entitlement Programs – mandatory funding
• Discretionary Spending – optional funding
• Earmarks – funding on specific projects

Entitlement Programs

• Social Security
• social insurance program funded through payroll taxes (FICA).
• Medicare
• Social insurance program providing health insurance coverage to people who are aged 65 and over (or who meet other special criteria)
• Medicaid
• Health program for eligible individuals and families with low incomes

Earmarks or Pork Barrel Spending

• Pet projects of Senators and Congressmen
• Disliked by many … continues to occur.
• Taxpayers in Wisconsin pay for project in Nevada ...
• Georgia taxpayers pay for project in Wisconsin ...

2022, Congress implemented 5,100 earmarks in FY 2022, costing taxpayers $18.9 billion.

• Example of Pork Barrel spending
• Since 1991, Congress has approved 110,861 earmarks costing $344.5 billion.
• $13 million for Save America’s Treasures (SAT) grants program. Intended to help preserve historic locations across the country… often used to fund local museums, opera houses, and theaters.

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Earmark; Earmark 2

2. Sovereign Powers

• Provide common defense
• Create, equip, maintain armed forces
• Declare war
• Naturalization powers (immigration powers)
• Government of all territories
• Government of nation’s capital

Budget Balancing: a Legislator’s Dilemma

• In 2023 the US spent 1.7 Trillion more than it collected in taxes (a 23% increase from last year).. This is our yearly deficit, which added up with other years represents our nation’s Debt, currently at 33 T.
• A household example: You make 50k a yr, spend 65k a yr and have a debt of 350k
• The US has a shocking and unique inability to collect taxes. The US brings in 17% of our GDP (our nation’s income) vs 24% Germany, 27% GB, 30% Australia. 24% would solve it
• Why no long term fiscal discipline? Our political system is short term (House 2yr terms, Sen 6 yr terms, Pres 4 yr terms…. very few elected officials will try to create policy that will benefit citizens in 30 yrs.
• SPENDING: 76% is spent on Defence, Social Security, and Health Care….. and if you propose cuts to those, bothe Dem and Rep voters don’t like it. These categories are the only way to reduce the deficit.
• Debt to GDP is 117%..... what does that mean

3. Regulating and Promoting Trade

• Regulating trade with foreign nations and between states
• Making money
• Post office/mail routes
• Giving out copyrights and patents

4. Power over the Courts

• Set up national court system

5. Advise and Consent

• Confirm treaties
• Confirm most Presidential appointments

6. Impeachment

• Power to remove federal officials
• House votes to impeach (to bring charges) → Senate conducts trials and acquits or convicts

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Implied Powers: powers assumed to be given to Congress

1. Elastic Powers – anything that is considered “necessary and proper” to carry out Congress’ expressed powers
2. Admits New States
3. Special Investigations

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7. Other Powers …

Legislative Veto Powers

• Propose Constitutional amendments
• Count electoral votes (which determines President)
• Select President or Vice President if there is no electoral winner (HofR chooses President, Senate votes for VP)

• Congress reviews presidential or agency actions and can veto certain actions/laws

• How a Bill Becomes a Law
• Schoolhouse Rock
• (Family Guy alt)
• (SNL alt - Executive Order)
• Khan Academy
• Crash Course

Legislative Checks and Balances:

What Can the legislative branch do to check the other branches?

• Override a presidential Veto
• Must have ⅔ majority vote in each house
• Approve nominations and treaties made by the president
• Are approval of judicial nominations a check on the executive or judicial branch?
• Impeachment

Impeached Presidents

On February 24, 1868, President Andrew Johnson was impeached by the House of Representatives. The House charged Johnson with violating the Tenure of Office Act. The alleged violation stemmed from Johnson's decision to remove Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, a prominent Radical Republican leftover from the Lincoln Cabinet

Impeached Presidents

President Bill Clinton, charging him with lying under oath to a federal grand jury and obstructing justice. Clinton, the second president in American history to be impeached, vowed to finish his term.

Impeached Presidents

1. After weeks of discussions among legislators, the House of Representatives voted to impeach the 45th President, Donald Trump, for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress on December 18, 2019. The vote fell largely along party lines: 230 in favor, 197 against and 1 not present.

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• The House impeached President Donald Trump over his role in the U.S. Capitol riots, charging him with "incitement of insurrection" and taking the unprecedented step of impeaching a president twice during his time in office.

Not Impeached Presidents

On July 27, 1974, the House Judiciary Committee recommends that America’s 37th president, Richard M. Nixon, be impeached and removed from office. The impeachment proceedings resulted from a series of political scandals involving the Nixon administration that came to be collectively known as Watergate.

• Nixon however resigned before the impeachment proceedings on August 8, 1974

And finally… Gerrymandering

The idea behind gerrymandering is pretty simple: you pack your opponents’ supporters together into very few districts. Then you make other districts relatively more balanced — but you place enough of your supporters in most of them to give you an advantage. The hoped-for result is that your party loses a few districts hugely, yet wins a majority of districts comfortably.

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Essential Question of the day! Who should decide how legislative districts are drawn?

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Objective: Assess the motivations for and electoral consequences of gerrymandering.

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We will start with a 10 minute video on Gerrymandering

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Use the following document to work through our discussion on Gerrymandering