A Short History of Congress

Functions

• Lawmaking—Article I, Section I: “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States”
• President has veto power
• Article I, Section 8 lists these—“coin money”, “uniform rule of naturalization”, “establish post offices and roads”, “necessary and proper” clause
• Taxing and spending power, “power of the purse”; Article I, Section 9: “no money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law”

Functions

• Representation
• Representation of state and local interests at the federal level
• House SMDs, 2 Senators per state—issues of constituency service interesting
• Members much more accessible than presidents

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• Checking and Balancing
• Helping to maintain the system of separation of powers

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Constitution

• Constitution said very little about how Congress should be organized
• Article I Section 2, House must choose Speaker
• Article I, Section 3, Senate choose its officers including President Pro Tempore
• Article I, Section 7, revenue bills start in the House
• Both the House and Senate must keep record of proceedings
• Article I, Section 5, majority constitutes a quorum
• Veto override efforts must be by recorded votes, 1/5 of each can request a recorded vote
• Article I, Section 5, in each body 2/3 can expel a member

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Constitution

• Bicameral legislature the result of the Great or Connecticut Compromise
• Virginia Plan—offered by large states, bicameral, lower house’s seats distributed to states by population, upper house picked by lower
• New Jersey Plan—offered by smaller states, as Continental Congress, unicameral, each state same number of seats
• U.S. House, seats distributed to states on the basis of population (3/5ths Compromise); U.S. Senate, each state two seats

Constitution

• Congress example of symmetrical bicameralism, each body roughly the same powers. Unlike
• U.K. where Lords from 1911 really just a debating and amending chamber
• Germany where Bundesrat only really deals with legislation affecting the power of the states

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• House and Senate do have different powers
• Only Senate ratifies treaties and confirms presidential appointments
• House impeaches, Senate tries
• Tax bills start in the House, because of tradition of bundling tax and spending into “money bills” this also means appropriations bills start in the House today

Constitution

• Also seen by Framers as having different roles in the system

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• House, George Mason: “the grand depository of the democratic principles of government”, close to the people
• Senate, James Madison: “is to consist in its proceeding with more coolness, with more system, and with more wisdom, than the popular branch”, more experienced statesmen

Size

• Examine historical development in 4 areas (like text)

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• Membership Size
• 1^st Congress (met in NY Spring 1789), Senate 26 members (13x2); House 65—proportioned to states in Article I, Section 2
• Therefore House 2.5x bigger than Senate
• House grew with population, Senate grew with states admitted into Union
• Congress soon abandoned idea that there would be 30,000 citizens for each representative (Article I, Section 2)—today 750,000

Size

Size

• House only shrink
• 1842 Apportionment Act, pushed by Whigs who saw House as “bear garden”, from 242 to 223
• Civil War, Confederate states withdraw members, therefore effectively lose 55 to 183—Senate shrinks too

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• 1929 Reapportionment Act fixes U.S. House size at 435
• There are 6 non-voting delegates, D.C, Puerto Rico, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Northern Marinara Islands
• Senate reached 100 in 1959, with AK & HI admission

Size

• Size has significant repercussions for

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• Organization—as we shall see the larger House has had to establish more centralizing procedures and stronger leaders than the smaller Senate

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• Representation—the larger constituencies provide representational challenges, although they are mitigated somewhat by technology (Internet, jet travel) and district and D.C. staff

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Workload

• Workload

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• Changed greatly over time
• More expected of the federal government
• Issues more complex, seem many more of them

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• Mitigated by:
• Larger number of staff to do things for members, 1891 Congress had 142 staff, today about 15,000

Workload

Workload

Workload

Organization

• As we shall see, Congress really organized using two principles—committees and parties

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• Committees
• Initially select, very small, appointments made with little concern for party, received bills in inchoate language from the floor and returned them ready for disposition
• After 1830s became standing, larger, majority party chair and majority, reported bills to floor (agenda setters)

Organization

Organization

• Committee control based upon party divisions in the bodies after the Civil War

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• Chair from majority party in parent body
• Majority of committee members from majority party in parent body

Organization

• Parties

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• For the most part two, particularly since 1900
• Democrats and Republicans form majority and minority parties
• Periods when this not been so
• 1800-22, essentially one-party rule—Jeffersonian Republicans, Federalists die out
• 1824-36—basically several factions, largely split into Jackson and Adams camps; Democrats and Whigs emerge
• Sometimes sizeable numbers of third party members, particularly Civil War and 1890s

Organization

• Many see this current period as one of great partisanship

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• Parties ideologically polarized and cohesive—Democrats liberal, Republicans conservative

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Organization

Organization

Organization

Congressional Career

• Congress has become a career

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• Proportion of members who freshmen very small

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• Average length of tenure high

Congressional Career

Congressional Career

Congressional Career

• Why?

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• Greater demands from constituents—more of them and more expected of the federal government
• Federal government has more power, therefore Congress more attractive to political aspirants
• Decreased competition—incumbency advantage, one-party South, today redistricting makes many House seats’ generals uncompetitive
• Seniority important to advancement in Congress, although not so much today