AMERICAN CIVILIZATION SMTRE2 LEA3-PART III et fin-

                        b) The Senate

Composition: 100 Senators, two for each state, six-year terms, one-third replaced every two years, by popular vote since 1913 (17^th amendment to the U.S Constitution)

Qualifications: 30 years, 9 years a U.S citizen, inhabitant of the state. No term limit (seniority).

2005-07: 109^th Congress

Current Party Divisions of the House:

232 Republicans, 201 Democrats, 1 Independent, 1 vacancy.

A Senator has to be at least 30 years old and a citizen since 9 years and of course live in the state.

Hillary Clinton: lawyer, run for election, wanted to become Senator of New York. But had a house in New York even tough she lived in Washington.

In the Senate there is usually a ratio between the Republicans and the Democrats, it is balanced but often a little bit more Republicans.

The election of the President and the Congress is different. Election Day is Sunday. November 2004 elections: President Bush (R), Congress (House 435 (R) and Senate 33 (R)). Many elective positions, you run with your ideology. Close relationship. Sometimes you vote for a Rep that you feel close to for some reasons. So your might vote D here and then R in the presidential election. Consequence: more vetoes.

C) The powers of Congress, Congress organization

The House has the right to impeach high officials.

Impeachment: neither Clinton nor Nixon had been impeached. The procedure started but didn’t finish. If there is something really serious: serious crime and misdemeanours, an investigation can be started. This could be for bribery, treason or something else.

Nixon and Clinton both were charged with lying.

Nixon’s Watergate scandal: during the elections he knew of some of his members plugging the Democratic Party in Washington in a building called Watergate. The scandal was found by two journalists of the Washington Post. Nixon denied all the time. He was used to type serious conversations but of this day, the tapes weren’t there any more. Instead of giving the tapes, Nixon resigned before he would have been impeached. The whole process took two years from 1972 to 1974. It’s a serious thing for a President to lie to the people.

Clinton’s problem was not that he has had sex with Monica Lewinsky but that he said: „no, I had never sex with this woman”. A few days later, he admitted he lied. No impeachment started. But of course he wasn’t re-elected.

The Senate confirms or not but must approve choices of people for high positions. Everybody working for the federal system must be proposed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. Usually, no problem but for Supreme Court judges and Secretaries the choice is sometimes not easy. This year, two judges resigned. 2 people out of 9. Majority vote is necessary. President proposes people he likes. Usually, there are hearings (auditions) about the past of a candidate. Bush changed 3 times because his choices have not been accepted. At least 51 Senators have to agree.

How members work together

Some members change sometimes their party.

Left: liberal----------------à conservative

Ideology: Someone liberal is usually more in favour of individual rights to decide for abortion. In practice, there exist conservative and liberal Democrats, so it’s not the same scheme for Republican and Democrat. Some questions are related to ideology, a Democrat which is conservative and a liberal Republican can be the same.

1995: 5 switches from members of Congress. They changed from conservative Democrats to liberal Republicans. The reverse is less often.

The first duty of the Congress is to pass laws. The powers of the Congress are described in the Constitution.

Written Constitution: enumerated powers.

Enumerated powers: (The Constitution, Article 1, section 8): to collect taxes, regulate domestic and foreign trade (business within US or states), coin money, declare war (in theory) soldiers to be sent abroad need a declaration of war, the Congress needs to sign a resolution but the Vietnam War was never declared. After this, there was a decision which gave the right to the President to send troops for 2 days, issue patents and copyrights…

Implied powers: the “necessary and proper” clause gives Congress the means to exercise its enumerated powers.

Specific to each chamber:

House: impeachment: power to charge civil officers with “treason, bribery or other crimes and misdemeanours”, pre-eminence on finance matters (the Budget).

Senate: related to the executive “advises and consents”: ratify treaties, presidential appointments of Cabinet members, Justices of the Supreme Court, ambassadors. The Senate acts as a Court in case of impeachment.

Congress organization

The leadership

The Speaker in the House,

No equivalent in Senate, the Vice-President is the presiding officer

The majority and minority (floor) leaders

The committees, factfile 7 and 8 pp. 42-43

The Powers of Committees:

You can only have power in Congress if you are on a committee. Committees exist in order to distribute the work in Congress. They should enable the Congress to be more efficient and practical and have become all-powerful. There are different types of Committees (Permanent, Conference, and Temporary…Committees)

Prepare legislative work, about 40 committees: and 230 subcommittees. Congressional aides, staff. Standing committees (Rules, National Security, Small Business…), Select/special committees, Conference committees, joint committees

            D) The law-making process

Introduction of bills (by: the president, cabinet members, congress member, lobby). Must be voted in identical terms by both House and Senate.

CI: long and difficult: 20,000 bills introduced a year, around 4,000 discussed and 500 into law. Introduction: first formal reading.

-          sent to one/several committees

-          rules committee decides of its agenda, committee hearings (discussions, invite civil officers, experts, lobbyists…)

-          amended

-          sent back for vote: accepted if majority of present members

-          sent to the other chamber. Voted, rejected or amended. If amended: a conference committee (same number of Representatives and Senators) to reach a compromise.

-          Both chambers vote again

President

-          signs it into law (= no answer within 10 days when Congress is in session) or

-          vetoes it plus a message=regular veto

Veto overridden (defeated) by a 2/3 majority vote of both chambers (rare, 4% in history). Pocket veto: bill not signed within 10 days after the end of a session (about half of all vetoes!)

Regular veto:

To make one law final, House and Senate must agree on the same points but the President can veto. Law has to be signed by President, but he’s allowed not to sign the bill so it stops there. But, if Congress (House and Senate) really backs one piece of legislation and if they vote at 2/3 at least, override a veto, the veto disappears, it’s cancelled. Another check and balance to the veto is the fact to override a veto. Reagan vetoed a lot (78 times). No limits to vetoes. Happens during the year.

Pocket veto:

This is another type of veto. When a bill is voted towards the end of a session. Bill has been voted just before the break of the session. Sent to White House, if no news, good news. If President doesn’t veto, it means that it’s ok. Within 20 days. If no news from President after 10 days, within the session, it means he says no. No possible overriding because President and members of the Congress are on holiday. If within 20 days President doesn’t sign bill, it’s not ok. No possibility for Congress to veto, in that case, it’s 10 days after beginning of holidays: that’s the veto.

Veto - The procedure established under the Constitution by which the President refuses to approve a bill or joint resolution and thus prevents its enactment into law. The president can veto bills in a few ways: he can use a regular veto, or a pocket veto.

-          A regular veto occurs when the President returns the legislation to the house in which it originated without approval. The President usually returns a vetoed bill with a message indicating his reasons for rejecting the measure. The veto can be overridden only by a two-thirds vote in both the Senate and the House. This veto is a qualified negative veto, which is limited by the ability of Congress to muster the necessary two-thirds vote of each House for constitutional override.

-          Pocket veto: a sneakier method in which the president rejects legislation when Congress is adjourned. This other type of veto is actually an absolute veto that cannot be overridden; it becomes effective when the President fails to sign a bill after Congress has adjourned and is unable to override the veto. A pocket veto is “absolute” because it is not returned to Congress.

(Internet)

A Caucus is a group of members of Congress, regrouped to decide about one topic. All black members are part of the caucuses except one. There are also women caucuses. Way of work on questions about women.

E) State representation

The constituency, seniority, state vs. federal law

See facts and figures on handout about minorities and women in Congress.

There is an opposition between state and federal/national level. Two levels with some interactions. US Supreme Court (last answer, no more discussion) is at the top even tough in every state, there is a Supreme Court.

5. The judicial branch

See handout 4

            A) The Supreme Court

                        a) Supreme Court composition

                        b) Supreme Court role and action

                        c) A selection of major Supreme Court decisions

            B) The Supreme Court today: some recent decisions

            C) The state courts

            D) The federal courts