Chapter 11: Congressional Organization

Chapter 11: Congressional Organization

• The Presiding Officers:• The House of Representatives: Speaker of

the House1. The acknowledged leader of the majority party.

2. Main duties revolve around presiding over and keeping order in the House

3. The Speaker names the members of all select and conference committees, and signs all bills and resolutions passed by the House.

4. Speaker of the House in the 112th Congress is John Boehner


• The Presiding Officers:• Senate: President of the Senate1. Assigned by the Constitution to the Vice

President

2. The president of the Senate has many of the same duties as the Speaker of the House, but cannot cast votes on legislation

• The President of the Senate is Vice President Joseph Biden


• The Presiding Officers:• President Pro Tempore

• Leader of the majority party, is elected from the Senate and serves in the Vice President’s absence – Usually the longest tenured member of the Majority Party in the Senate

• The President Pro Tempore of the 112th Congress is Senator Daniel Inouye.


• The Presiding Officers:• The Floor Leaders: House and Senate

Majority and Minority Leaders• Party officers picked for their posts by their

party colleagues • Senate Majority Leader – Harry Reid

• Senate Minority Leader – Mitch McConnell • House Majority (Republican) Leader – Eric

Cantor • House Minority (Democrat) Leader – Nancy

Pelosi


• The Presiding Officers:

• Party Whips -• Assist the floor leaders and serve as a liaison between the

party’s leadership and its rank-and-file members

• Senate Assistant Majority Leader (Democratic Whip) –

Richard Durbin • Senate Assistant Minority Leader (Republican Whip) -

Jon Kyl • House Majority (Republican) Whip – Kevin McCarthy

• House Minority (Democrat) Whip – Steny Hoyer


• Committee Chairman:1. Members of Congress who head the Standing

committees in each chamber.2. Decide which bills the committee will consider, in what

order, and what witnesses the committee will call – allows testimony that will provide the pros and cons of a bill.

3. Manage debate and steers passage on floor• Seniority Rule – An unwritten custom that the most

important posts in Congress are held by those (Majority) party members with the longest service record.


• Types of Committees

1. Standing Committees: Permanent Panels in both Houses of Congress.

• Considers all bills of similar subject matter• 20 in the House (10 to 75 members); 16 in the Senate

(14 to 28 members)• Representatives are usually assigned to one or two;

Senators three to four standing committees.• Most bills receive most of their consideration and

their fate is determined in standing committees. • See Handout.


• Subcommittees – Divisions of Standing Committees

– Do most of the committees work– Responsible for a portion of the committees

workload

2. Select Committee (Special Committees) - Panels set up for some specific purpose and for a limited time

– Main purpose is to investigate– For example Watergate and Iran Contra Affair


3. Joint Committees – Composed of members from both Chambers of Congress

– Some are permanent and some are temporary– Investigate and issue reports (in depth studies to

provide information to Standing Committees)

4. Conference Committees – A Select, Joint Committee created to iron out differences in a bill

– Resolves differences in House and Senate versions of the same bill

– Produces a compromise bill that both houses will accept


• Making a Law (House of Representatives)• Bill – A proposed law presented to the House of

Representatives or the Senate – Anyone can propose a bill– The most important come from the Executive

Branch– All Revenue (money making or tax) bills must

originate in the House


• Types of Bills

1. Public Bills – Measures applying to the nation as a whole – tax measures

2. Private Bills – Measures that apply to certain persons or places rather than the entire nation.

• Joint Resolution – Similar to bills, and when passed have the effect of a law.

– Deal with temporary matters to appropriate (provide money to pay for something) money, propose constitutional amendments, and annex territories


• Concurrent Resolutions – Deal with joint matters of both the House and the Senate

– Does not have the force of a law; does not have to be signed by the President.

– Used in Foreign Affairs

• Resolution – A measure relating to the business of either house or expressing and opinion.

– Does not have the force of a law; does not have to be signed by the President.

– Adopting a new rule of procedure or an amendment to an existing rule in the House or Senate


• Rider – A provision not likely to pass on its own merit that is attached to an important measure that is certain to pass.

– Most are attached to appropriation bills.

• How a Bill Becomes a Law1. A Bill is Introduced – Only members can introduce

bills• Usually done by dropping the bill in the “Hopper”

on the clerks desk


2. Clerk gives the bill a number and title• For example, H.R. 2011 would be the 2,011

measure introduce in the House during the congressional term.

• S 201, would be used in the same manner in the Senate

• Clerk will also give the bill a short title – a brief summary of its principal contents


3. First Reading: Bill is entered into the House and Senate Journal and Congressional Record

• Journal contains the official record of the daily proceedings in either chamber

• Congressional Record is a massive account of the daily proceedings (speeches, debates, comments votes, etc)

4. Bill is referred to the appropriate standing committee.• Determines viability of a bill; either passed on for

floor consideration or pigeon-holed (buried and dead)


5. Subcommittees may hold hearings for information gathering purposes

6. Committee reports bill - Chairman recommendation:• “Do Pass” recommendation – favorable• Pigeonhole it – Unfavorable• Amend the original form – Favorable w/ changes• Unfavorable – Wants the whole House or Senate to

kill it. Save Face!• Report a committee bill – a new bill entirely


7. Bill is placed on appropriate calendar (5 House, 1 Senate)

• Union Calendar – Bills having to do with revenues, appropriations, or gov’t property

• House Calendar – All other public bills• Private Calendar – Private Bills• Corrections Calendar – Bills from Union and House

calendars with no opposition.• Discharge Calendar – Petitions to discharge bills from

committee


8. Rules Committee grants rule to permit floor consideration – Setting conditions for debate

• When, how long, and under what circumstances a bill may be debated

9. Bill receives second reading; may be debated and amended – Bill is re-introduced to floor from committee

• Quorum – More than half of the representatives must be present to conduct congressional business

• Debate and Amend


10. House votes on Amendments, motions, and full bill – Every amendment and motion on a bill must be approved by majority of the house “yeas” and “nays”, until they reach a final version of the bill

11. Approved bill is engrossed – Printed in its final form

12. Bill is read for a third time – By title only

13. Final vote is taken • If the bill passes the House or Senate, that final

approved version is then placed on the Speaker of the House or the President of the Senates desk to go through the same process before it is handed over to the President to be signed into law.


• Different “rules” in the Senate

1. Unanimous Consent Agreements • Agreement by all Senators to limit the debate on

the floor before debate

2. “Two-Speech Rule” – No senator can make more than two speech on any given bill.

3. Filibuster – A stalling tactic by which a minority of senators seeks to delay or prevent Senate action on a measure. “Talk a bill to death.”• Too much talking may force Senate to kill the bill

or change it to appease the minority party.

Chapter 12: Congressional Organization4. The Cloture Rule or “Rule 22” – limits time for

debate• 3/5 of a full Senate must vote for cloture – limits

debate to 30 hours from time cloture vote is taken – them bill must be brought to final vote.

• Executive Action1. President signs the bill into law.2. President may veto – refuse to sign – the bill.

• President them must return the vetoed bill with an explanation on why the bill was vetoed.

• Though rare, Congress can Override a Presidential Veto by a 2/3 vote by the full membership in both houses of Congress.


3. President may allow a bill to become a law if he/she does not act upon it w/in 10 days, not including Sundays, of receiving it.

4. Pocket Veto – If Congress adjourns its sessions w/in 10 days not including Sundays, of submitting a bill to the President, and the President does not act, the bill dies.


• POI – Line Item Veto Act of 1996 - Congress gave the chief executive the power reject individual items in appropriations bills.

– Ruled Unconstitutional by Supreme Court in 1998.– President can’t Amend a final bill w/o the bill

going back through the two house lawmaking process

Documents

Chapter 11: Congressional Organization