Congress: The Electoral Connection Part 2: Processes and Policies

1. Congress: The Electoral ConnectionPart 2: Processes and Policies

2. Processes and Policies • Point 1: The organization of Congress meets remarkably well the electoral needs of its membersPoint 2: The satisfaction of electoral needs requires very little zero-sum conflict among members.

3. Advertising • Everyone has a different market • The franking privilege • Home visits / congressional calendar (111th) • January 1 – 12: home • February 15 – 21: home • March 29 – April 11: home • May 31 – June 6: home • July 5 – 11: home • August 9 – September 12: home • October 8: Targeted recess date

4. Position Taking • Any member can champion the most outrageous claim without inconveniencing her colleagues, as long as congressmen do not attack each other. • The Congressional Record / Extension of Remarks • Speaking to an empty chamber / C-SPAN

5. Credit Claiming • Division of Labor within the committee system; everybody gets a piece of the action • Seniority system supports turf security

6. Committees • “Cause” committees • “Distributive” committees that divvy up particularized benefits on the basis of “universalism” when costs are diffuse and benefits are concentrated (Earmarks)

7. Standing Committees, 111th Congress • Agriculture • Appropriations • Armed Services • Budget • Education and Labor • Energy and Commerce • Financial Services • Foreign Affairs • Homeland Security • House Administration • Judiciary • Natural Resources • Oversight and Government Reform • Rules • Science and Technology • Small Business • Standards of Official Conduct • Transportation and Infrastructure • Veterans' Affairs • Ways and Means

8. Select and Joint Committees, 111th Congress • Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence • Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming • Joint Committees of the Congress: • Economic • Library • Printing • Taxation

9. Ways and Means Subcommittees, 111th Congress TRADE: John S. Tanner, TN, Acting Chair Sander M. Levin, MI Chris Van Hollen, MD Jim McDermott, WA Richard E. Neal, MA Lloyd Doggett, TX Earl Pomeroy, ND Bob Etheridge, NC Linda T. Sánchez, CA Kevin Brady, TX Geoff Davis, KY David G. Reichert, WA Wally Herger, CA Devin Nunes, CA OVERSIGHT: John Lewis, GA, Chairman Xavier Becerra, CA Ron Kind, WI Bill Pascrell, Jr., NJ John B. Larson, CT Artur Davis, AL Danny K. Davis, IL Bob Etheridge, NC Brian Higgins, NY Charles W. Boustany, Jr., LA David G. Reichert, WA Peter J. Roskam, IL Paul Ryan, WI John Linder, GA HEALTH: Fortney Pete Stark, CA, Chairman Lloyd Doggett, TX Mike Thompson, CA Xavier Becerra, CA Earl Pomeroy, ND Ron Kind, WI Earl Blumenauer, OR Bill Pascrell, Jr., NJ Shelley Berkley, NV Wally Herger, CA Sam Johnson, TX Paul Ryan, WI Devin Nunes, CA Ginny Brown-Waite, FL SOCIAL SECURITY: Earl Pomeroy, ND, Acting Chair John S. Tanner, TN llyson Y. Schwartz, PA Xavier Becerra, CA Lloyd Doggett, TX Ron Kind, WI Joseph Crowley, NY Linda T. Sánchez, CA John A. Yarmuth, KY Sam Johnson, TX Kevin Brady, TX Patrick J. Tiberi, OH Ginny Brown-Waite, FL David G. Reichert, WA INCOME SECURITY AND FAMILY SUPPORT: Jim McDermott, WA, Chairman Fortney Pete Stark, CA Artur Davis, AL John Lewis, GA Shelley Berkley, NV Chris Van Hollen, MD Kendrick B. Meek, FL Sander M. Levin, MI Danny K. Davis, IL John Linder, GA Charles W. Boustany, Jr., LA Dean Heller, NV Peter J. Roskam, IL Patrick J. Tiberi, OH SELECT REVENUE MEASURES: Richard E. Neal, MA, Chairman Mike Thompson, CA John B. Larson, CT Allyson Y. Schwartz, PA Earl Blumenauer, OR Joseph Crowley, NY Kendrick B. Meek, FL Brian Higgins, NY John A. Yarmuth, KY Patrick J. Tiberi, OH John Linder, GA Dean Heller, NV Peter J. Roskam, IL Geoff Davis, KY

10. Are there any limits? • House: no member may belong to more than one subcommittee chairmanship (just create more subcommittees) • Senate: More subcommittees than senators

11. The Parties: Have Things Changed? • “There is no member in either house who would not be politically injured – or at least who would not think he would be injured – by being made to toe a party line on all policies…” • “There is no congressional bloc whose members have identical position needs across all issues.” • “Party leaders are chosen not to be program salesmen or vote mobilizers, but to be brokers, favor-doers, agenda setters, and protectors of established routine.”

12. Functional Outcomes • Functions of representative assemblies • Expressing public opinion (J. S. Mill)… Congress as a “cacaphonous chorus, its members singing different tunes but always singing something.” • Handling constituent requests… efficient, effective, particularized benefits • Legislating / Overseeing administration… 1) mobilization on pieces of legislation (nose-counting, bargaining); 2) members determine the content of legislation; 3) post-enactment cues to the bureaucracy

13. Three Legislative Hallmarks • Mobilization activities… nose-counting, bargaining (logrolling): when a politically significant actor is watching; symbol over substance (Read the bill? Whatever for?) • Determining the content of legislation • Post-enactment cues to the bureaucracy

14. Effects • Delay on non-particularized matters (“… a live issue may be better than a dead program”) • Particularism (“The only benefits intrinsically worth anything… are the ones that can be packaged”) • Servicing of the organized (which gives form to the bureaucracy) • Deference toward nationally organized, powerful groups • Deference toward groups with disposable electoral resources (clientelism) • Symbolism… resolutions, prescribed policy effects with no action to back it up • Legislative action taken for electoral payment for positions, not for effects • Charitable legislation “designed to benefit people other than the ones whose gratification is payment for passage.”