Congress - Voting in Congress

Explain The Factors Affecting Voting In Congress:

• Political Parties: Ideological issues may be taken e.g abortion and gun control. ‘Sticks and carrots’ encourage party voting through threats of deselection. Party voting has decreased but may increase under Trump.
• The Administration: Legislation initiated by the administration. Cabinet members can persuade members of Congress to vote one way or the other and to be more bi-partisan.
• Pressure Groups: Influence members of Congress through direct action and lobbying. Visits and phone calls. They can also raise money for politicians. Conscience issues such as abortion see pressure group activity.
• Colleagues and Staff: There are so many bills that members may not know which is which. They rely on their staff to tell them about upcoming bills. Can also debate with other similar members of Congress (i.e. they share a similar constituency demographically or ethnically) the contents of the bill.
• Personal Beliefs: Vote according to personal beliefs on a conscience issue such as abortion. Known as personal philosophy.

Party Leadership:

• Federalism means that party leaders in Congress have little or no control over what the 50 states parties across the country are doing.
• Separation of powers means that party leaders in Congress may hold little sway down the other hand of the White House
• Bicameralism means that party leaders operate only within their own chamber and may not be singing together.
• The speaker in the House is from the majority and can be important as they important jobs such as referring bills to committees and enforcing the rules of the House. They in effect become ‘the leader of the opposition’ acting as a spokesperson for the party not in charge of the White House.
• Senate has a similar role but for the longest-serving member of the House in the majority party. They preside over the Senate when the VPOTUS is not present.

Partisanship & Why Has It Increased:

• A situation where members of one party regularly group together to oppose members of another party, characterised by strong party discipline and little cooperation between parties.
• Increasing because the differences between the parties are now greater between the two parties. Both parties are more ideologically cohesive and distinct, the Democrats are more liberal whilst the Republicans are becoming more Conservative hence an increase in partisanship.
• Disappearance of centrist members of both parties; that is members voting towards the political centre.
• Members are also changing; centrist members are being replaced with more conservative members e.g. Arlen Spencer and Pat Toomey.
• Also gerrymandering is important as they can affect who runs for the party

Do Parties Play An Important Role In Congress:
Yes:	No:
Leadership in Congress is run by the parties	Views of the constituents can often outweigh party considerations – especially for House members
Committees in Congress are organised by the parties	Parties have no control over candidate selection
Increased partisanship, party discipline is much stronger in Congress than it used to be	Both parties are made up of ideological factions that compete with party cohesion
Party is more determinant of voting in Congress	Executive branch has few ‘sticks and carrots’ with which to incentivise party discipline
Impossible to be elected to Congress without being a major party candidate.	Congressional leadership, likewise, is fairly impotent in the face of opposition.

Congressional Caucuses:

• The collection of members of either major party elected to the House or Senate. More widely an association of members of Congress to advance an certain interest.
• They represent the party of either House.
• They represent smaller, but cohesive groups within each chamber based on ideological, ethnic, or economic interests.
• They educate people by providing information to members on proposed legislation and may offer policy briefing papers.
• Agenda Setting: Boost the chances of an issue getting to the congressional legislative agenda. They co-sponsor legislation and circulate letters to drum up support and meet up with party leadership
• They encourage support for their proposals in votes on the floor of each chamber.

Examples:

Congressional Black Caucus:

• For African-American members of both Houses. Has 47 members from both houses.
• Claims to be bi-partisan but only has 5 black Republican members.

House Freedom Caucus:

• 40 Conservative Republicans
• Supports limited government, Constitution and rule of law and policies that promote the liberty, safety of all Americans.
• Allied with the Tea Party Movement.
• Forced House Speaker, John Boehner to resign in 2015.