The US Congress

Units

1. 1

   Elections and incumbency

   3 lessons

   1. The electoral connectionExplain Mayhew's claim that members of Congress act as single-minded seekers of reelection, and classify their behavior as advertising, credit claiming or position taking.
   2. Why incumbents winExplain why House incumbents are reelected more than 90 percent of the time, separating the advantages of office from the weakness of their challengers, and say why the advantage has shrunk.
   3. House and Senate elections comparedCompare House and Senate elections by term, constituency and class, and explain why Senate incumbents face closer races than House incumbents.
2. 2

   Representation

   3 lessons

   1. Trustee or delegateContrast the trustee and delegate views of representation, apply each to a member who votes against her district, and judge the electoral cost of doing so.
   2. Who is representedDistinguish descriptive from substantive representation, read the changing makeup of Congress since 1950, and weigh the trade-off of majority-minority districts.
   3. Home styleUse Fenno's Home Style to describe a member's four nested constituencies and the three parts of a home style, and explain why members run for Congress by running against it.
3. 3

   Committees

   3 lessons

   1. The committee systemDescribe the standing committees of the House and Senate, how members get assignments, and how the seniority system rose and was weakened between 1946 and 1995.
   2. Why committees existCompare the distributive, informational and partisan theories of congressional committees, locate each one's committee on a left-right line, and say what evidence would tell them apart.
   3. The budget and appropriations processTrace the federal budget from the president's request to the start of the fiscal year, tell authorization from appropriation, and explain continuing resolutions and shutdowns.
4. 4

   Parties and leadership

   3 lessons

   1. The Speaker and the rise of party powerTrace the power of the Speaker of the House from Reed and Cannon through the 1910 revolt, the committee era and the 1970s reforms to Gingrich and the motion to vacate of 2023.
   2. Polarization and conditional party governmentRead the long-run pattern of congressional polarization in roll-call scores, and use Aldrich and Rohde's conditional party government to explain why strong leaders follow united, distant parties.
   3. Whips, majority leaders and the SenateLay out the party leadership ladder in each chamber, explain how a whip count works, and say why Senate leaders are weaker than the Speaker.
5. 5

   Floor procedure and the filibuster

   3 lessons

   1. The House Rules CommitteeTrace a bill's path from committee to the House floor through a special rule, tell open, structured and closed rules apart, and explain how the discharge petition lets a majority go around the leadership.
   2. Unanimous consent and the filibusterExplain how the Senate's unanimous consent and unlimited debate work, trace cloture from 1917 to the 60-vote rule of 1975, and use Krehbiel's pivotal politics to show why the 60th senator decides.
   3. The nuclear option and reconciliationExplain how Senate majorities have got around the filibuster, by the nuclear option for nominations in 2013 and 2017 and by budget reconciliation under the Byrd rule, using the 2017 tax law as the case.
6. 6

   How a bill becomes law

   3 lessons

   1. Introduction to committee markupFollow a bill from introduction through referral, hearings and markup to the committee's report, and explain why only about one bill in fifty becomes law.
   2. Two chambers and veto pointsExplain how the House and Senate reconcile different versions of a bill, use Tsebelis's veto players to show why more veto points protect the status quo, and read the record of presidential vetoes and overrides.
   3. Case study: the Civil Rights Act of 1964Trace the Civil Rights Act of 1964 past every veto point, the Rules Committee, the Senate filibuster and cloture on June 10, 1964 by 71 to 29, and explain how a cross-party coalition beat the Southern bloc.
7. 7

   Congress, the president and the bureaucracy

   3 lessons

   1. Oversight: police patrols and fire alarmsModel congressional oversight as a principal-agent problem and use McCubbins and Schwartz's distinction between police-patrol and fire-alarm oversight to explain how Congress watches the bureaucracy, with Watergate and Iran-Contra as cases.
   2. Delegation and the legislative vetoExplain why Congress delegates policymaking to agencies, how it tried to keep control with the legislative veto, and why INS v. Chadha (1983) struck the one-house veto down.
   3. Treaties, nominations and war powersExplain the Senate's advice and consent on treaties and nominations, from the 1919 defeat of the Treaty of Versailles to recent Supreme Court votes, and how the War Powers Resolution of 1973 tries to share the power to use force.
8. 8

   Lobbying and interest groups

   3 lessons

   1. Collective action and interest groupsUse Olson's Logic of Collective Action to explain why small groups with concentrated stakes organize more easily than large groups with diffuse stakes, and how selective incentives overcome the free-rider problem.
   2. What lobbyists doExplain lobbying as a legislative subsidy to allies (Hall and Deardorff), read where lobbying money comes from, and use Baumgartner and colleagues' finding that the status quo usually wins to judge how much money buys.
   3. Money, PACs and Citizens UnitedExplain the rules of federal campaign finance from the 1974 FECA amendments and Buckley v. Valeo (1976) to Citizens United (2010) and SpeechNow, and read how outside spending grew after 2010.