A: Senators are designed to be the part of congress that is more separated from the people to counteract the house that is designed to be close to the people. By having 1/3 of the Senate open for election at one time and having longer terms helps accomplish this goal by having the people have less say with the senators.

A: Congressmen can help their constituents through casework. These are activities that help individual cut through the bureaucratic red tape to get people what they think they have a right to get. Some examples are immigration cases, getting a small town a new sewage treatment plant, or getting federal bureaucrats to respond to the request for federal construction money.

A.)The House of representatives is much more centralized than the Senate. the reasoning behind this is that because there are so many more members in the house, there are more leaders and new members really have no power. The people with the most influence are members who have been part of the house for the longest time. You could compare the house to a classroom, with a teacher, the teacher tells the students to complete specific tasks and the members do as they are told.

The Senate is much more decentralized. All members have the same power and everyone wants to be the boss. There is almost no structure, and much more freedom for the senators compared to representatives. You could compare the Senate to a lunchroom opposed to a classroom.

The elastic clause is a part of the consitution, Article I. It states that Congress needs to be able to do what is necessary and proper for the United States. This greatly expands the powers of Congress, and allows more leeway for new age problems that we face today, and in the future.

A: Select Committees differ from the Standing and Joint committees because they don’t handle general areas. While the Standing and Joint committees are very general and only pertain to a certain area, Select committees are precise and focus on one issue, such as congressional scandals like the Watergate scandal.

Has congress accomplished its original vision or had it fallen from what the founders desired it to be?

A senator can invoke cloture in the time of a filibuster. A filibuster is a senators attempt to talk a bill to death. Cloture requires a 60 member vote, and passes the bill through the floor. This is a good tool so that one senator does not obtain to much power and is then unable to filibuster any bill that it pleases.

Cloture is how the Senate stops a filibuster. In order to invoke cloture, 3/5 of the Senate (60 with our current number in the Senate) must agree to end the filibuster and vote on the issue at hand. This was developed for the Senate in order to prevent the Senators from obtaining too much power via the filibuster. If filibusters are unstoppable, then the Senate could control everything by threatening to filibuster the issue. That is why having a “supermajority”, or 3/5 of all the Senators, is something that most parties want to have. Also, on important legislation, Senators will sometimes try to garner 60 votes before the bill is put up to vote.

1. Franking privilege: Congressmen can use their signature instead of postage when using the mail system. This allows for low-cost letter campaigns and similar uses of the postal system.

2. Travel Allowance: Congressmen can be compensated for travel costs while on Congressional business.

3. Legislative immunity: They cannot be sued for something they say while on congressional business.

4. Congressmen cannot be arrested or detained while going to or from a session of Congress.

5. Staff: Congressmen are given hired help to handle all the menial chores of the office, such as writing press releases, managing public image, and other procedures.

ANSWER:
Cloture is a vote ending a “filibuster” in Senate. This is an effective tool because a filibuster, which is a tactic unique to the senate, can essentially lead to an unlimited debate. Once a senator holds the floor for debate, he or she can traditionally hold the floor as long as they desire. The only way to end a filibuster is through cloture, or a 3/5 vote from the Senate.

Cloture (a 3/5 vote in the senate i.e. 60 members) is what is needed to end a filibuster. This is a great tool developed exclusively in the senate 1. because filibusters are unique to the senate because the committees in the Senate cannot keep bills from the reaching the floor for debate. 2. cloture is essential for any progress whatsoever…without cloture, any senator could talk any bill to death, nothing would ever get accomplished.

Congress uses the Committee System because it spreads out the issues that Congress faces. It gives certain issues to the committees that are specialized for dealing with that part of the economy or nation (i.e. the President suggests a bill to help farmers out in this current recession, so this bill is sent to the Agricultural Committee where they specialize on the status of the agricultural community).

A cloture is when Senate puts an end to a filibuster (when someone talks a bill to death.) This requires a 60 member vote. It is a good tool for the Senate so that they can have a little control over the debating that goes on, however, this should not be used too much so that it does not become too simple to stop a debate on the floor.

The use of a committee system allows congressmen to shore up on weak points. Congressmen are generalists, the committees allow them to develop expertise in areas as well as serve their constituents. A Congressmen whose state’s main export is agricultural products would serve on committees that allow them to compliment that.

A. Congress uses a committee system to function more effectively. Congress deals with so many things that it is impossible for each member to specialize in every area, thus the committee system comes into play. Since not every senator can or wants to be an expert in agriculture, a committee is created to deal with it. Committees give advice on bills that the majority of congress knows nothing about, thus the system works more smoothly .It is also a great way for congress to work for their constituents, because they can be a member on a committee that will bring benefit to their people.

A. Log rolling means ill scratch your back if you scratch mine. If senator 1 wants support for a bill senator 2 may offer his support if senator one in turn supports senator 2’s bill.

A- Congress uses a committee system because there are a lot of things that congress votes on throughout the year, and no one can be an expert on everything. So Congress uses the Committee system so that different members can specialize in one area and get really knowledgable in that subject. When a bill or issue comes into play, it can be sent to the group of “experts” on that topic, making the result more efficient.

To go a little further about logrolling, I think another good thing to point out is that this “organizational voting” usually occurs during decisions on issues that the constituency is not very interested in or pay little attention to. For example, recently, any issue regarding the economy or the war would be something the congressman should act in the “delegate” role (vote according to constituent convictions). Obviously, acting in this way on these types of decisions is his best opportunity to get reelected. However, when small, insignificant (as seen in the eyes of the constituency) issues arise in Congress, a member can engage in logrolling without disappointing his constituents.

Adjournment is essentially the end of a term (last 2 years) in Congress. The date must be agreed upon by both houses.
Recess is a basically a break from work. They are taken periodically during terms and even during sessions for various reasons.

In the House, recesses are normally taken for short periods during a legislative day, while adjournments are used to end the day. In the Senate, recesses are usually taken during the day and frequently to end the day as well.

The Constitution (Article I, section 5), says that neither House of Congress may adjourn for more than three days without the consent of the other.

There are four types of adjournments:
(1) adjournments to end the day, which are accomplished through a motion to adjourn.
(2) adjournments of a stated period of three days or less, which are achieved by adoption of a motion to adjourn;
(3) adjournments of more than three days, which require the consent of the other chamber are accomplished by adoption of a concurrent resolution in both bodies; and
(4) adjournments “sine die”, which end each session of a Congress, require the consent of both chambers, and which are realized by adoption of a concurrent resolution by both.

A: 1. Standing Committees: These committees handle bills in different policy areas. Each house has its own standing committees and each deal with bills that relate to their policy area. The typical Representative sits on six committees/subbcommittees and the typical Senator sits on ten committees/subcommittees

2. Conference Committees: These committees are formed when both the House and the Senate pass a particular bill in different forms. These committees are supossed to sit down write one bill that irons out the differences between the House and the Senate and send it back to each house for a vote.

3. Joint Committees: These committees exist in a few policy areas such as the economy and taxation and their membership is drawn from each House of Congress.

4. Select Committees: These committees are appointed for a specific purpose. The Select Committee on Presidential Campaign activities which deals with the Watergate scandal is one of the more well known select committee.

What is the best predictor?

The “Gang of 14″ didn’t modify the filibuster. Senate Democrats had been filibustering ten judicial nominees from President Bush in 2005. Senate Republicans (with only a two vote majority) said that they would create a law destroying the filibuster for judicial nominees. This was known as the “nuclear option.” The “Gang of 14″ voted for cloture on the filibuster of one nominee, Priscilla Owen, and the “nuclear option” was no longer necessary.

A. “Junket” is a nickname for congressional trips that are paid for by tax payers. These trips don’t even necessarily have to be for business. It comes with the many perks that members of Congress are entitled to.
“Logrolling” is the tradition in Congress of exchanging votes among members of Congress…pretty much saying if you’ll vote for this I’ll vote for that. It goes hand in hand with reciprocity which is the exchange of favors.

The committees seem to work every little detail out. This allows for a complete bill that will be usefull to its fullest potential. I think that the purpose of bringing it up to the full house it to see what a large group of people, often uninterested in the precise subjects, unlike committee chairmen, and to see what their reaction is. It is supposed to be a similar reaction to that of the constituents, for they are their representatives. Therefore, the purpose of submitting a bill to the full house is to see how the entire nation would view, but in a more concentrated level.

Explain how the committees each help a bill to be passed.

A: After the work has been done in the committees, the whole body votes on the bills and such that haven’t already been pigoenholed, rejected, or forgotten. Only the stuff that is worthwhile actually makes it to the floor, so when the whole body votes on it, it is normally an important issue or subject.

A: There needs to be discussion, debate, and votes. Obviously there’s no way to get a majority vote in either house by just voting in one committee or something. The whole House and/or Senate needs to vote to get the appropriate number of votes to pass the bill. The committees just make the bill as attractive and complete as they can.

Also, some Congress members might have a different perspective on an issue than their colleagues in a committee on that issue. In other words, one guy might have a suggestion about say, military spending, than someone on the military spending committee. Just an example. I would imagine this would happen more in the Senate with the nature of unlimited debate.

A: Centralization- link it to the word “central” to try and help you remember that the House is more “central” becuase they are more closely tied to the people. They are at the center of their constituents minds, and people have more faith in their House representatives, generally, than they do in their Senators. This is becuase the Senators are in the more decentralized house. They are farther away from the peoples minds and do not serve as closely with the constituents. Try to remember it by thinking “De”-centralized, being NOT “central” or in the center of peoples minds. (farter removed v. the center).

The above is a type of word association that may help people study. The facts that support centralization and decentralization are:

House-Centralized.
-more leadership
-435 members
-2 year terms
-less people to represent
-limited debate
-limits on floor amendments

Senate-Decentralized
-100 members
-6 year terms
-more people to represent
-unlimited debate
-unlimited on floor amendments