Process Essay: Where Does Power Lie In Congress

Where does power lie in Congress?

Congress in the US is granted all legislative powers by the Constitution, the power to appropriate funds, regulate trade and commerce and to formally declare war. Although the President imposes his will on all of these activities Congress is still an extremely important and powerful body; arguably today it has a superior mandate as President Bush was elected on a popular minority and less recently. Congress is regularly re-elected (every two years) and because of the diversity of the US population it represents a very broad range of interests. The Gingritch years in the House of Representatives show how a reassertion of power in Congress can shape the political landscape in the US.

David McKay comments that in
Congress "Two major foci of power exist - committees and party leadership". During the early 1990s the balance between these two powers shifted as modernisation reforms removed some of the institutionalised powers of committee chairs, and afforded the Speaker of the House a more prominent role. Unlike in the UK where the speaker is politically neutral, the US Speaker is very much a political player and votes on every issue. Undeniably the most senior position in the House of Representatives, the Speaker is elected by all members of the House at the beginning of each new Congress (i.e. every two years). The powers of the Speaker are crucial to the smooth running of Congress, although the extent to which the speaker chooses to use the powers depends very much on their personality and views on their position. Formally, the Speaker chairs debates, refers bills to committees, enforces the rules of the house, appoints select and conference committee chairs and appoints the majority party members of the important House Rules Committee. Newt Gingritch was Speaker from 1995-1998, and in this time acted like a de facto leader of the opposition - but with formidable legislative power. He introduced many bills to Congress as part of the "Contract with America" programme, including reforms of Congressional procedures and welfare support changes. His success underlines the huge amount of power a Speaker can hold in Congress in directing the flow of legislation and therefore influencing all Congress' work single handed. Speakers may alternatively play a low-key role, particularly if they come from the same party as the President (e.g. current Speaker Dennis Hastert). Hastert probably also believes in the Speaker playing a limited role because the strict partisan style used in the Gingritch years has become out of favour as it was seen to be counter-productive to have a large amount of conflict within a legislative chamber.

Other Congressional leadership positions include Majority and Minority Leaders in both chambers, who act as "directors of operations" on a daily basis, perform a role as their party's congressional spokesperson to the media and liase between Congress and the White House. In the House the Majority Leader is similar to being the Speaker's deputy (currently Tom DeLay), and Majority/Minority leaders may hope to secure the role themselves. In the Senate with no speaker and a less partisan attitude to debate in general the Majority leader (Bill Frist) is the chief strategist in the chamber, and has a leading role in appointing members of his party to committee positions. Whips in Congress like the Leaders and Speaker are elected by their party caucuses and are similar to their UK counterparts; they canvass numbers in their chambers and determine voting strength, and organise voting 'pairs'. However the position is more senior in the US because the whips are second only to the Speaker and Leaders. The Leaders in the Senate are often less successful in coaxing the support of their party members than the Speaker and majority leaders in the House. This is because with smaller membership the House technique of offering committee positions for crucially cast votes cannot operate as Senators are far more likely to receive a position without returning a favour to their Leaders. Also with so many Senators receiving funding from Political Action Committees and their own private election finance the leverage of party funding at election time is also ineffective. Party Leaders in the Senate have far fewer "goodies" to offer a Senator, whose wealth, long terms and power of incumbency afford them a large amount of independence.

Committees are the other major centre of power in Congress.
Although not mentioned in the Constitution Congressional committees have become an essential tool in Congress as its membership has increased and an expansion in government involvement in economic and social life has required a far greater volume of legislation and increased scrutiny of the executive. Select committees are permanent and therefore members of a committee who are re-elected gain a large amount of expertise in the policy area the committee deals with and a large amount of skill in executive scrutiny. The main functions of committees are the scrutiny of legislation in their field of speciality (N.B. this involves the power to stop a bill), the scrutiny of executive departments and basic 'housekeeping' and co-ordination roles. Congressional committees are powerful, well-funded, well-staffed (large numbers of researchers) and respected as important bodies. For this reason members want to serve; also they may advance in the party through good committee service and also through committee membership have a more powerful influence on the legislative process and may gain a degree of control over legislation of particular importance to their
constituents.

The most powerful controller in the passage of legislation is the House Rules Committee. If a Bill has been approved in the first stage in its relevant policy committee it is passed to the Rules Committee where it may or may not be granted a rule, i.e. a place on the timetable of the whole House. There is simply so much legislation passing through Congress that it is impossible to debate and vote on it all - this is reflected in the success rate of bills being below 3%. At this point the degree to which the bill will be open to debate and amendment is decided - the committee is essentially managing the flow of bills through the house. The ability to stop every bill that passes through Congress at this stage is an incredible power, and membership of this committee is a sought after responsibility (the current chair is David Dreier). Other important committees include the Ways and Means Committee (which deals with budgeting and may exercise a lot of control over taxation levels); the appropriations committee which performs a similar role, and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee whose recommendations will carry much weight in the approach to conflicts and upon ratification of treaties.

Committee Chairmen are the core of all committees, the most senior politician in party advancement terms. The Chairmen of the most crucial committees are well known politicians in their own right - for example Bill Thomas of the Ways and Means Committee. Though a whole committee's power to influence the voting in Congress is great (as the decisions made by committees are well researched by experts), a Committee chairman is likely to have direct links with party leadership and may forge a strong and powerful bond between key committees and Leaders. For example the Speaker will appoint a close political ally to the Chairmanship of the House Rules Committee in order to exercise an amount of control over the passage of legislation. Chairmen of such committees are senior, experienced politicians and command much respect. Previously the Seniority Rule existed in Chairmanship, where the longest continuously serving committee member got the position. Although this guaranteed experience it did not allow much change in the composition of some extremely important bodies - change to reflect movements in public opinion and composition of Congress. The Seniority Rule was changed in 1995 by Gingritch, allowing only 6 year term limits as chairman to be appointed by the majority party Leadership. In 2001 13 long-serving Republican committee chairmen were replaced, honouring the new rule. The new rules abolishing Seniority takes some power away from the Chairmen, who during very long terms in office would become very influential in their area of speciality - and hands it to the party leadership. This centralisation of power and increased power over appointments gives party leadership a large number of desirable positions to offer to ambitious junior politicians - and may provide leverage to keep voting to party lines.

The US Congress represents an extremely diverse range of interests, and each Congressman is under unrelenting pressure to represent their constituents' interests in order to be re-elected. However an individual Congressman has little power, and party ties do not always agree with an individual's opinion. This is the reason for the formation of caucuses, in order to consistently represent a minority group's opinions hopefully more successfully by joining together across party lines. An example of this would be the Jewish caucus, who would generally group together in votes concerning the discord in Israel. Similarly the Black caucus would be likely to vote together on issues connected with affirmative action, racism in the public services etc. Caucuses often aim to hold key committee positions relevant to their interests, and through the powerful committee system may stop bills an the first stages or assign their recommendations to the bill for members to read before voting takes place. This can be an effective way of asserting power, especially if opinion is split relatively evenly across the rest of the chamber.

Since 1995 the balance of power in Congress has become more focused around the majority party leadership as the reforms to committee chairman positions come into effect. However Committees are still formidably important bodies, with the greatest degree of control over the flow of legislation. Congressmen do not have time to read around every vote they are due to cast or even attend the debates, so committee recommendations are a valuable source of information prior to voting. The leadership on the other hand does not provide information but a party policy on the issue, and do not wish to encourage independent-thinking members whose votes are regularly 'wildcards'. Their power is the pressure they can place on members (reduced leverage in the Senate as outlined earlier) and the rewards they can offer for loyalty. The vast majority of the total sum of the power of Congress is shared between committee and leadership, but the balance between the two is far from rigid.