What Does Congress Do?

What Does Congress Do?

In order to best explain what Congress does, we can use the analytical lenses of constitutionalism, institutionalism and behavioralism. Before we can discuss what Congress does, it is important to understand the basic make up of our legislative body. We can view the basic makeup of Congress within the view of Constitutionalism.
The United States Constitution provides the structure of our legislative body. It gives us a bicameral legislature. This means that we have two chambers; the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Constitution contains rules that give the basic guidelines on how we elect our representatives, how long they will serve and the outline of how the legislative process works.
To arrive at Congress,
one must be elected by his constituents. In order to be eligible to run for Congress, a candidate must be at least 25 years old for a House seat and 30 for a Senate seat. Candidates must be a U.S. citizen and must be a resident in the state in which they are running.
The size of Congress – 535 members – is set by the Constitution. There are 100 seats in the Senate and 435 seats in the House. Each state has two senators and at least one representative. The apportionment of the remainder of the seats in the House is based on the population as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau. Once elected to Congress, a member of the House of Representatives will serve a term of two years and a Senator will serve a term of six years.
We can use the lenses of institutionalism and behavioralism to try to understand what representatives do once they get to Congress.
Once elected, a representative is expected by their constituents to represent. A congressman must make a decision on how they will represent their constituents back home. Smith describes three different types of representatives: a delegate, a trustee and a politico. Many Americans expect their representative to go to Congress and represent their own personal feelings. This delegate style proves difficult for a Congressman who has a vast amount of varying opinions in his constituents. This could lead the Congressman to act as a trustee. Smith describes a trustee as “representing his or her constituents by exercising independent judgment about the interests of district, state or nation” (Smith, 30). A politico combines the style of delegate and trustee and will represent the ideas of constituents but still act on his own personal views in some matters. The difficult part of representing in Congress is reconciling all the different views and expectations of their constituents. Members of Congress also represent their constituents by representing as a part of their
party.
Lawmaking is another important part of the job that Congress does. Smith proposed two models of lawmaking: the unitary democracy model and the adversarial democracy model (Smith, 33). The unitary democracy model and the adversarial democracy model differ in that the unitary model focuses on coming to an agreement and the adversarial model focuses on majority rule. Smith points out that both of these models are not easily achieved together within Congress (Smith 33-34). Ideally, we would like to see a Congress that is able to deliberate and come to an agreement on an issue. However, with the different views and opinions of legislators, the adversarial model is more often seen as the method of lawmaking used.
Navigating the inner-workings of Congress can be a daunting task for a new Congressman. Learning the rules, establishing strategies and goals, and leaning on resources are important methods of getting ahead in the political landscape. A member of congress must establish a strategy and present themselves to their constituents in a certain light. As described by Smith, Richard Fenno established the following as goals for members, reelection, good public policy, political influence, serving constituents, seeking higher office, legislating and multiple goals (Smith, 93-101). Members of Congress will use their actions, their choice of legislation, and their interactions with constituents to fit their goals.
Within Congress are four parties: House Republicans, House Democrats, Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats. According to Smith, “Congressional parties exist to serve the interests of their members” (Smith, 128). As a member of a Congressional party, a Congressman has a group of people with which he “share[s] a party label” (Smith, 129). These labels allow voters to understand where their Congressman stands with views or issues. This gives the Congressman incentives to work with his party and align with them. The Congressman can gain favor in his party by establishing seniority, helping others get elected and falling in line with party votes. In each of the four parties within Congress, you will find a caucus, committees and party leaders.
Party leaders are not established by Constitution, but have evolved over time. Each party leader has certain responsibilities and obligations to their party. According to Smith, leaders have the primary responsibility of “ building coalition on major legislation, managing the floor, serving as intermediary with the President, enhancing the parties reputation, campaigning and managing the party and the chamber” (Smith, 138-141).

In the House, you have the following leaders for the minority party:
1. House Minority Leader
2. House Minority Whip
3. House Assistant Leader
4. Caucus Chair
5. Caucus Vice Chair
The following leaders represent the majority party:
1. Speaker of the House
2. Majority Leader
3. Majority Whip
4. Conference Chair
5. Conference Vice Chair
The Senate majority leaders are organized as follows:
1. Majority Leader
2. Assistant Floor Leader (Whip)
3. Conference Vice Chair
4. Conference Secretary
5. President Pro Tempore
The Senate minority leaders are organized as follows:
1. Minority Leader
2. Assistant Floor Leader (Whip)
3. Conference Chair
4. Conference Vice Chair
An important subject to discuss when analyzing Congressional parties is the subject of divided and unified government. Unified government is when one party has control of both chambers of Congress and the Presidency. A divided government is when the control of Congress and the Presidency is split between the two parties. Today we have a divided government with the Presidency and the Senate controlled by Democrats and the House controlled by Republicans. The current state of our government and the recent shut down is a perfect example of what can occur when a divided government exists. However, political scientist, David Mayhew would argue that it doesn’t matter if a unified or divided government exists. His Mayhew Thesis argues that “unified as opposed to divided control has not made an important difference in recent times” (Smith, 87).
The framers of our Constitution set out the basic guidelines of our legislative body. They organized Congress into two houses to represent the constituents and enact legislation. Congress is an evolving being that continues to change today.

Works Cited
Steven S. Smith, Jason M. Roberts, Ryan J. Vander. The American Congress 7th Edition. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011.