[NEW] 4C Congress Essay Plans

To what extent is Congress the broken branch of government

Legislating policy - Congress is the legislature and is in charge of making laws and passing laws, it has not been particularly successful at this job as seen through the constant gridlock in Congress. This is clearly seen through how 2013 is the least productive legislative year ever and the government shutdown of 2013. The political parties have also become incredibly polarised and there is no bipartisanship, it is entirely partisanship and general gridlock over all the parts of government.	Although polarisation is on the rise, it is not as bad as everyone says it is, many people argue that Obama could have compromised more and waited longer to find out opinions about Obamacare and perhaps there would not have been a government shutdown. The founding fathers wanted there to be disappointment between the parties to prevent one of the branches from becoming too powerful, therefore the lack of bipartisanship is a good thing and shows that Congress is not broken.
Career politicians - Congress +is broken due to the number of career politicians in Washington who focus on their own interests rather than representing the interests of their own constituents. They may also only be concerned by the issues of their own smaller district and therefore neglect the wider national picture. Has led to neglect over the most important national issues like national debt. Also use earmarks, Jim Warren has used an excessive amount which has totaled to 36.5 million which leads to funding prospects in his own constituency. Adds to the burden of reducing the government debt, some earmarks are used on unnecessary projects like the Alaskan bridge to nowhere.	Congress is not broke as though you have career politicians, they have been shown to get together for a national interest such as the through the increased use of nationalised elections like the 6 for 06 campaigns. When Obama was president him and John Boehner worked together and actually banned the use of earmarks.
Loss of constitutional powers as seen through its general loss of the power to declare war. This is seen through how the last time that Congress declared war was in 1942 despite multiple wars happening since then solely under the command of the executive who has adopted this role from the president. The president as the commander in chief has the power to move troops and this has generally been used to get past the requirement of a declaration of war by Congress. Today Congress arguably played a supervisory role rather than actually conduct the foreign policy while the president actually initiates and sets the foreign policy agenda.	Case Act and War Powers Act are laws which state that the president must always ask for authorization from congress before they can conduct any military action abroad. This is seen in 2015 when Obama had to ask for permission to take foreign military action in the middle east. So technically congress still retains power over foreign policy and war policy, they even invited the Israeli president over ongoing talks over the nuclear facility, this was something that angered the executive who did not consent.
Congressional oversight; Congress has the power of investigation but this power means they provide congressional oversight over the bureaucracy. THe fact that the nsa leaks came from the whistle blower edward snowden shows how terrible the committee's investigations are. National Journal even said that Congress is the lapdog of the executive. The growing partisanship and polarisation means the committees are more divided than ever meaning that little is actually achieved.	However they are not ineffective as Congressional oversight has quite a mixed record as the senate intelligence committee was the committee that exposed the CIA torture report in 2014 exposing that the CIA were using sadistic torture techniques to interrogate suspects. It was the senate foreign relations that investigated the Benghazi incident with effectiveness. The IRS scandal investigated by Congress and done so effectively and efficiently.
Tea Party Revolution. The Tea Party appeared around 2009 and were a faction in the republican party who are generally seen as hardline conservatives who refuse any compromise on economic issues or also on healthcare issues as seen through the way that they were filibustering it in 2013 (Ted Cruz filibuster for 23 hours to prevent a vote on the funding of Obamacare.

To what extent are the Senate and the House of Representatives equal in power?

• Both chambers have equal power in the passage of legislation, constitutional amendments, overrides of presidential vetoes and declarations of war. In the case of a vote on legislation, overturning a veto or a constitutional amendment, both houses must vote in favour of it. If one house votes against - the bill is derailed. - Obama for instance turned in a report to the Senate requesting further authorisation to use military force in Iraq and Syria against ISIS
• The Senate’s exclusive powers of appointment confirmation and treaty ratification are often of considerable consequence for the political system. No elected president has ever served on the house of representatives before while running for office, all were senators or governors meaning that they have general greater influence, the executive may even favour his own branch of government.
• the increased use of the filibuster, and the consequent need for a ‘supermajority’ to pass almost any legislation, means the president’s legislative strategy is usually focused on the Senate
• The House initiates impeachment proceedings suggesting that the House of Representatives is more powerful than the Senate. However the Senate delivers the final verdict in impeachment proceedings

‘Congress is significantly less effective when different parties control its two chambers.’ Discuss.

Less effective;

• As seen through how the 112th Congress was the least productive congress in terms of passing legislation and 2013 was the least legislative year in the history of Congress, this occurred under a democratic senate majority and a republican house majority. Also led to a government shutdown in 2013 as a result of the two sides being unable to agree with a budget.
• When the same party controls both chambers then they are significantly more effective as seen through history as how the the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act was passed under Republicans being in both chambers. Or how the 111th Congress was fairly successful in passing Obamacare and comprehensive healthcare reform with an all Democrat Congress.

More effective;

• Increased factionalism has led to divisions within parties as well as between them meaning that gridlock will be present regardless of whether the same party controls both chambers of Congress. This is clear enough in the way that the House Freedom Caucus - a new generation of Republicans is rising with them being branded as insurgents by The Conversation. They are clearly ineffective as seen through how they were not able to agree on a health care reform in 2017. 25 of 36 freedom caucus members planned on voting against the American Healthcare Act.
• Even if the parties are in control of both the chambers, there is still going to be divison as the problem may lie with the president as many have argued that the government shutdown and the least legislative year could have been avoided had Obama been more compromising on Obamacare, many also argue that if Trump is more compromising on his American Healthcare Act then it would most likely be passed and Congress would therefore be argued as effective. Therefore meaning that the party composition in the two chambers is not necessarily that relevant in regard to the effectiveness of the branch.

How much power do the party leaders exert in Congress?

• Still do have power as party leaders are usually more senior and would therefore be the leaders of committees meaning they have a lot of influence over what bills go to the floor and which don’t as well as how they are amended.
• Less control in the Senate due to how long their term is meaning they do not constantly need ‘favours’ of sort from the party leaders for pork barrelling.
• The house speaker is generally considered a party leader and they have a lot of influence because by being on the house rules committee they are able to set the agenda for congressional debate on that day.
• The house term is short so promises of being put in specific committees would perhaps give them influence of policy that would help with their election.