Class Notes from 11/10

• recent supreme court cases ruled that racial gerrymandering is a violation of the voting rights act.
• examples of these cases include Shaw v. Reno (1993), Miller v. Johnson (1995), and Bush v. Vera (1996).

• some issues arrive on the congressional agdenda as a result of events like disasters or new technologies
• some issues arrive by presidential support
• congressional party leaders also have the ability to push issues into the adgenda

• bills introduced are sent to committee, then usually a sub committee. a bill must be passed by sub committee, then it rises to the entire committee for approval. then it is voted on by the entire house for debate.
• if passed by both house and senate, it must be passed with the exact same language to be sent to the president for approval.
• if diff lang, officials must meet in a presidential conference committee to synchronize language.
• is a president vetos a bill, congress can override his/her veto by a 2/3 majority vote in each house.
• a "pocket veto" occurs when congress adjourns within ten days of sending a bill to the white house and the president doesn't sign it.

• congress forms committees to develope expertise and utilize it in certain areas. there are different types of committees:
• "standing committees" the most important, these are permanent committees specialized in a certain area. senate has 16, house has 19
• "select committees" temporary, created for a specific purpose like an investigation.
• "joint committees" made up of members of both house and senate. similar to purpose of select committees
• "conference committees" formed to work out differences between house and senate forms of legislation on same subj.
• influence on committees grows formally with seniority and informally with expertise
• in ea. committee, the senior member of the majority party usually becomes the committee chair (always from majority party because they're chosen by the speaker of the house/senate majority leader; usually senior member but not always).
• much of public policy decision making takes place in committees and subcomittees.

• in drafting legislation:
• 1) collect infor on issue. committee staffers do initial research.
• 2) committees hold hearings to gather additional info. most bills are igeonholed, never make it out of committee
• 3) committees/subcommittees meet to decide on provisions of those bills. rewritten, returned to committee to maybe be altered. this is called a "markup session"
• 4) committee/subcomm. chair influences how a committee handles its work.

• following through on legislation is called "oversight"
• "congressional review" is a procedure through which congress can nullify an executive branch regulation by a resolution jointly passed in both houses within 60 days of executive declaration.
• congress responds to difficulty of holding executive branch responsible through resources like the congressional budget office and office of technology assessment
• "legislative veto" is a process by which one/both houses of congress can disallow an act of presidential agency by a simple majority vote. ****This was declared unconstitutional by the supreme court in 1983 because it violated the constitutions idea of seperation of powers