Most members of Congress are more highly educated than the typical American. There are few minority or women members.
1. There are 2 schools of thought on this.
a. legislators should resemble demographics of constituents. Legislation as a whole will resemble the demographic characteristics of the population
b. ethnicity/gender of representatives doesn’t matter, voters should be colorblind and simply elect the best candidate regardless of ethnicity or gender
2. Racial gerrymandering promotes election of ethnic candidates. Used to make Congress more representatively descriptive. Supreme Court decisions have declared it a violation of Voting Rights Act.
a. Shane v. Reno (1993)
b. Miller v. Johnson (1995)
c. Bush v. Vera (1996)

How issues get on Congress’s agenda
1. Event (disaster) or technology (stem cell research) draws attention to a problem.
2. Presidential support can also move an issue quickly.
3. Congressional party leaders and committee chairs have best chance of influencing agenda.

Dance of Legislation
1. After introduction, bills go to a committee and then to a subcommittee. It then goes to full members of both houses and there is a vote.
a. Bills passed by the House and senate must go to a conference committee, where differences between the versions will be sorted out.
b. If both versions are passed the bill goes to the president.
2. President may sign or veto the bill
a. If the president vetoes the bill Congress can override it with a 2/3 majority vote in each house.
b. Pocket veto- When Congress adjourns within 10 days of sending the bill to the president and the president doesn’t sign it.

Committees- Workhorses of Congress
1. Congress has committees for the same reason any large organization is divided into specialized groups to develop and use expertise in specific areas.
2. Different types of committees
a. Standing committees- Most important. Permanent, specialize in specific area of public policy.
b. Select committees- Temporary. Used in investigations
c. Joint committees- Made up of both houses. Similar to select committees.
d. Conference committees- work out differences between House and Senate versions of legislation on the same subject.
3. Influence on committees grows formally with seniority and informally with increased expertise. Getting on the right committee is very important to most members of Congress. Most want to serve on committees that are important to their constituents. Our Congressman/woman works hard to get assigned to the Armed Services Committee because our district has Quantico, AP Hill, and Tidewater.
4. Senior member of majority party usually becomes the committee chair.
5. Public policy decision-making takes place in committees and sub-committees.
a. collect information on issue
b. hold hearing to gather more information. Most bills are pigeonholed and never make it out of committee.
c. mark-up session and returned to full committee where it can be further altered.
d. chair strongly influences the way work is handled.
6. Oversight- following through
a. Process of reviewing agency operations to determine whether an agency is carrying out policies as Congress intended
b. Congressional review.
c. Oversight difficult now. (Result of previous presidents)
d. Congressional Budget Office, Office of Technological Assessment
e. Legislative veto- procedure one or both houses can disallow an act of the president by a majority vote. It was declared unconstitutional in 1983 because it violated separation of powers.