Notes 11/12

7th Period Notes:)

Legislative Veto- procedure by which one/both houses of Congress can disallow an at of the president or executive agency by a simple majority vote. It is declared unconstitutional by Supreme Court (1983) because it violated constitutional seperation of powers. Leg. veto is usually language written into law giving Congress the power to review/approve and executive branch action. (War Powers Act)

Leaders and Followers in Congress
-Hierarchy in the branches
A. The House--leader is selected from majority party (Speaker of the House). Their assistant is the Majority leader, who is responsible for tracking how members of the party vot on bills. Their counterpart in the opposing party is the minority leader.
-both have party whips, who serve as go-betweens for the members and the leaders
B. Constitutionally, the Vice President is the leader of the Senate, though in practice hes rarely there. The president pro tempore presides in absence of the VP but this position is merely honorary and usually given to a senior member. The real leader of the majority party is the Majrity leader, while the minority leader holds a parallel position to the minority party.
C. Party leaders are coalition builders, not autocrats
Operations in the House and Senate are structured by formal and informal norms
A. House relies on Rules Committee to govern floor debate. A closed rule sets strict time limits on debates and forbids amendments from the floor, except those from the presenting committee. An oopen rule permits amendments and often has less strict time limits, allowing for input from other members. In most cases, debate on a bill is limited to one hour.
B. Senate uses unanimous-consent agreements to govern the floor debate but debate is much elss formal than the House. Senators can speak as long as they want.
-Senators can filibuster to try and stop legislation they don't like.
-Filibustering can be stoopped by cloture vote by which 60 senators (a means of limiting debate) vote to limit debate.
C. Rules are not neutral; tool to majority party uses to help it control the legislative process
Unwritten norms keep operations smooth
A. Senators are supposed to show (public) respect for one another
B. They are also expected to be willing bargainers
Legislative Environment
A. Influences on legislation vote:
-Political parties
-President
-Constituents
-Interest Groups
-logrolling
Dillema or Representation
-All members of Congress live in 2 worlds: DC and home state. In D.C. they spend time dealing with great issues of national concerns; they also have offices and issues to deal with back at home.
The debate over whether legislators should vote according to conscience or constituency preference has never been resolved
A. View that legislation must be free to vote according to their sconscience sees legislators in the role of trustees
B. a legislator who feels duty-bound to represent majority view of voters who put them into office