Debates on the Role of Congress (AQA A-Level Politics): Revision Notes

Debates on the Role of Congress

Congress plays a central role in the US political system, but public approval of Congress has remained at approximately 20% for over a decade, with more than 70% of Americans expressing disapproval. Many citizens believe that Congress is ineffective and unproductive. This raises important questions about how well Congress fulfils its three primary constitutional functions: passing legislation, overseeing the executive branch, and exercising the power of the purse.

Legislation

Congress serves as the federal legislature, responsible for initiating, debating, amending and passing legislation. However, the US legislative process contains several unique features that can impede the passage of laws.

Key legislative concepts

Gridlock occurs when Congress struggles to pass legislation effectively. This represents a failure of Congress to agree on new laws, often caused by divided government when the two parties refuse to compromise.

Divided government describes a situation where different political parties control the presidency and at least one chamber of Congress. This arrangement makes gridlock more likely because the executive branch requires support from a majority in both houses to pass legislation. This is considerably easier to achieve during periods of unified government, when one party controls the presidency, the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The filibuster is a Senate procedure that allows individual senators to block legislation by speaking at length to prevent a vote on a bill. Senators can debate for as long as they wish, effectively using up all available time for voting.

Cloture is the process for ending a filibuster. For a legislative bill, at least 60 senators must vote for cloture—a three-fifths supermajority that is very difficult to achieve since one party rarely holds 60 seats in the Senate. Filibusters therefore represent another significant cause of gridlock.

Legislative effectiveness debate

There is considerable disagreement about how effectively Congress fulfils its legislative function. Supporters argue that Congress has passed transformative legislation, including Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 2010, which reformed healthcare in the USA. Major legislation is most likely to pass during periods of unified government, as occurred from 2009 to 2010 during Obama's presidency.

Even during periods of hyperpartisan division, compromise remains possible. Republicans and Democrats worked together to pass the First Step Act 2018, which reformed the criminal justice system. The bill passed by 87-12 votes in the Senate and 358-36 votes in the House, demonstrating significant bipartisan support. Furthermore, Congress can respond to emergencies effectively—it addressed the COVID-19 crisis with the largest-ever economic stimulus in US history, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

However, critics point to concerning statistics: only 2-3% of all bills become law, down from 6-7% in the 1980s. The 112th Congress (2011-13) passed just 283 bills, making it the least productive Congress in US history. The 115th Congress (2017-19) passed 442 bills, but nearly a third were ceremonial legislation (such as renaming a courthouse), producing no substantive change.

Presidential vetoes are rarely overturned since a supermajority of two-thirds of each chamber is required.

Oversight

Oversight describes the process by which Congress oversees and scrutinises the activities of the federal government, including the president. This represents an important part of the system of checks and balances. Although oversight is not specifically mentioned in the Constitution, it is viewed as an implied power of Congress.

Political factors often determine how effectively Congress performs oversight. During periods of divided government, the majority in one or both houses has an incentive to investigate their opponents in the executive branch. After winning the House of Representatives in 2018, the Democrats launched a series of investigations into Trump that resulted in his first impeachment.

Oversight is generally weaker during periods of unified government, as Congress is dominated by members of the president's own party. However, this only applies if the president has control over their party. Despite controlling both houses of Congress at the start of his presidency, Trump could not achieve his campaign pledge of repealing Obamacare during his first 100 days.

Presidents who enjoy high public approval ratings may face less opposition from Congress. Congress's traditionally low public approval ratings can make it politically difficult for it to hamper the actions of a popular president. George W. Bush's popularity ratings reached 90% following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, resulting in his administration enjoying low levels of congressional scrutiny for the next few years.

Congress can carry out its oversight function in four ways: investigating the executive, confirming presidential nominees, impeaching officials and ratifying treaties.

Investigating the executive

Standing and select committees investigate the actions of the executive branch. Committees hold hearings and can compel (subpoena) witnesses to provide information for their investigations. Lying to Congress is a crime with a possible prison sentence.

The threat of investigation should motivate the executive to ensure its actions are not only legal but reasonable enough to withstand the full glare of media attention. Government officials may be called to account for their decisions in a televised hearing. Unfortunately, some investigations are intended to smear the political opposition with bad publicity instead of serving as a positive form of oversight. Furthermore, despite all the publicity, many investigations do not produce tangible results.

Overseeing the entire federal government creates a vast workload for Congress. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) supports Congress to investigate and audit the executive. However, it has been reduced in size, along with several other congressional offices—staff in the GAO, the Congressional Research Service and the Congressional Budget Office were cut by 45% between 1975 and 2015.

Confirmation of nominees

Senate confirmation is needed for many presidential appointments, including Supreme Court justices. The Senate may refuse to confirm appointments, although this is relatively rare. Senate confirmation encourages presidents to nominate high-quality individuals, as nominees are sometimes forced to withdraw when exposed to Senate and media scrutiny.

The confirmation process has been highly criticised for its politicisation. A president whose party controls the Senate generally has their nominees confirmed, even if the nominee is a controversial choice or possesses questionable ability.

The Senate can also block a nomination for partisan reasons. In 2016, Republican senators refused to hold hearings on the appointment of Merrick Garland, Obama's nominee to the Supreme Court.

Impeachment

Congress can impeach and try the president for 'treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanours'. This represents the ultimate sanction, with the threat of impeachment prompting Richard Nixon to resign in 1974. Bill Clinton's reputation never fully recovered from his 1998 impeachment, despite his acquittal. Congress can also impeach other government officials, so in theory the threat of impeachment should motivate all members of the executive to follow the law.

In practice, impeachment has never led to the conviction and removal from office of a sitting president. The third president to be impeached, Trump, was acquitted by the Senate in his first impeachment trial in a highly partisan vote (52-48), with all but one Republican voting to acquit and all Democrats voting to convict.

Trump is the only president in US history to be impeached twice. Though his second impeachment trial occurred after he had left office, the Senate had the opportunity to disqualify him from running for president again.

Senate ratification of treaties

The president negotiates treaties, but the Senate must then ratify them. This forces the president to work closely with the Senate during treaty negotiations. However, agreement is not always possible. The Senate has rejected many important international treaties, including:

• The Treaty of Versailles (1920), the rejection of which marked the start of a period of international isolationism for the USA
• The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (1999), which would have banned the testing of nuclear weapons
• The Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2012), a UN treaty that protects the rights of people with disabilities

Power of the purse

The Constitution gives Congress 'the power of the purse' to ensure that the people's representatives give their consent to taxation. Only Congress can raise revenue for the federal government. All tax bills must start in the House, but the Senate can amend them. As with any bill, the approval of both chambers is needed for it to become law.

Government shutdowns

Government shutdowns occur when neither the executive nor Congress is prepared to compromise, so the budget is not passed. Most government shutdowns are 'partial' and end after a day or two with little disruption, even though the government has a funding gap. In a 'full' shutdown, the federal government is forced to close its 'non-essential' functions such as benefit applications, environment and food inspections, and national park visits, and to send home (furlough) many of its employees.

Full shutdowns are extremely unpopular with the public because of the inconvenience they cause. The 2018-19 shutdown during Trump's administration lasted 35 days and was the longest shutdown in US history. In order to avoid a shutdown, Congress often resorts to temporary 'continuing resolutions' as a short-term source of funding whilst budget negotiations continue with the president.

The executive may be forced to make concessions to Congress in order to keep the federal government running. However, Trump found a novel way to bypass Congress's power of the purse in 2019, when he declared a national emergency so that he could use emergency federal funding to pay for his border wall.

Shutdown	President	Number of days	Estimated cost to government
1980	Jimmy Carter	1	$700,000
1981	Ronald Reagan	1	$80-90 million
1984	Ronald Reagan	1	$65 million
1986	Ronald Reagan	1	$62.2 million
1990	George H. W. Bush	3	$2.57 million
1995	Bill Clinton	5	$530 million
1995-96	Bill Clinton	21	$830 million
2013	Barack Obama	16	$1.3 billion
2018	Donald Trump	3	$68 million
2018-19	Donald Trump	35	$2.3 billion

Effectiveness debate

Supporters of Congress argue that the power of the purse represents one of the most powerful checks on the power of the executive, and that the executive may make concessions to Congress in order to avoid a shutdown. They also note that government shutdowns are relatively rare.

However, critics argue that government shutdowns are disruptive and unpopular and can be lengthy. The threat of a government shutdown hovers over every budget negotiation. Presidents are unable to reduce the size of the federal budget, so US debt continues to increase. 'Pork barrel' funding represents an unnecessary use of taxpayers' money.