Congress of the United States

C

Interest Group Pressures

About two-thirds of all Americans are members of one or more groups, such as churches, sports teams, school clubs, labor unions, and business associations. Not all these groups seek political influence, but each has the right to do so. The First Amendment to the Constitution protects not only free speech and the right of assembly but also people’s right to “petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” This First Amendment right allows interest groups to pressure Congress in many ways and on any issue. Throughout U.S. history, groups have pressed Congress to take action on issues such as slavery, import tariffs, women’s right to vote, taxes, gun control, and abortion.

Groups often send representatives to Capitol Hill to speak directly to lawmakers. This is called lobbying, because interest group representatives once crowded into the lobbies outside legislative chambers in the hopes of catching lawmakers as they came and went. Buying a lawmaker’s support—that is, bribery—was once common but is now illegal. Lobbyists are most persuasive when they can supply facts and arguments for lawmakers to use in defending their vote.

Two variants of lobbying include grassroots lobbying and coalition lobbying. In grassroots lobbying, an interest group uses a campaign of phone calls, telegrams, e-mail, and letters from citizens to persuade members of Congress to act in a certain way. Because grassroots campaigns can be especially persuasive, since the early 1990s business groups have orchestrated campaigns so that they appear to emanate from the public. Critics label the practice “AstroTurf lobbying,” because they see it as artificial as imitation grass. In 1995, for example, telecommunications companies sent nearly 500,000 telegrams to Congress favoring relaxed controls on their industry. But thousands of people listed as senders of the telegrams had not authorized the sending of telegrams in their names, and some of those listed as senders had died months earlier. In coalition lobbying, interest groups join forces with like-minded groups to increase their influence. For example, in 1997 medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturers got together to press Congress to limit their legal liability when their products failed to work.

Interest groups also try to win congressional support by contributing money to the electoral campaigns of individual members. Because members of the House and Senate face limits on campaign donations, interest groups may also mount their own campaigns (termed issue advocacy) that are often indistinguishable from the candidate’s efforts. In addition to printing leaflets and running radio and TV ads, many interest groups hire organizers to work in the candidate’s state or district. About 100 groups create “report cards” on congressional members’ voting records, selecting issues and scoring members’ “right” or “wrong” votes.

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Increasingly, congressional races are influenced by political action committees. These groups do not usually lobby Congress directly. Instead they try to influence the congressional agenda by raising money to support candidates sympathetic to their cause. Nearly two-thirds of political action committees represent business groups, such as chemical manufacturers and cigarette makers, but there are also groups devoted to the interests of labor unions, women candidates, and environmental protection.

D

Public Opinion

Congress responds directly to the activities of individuals and groups. No major issue is resolved before members have tested the public’s opinion.

Senators and representatives listen carefully to their constituents—people who live in the states or congressional districts that they represent. Keeping in touch with popular opinion can be difficult, because each of the 435 congressional districts contains approximately 650,000 people, and the average state includes more than 5.5 million people.

More direct avenues of communication exist between constituents and lawmakers than ever before. Citizens can write or phone the offices of senators or representatives in Washington, D.C., or in home states. Members regularly travel back and forth between Washington and their home bases to meet with constituents. Computers and electronic technology such as faxes, e-mail, the Internet, electronic town halls, and radio and television talk shows enable members of Congress to take the nation’s political pulse quickly.

X

Congress in Comparative Perspective

Congress shares its bicameral (two-house) structure with many legislatures throughout the world, but it differs from most legislatures in other important respects. Most legislatures around the world follow the so-called Westminster model, named for the United Kingdom’s Parliament. In the United Kingdom and other Westminster-style systems, legislatures elect the country’s chief executive, usually called the prime minister, from the ranks of the majority party in the parliament. The prime minister then selects cabinet ministers, mainly from among members of parliament, so the parliamentary majority also runs the executive agencies. The U.S. Constitution, in contrast, specifies that Congress and the president be elected separately, and that members of Congress cannot serve in the executive or judiciary while in office. The separation of Congress and the executive means that presidents are never assured that their legislative proposals will be accepted. Indeed, many presidential initiatives are declared “dead on arrival” when they reach Capitol Hill—that is, they are unlikely to be approved by Congress.

The close association between the chief executive and the legislature in the Westminster system leads to another important difference between that system and the United States Congress. In many Westminster systems the prime minister and the cabinet write most legislation, but in the United States, Congress drafts most of legislation that becomes law. Because of its relatively large role in writing legislation, Congress divides its workload among a number of specialized committees and subcommittees that are aided by professional staffs. Although most legislatures use specialized committees, none are as powerful as those in the U.S. Congress.

In the Westminster system, the prime minister holds power at the will of the parliamentary majority party or coalition. Parliament can decide to issue a vote of no confidence, which removes the prime minister and cabinet from their jobs. Congress, in contrast, has only limited power to remove the chief executive, which makes the U.S. system more stable. The separation of the legislative and executive branches in the United States can also lead to divided government, in which a president of one party confronts one or both chambers of Congress controlled by the opposition. This division has occurred in about two-thirds of the congresses since World War II (1939-1945), often producing delay and stalemate.

XI

Congress Through History

During the 17th century and most of the 18th century, representative assemblies in Great Britain’s American colonies wielded broad powers of taxing, spending, and public policy. Assemblies operating under written charters governed local governments, companies, and even churches. When conflicts arose with Britain, the colonial assemblies and legislatures—and later the Continental Congresses—supported the rebels’ cause and eventually approved Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence.

The Congress that emerged from these colonial legislatures was the sole organ of government under the nation’s first charter, the Articles of Confederation, which governed the country from 1781 to 1788. Eventually the Articles proved too weak to enable Congress to direct the economy, deal with foreign powers, and put down civil unrest. In 1787 the Constitutional Convention gathered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to revise the Articles of Confederation, but it quickly concluded that the document was too flawed to repair. Instead, the convention debated and wrote a new constitution with strong executive authority, but balanced by a strong, autonomous Congress. “In republican government,” wrote statesman James Madison in The Federalist Papers (1787), “the legislative authority necessarily predominates.” The states ratified the new charter—the Constitution—in 1788.

A

Early Years

From its earliest days, Congress helped set the national political agenda. The landmark First Congress, which met in New York City from 1789 to 1790, created three executive departments (state, treasury, and war), set up the federal judiciary, accepted the economic plan of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, adopted and sent to the states the Bill of Rights, and decided to locate the nation’s capital at a site on the Potomac River, which became Washington, D.C. During the Congresses of the late 18th century, the House of Representatives emerged as a lively and sometimes rowdy deliberative body and sponsored most of the legislation of the period. The Senate, in contrast, revised bills drafted in the House and acted as an advisory panel to the president.

After a few brief years of nonpartisanship in the 1780s, political parties emerged in Congress during the 1790s. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison led the Democratic-Republican Party, which advocated limited federal government, a minimal role for the government in the economy, and a foreign policy that allied the country with France. Alexander Hamilton led the opposing Federalist Party, which favored a strong federal government, a strong role for the Treasury Department in the economy, and a pro-British foreign policy. The Democratic-Republicans dominated Congress after Thomas Jefferson won the presidency in 1801. This party was the forerunner of today’s Democratic Party, although in the early 19th century it was sometimes called the Jeffersonian Republican Party, or simply the Republican Party.

Congress asserted a central role in the political process during the early 19th century. United States policy toward Britain, for example, dominated congressional debates for much of 1811 and 1812. These debates grew heated as the country became involved in the War of 1812 against Britain. Congress also acted to encourage the Western expansion of the United States by establishing a procedure for admitting new states to the Union and by moving Native Americans off much of the territory slated for new settlement. Congress’s increased workload in the early 19th century led both chambers to create specialized committees to make the legislative process more efficient.