Lawmakers and Legislatures

What makes an effective legislator?

11.4 The Work of Congress

Members of Congress have two distinct but interrelated jobs. They must represent their constituents in their districts or states, and they must perform their constitutional duties as national legislators. In other words, they must try to serve the voters back home while making laws for the nation as a whole.

The Powers of Congress

Article I of the Constitution states that Congress shall have “all legislative Powers.” The specific powers given to Congress include the authority to

The Constitution also authorizes Congress to “make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper” for carrying out those powers. Through this open-ended Elastic Clause, the framers gave Congress the ability to stretch its listed powers to deal with future needs that could not be anticipated when the Constitution was written.

The only catch is that these implied powers must be linked to enumerated powers. Sometimes that link is weak. For example, Congress has enacted laws designed to limit air and water pollution based on its power to regulate interstate commerce.

Occasionally, the Supreme Court has held that Congress has stretched the Elastic Clause beyond the breaking point. This happened in the 2000 case United States v. Morrison. At issue was whether Congress had exceeded its authority to control interstate commerce when it passed the Violence Against Women Act in 1994. The act gave women who had been abused the right to sue their attackers in federal court.

The Court struck down the act as unconstitutional. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice William Rehnquist argued, “Every law enacted by Congress must be based on one or more of its powers enumerated in the Constitution.” In this case, he continued,

Gender-motivated crimes of violence are not, in any sense of the phrase, economic activity ... Indeed, if Congress may regulate gender motivated violence, it would be able to regulate murder or any other type of violence ...
We accordingly reject the argument that Congress may regulate noneconomic, violent criminal conduct based solely on that conduct’s ... effect on interstate commerce.
– William Rehnquist,
United States v. Morrison, 2000

How Congress Checks the Other Branches

Congress was also given powers to check the other two branches of government. These checking powers include the following:

Oversight. Congress oversees executive agencies to make sure they carry out the laws it has passed.

Confirmation. The Senate must confirm, or approve, key officials appointed to office by the president.

Impeachment. The House of Representatives can impeach a federal official, including the president, by voting to accept a formal accusation of wrongdoing against that person. The Senate then conducts a trial of the impeached official and votes on whether to remove him or her from office.

Ratification. The Senate must ratify, or approve, all treaties negotiated by the president before they can become law.

Override. Congress can vote to override, or reverse, a president’s veto of legislation.

Amendment. Congress, through a vote of both houses, can propose an amendment to the Constitution. It can use this power to change the Constitution, even if this means reversing a ruling of the Supreme Court.

Enacting Laws

The checking powers of Congress also apply within the legislative branch. Both houses of Congress must agree on a bill before it can become law. That means that either house can amend or reject a bill offered by the other house.

The process of crafting bills that both chambers can agree on is complex and time-consuming. The diagram “How a Bill Becomes a Law” shows the basic steps involved in turning a bill into law.

Bills may be introduced in either house of Congress. Upon introduction, they are labeled with initials: H.R. for the House or S. for the Senate. They also receive a number, which represents the order in which the bill was introduced in that chamber. So, for example, the first bill introduced in the House during the 113th Congress in early 2013 was labeled H.R.1. The first bill in the Senate was S.1.

Most new bills are sent to a committee, where they are studied and revised. If the bill survives in committee, it is sent back to the House or Senate floor for debate and a vote. Bills that pass one chamber are sent to the other house to go through the process again.

Often a bill gets amended further when it passes through the other chamber. In that case, the two versions of the bill-the House version and the Senate

After Congress passes a bill, one way for the bill to become law is for the president to sign it. For example, in 2008, members of Congress witnessed President George W. Bush sign a bill that regulated emerging and new Internet technologies.

version-may go to a conference committee to have their differences reconciled. The House and Senate then vote on the final version of the bill. If it passes, it goes to the preSident for approval. Ifthe president signs the bill, it becomes law.

This process may seem relatively simple and straightforward, but it is not. Turning a bill into law requires hard work, patience, and compromise. Most bills do not survive. For example, in 2011, more than 5,700 bills were introduced in Congress. Only 90 went on to become law.

Levying Taxes

Some of the bills that go through Congress are tax bills. The power to tax is one of the most important powers of Congress. Unlike other legislation, however, tax bills can only originate in the House. Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution says that “all Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives. “

Originally, government revenue-the money coming into the treasury-came mainly from taxes on goods, such as imported products. Today, the federal government relies largely on income taxes, which are collected by the Internal Revenue Service. Congress makes tax policy and oversees the work of the IRS.

Although taxes may seem a burden, they finance many of the government programs and services that Americans depend on. For example, without federal taxes, there would be no national highway system, no national system of law enforcement, no national funding for public education, and no national defense system.

The Power of the Purse

In addition to taxation, Congress has another important financial power: the power to spend. Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution says, “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law."

Appropriations are public funds allocated for a particular purpose by a legislature. To fund any federal project, the government needs money, and Congress must appropriate this money. Acting in this capacity, Congress is said to have the “power of the purse."

Declaring War Another key power of Congress granted under the Constitution is the power to declare war. But as commander in chief of the armed forces, the president also has constitutional duties related to military conflict. Congress and the president thus share war-making powers.

This power sharing has sometimes caused tension between the legislative and executive branches. Historically, the president has not hesitated to send troops into combat before obtaining the permission of Congress. U.S. soldiers have been sent into action abroad more than 200 times. Yet Congress has formally declared war only five times. The last such declaration, in 1941, brought the United States into World War II. Since then, Americans have fought in lengthy, undeclared wars in Korea, Vietnam, and, most recently, Iraq.

Congress has sometimes resisted the president’s war-making efforts. In 1973, during the Vietnam War, Congress passed the War Powers Act to reassert its authority. This law requires the approval of Congress for any overseas troop deployment lasting longer than 90 days.

In such cases, Congress can stop short of issuing a formal declaration of war. Instead, it can authorize military action by passing a joint resolution, an official statement from both houses of Congress. Like a regular bill, a joint resolution has the power of law once the president signs it. In October 2002, Congress used a joint resolution to authorize the use of military force against Iraq.

Casework: The Care and Feeding of Constituents

In addition to their legislative duties, members of Congress must find time for casework, or helping their constituents solve problems that involve the federal government.

Citizens often need assistance in dealing with the complexities of federal agencies. For example, they may not have received their Social Security checks, or they may be having problems getting a passport in time for foreign travel. Often, legislators are able to use their authority to connect constituents to someone in government who can solve their problems.

Casework involves a great variety of problems. In one example, California congressman David Dreier was asked to help a constituent with a difficult adoption case. The woman had flown to Taiwan to adopt a baby. Once there, she became tangled in bureaucratic red tape and was unable to bring the child home. She contacted Dreier, who then worked with immigration officials to help solve the problem. After nearly two years of hard work by Dreier and his staff, his constituent was able to finalize her adoption. “If it weren’t for Congressman Dreier,” the woman later said, “I wouldn’t be a mother today."

Casework is a burden for many legislators, but it is a key part of representative government. Helping constituents is also good politics. Voters often reelect legislators who have paid attention to their needs. Members of Congress know this and have found ways to do casework while fulfilling their legislative duties. They open offices in their districts, for example, and hire staff to answer constituents’ questions. They also work on other levels to help their districts. The flowchart above shows some of the ways members of Congress try to serve their districts.


Next Reading: 11.5 (How State Legislatures Compare with Congress)