CONTENTS Introduction 8 Chapter 1: The Role of the Legislature 17 The Legislature of the United States 20 The Continental and Confederation Congresses 21 Primary Source: A Proposal for a Continental Congress 23 The Congress of 1789 24 Powers and Functions of the Modern Congress 26 United States Capitol 31 Library of Congress 35 38 Chapter 2: The House of Representatives 42 History and Functions 42 In Focus: Gerrymandering 43 In Focus: The House Un-American Activities Committee 47 Notable Members of the House of Representatives 48 Select Current Members 48 Select Past Members 62 Primary Document: The Contract with America 91 74 Chapter 3: The Senate 116 History and Functions 116 In Focus: The Seventeenth Amendment 116 Notable Members of the Senate 119 Select Current Members 120 Select Past Members 148 Chapter 4: Historic Laws and Resolutions 283 Judiciary Act of 1789 283 183
Fugitive Slave Acts (1793, 1850) 284 Alien and Sedition Acts (1798) 286 Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions (1798, 1799) 287 Embargo Act (1807) 288 Missouri Compromise (1820) 288 Indian Removal Act (1830) 290 Married Women s Property Acts 291 Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) 292 Confiscation Act (1861 64) 293 Homstead Act (1862) 294 Land-Grant College Act (1862) 295 Pacific Railway Acts (1862, 1864) 296 Tenure of Office Act (1867) 297 Force Acts (1871 75) 297 Comstock Act (1873) 298 Resumption Act (1875) 299 Primary Document: The Chinese Exclusion Act 300 Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) 301 Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883) 302 Dawes General Allotment Act (1887) 303 Interstate Commerce Act (1887) 304 Sherman Antitrust Act (1890) 304 Clayton Antitrust Act (1914) 306 Jones Act (1916) 308 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act (1930) 309 Norris-La Guardia Act (1932) 310 Hare-Hawes-Cutting Act (1933) 311 Indian Reorganization Act (1934) 312 Tydings-McDuffie Act (1934) 313 Social Security Act (1935) 313 Wagner Act (1935) 314 Fair Labor Standards Act (1938) 315 Hatch Act (1939) 315 Smith Act (1940) 316 Bell Trade Act (1946) 316 Taft-Hartley Act (1947) 317 Women s Armed Services Integration Act (1948) 318 302 303
Landrum-Griffin Act (1959) 319 Peace Corps Act (1961) 319 Civil Rights Act (1964) 321 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964) 322 Voting Rights Act (1965) 323 Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (1968) 326 Endangered Species Act (1973) 327 War Powers Act (1973) 328 Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) 329 North American Free Trade Agreement (1992) 330 Don t Ask, Don t Tell (1993) 331 Megan s Law (1996) 332 Telecommunications Act (1996) 334 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (1998) 335 No Child Left Behind Act (2001) 335 USA PATRIOT Act (2001) 336 Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (2008) 338 The Legislative Branch in Transition 341 320 Appendix: Table of Speakers of the House of Representatives 343 321 Glossary 347 For Further Reading 350 Index 352
7 Introduction 7 A s Americans were fighting for their independence during the Revolutionary War, they were governed under a framework known as the Articles of Confederation. The central government consisted of a Congress with representatives from each of the thirteen states. But the authority of the Congress was restricted, with most of the power resting with the states themselves. After independence from Great Britain had been secured by the Peace of Paris in 1783, many Americans realized that the Articles of Confederation were inadequate to govern the new nation. A new federal form of government eventually was established by representatives of the states who convened at a Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. Under the Constitution of 1787 there are three branches of government: the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. The powers of the federal government are divided among the three branches with each one acting as a check and balance on the others. This prevents any single branch such as the executive or the legislature from becoming too powerful. Given their colonial experience, Americans were wary of concentrating too much power in a single person or institution. The authority of Congress is carefully spelled out in Article I of the Constitution. Among the primary powers of Congress is the exclusive authority to approve all legislation. This acts as a powerful check on the power of the president. The framers of the Constitution created a bicameral legislature that is, one with two houses. In the lower house, or House of Representatives, each state receives a specified number of representatives based on the size of its population. This apportionment ensures that the larger states, such as California and Texas, have more votes than 9
The Legislative Branch of the Federal 7 7 Government: Purpose, Process, and People the smaller states. This important provision was hammered out in the Constitutional Convention to ensure the support of the large states for the new framework of government. Each representative is elected directly by the people in a congressional district for a term of two years. The framers of the Constitution wanted frequent elections for House members so that they would be forced to pay close attention to the needs of the constituents in their districts or risk being turned out of office at election time. Currently there are 435 representatives from fifty states. In contrast to the House of Representatives, the United States Senate has a smaller number of members and operates differently. Under the Constitution, each state has two senators; there are currently 100 senators. This allocation ensures that every state will have the same voice in the U.S. Senate. Delegates from the small states at the Constitutional Convention, such as New Jersey and Connecticut, wanted this measure so that they would not be overwhelmed by the larger states. Unlike representatives in the House, United States senators serve for a term of six years. The Founding Fathers believed that this would enable the Senate to become a more deliberative body one that was not swayed by the changing tide of public opinion because the members did not need to stand for reelection every two years. Under Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution, senators were elected by the legislature in each state. This insulated them even further from the whims of the voters. However, the Seventeenth Amendment, passed in 1913, changed the way that senators were elected. Instead of being elected indirectly by voters casting ballots for state legislators who in turn selected a state s U.S. senators they are elected directly by voters from an entire state. One-third of the U.S. Senate stands for reelection every two years. 10
7 Introduction 7 During the 19th century, the Senate was dominated by stirring debates among men such as Henry Clay of Kentucky, Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, and John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, who delivered impassioned speeches about the future of states rights and slavery. In 1858 Democrat Stephen A. Douglas of Missouri defended his Senate seat in a series of debates over slavery with Republican Abraham Lincoln. These debates helped propel Lincoln to election as president in 1860. Later in the century, senators Robert La Follette of Wisconsin and William Borah of Idaho dominated the floor of the Senate with speeches about curbing the power of big business and rooting out corruption in government. Since the U.S. Senate s creation, many senators have run for the office of president of the United States. But only a few have been elected, including Warren Harding in 1920, John F. Kennedy in 1960, and Barack Obama in 2008. One former president, John Quincy Adams, who was defeated for reelection in 1828, later ran for the U.S. Congress from his home state in Massachusetts. He served in the House of Representatives from 1831 to 1848 the only former president ever elected to Congress. Although Article I of the Constitution states that Congress has the power of the purse, it is specifically the House of Representatives where all bills involving finances must originate. Finance bills are generally considered by the powerful House Appropriations Committee before going to the entire House. The Appropriations Committee is one of many committees in the House that consider various types of bills. For example, the Agriculture Committee deals with issues that affect farmers, while the Committee on Homeland Security focuses on problems relating to the security of America s borders and transportation centres to prevent further terrorist attacks like the one that occurred on September 11, 2001. 11
The Legislative Branch of the Federal 7 7 Government: Purpose, Process, and People The political party, either Democratic or Republican, having a majority of members in the House of Representatives controls each committee and selects its chairperson. In addition, the majority party also selects the all-important position of speaker of the House of Representatives. The speaker leads the majority party in the House and presides over the entire legislative body. When the president of the United States is a member of the other political party, the speaker sometimes takes on the role of leader of the opposition. In the 1980s, for example, when Republican Ronald Reagan was president, Democrat Thomas P. Tip O Neill was speaker of the House and often acted as leader of the Democratic Party; in the mid-1990s, during the presidency of Democrat Bill Clinton, Republican New Gingrich played the same role for his party. Instead of a speaker, as in the House, the vice president of the United States acts as the president of the Senate. However, this is a largely ceremonial position except when a tie vote occurs in the Senate and the vice president has the authority to cast the deciding vote. While revenue bills originate with the House, many other types of legislation may be proposed by the U.S. Senate. For example, Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts was a leader of many legislative attempts to provide health care coverage for millions of uninsured Americans. The Senate also has the power to approve or reject the president s nominations to a variety of offices. For example, members of a president s cabinet must be approved by the Senate; and the Senate must approve nominations to the U.S. Supreme Court and lower federal courts, as well as ambassadors to foreign countries. These powers enable the Senate to act as a check and balance on the power of the president. 12
7 Introduction 7 Both houses of Congress also act as a check on each other. For a bill to become law, it must be approved by the House and Senate and signed by the president. If members of the House and Senate pass different versions of a new law, then a conference committee with representatives from both houses must meet together, iron out the differences in the legislation, and return it to both houses for a final vote. If the legislation is approved by Congress but vetoed by the president, a two-thirds vote of the members of each house can override the president s veto, at which point the legislation becomes law. In addition to these powers, Congress alone has the right to declare war. In 1917, for example, Pres. Woodrow Wilson came to Congress and asked its members to declare war against the Central Powers Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey. This declaration enabled the United States to join the Allies Great Britain and France a decision that led to Allied victory in WWI in 1918. Similarly, Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt appeared before Congress in 1941 and asked for a declaration of war following the Japanese attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on December 7. Nevertheless, many presidents have committed the United States to foreign conflicts without ever asking for a declaration of war. In the 1960s, for instance, Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson vastly increased the size of U.S. forces fighting in Vietnam without a formal declaration of war by Congress. In 1973 Congress passed the War Powers Act, which required the president to consult with Congress before involving U.S. forces in hostilities abroad, but the law has been largely ignored by subsequent presidents. Twice in the history of the United States, Congress has exerted a powerful check on the president through the impeachment process. Under the Constitution, the House of Representatives has the power to pass a resolution of 13
The Legislative Branch of the Federal 7 7 Government: Purpose, Process, and People impeachment if a majority of its members believe that the president has violated the law. The president is then tried in the United States Senate, with the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court presiding over the trial. A two-thirds majority of the Senate is necessary for the president s conviction and removal from office. In 1868, Pres. Andrew Johnson was impeached when Congress believed that he had illegally fired Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Johnson escaped removal from office, however, when the Senate fell a single vote short of convicting him. Nevertheless, following his impeachment, Congress became the dominant power in the federal government. In 1974, Pres. Richard Nixon became the first president to resign the office after the House Judiciary Committee voted to recommend articles of impeachment against him for his role in the Watergate Scandal. In 1998, Pres. Bill Clinton became the second president to be impeached, by a House vote of 221-212. He was accused of lying to a grand jury and obstruction of justice in the investigation of his relationship with a White House intern. President Clinton was tried in the Senate in 1999, but he was acquitted. Political commentators have pointed out that the impeachment of Pres. Clinton illustrated the increasing level of partisanship that had arisen between the executive and legislative branches of government. Clinton, a Democrat, was impeached by a Republican-controlled House of Representatives. In the past, relations between the Congress and the president were characterized by a greater spirit of cooperation and bipartisanship. For example, during the late 1940s, Republicans controlled the U.S. Senate while a Democrat, Harry Truman, was president of the United States. Nevertheless, Republican 14
7 Introduction 7 Sen. Arthur Vandenberg chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs was a strong supporter of President Truman s plan to rebuild Europe after World War II and establish the North American Treaty Organization as a bulwark against communism. Much of this spirit of bipartisanship has disappeared, however. And, in 2009, when Pres. Barack Obama s proposals to rescue the failing American economy through billions of dollars in stimulus spending were passed by the Democrat-controlled Congress, they received very little support from Republicans. Since the early 20th century, the power of Congress has declined relative to that of the president. Although it is unclear whether Congress will ever again be the dominant institution it was in the second half of the 19th century, it will continue to play an essential role in the federal government of the United States for as long as the present Constitution is in force. By exploring the pages of this book readers will gain a deeper understanding of this unique and dynamic institution. 15