AP Government: Unit 4 Congress and Economic Policymaking What Every Student Should Know About Congress Suppose you had fifteen minutes to describe the ten most important features of the U.S. Congress - could you do it? What would appear on your list? Judging by most opinion polls and survey results, few Americans could pull it off. The Congress is complex and often mysterious. People don t generally pay much attention to it except in times of crisis or when they have something personal at stake. Politics seem to bore people, or worse yet, infuriate them. But knowledge about government is fundamental to responsible citizenship. And Congress has substantial powers to act under Article I of the Constitution, making it, perhaps, the most powerful legislative body in the world. So The Dirksen Congressional Center asked leading American political scientist Charles O. Jones to identify the ten most important points that a high school student should know about Congress Station 1: Analyze the graphic titled The People s House and answer the questions that follow. 1. What demographic groups are most over and underrepresented in Congress in order to provide descriptive representation? Is this a problem? Why or why not? 2. Can members provide substantive representation for citizens even if they are demographically different? Why or why not? 3. Which type of representation is more important? Why? Station 2: 1. How did the New Jersey Plan, Virginia Plan and the Connecticut Compromise. each contribute to our present form of representation through Congress? 2. Provide a specific example of how you might benefit from each of the two types of representation.
Station 3: View the chart highlighting the constitutional differences in the House and Senate 1. What are the advantages and disadvantages (in terms of campaigning and legislating) of Having a six year term? Having a two year term? Working with 99 other Members? Working with 434 other Members? 2. What qualifications are necessary to be a member of the House? Senate? 3. What are the different constitutional differences in the House? Senate? Station 4: View the Chart on the Operational and Institutional Differences in the Senate. 1. How are the leadership structures different? 2. How do the responsibilities of the two bodies differ? 3. How do their rules differ? 4. How do you think the differences between the two bodies affect the way they conduct business together? Why?
Station 5: Look at Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution to review the powers of Congress. 1. Which powers stand out to you as the most important to the modern Congress? Why? 2. Look at the list of public policies we are studying this year. Which powers of Congress relate to these specific policies? Clean Air Act Social Security Act Medicare and Medicaid Acts American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Americans with Disabilities Act USA Patriot Act Station 6: Use your devices to answer the questions below. 1. Which party holds the majority in the House? The Senate? (We are currently in the 144 th Congress) By how many? 2. During how many of the past 10 Congressional terms has the same political party held the majority in both the House and the Senate? What are some advantages to this situation? Disadvantages? Station 7: Use your devices to visit rules.house.gov and answer the questions below about the House rules committee. 1. What type of work does this committee do? 2. Why is this committee so influential?
3. What is the average number of years served in Congress for the committee members? 4. Pick three members and state why each of the members may have been chosen to serve on the committee (geography, experience, political party, etc.). Do the members share any similar characteristics? Station 8: Use your devices and go to bit.ly/presidentialvetoes to access data on presidential vetoes and use the data to answer the questions below. 1. Why do you think some presidents have so many more vetoes than others? Provide an example to illustrate your answer. 2. Choose any president who has had several vetoes overridden. Is there a trend to the types of policies that were at issue? Explain your answer. 3. Is the veto still an essential part of American democracy? Explain your opinion.
Station 9: Visit bit.ly/bakercarr and read over the summary, legal issue and decision. Use this information to answer the questions below. 1. What was the issue before the court? 2. Why did the Court find the law to be unconstitutional? 3. What is the impact of this decision on legislative power? Why? Station 10: Go to open secrets.org to research the source of funding for both our senators (John Cornyn and Ted Cruz) and representative in the House (Sam Johnson.) After looking at their campaign finance data, draw 3 conclusions from the data. Explain the conclusions you have drawn using the data found on the site. 1. 2. 3.