Congress Day 1: House vs. Senate

Presentation

•

Social Studies

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11th Grade

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Practice Problem

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Medium

Mike Harrington

Used 29+ times

FREE Resource

13 Slides • 8 Questions

Congress Day 1: House vs. Senate

Learning Objectives

Describe the different structures, powers, and functions of each house of Congress.
Describe how the different chamber sizes and constituencies influence formality of debate.
Describe how Coalitions in Congress are affected by term-length differences.
Be able to define enumerated and implied powers & how they play a role in developing public policy
Special Topics: Divided Government & Incumbency

Describe the different structures, powers, and functions of each house of Congress.

Bicameral Congress

The House of Representatives

Closest to the people (Original intention, only directly elected institution at first)
More reactionary (2 Year terms)
435= Extremely organized
Special Powers: File impeachment charges, All revenue bills start here, Pick the president if no candidate wins the electoral vote
Why these specific powers?

The Senate

Removed from the people (Originally chosen by state legislatures)
The cooling effect (6 year terms & the 1/3 rule)
100= more laid back
Special powers: Impeachment Trial, Confirm Presidential appointment, Confirm Judicial appointments, Ratify treaties
Why these specific powers?

Describe how the different chamber sizes and constituencies influence formality of debate.

Each House member represents about 700,000 people
Senators represent the entire state
House-tunnel vision. "What's best for the 700,000 people I represent"
Senate broad vision. "What's best for my entire state"

Coalitions in Congress .

2 vs 6
Congressional numbers: 50% +1 & 2/3s
In order to arrive at the numbers coalitions are key (= Broad support)
House coalitions are achievable but hard to come by (constant campaign)
Senate coalitions are more common (6 years gives you time to get to know your fellow members)

Be able to define enumerated and implied powers & how they play a role in developing public policy

Enumerated powers: Listed specifically in the constitution (Article 1 section 8)
Implied powers: Not in the constitution but suggested (Necessary & Proper Clause)
Examples of Implied powers/policy: creation of a national minimum wage & The Americans with Disabilities Act (Commerce Clause), National Health Care (General welfare clause)

2 Re-occurring themes

Divided Government
Incumbency advantages

Incumbency advantages

Name recognition
Casework
Franking Privilege
Gerrymandering
Campaign finances (be wary of this)
Mathematical formula: N+C+F+G+C=+90

Review

Open Ended

A two house legislature is known as...

Type response here

Open Ended

Which chamber of the bicameral congress is closest to the people and why?

Type response here

Multiple Choice

Which of the following is not a Senate special/unique power

Ratify treaties

The ability to conduct the impeachment trial

The ability to file for impeachment

Confirm federal judges

Multiple Choice

What role do coalitions play in the policymaking process?

Politicians create coalitions to enact policy that the president supports

Politicians create coalitions to enact policy that appeals to their base

Politicians create coalitions to enact policy that has broad support from the public

Politicians create coalitions to enact policy only when they are not in the minority party

Open Ended

Provide a real life example of how Congress used implied powers in regards to public policy:

Type response here

Multiple Choice

Which of the following is not an incumbent advantage?

Franking

Casework

Name recognition

Intelligence on issues

Poll

After today's lesson I feel...

Comfortable with the learning objectives

Somewhat comfortable with the learning objectives and might need some more explaining

Completely lost. I'll see you at the end

Multiple Choice

Where in the world were fortune cookies invented?

San Francisco, California

Stockholm, Sweden

Beijing, China

Warsaw, Poland

The End

Congress Day 1: House vs. Senate

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