What are the benefits of being a member of congress?

Salary of &145,000

Generous retirement benefits

Office space in Washington and constituencies

Congressional staff who serve individual/member/committee and party leader

Handsome travel allowances

Franking privileges

What are the constitutional qualification to become members of the House and Senate?

House: age 25 and 7 years of being a citizen

Senate: Age 30 and 9 years of being a citizen

What kinds of professions are most common among members of congress?

Law, business, public service and politics

Why are the elections for members of the senate usually closer than the elections foe members of the house?

Greater competition in the senate is that an entire state is almost always more diverse than congressional district and thus provides a larger base for opposition to an incumbent. At the same time senators have less personal contact and senators also have more media coverage and more likely to be held accountable on controversial issues

Why do incumbents have an advantage at election time?

Voters know how their elected rep. votes on important policy and issue.

Voter’s assessment of presidential candidates influences their voting for congress.

What are presidential coattails? When voters support congressional candidates because of their support for the president

How do members of congress advertise themselves when they are not trying to get elected?

Most congressional advertising takes place between elections in the form of contact with constituents. The goal is visibility

How do members of congress service their constituency? Always win friends and almost never makes enemies.

Two ways they can do: through casework and through pork barrel

Casework: activities of members of congress through bureaucratic red tape to get people what they think they have a right to get.

What is a pork barrel? The mighty list of federal projects and grants and contracts available to cite, business, colleges and institutions

What is an earmark? US politics, an earmark is a congressional provision that directs approved funds to be spent on specific projects or that directs specific exemptions from taxes or mandated fees.

Earmarks can be found both in legislation (also called “Hard earmarks” or “Hardmarks”) and in the text of Congressional committee reports (also called “Soft earmarks” or “Softmarks”). Hard earmarks are binding and have the effect of law, while soft earmarks do not have the effect of law but by custom are acted on as if they were binding.^[1] Typically, a legislator seeks to insert earmarks that direct a specified amount of money to a particular organization or project in his/her home state or district.

Where do congressional campaign funds come from? Almost most of the money spent in congressional election come from individual

What role to PACs play in congressional elections?

PACs seek access to policymakers. They give the most money to the incumbents who are likely to win.

What methods can be used to unseat incumbents? Tarnished by scandal, redistricted out of their familiar turfs, and major political tidal waves

What effects can redistrict have upon incumbents? States that have gained signigicant in population will be given more House seats, states that have list substantial population will lose one or more seats.

How many members are there in the House of Representatives? 435 members

In the Senate? 100 members

What is the function of the House Rule Committee? An institution unique to the House of representatives that reviews all bills coming from a House Committee before they go the full house.

What responsibilities or powers belong to the House of Representatives?

Winnow down the thousands of bills introduced

What responsibilities or powers belong to the Senate?

To initiate all revenue bills and impeach officials

Explain filibuster and cloture.

Filibuster: A strategy unique to the Senate whereby opponents of a piece of legislation try to talk it to death, based on the tradition of unlimited debate.

Cloture: 60 members present and voting can halt a filibuster

What are the powers of the Speaker of the House?

Presides over the House when it is in session

Plays a major role in making committee assignments, which are coveted by all members to ensure their electoral advantage

Appoints or plays a key role in appointing the party’s legislative leaders and the party leadership staff

Exercises substantial control over which bills get assigned to which committees

What are the functions of the majority leader, the minority leader and the whips?

Majority leader: the principal partisan ally of the Speaker of the House or the party’s wheel horse in the Senate. The majority leader is responsible for scheduling bills, influencing committee assignments, and rounding up votes in behalf of the party’s legislative position.

Whips: party leaders who work with the majority leader or minority leader to count vote beforehand and lean on waverers whose votes are crucial to a bill favored by the party.

Minority leaders: The principal leader of the minority party in the House of Representatives or in the Senate.

Who is the President of the Senate and what is his/her other job? What are his/her powers?

The president of the Senate is the vice president of the U.S. and his/her powers are none just to break ties.