Congress Interest Groups

People tend to look out for themselves and what better way to do that than to hold the great power of lawmaking. With that being said, congressmen are reelected every two years. In order to keep getting reelected, congressmen apply the strategy of pork barreling. Pork barreling is a process where congressmen make changes based on investments versus new legislation. For example, they might consider building dams, installing new sewage plants, or improving infrastructure. Federal projects like these have a direct, positive impact that citizens observe right away. However, if a congressman votes on a civil rights issue, a citizen may have trouble relating those efforts to themselves. Therefore, congressmen choose to spend money on their districts in order to get

Interest groups connect business and the government because they lobby to congress for the businesses interest. They lobbyist do not work for any party only for the interest of different organizations.

In recent elections on the congressional level as well as for President we see the growing influences of interest groups in the form of PAC’s and Super PAC’s to back candidates. Super PAC’s can spend an unrestricted amount money to support a certain problems or candidate but cannot donate directly to the campaigns. PAC’s work with campaigns directly reallocating donations to candidates and parties.

Interest groups attain a reputation for being powerful through their membership size, their financial resources, and their strategies and tactics.

The purpose of the legislative committee is to come up with a compromise when a bill is proposed to the Senate and House of Representatives. They decide if they go through with a bill or they don’t or if they need to make amendments to the bill and compromise with each other. There is a standing committee which is a permanent selection of people that has legislative jurisdiction they consider bills and issues then recommend any changes that they see need to be made. They have a responsibility to monitor agencies, programs and activities that are within their jurisdictions. The standing committees recommend funding levels, authorization for the government operations and for new and existing programs. The second committee is a select committee;

Moreover, the Schoolhouse Rock presentation identified the major committees that play a vast role within legislation, but furthermore failed to acknowledge the significant influence of interest groups, lobbyist, and campaign contributors. Interest groups are pertinent to the legislation process because of their vast influence. While interest groups strive to “influence public policy” to benefit its members, it accomplishes this task by using inside strategies that “pursue a narrow policy of change and directly influence legislation” and through its relationship within the iron triangle that works to “seal off” external influencers that are irrelevant to the groups view towards public policy; thus leaving a “closed

2. Subgroups within the House and Senate, composed of legislators who have expertise in the bill’s subject mater, review the bill

Public interest lobbies form a linkage element between citizens and governmental elites. In lobbying they articulate what they perceive to be the issue positions of certain sectors of society. Public interest groups also play an important role in facilitating the political participation of their members and related attentive publics. By helping to bring new issues to the table, interest groups influence the shape of political agendas.

But interest groups do not have a real place in congress. For them to affect motions in congress they need to utilise their powers of persuasion to influence the right people.

Ohio Senate. The Criminal Justice Committee is a committee in The Ohio Senate that focuses on

The Organizational Structure of congress in the United Stated is demonstrated through the fact that we have a House and a Senate that are separated from each other. Congress is a very complex structure that possesses many committees that all handle a variety of topics. The United States Senate is composed of only 100 members that serve six year terms. Some refer to the senate as the “upper house”, and only 1/3 of the members of the United Senate are re-elected every two years. The House of Representatives is composed of 435 members that each serve two year terms. The HOR is known as the “lower house” and all 435 members are up for re-election every two years. The top two leadership roles in the Senate are The Vice President of the United States who presides over the Senate, and required to vote when there is a tie in Senate. Also in the case of a death of a president, the Vice president must step up and preside over the nation. The second most vital role in Senate is the President Pro-Tempore. The President Pro-Tempore is the highest ranked senator as elected by the Senate. The top two positions in the House are The Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader. The Speaker of the House is arguably the most influential single legislator in both houses. The Speaker presides over proceedings on the House floor, designates which bills go to which committees, designates committee assignments for new members, appoints the party 's other leaders , and

People are important for the success of democracy. After electing their representatives, some individuals wish to be more involved in legislative decisions that affect them, so they take to lobbying and joining interest groups. This often provides them with an atmosphere of individuals who think like they do, while also allowing them to play more of a role than just voting for a few people to represent them. Lobbying and interest groups also allow for issues to be brought to the attention of the legislature and provide a way for these groups to talk to the legislators, whether it is over dinner or at a concert. By voicing their opinions and placing pressures on the legislation, these groups have become successful in fighting for their passions and their views on important

The most common activity for interest groups is lobbying. But that is not the only activity they are involved in, they are also involved in activities like forming Political Action Committees (PAC’s) and election activities. Lobbying is done by groups to influence the government decisions on policies. In the United States, almost all of the interest groups employ lobbyists to influence policy making. Lobbyists work to try to persuade governmental officials. Some ways they achieve their goals are persuasion, economic leverage, and disruption. The most important rule to lobbying is the entrance. You must be able to influence an official. The more spread out the interest groups money is throughout the country, the more likely it is that the legislators will listen to the concerns of that group.

Interest groups are a natural outgrowth of the communities of interest that exist in all societies. Politics and interests are inseparable. The common goals and sources of interest

Pork barrel legislation is a way for congressmen to show their voters what great projects they can get funded and use those programs to get reelected.