Congressional Agencies And Public Office

It’s been argued ever since the constitution was made how in touch the congress members where with the people who elect them and this argument still goes on today. With the 425 members of the House each has a district which averages nearly 650,000 people, this is a vast number with many arguing that there is little chance that congress can be in touch with the people when they have to represent such vast numbers. However, the other side of the argument displays evidence that in fact the members of congress are able to stay in touch and represent the people who elect them.

This written report is appertaining to the book How Congress Works and Why You Should Care, written by Lee H. Hamilton. This book is published by Indiana University Press in Bloomington, IL, it was copyrighted in 2004 by the publisher.

In agency representation the constituents give the politicians the ability to make decisions on their behalf when they don’t know the issue, the constituents expect them to work in their best interest. An issue that has recently been in the news is President Obama’s efforts to close Guantanamo Bay. Since the issue has not attracted the attention of a lot of people it is up to congress to vote in the public’s best interest. Yet, according to New York Times, congress has been blocking the president’s efforts to shut the prison down. The United States spends $2.5 million per detainee in Guantanamo and it currently holds 532 detainees. Acting as agencies on the behalf of the American people, Congress should work with President Obama because the money that the United States could save will be spent on issues that directly affect the public. This raises the question of how well does congress represent its

When the framers of the Constitution developed our government, they gave Congress the authority to create the departments necessary to carry out the day-to-day responsibilities of governing - the federal bureaucracy. The vast majority of the departments, agencies, and commissions that make up the federal bureaucracy today were created by Congress through legislative acts. Congress is unable to act in a bubble though, due to the nature of the system’s built-in checks and balances, Congress must first get the president’s “buy off” which is represented by his signature. Although Congress has the authority to create these agencies (with the president’s agreement

Throughout history, there have been many factors that seem to have influenced the operations of Congress. Some of these factors have been the committee system, seniority, and political parties. These are only a few of the factors that actually have an influence on Congress’s decisions of certain operations.

The inter workings of Congress have been studied extensively by Richard Fenno and David R. Mayhew. Mayhew’s study of Congress took place in Washington, while Richard Fenno conducted his research by following politicians within their congressional district. Mayhew attributes three primary goals to congressmen- getting reelected, achieving influence within Congress and making “good Policy”. Fenno also attributes three basic goals, having influence inside the House than other congressmen. Second, helping their constituents and thereby insuring their reelection, and lastly helping make good policy. The purpose of this paper is to research a member of Congress and to make a direct connection between his activity in Washington and his home district. The paper will answer whether the congressmen is a delegate or trustee. Are the actions a pursuit for reelection? Are the committee assignments a path for movement within the House or outside? What legislation has he/she sponsored or co-sponsored and does it directly reflect his/her districts political view. And finally, do major industries and interest groups within his/she district affect the way he/she votes.

Setting the tone (positive or negative) Developing a theme: trust, confidence, and so on Judging the timing Choosing a target voter: who 's the audience? Getting elected to Congress Malapportionment and gerrymandering. Establishing the size of the House

Members of Congress are voted to office by their electorate as their representatives at the congress level of democracy. In their capacity, they may decide to exercise their powers by the will of the people or according to their personal judgment. When the members of Congress opt to be the people’s delegate, their actions in the House and other congressional engagements are a reflection of the will of their district. As such, the delegate representative does not have or exercise the autonomy to represent and decide for their district. Instead, a strenuous consultation process is required to keep the people in control of all relevant decisions.

The United States Congress is more than likely the most significant representative institution in the United States government. Each member of Congress has a primary obligation to the district, to his or her constituency. Though Congress is divided into two parts, called the House of Representatives and the Senate, they both play different roles in the legislature process. Senate is more deliberative and the House is the more centralized and organized. Congress is supposed to represent the American people but they will not always make the “right” decisions, according to some individuals. Obviously it is impossible to please everybody, but surely the laws that are being passed are because Congress views some sort of usefulness from it. There are two different types of representation that was spoken about in the chapter including sociological and agency representation. Sociological is based off of the idea that if two individuals have similar background, character, interests, and perspectives, then they can correctly represent others’ views. Agency is when a representative is held accountable to a constituency for when that constituency is represented poorly. The constituents have the power to hire and fire their representatives.

Recently, many political scientists have argued over whether today’s Congress is centralizing or decentralizing. Centralization allows Congress to act quickly and decisively, but at the expense of the members of Congress and their constituents, while decentralization protects and enhances the interests of individual members and their constituents, but at the expense of its ability to act quickly and decisively. At its birth, Congress was created as a decentralized body, and although it has fluctuated over the years, the Constitution, congressional incentive for reelection, the committee system, and weak central leadership has certainly maintained such a decentralized institution.

On Tuesday, September 26, the Senate officially discarded the new plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act. This decision was made after Susan Collins of Maine stated she opposed the repeal. There have been several attempts over the course of the year to repeal the Act, but many Republicans continue to oppose attempts to do so. In July, Senator John McCain was the downfall of that version of the legislation. This week the Senate once again tried to pass a repeal but it was opposed very quickly. The deadline for the repeal was the end of the week and the Republican vote could only afford to lose two votes. By Tuesday, three members publicly opposed the repeal: Ms. Collins, Mr. McCain, and Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky. Ms. Collins was concerned

Objective of this paper is to discuss where the following agencies lie in the administrative structure of the federal government:

The Affordable Care Act was definitely a Democratic piece of legislation. The Republicans “firmly opposed the act and not a single Republican voted for the final version that Obama signed into law” (“Republican Views on Health Care”, 2014). Republicans thought that this piece of legislation would ultimately cause the demise of our health care system. The U.S. Senate authorized the H.R.3590 bill by a vote of 60 to 39 (“H.R. 3590- Senate Vote #396”, n.d.). The U.S. House of Representatives authorized the H.R. 3590 bill by a vote of 219 to 212 (“H.R. 3590-House Vote #165”, n.d.). Furthermore, the bill was sponsored by Democrat Charles B. Rangel. It was co-sponsored by thirty-seven Democrats and three Republicans which are: X. Becerra, S. Berkley, E. Blumenauer, G. Brown-Waite, J. Courtney, J. Crowley, A. Davis, D.K. Davis, L. Doggett, B. Etheridge, B. Filner, A. Green, L.V. Gutierrez, B. Higgins, H.C. Johnson Jr., W.B. Jones Jr., S. Kegan, R. Kind, J.B. Larson, S.M. Levin, J. Lewis, J. McDermott, J.P. McGovern, K.B. Meck, W. Minnick, D. Moore, R.E. Neal, B. Pascrell Jr., G.C. Peters, T.R. Platts, E. Pomeroy, L.T. Sanchez, A.Y. Schwartz, I. Skelton, F.P. Stark, J.S.

The point Senator Lee was attempting to make is that the AUMF is in essence, a “blank check” given to the President to exert force again in any nation, organization, or person he believes had a hand in the attack on September 11, 2001 by any means necessary. The AUMF is not a traditional declaration of war; no other country had declared war on the United States. This was a terrorist attack. The AUMF allowed the President to act against organized groups, associated forces, and any declared enemy of the United States. That is very broad net and there are no limitations or restrictions detailed in the AUMF. In 2002, the AUMF was revises to authorize military force against Iraq. Iraq was specifically named, because Saddam Hussein’s regime was located in Iraq and it was believed that Iraq provided aide to his mission. Iraq was deemed an associated

I have always found it interesting how harshly people scrutinize public agencies. A majority of the public believe, to some extent, that the government is not doing enough for them or that government agencies are inefficient and a waste of their tax dollars. The public claims that they are not seeing enough improvements based on how much money they are putting into these systems and essentially feel cheated out of their own hard-earned money. I would like to understand what public agencies must do in order to improve their image and get the American people to confide in them and trust that their tax dollars are going to good use.