Congressional Committees and Healthcare Policy Essay

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.

Joint committees focus on broad areas, and are used of oversight into bureaucratic organizations throughout the Government.

There are a multitude of other factors that affect the passing of legislation, and the exploration of these factors is the subject of future scholarly research in the

Since Congressional committees are ultimate decision makers, perceive that their staff individuals can have the critical impact over the course and content of legislation. Constituents are asked to keep up continuous contacts with these people, particularly subcommittee staff and the lawmakers' about particular authoritative helpers. These congressional meetings are very powerful because they also carry out legislations processes such as authorizing legislation, appropriation of bills, and entitlement legislation. Authorizing legislation is a bill that makes another government program, expands the life of a current program, or nullifications existing law. Approving bills generally set a point of confinement on the measure of assets that can

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.

Congress is a complex lawmaking function that runs the country. In other words is the legislative body of our country made up of a Senate and a House of Representatives. Difficulties that are involved by the representation function have to do with Congressmen wanting to be reelected, opposition between the two parties, and the lobbying that takes place. These three difficulties are what causes the conflict with the lawmaking function of Congress.

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.

After watching the Schoolhouse Rock “I’m just a bill” presentation, it is effortless to identify how a bill legitimately merges into a physical law. To briefly describe its transformation, firstly the bill is simultaneously introduced to by a “House member on the House floor”, and by a “senator on the Senate floor” (Geer, et al. 410). Then in both locations the bill is referred to committees and later subcommittees. Once in hands of the committees, the bill is reviewed and becomes highly subjected to markups, the process by which congressional committees amend or rewrite proposed legislation, or hearings ,in which the newly marked or original up legislation is recontextualized, analyzed,debated, and voted on within agreement. After the House of Representatives and the Senate produce the bill that’s germane to their political views, they unite together within a conference to reconcile their bills and “produce one bill, intended

Mentioning that by looking to satisfy ones own constituents, they are doing what is asked of a representative. Feno then goes on to talk about comities focusing more on the House. He states that there are two kinds of committees, "committees which its members wish to pyramid their influence and therefore maintain their influence of their committee in the house" and committees were members are interested in national recognition (388). He defends the seniority rule which is used as a determining factors when choosing a committee chair and often is criticized. He says that although he does not see it as the best way of determining importance, it is not the biggest problem with committees, and often the committee majority is responsible for many of the problems.

LEADER’S EFFECTIVENESS USING UTILITARIANISM AS THE ETHICAL DECISION-MAKING APPROACH IN REGARD TO THE HEALTHCARE CHALLENGES SET FORTH BY THE PROTECTION AND AFFORDABLE CARE ACT OF 2010

In 2010, President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) which puts into place health insurance reform with the purpose of providing health care access to those who are uninsured and underinsured. The goals of the law are to make health care affordable, accessible and higher quality. In 2013, open enrollment began and now that three years have passed, it is a good time to evaluate how this law impacts Ohioans (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2014-a). In this paper, I will discuss health care reform in Ohio, examine positive and negative outcomes, and look at the effect of the ACA on health care economics.

Today our Congress isn’t working on any major problems in the U.S. The U.S. Congress is weak, which it shouldn’t be, it should be strong, and be able to make decisions, but from it being weak, it results in Congress being unable to make major decisions. Of course the are some who the the very opposite or differently of one’s thinking. Many would say that Congress is strong, because Congress is united. This would be true on some very rare occasions.

However, Wilson, for instance, claims that the processes carried by committees are secret in nature and “as mean of legislation, dangerous and unwholesome” (p. 188). He argues that this nature does not resemble a structure where problems are taken care of efficiently, but allows decisions to be highly influenced by just one individual. Nevertheless, Connelly counterarguments that regardless of the claims that congress is broken because it involves partisanship, special interests, among others “[p]artisanship is also rooted in the Constitution” (p.197). Seemly, the Founders were looking to create an institution that would be able to contemplate as many prospects as possible before passing a legislature and possible to law. In fact, Connelly mentions this when he says the separation of powers promotes “innovation and deliberation because [it] both humbles and empowers Democrats and Republicans, majority and minority parties, presidents and Congress, though at different times and on different issues” (p.

U.S. health care reform is currently one of the most heavily discussed topics in health discourse and politics. After former President Clinton’s failed attempt at health care reform in the mid-1990s, the Bush administration showed no serious efforts at achieving universal health coverage for the millions of uninsured Americans. With Barack Obama as the current U.S. President, health care reform is once again a top priority. President Obama has made a promise to “provide affordable, comprehensive, and portable health coverage for all Americans…” by the end of his first term (Barackobama.com). The heated debate between the two major political parties over health care reform revolves around how to pay for it and more importantly, whether it

Due to the upcoming presidential election, the two major political parties, and their candidates, have been focusing on the primary problems that the nation will face. Chief among those problems is the future of Medicare, the national health-insurance plan. Medicare was enacted in 1965, under the administration of Lyndon B. Johnson, in order to provide health insurance for retired citizens and the disabled (Ryan). The Medicare program covers most people aged 65 or older, as well as handicapped people who enroll in the program, and consists of two health plans: a hospital insurance plan (part A) and a medical insurance plan (part B) (Marmor 22). Before Medicare, many Americans didn't have health