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Participation In Congress

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In congress, members are called upon all year long to cast a vote on an eclectic amount of motions, bills and amendments. Voting is one of the most important responsibilities a Member of Congress has and they take it extremely seriously. The rate of voting participation in the last couple Congresses was 95% of all the votes held. There was a 100% participation in 1998 when nine Representatives and sixteen Senators had perfect scores. Many modern issues today include: school safety, education assistance, gun control, abortion rights, social security reforms, medicare costs, environmental programs, trade with China- the list goes on. Before they cast a major vote, Members of the Congress become overwhelmed with all the opinions for several months, weeks, days and even minutes. They receive these opinions via mailbags filled with letters, faxes, emails, and calls from …show more content…

They also receive background material from special interest groups and statements from expert witnesses who testify before the congressional hearing. The congressional agencies provide the members with studies and reports. There is definitely not a shortage of material, but how does the Congress come up with their opinion through all the conflicting voices of these different groups? Some members simply don’t. They vote how special interest groups or party leaders want them to. Others, on the other hand, vote on how they feel regardless of all the pressure that is put on them. We underestimate the thought and studying that goes into a single vote that involves interactions between the President, special interest groups, political contributors, constituents, the media and party leadership. Five factors are found in the decision making process: information gathering, constituency interests, expert opinions, political ramifications, and personal

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The political theorists David R. Mayhew, Gary W. Cox, and Matthew D. McCubbins argue on how the US Congress functions. They focus on the members of Congress and their actions. The basis of disagreement between the theorists lies in what Congress members find of importance. Mayhew argues that members of Congress, primarily concern themselves with reelection, as such, any action taken only benefits that. Cox and McCubbins’, however, formulate that Congress functions on the basis of majority party control and unity.

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The popularity of the members of Congress and Congress overall has been declining as the years pass and time changes. The dissatisfaction and disapproval of the public is so high because according to David Mayhew who wrote Congress the Electoral Connection members of Congress are single-minded people who are only focused on reelection, involve in “smart” behavior such as position taking, credit-claiming and advertisement. Also, according to Mayhew parties are weak, however, that is all not true people tend to vote more so for their party than the person in general. Arnold the writer of Logic of Congressional Outcome, states that Congress has many things to take into account such as citizen preference, robe-challenger, has to take into account

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This essay will discuss the impact of lobbyist on legislation in Washington, DC and the amount of dollars spent to influence federal policies. Throughout a normal day in Washington DC, the hustle and bustle of lobbyist is taking place in the Capital building, White House and along K Street, which is the home of many of the lobbying firms. There are special interest groups, corporations and industries that hire in-house lobbyist or lobbyist firms to influence legislation to benefit their cause. For example, some of these causes may include, but are not limited to tax breaks, subsidies and changes to current regulations or laws.

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