The article is written by Richard Fenno in 1978, summarizing the dilemma of congressmen in the contemporary time. The author was specifically discussing about members of the House, who always seek for reelection during his legislative career, as stated in the initial part of the paper. Fenno went on to propose the conflict in incumbent congressmen 's career: more attention for the Washington career leads to less attention for the congressmen 's home state. The Washington career required commitment to build up support within the House. However, focusing on Washington rendered the congressman homeless, or losing his home 's supportive forces.
Each chapter details one method congressmen and presidents use to move up in their careers, explaining the concept through stories of each politician employing the strategy. Presenting the ideas in this way gives a thorough understanding of the principle, and keeps both political and non-political readers interested through the whole book. In the introduction, Matthews defines hardball for readers. It “is clean, aggressive Machiavellian politics.
a) Specialization is an element of the congressional committee system in which members of Congress are divided into specified areas of policy with the idea that the Congressmen will be experts in their specific areas. The specialization of these congressmen allows for a more efficient legislative process as Congressmen will have an advanced foundation that can therefore limit the amount of debates on bills. As a result, the congressional committee system will perform adequately. Party representation in committees is another element of the congressional committee system where a committee is leaning more towards one favorable party. This element influences the legislative process as they tend to follow legislation solely based on the favorable
Diplomacy in the United States is becoming more and more important. And congress's have their own weaknesses to competent leadership role in foreign affairs. For several reason members of congress background complex, opinions are vary. They will fails to meet foreign activities because those activity need a high degree of continuity, quickly, confidentiality. Especially their strong local color, they can’t consider the advantages and disadvantages of foreign for the United States.
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
Fenno's theory of home style applies itself differently to Arizona State Legislature than its intended purpose in the US Congress, because in Arizona legislature the representatives spend more time at home and less time in session. The Arizona State Legislature also breaks up time in session and time out of session so that session is all at one time, where the US Congress has many sporadic breaks. These small differences largely impact the representative's interaction with constituents. Fenno's theory looks at how interaction with constituents relates to actions in Washington, using this theory the differences in interaction with constituents in the Arizona legislature, should translate to differences in how legislators vote and act while in
In short, there is a lack of positive interpretations of Congress from the several people listed raging from students to political experts. The framers of the Constitution did not predict such negative backlash, considering that they gave Congress an extensive list of powers and the ability to implement express powers through the Necessary and Proper Clause. Originally a vital part of the nation, it has fallen in stature due to its complicated institution. Legislation is not quick, bills can be time consuming, ordinary people can be left out, bills can disappear, and it all paints a negative light for the public. Congress has also been overshadowed by the president on several critical occasions.
Hello my name is Ben Trammell and today I will be speaking about how congressional term limits would build a congress of little experience. Would you put term limits on policemen so they have no incentive to become corrupt? If so, then your police force would be filled with inexperienced rookies who would then make bad decisions due to their lack of experience. Congress would work the same way, they would have they same problem with rookie congressmen and women. If we impose these term limits we will be replacing a wiser man (that knows what to do) with an inexperienced man (who doesn 't know what to do).
The 112th Congress has been an embarrassment — and its members realize it. As Rep. Jim Cooper, a modest Democrat from Tennessee who has served in the Congress since 1983, says, "America's problems have rarely looked so large, and Congress has rarely looked so small." 2b. I agree with the cartoon because I believe that Congress has not done anything. All the facts point to this Congress being one of the worst ever. The Congress has not been able to get appropriations done on time, make enough laws,
Congressional oversight is a process developed by Congress to review, monitor, and supervise federal agencies, programs, activities, and policy implementation. The Appropriations and legislative committees is one method of congressional oversight. The Appropriations Committee has power over an agency’s budget and the legislative committees approve an agency’s spending.
When the three branches of government were created a system of “check and balances” was built into the Constitution in order to keep one branch of government from becoming too large and too powerful. Actions that are taken by one branch of government affect the other branches, thereby introducing “oversight”. The intelligence community has both internal and external oversight. The internal oversight comes from the CIA Inspector General that is embedded within the intelligence community. The external oversight comes from both the executive and legislative branches of the government.
Our government is a big organization to the point where we won’t understand everything that goes on in it. The House of Representatives is one of the two chambers of Congress. There are many important positions in this chamber including 435 workers. Dozens of members of the U.S. House of Representatives miss more than two-thirds of their session committees. Although, the people in this chamber take a big part in the U.S. government, they should have penalties for not coming to most of their meetings and having low attendance.
Researching Congress for my research topic was important to me because using the link provided (https://www.congress.gov/quick-search/legislation-text) allowed me to look for myself and read about how people in congress feel by considering what they agree to. It is important that I have a clear understanding of who decides what in congress, so I can further make better choices when siding with certain people on different issues. Chapter nine was very interesting for me, I enjoyed reading about how congress works. The website is amazing, and I love how you can go year by year to view legislation. The site relates to the chapter by giving us examples and clearly showing some of the things congress members agree too.
In my office the staffers and Senator Larson have the authority and power. All the interns in my office report to them if they have a question or need a task to do. However, since the Senator is not in the office a lot of time, the staffers have the most authority over the interns working in the Senator's office. I always report to one staffers in particular since she is the Intern Director. She is very easy to talk to, and is always happy to answer any questions that I have.
The practice of writing letters to congress is one that dates back to the earliest days of America’s history, but in recent years it has become arguably more effective and convenient to contact congress through email or a phone call. Nevertheless, writing letters is one method that will never go out of style. Letters or “snail mail”, as they are commonly nicknamed, are still effective because receiver of the letter can feel the effort the sender put forward to write and send it and, as a result, a bit more attention is given to the person’s