⇒ The legislature makes Statute – thousands of Bills are considered every year so it takes up a considerable amount of time

⇒ The legislature passes both substantive laws (such as what to spend money on) and symbolic laws (such as what to name a building)

⇒ Most Bills fail early in the law making process, but their introduction can start a general policy discussion and move ideas on to the agenda

⇒ Outside of law making, Congressional representatives (and State legislatures) attend meetings, hearings, debates, and campaign

⇒ Members of Congress also engage in casework – this is assistance they provide to constituents who encounter a grievance with a federal agency or the federal government e.g. cases relating to political asylum and social security benefits

⇒ They also have an important oversight role over the executive branch, including the numerous federal agencies – it refers to the review, monitoring, and supervision of federal agencies, programs, activities, and policy implementation

• As trust in Government declines (especially since the Watergate scandal during Nixon’s presidency), the importance of oversight increases
• One way to exercise its oversight function is to hold public hearings e.g. hearings have been held after 9/11, Watergate, and natural disasters
• These hearings help people to understand the issues and usually reveal shortcomings in the existing policies
• A particular effective way issues can be highlighted is through a field hearing, which are Congressional hearings outside Washington (usually at the place where the particular issue is located)

⇒ In the exercise of its oversight function, Congress can gather information from pressure groups, the media, and from its own investigative body (the Government Accountability Office) which analyses the effectiveness of public programs

⇒ The activity in the chambers of the Senate and the House may, at times, seem slow, but most of the work is done in committees

• Committees play a central role in policy making, analysing legislation, amendments and deciding whether or not to send it back to the Chamber to be voted on

⇒ Congress is huge meaning it requires a lot of organising

• Each party has majority and minority leaders, whips, and chairs for different committees
• The speaker of the House is elected by all the members – the current speaker is Paul Ryan

⇒ State Legislatures are also fairly complex (New York and California’s legislatures rival that of Congress in terms of complexity)

• Some people are surprised that Congress members do not read all the bills that come through the system, but it is unrealistic for them to do so as there are so many of them and also have staff to help find and understand the important ones

⇒ Committees are the gatekeepers of legislation, ensuring only the important legislation will be heard first

• The committee chairs are usually senior members of the majority party and the ranking members are the most senior members from the minority party
• Committee chairs have a lot of power in determining what laws are ultimately voted on by the House and the Senate

⇒ The legislative branch is clearly very important when it comes to policy making

⇒ It is sometimes argued that the legislative branch does not reflect the will of the people, often ignoring what the public want and engaging in unhelpful and unnecessary arguing

⇒ As many legislative members have an ambition to be reelected, they often adopt positions that ensure they do not offend too many people which can stifle policy making

• Richard Fenno, however, argues there are two different types of members of Congress members: those that like the ‘fame’ of the job (and therefore just want to be reelected) and those that care about the actual issues (and therefore want to legislate properly)

⇒ As Congress members represent their particular States and districts, they are often seen as being more concerned with those regions than with the interests of the Party as a whole (in other words, there is a decentralised Congress)

• This makes adopting ‘big’ policy more difficult