Congress and the Bureaucracy: Who Makes the Law?

This chapter concerns how Congress deals with bureaucratic power. Much of today's federal bureaucracy can trace its origins to Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. Under FDR's leadership, the federal government began to take responsibility for management of the economy, provision of social services, protection of the public's health, maintenance of employment opportunities, promotion of social equality, protection of the environment, and a host of other tasks. As the government's responsibilities and ambitions grew, Congress assigned more and more complex tasks to the agencies of the executive branch, which sometimes were only too happy to expand their own power and autonomy. Executive agencies came to be tasked with the responsibility for analyzing and acting upon economic data; assessing the environmental impact of programs and projects; responding to fluctuations in the labor market; safeguarding the food supply; regulating the stock market; supervising telecommunications and air, sea, and land transport; and, in recent years, protecting the nation from terrorist plots.

The Legislative Process: The Rise of the New Order in Congress

This chapter examines the legislative process, paying particular attention to the role of congressional leaders and the changing impact of party and partisanship. It argues that a “new order” has evolved in Congress. The new order reduces the power of the congressional committees and undermines deliberation, but it can still produce legislation, especially when Congress and the president are of the same party. The new order consists of three key elements, which are discussed in this chapter: “follow-the-leader” lawmaking, “do-it-yourself” (DIY) legislating, and “catching-the-omnibus” budgeting. The chapter also looks in detail at one very important part of the legislative process—the budget and appropriations process through which Congress exercises its constitutional “power of the purse.”

Reflections on Congress

This chapter looks at several common complaints about Congress. When Americans are asked why they have a negative image of the Congress, three factors appear to stand out. First, Congress is seen as having slow and cumbersome procedures that interfere with “getting the job done.” Second, Congress is seen as polarized, with members unwilling to develop the compromises needed to serve the public interest. Third, Congress is seen as corrupt, serving lobbyists, special interests, and campaign contributors rather than the American people. The chapter thus considers whether these charges amount to a serious indictment of Congress, its members, and its procedures.

Congress and the Courts

This chapter turns to the relationship between the legislative and judiciary branches. It shows that in contemporary America, the judiciary has formed a de facto “union” with the executive and has in some respects helped to diminish the role of Congress in the American governmental system. This was not always the case, however, as the constitutional system of checks and balances assigns Congress a good deal of power over the judiciary. When they created the Constitution's system of separated powers and checks and balances, the framers had regarded the Congress as the branch most likely to seek to expand its power and the judiciary as the “least dangerous branch.” Since then, however, Americans have come to accept the idea that the federal courts can declare acts of Congress to be inconsistent with the Constitution and, therefore, null and void.

A Brief History of Congress: From First Branch to Second Fiddle

This chapter examines the history of the US Congress. It pays particular attention to issues of constituency, congressional organization, and the ways in which Congress and the executive have dealt with their constitutional invitation to struggle. Focusing on political changes outside Congress and institutional changes within Congress, the history of the legislative branch can be divided into six political eras. These are the Federalist and Jeffersonian eras, the Jacksonian era, the Civil War Congress, the Republican era, the “New Deal” and postwar period, and the contemporary period of congressional gridlock and presidential unilateralism. During each of these periods, the chapter highlights examples of congressional successes and achievements, but the overall picture is one of institutional retrocession.