Book Notes: Who Runs Congress

Notes from the book “Who Runs Congress”, by Mark Green, James Fallows, & David Zwick.
Published 1972.
Part of the “Ralph Nader Congress Project”.

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This book elaborates on the many ways our democratic institutions have eroded and continue to erode, focusing on the Congress.

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Pg 53, chapter intro: Committee chairs pretty much control Congress (about 40 people).

Pg 56, paragraph 2: Congressional committees give information to corporate interests many times where they would not provide it to the public.

Pg 57, paragraph 2: Committees more or less control bill passage usually. A bill will pass every time with 80% support coming out of committee, 56% of the time with 50% committee support. Parliamentary rules make it hard for the parent body not to follow the committee. For instance, if a bill is sent out “closed” then no amendments can be made.

Pg 58: Definition of seniority. The chairperson of a committee will be the member of the majority party with the longest time in congress. This unwritten rule began to be used in the Senate in the 1840’s, and in the House around 1910.

Pg 59, paragraph 3: Chairpersons wind up being old, rural, and southern. Safe districts (1 party) -> seniority -> safe districts and so on.

Pg 62: Committee meetings, markup sessions, & conference committees can all have closed meetings & usually are.

Pg 64: Teller voting (recorded votes) started in 1970 and did make some difference. But they are just at the main level, not committees.

Pg 65: The Rules Committee can block bills by not reporting them out to the floor.

Pg 66: Rules commitee can send bills to the floor “closed”. Then no amendments can be made, it is take it or leave it.

Pg 67: The filibuster is listed as an obstacle to democratic process.

Pg 69: Committee chairs select subcommittee members and their chairs.

Pg 70: Chairs have many powers to control things, such as to hire/fire staff. Can use timing to advantage (delay), decides agenda, chooses the floor manager for a bill, helps select delegates to conference committees. Can starve their committee members of info such as when hearings will be. Can prevent committee members from bringing their own staff into meetings.

Pg 85: The Speaker has right of recognition, decides points of order, assigns bills to committees, selects delagates to conference committees.

Pg 102: “Congressional liason” – lobbying of congress by president (prez had 531 lobbyists as of 1970)

Pg 103: Congres gets its info from executive departments

Pg 104: Presidential staff can’t be forced to testify before congress.

Pg 108: The 1921 Budgeting & Accounting Act says the prez dras up a national budget. Congress is often unaware of how the prez is actually spending money.

Pg 109: Congress gets its budget info from presidential staff, who can withhold info. Congress doesn’t have enough staff to understand the budget, doesn’t have enough time (5 months, which isn’t enough).

Pg 110: Congress is too fragmented to draw up the budget. Need a joint committee on the budget.

Pg 113: Prez controls budget using “impoundment”, “transfers”, and “reprogramming”. The 1950 Budget Act allowed for “reserves” w/o limit. So the prez can use that to impound money. Prez can avoid spending money Congress wanted to spend.

Pg 117: Transfer authority: Per Foreign Assistance Act, 10% of money to a country can be transferred to other purposes.

Pg 118: Pentagon can pay for “cost overruns” w/o Congressional approval / notification (if “national security” involved, which it always is).

Pg 119: Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is an executive agency. Lots of staff.

Pg 125 OMB gets to screen testimony of executive staff.

Pg 127 General Accountibility Office (GAO) is a congressional investigative agency, but understaffed.

Pg 130: Executive Orders can have the effect of laws. Executive agreements are treaties not known of by Congres, not approved by Congress. There were 4,000 of them in 1970

Pg 181: Description of a quorom call. Important point is that noone spends much time on floor, just rush in for vote.

Pg 184: Congress members have right of “revise and extend”, which lets them insert things into the official record that didn’t happen. They can revise things that did happen as well.

Pg 207: Debate no longer happens. Congressional investigations have died down.