R Representatives on
the Job

Wednesday,
March 04, 2009

12:17 PM

Much of the work
Congress does is targeted at being reelected

Senate seats are not
as secure as house seats

Advantages of
Incumbency

Get
free mailing privileges and newsletters to send home to keep constituents
informed

Their
name is more well known

Most
people can only tell if their rep is liberal or conservative

Can't
tell how they voted on a certain issue

Take
many tax-payer trips home so people can know that they are at work

House
has 3 day week

Senate
has a 5 day week but takes every 4th week off

Franking

Getting
to send mail for free

Not
for political purposes or personal communication

Committee
supervises

Not
free - Congress gets a bill from the Post Office

Increases
a lot before elections

Usage
fell when a budget was given to each member and made publically available

Letters
targeted to certain members

Media
Advantage

Send
press releases and even TV and sound footage to press

Fund-raising

Raise
funds for many PACs

Working
for Constituents

Casework

Work
on behalf of citizens who contact them with problems or questions about the
government

Get
a few hundred a day

Score
points with the people for helping them navigate the large bureaucracy they
created

Some
members enjoy it more because of tangible benefits and it seems non-partisan

Pork
Barrel

Funding
with a ZIP code attached

Construction,
military spending, and universities

Almost
$20 billion of spending per year

Very
popular with members of that area

Little
support to remove the programs since it will hurt their reelection chances

Proportional
to the senator's clout

Working with
Colleagues

Informal
Norms

Attempts
to minimize friction

Changing
over time

Institutional
Loyalty

Throughout
the 20th century

Respect
members

Decreased
now

Reciprocity

Logrolling

"You
support my bill and I support yours"

Specialization

Members
work in subject areas

Help
become experts

More
scrutiny means harder to pass unpopular measures

Special
Interest Caucuses

Members
who share partisan, ideological, issue, regional, identity interests

More
than 100 in the house

6
in Senate

Before
1995 the largest had their own offices

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R Representatives on
the Job

Wednesday,
March 04, 2009

12:17 PM

Much of the work
Congress does is targeted at being reelected

Senate seats are not
as secure as house seats

Advantages of
Incumbency

Get
free mailing privileges and newsletters to send home to keep constituents
informed

Their
name is more well known

Most
people can only tell if their rep is liberal or conservative

Can't
tell how they voted on a certain issue

Take
many tax-payer trips home so people can know that they are at work

House
has 3 day week

Senate
has a 5 day week but takes every 4th week off

Franking

Getting
to send mail for free

Not
for political purposes or personal communication

Committee
supervises

Not
free - Congress gets a bill from the Post Office

Increases
a lot before elections

Usage
fell when a budget was given to each member and made publically available

Letters
targeted to certain members

Media
Advantage

Send
press releases and even TV and sound footage to press

Fund-raising

Raise
funds for many PACs

Working
for Constituents

Casework

Work
on behalf of citizens who contact them with problems or questions about the
government

Get
a few hundred a day

Score
points with the people for helping them navigate the large bureaucracy they
created

Some
members enjoy it more because of tangible benefits and it seems non-partisan

Pork
Barrel

Funding
with a ZIP code attached

Construction,
military spending, and universities

Almost
$20 billion of spending per year

Very
popular with members of that area

Little
support to remove the programs since it will hurt their reelection chances

Proportional
to the senator's clout

Working with
Colleagues

Informal
Norms

Attempts
to minimize friction

Changing
over time

Institutional
Loyalty

Throughout
the 20th century

Respect
members

Decreased
now

Reciprocity

Logrolling

"You
support my bill and I support yours"

Specialization

Members
work in subject areas

Help
become experts

More
scrutiny means harder to pass unpopular measures

Special
Interest Caucuses

Members
who share partisan, ideological, issue, regional, identity interests

More
than 100 in the house

6
in Senate

Before
1995 the largest had their own offices