CHAPTER SEVEN
Congress

Exercises

Representation or reelection: what's your representative doing?

1. Go to the U.S. House of Representatives web site and search for your representative. You may easily search for your representative by name, by district, or even by your ZIP code.
   • How does the representative's web site reflect some of the four kinds of representation laid out in this chapter?
   • How does the representative discuss his or her district and constituency?
   • Does the representative provide any information on his or her positions on policy issues? Do these policy positions fit with policy representation? That is, do the positions reflect economic and social interests of the member's district?
   • Is there any statement on allocative representation? Does your representative highlight any success at public works programs?
   • Does the web site provide a place for addressing problems with the federal government or federal bureaucracy? Does the site refer to this as casework? What other constituency services are there? How would these help the representative be reelected?
   • Does the representative provide access to a newsletter similar to one he or she might send home to constituents? Does the site have a photo gallery? With whom does the representative typically pose? How does this portray him or her as a representative?
   • Finally, how does the representative provide symbolic representation? Does he or she use the web site as a means to fit in with the district? What terms does the representative use in talking about the district? Are there photographs from community-oriented events within the district?
     
     
2. Compare the amount of the web-site space devoted to constituency service and representation with the amount used for discussion of national lawmaking and public policy.
   • How much attention is given to public policy?
   • Are the public policy issues particularly controversial?
   • Are the public policy positions more reflective of policy representation? That is, are the issues of particular concern to the district rather than of national concern?
     
     
3. Compare this web site to a web site from a representative of another party from another part of the country.
   • Do the web sites have similar features?
   • How much attention is devoted to representation?
   • Do the issues highlighted by the other member—party, regional, district, or other concerns—also reflect the policy representation of his or her district?
   • Do you see any evidence of core political differences between these representatives, or do their web sites make them seem similar?
     

How does your representative measure up?

1. The Project Vote Smart web site provides constituents with a wealth of information on policy positions taken by their elected officials, if the elected official has answered Project Vote Smart's National Political Awareness Test (NPAT). All candidates for presidential, congressional, gubernatorial, and state legislative offices are given the opportunity to identify on the NPAT the positions they support (they are not asked to indicate what positions they oppose).
2. You can search for your elected officials by entering your 9-digit ZIP code (a link to your ZIP code is given if you provide your address). Click on the links for your two U.S. senators as well as the link to your U.S. House representative. Under the pictures of the senators and representative, the second link is to their answers to the NPAT.
   • Did your senators and representative answer the NPAT? If not, why do you think they did not?
   • If they answered the NPAT, what positions did they take? Are these positions in the mainstream of the district?
   • If you view this page during an election year, you can also check the positions on issues of candidates for these offices. Have the challengers filled out the NPAT? If challengers filled out the NPAT but the incumbent did not, what could be the explanation?
     
     
3. Evaluate the positions of your senators and your representative on the issues.
   • Do they hold the same positions that you hold on these political issues?
   • Do you think that most of the people in your congressional district or state hold the same positions as do your representative and senators?
     

The life of a bill

You can use the Library of Congress Thomas Bill Summary and Status web site to trace the progress of legislation before the House of Representatives or the Senate. There are numerous ways to find out how a particular bill is progressing or, often, not progressing.

1. Using the "Word/Phrase" search on this page, type in a word or phrase related to a particular public policy interest you may have. Numerous bills will likely come up for that word or phrase, differing both in their focus and in their importance. Did any of these examples relate to the issue in the way you imagined? This illustrates how many things Congress deals with.
2. Have your senators or your representative sponsored any interesting legislation? Using the "Sponsor/Cosponsor" search, choose your representative or one of your senators to follow any legislation they may have sponsored.
   • What is the nature of the legislation they have sponsored? Are there any particular surprises?
   • Check the status of this legislation. Keeping your senator's or representative's name highlighted in the "Sponsor/Cosponsor" search section, scroll down to the "Stage in the Legislative Process" section and select one of the stages in the legislative process. Make sure that you choose the status within the House primarily if you are following the legislation sponsored by your representative, and the status within the Senate if you are following legislation sponsored by your senator. Legislation sponsored by your representative may be considered within the Senate or vice versa, but most of the legislation would currently be before the chamber in which the member sits.
   • Compared to the number of pieces of legislation your representative or senator sponsored, how many have progressed out of committee? How many have made it to a vote on the floor? Were any agreed to or did they fail to pass? As the book states, not many pieces of legislation make it very far in Congress.
     

Follow the money

As the "Consider the Source" feature in this chapter suggests, one way to be a critical constituent is to understand who supports your representative and your senators financially. One key source for following campaign finances is Opensecrets.org, established by the Center for Responsive Politics. You can enter your ZIP code and receive campaign finance information on your representative and both senators. The links under each elected official provide the total money raised for the current election cycle.

1. Study the nature of the campaign contributions by looking first at the "Summary Data" link.
   • Is the representative or senator receiving money from individual contributors, or from interest group–backed political action committees (PACs)?
   • Within those PACs, are they receiving support from business, labor, or special issue (ideological/single issue) groups?
   • How well is the representative or senator disclosing the political donations he or she received, according to the "Quality of Disclosure" pie chart?
   • Is financial support for the representative from his or her district? Is financial support for the senator from his or her state?
     
     
2. Using the "Geographic Totals" link, track the geographic source of most of the contributions.
   • What does it mean if considerable amounts of contributions come from outside the constituency of the elected official?
   • What sectors of the economy support the representative or senator? Is that sector of the economy a particularly important economic concern of the district or state? Under the "Top Contributors" link, can you tell what business the contributor is in?