The U.S. Congress

下面为大家整理一篇优秀的assignment代写范文- The U.S. Congress，供大家参考学习，这篇论文讨论了美国国会。美国国会对国家拥有巨大的权力，不容忽视。国会所拥有的宪法权力来源主要来自宪法，其核心权力是制定法律。除此之外，它还拥有宣战、任命联邦法官、筹集军队、铸造钱币以及征税的权力。事实上，宪法规定国会是美国三大部门中权力最大的。众议院和参议院共享这些权力，而宪法来源确保国会是立法的最终权威。

The U.S. Congress has vast authority over the nation and its great powers cannot be overlooked. The constitutional sources of power that Congress possesses mainly come from the Constitution, and the core power is to make laws. It also owns the powers to declare war, appoint federal judicial, pass laws and regulations, raise army or navy, coin money, as well as to spend and tax (Ginsberg, et al. 2017, 274). Actually, the Congress was designed by the Constitution to be the most powerful of the three branches. The House of Representatives and Senate share these powers and the constitutional source ensures that the Congress is the ultimate authority of legislation. The House and Senate also differ in representation which decides that they have exclusive powers on their own. The Senate had the sole power to ratify treaties and approve appointments for the president, while the House can originate revenue bills (Ginsberg, et al. 2017, 43). During the process of lawmaking, the Congress can be affected by numerous factors, including party leadership, congressional colleagues, and presidency from the internally affairs, and the legislator’s constituency and interest groups from the externally affairs (Ginsberg, et al. 2017, 295). Therefore it is clear that the Congress is the most important factor during the process of a bill becoming a law.

However, the president also has much constitutional powers and in certain circumstances he can go pass the Congress on certain issues. Over the past century, the Congress had delegated much of its legislative power to the executive branch (Ginsberg, et al. 2017, 322). As a result, modern Presidents have claimed inherent powers that are beyond expressed and delegated powers. For instance, President George W. Bush applied his inherent powers of presidency to claim military campaigns against Taliban regime when the 2001 terrorist attacks happened. Although the Congress passed resolutions to support his actions, Bush reckoned that he did not need authorization from the Congress (Ginsberg, et al. 2017, 324). President Barak Obama also had applied such powers by frequently using Special Forces in military operations against terrorist bases. In 2015, the drone attack towards ISIS did not consult the Congress, and members learnt about this action only when media reported it (Ginsberg, et al. 2017, 324).

Unlike the Congress which heavily relies on its constitutional powers, the president’s powers mostly come from the institutional resources of the Congress delegation. The Institutional Presidency has four domains: the White House Staff, Independent agencies and government corporations, the Cabinet, and executive office of the president. While the Cabinet has less power than that in parliamentary countries, the White House Staff, the Executive Office of the President, and Independent Agencies and Government corporations matter a lot to the president’s institutional powers. The White House staff is the closest to the president’s preferences, and modern Presidents tend to hire a more substantial number of staffs (Ginsberg, et al. 2017, 332). The Executive Office of the President (EOP), on the other hand, is an important sign of the modern presidential power. It performs most of the management tasks for the President and all staffs are highly professional and specialized.

The president in the U.S can mobilize their multiple institutional and political resources to challenge the Congressional dominance. Over the past century, the presidents have sought to expand their power through popular mobilization, administration, and their political party (Ginsberg, et al. 2017, 328).

The first tactic is called ‘going public’, which allows the presidents to create massive support base among the people (Ginsberg, et al. 2017, 329). Popular mobilization has become a useful tool for presidents because it can link the executive office to the public and familiarize the people with political agendas and personal charisma. The public relations strategy applied by the presidents can also emphasize their strengths and maximize public appeals, resulting by their public speeches and debates over the media. Traditional media has been surpassed by the newest social media that can connect the public directly with the presidents (Ginsberg, et al. 2017, 330). FDR is an excellent example of successfully mobilizing public opinions in the 20th century, and recent presidents like Barak Obama and Donald Trump have even applied the Internet to interact with common citizens and earn support. 

The second is to enhance their control on executive agencies and lessen their dependence on Congress. This strategy is often applied and it is useful even when the presidents are unable to win congressional support. The biggest EOP agency, Office of Management and Budget (OMB), provides a top-down budgeting approach for the executive branch as well as the Congress. Other EOP agencies specialize in other area to ensure that the president can deal with his day-to-day jobs. The vice presidency is another political source of the presidential power during election, and when elected, vice presidents also serve as a management resource for the president. What is more, the regulatory review process can also increase the presidents’ power by helping them controlling the rule making by executive branch. This is because the Congress typically leaves room for the executive agencies to fill in the gaps when enacting statutes, which in return enhances the presidential power (Ginsberg, et al. 2017, 332). The mechanism of executive orders and other presidential decrees is also commonly applied by the presidents to develop their powers. Of course, the presidents cannot sign executive orders as they like without proper constitutional or statutory basis, but executive orders can still matter a great deal if the presidents successfully issue them. For instance, Bush issued over 300 executive orders during his 8-year term, and Obama issued up to 242 during his (Ginsberg, et al. 2017, 333). The presidents can also sign statements to negate their objecting congressional actions, or to nullify certain portions of statutes. President Reagan, Bush, and Obama have all issued many singing statements over their terms and achieved multiple purposes against congressional objections or limitations (Ginsberg, et al. 2017, 334).

The last is to rely heavily on one’s own party for legislation activities. Although the president can’t control the party for having certain amount of autonomy, it is still a reliable political resource. For example, Obama had relied on the Democratic Party to prevent rejection from the Republicans on the Us-Iran agreement of nuclear limitation (Ginsberg, et al. 2017, 329). However, the presidents have reduced their reliance on party in recent years because there might be circumstances that the opposing party has taken majority of the Congress.

The Congress used to have dominance power during the 19th century, but the presidents have gradually gained more power over the years through applying their institutional and political resources. It is quite dangerous to have a strong president and a weak Congress that shares the power of running the country and making laws. However, I believe that the checks and balances will be restored in the future and the presidents can’t have as much power as they want. The presidents’ support still comes from his party dominance at the Congress, as it is showed in the trend over the last few decades (Ginsberg, et al. 2017, 334). This means that if the president does not have his party as majority in the Congress, he will encounter much more difficulty when implementing agendas. What is more, the president’s power is also limited by the Congress’s power of budgeting and spending. If there were to be a budget battle between the legislative branch and the executive branch, the Congress can use their power to shut down government agencies in return for compromise. Also, the president has limited influence on the national economy. The influence on national economy is mostly exercised by the Federal Reserve instead of the president. Actually, the national economy can affect people’s confidence in the president and even his re-election chances.

References

Ginsberg, Benjamin, J. Theodore Lowi, Margaret Wier, J. Caroline Tolbert, and J. Robert Spitzer. We the People - an introduction to American politics (11th edition). New York, New York: W.W.Norton & Company, 2017.

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