To what extent can Congress control the Executive?

Although it is the President elected as the head of state this not mean that the Executive rules the country entirely on its own as Congress can be seen to control the Executive and the President. The President admittedly does have a great deal of power but undoubtedly Congress does too. This can be seen in many forms but with the growth in power of the President is it he who controls Congress?

Together, the House of Representatives and the Senate share one of the most important powers of Congress, that of passing legislation. Unlike in the UK Parliament, where the House of Commons dominates the legislative process, in the US Congress the two chambers have equal legislative power. All legislation must pass through all stages in both houses, they both conduct detailed scrutiny of legislation in committee and conference committees are set up in both houses. The legislative process has numerous stages, as first there is the First Reading and which is a formality and the bill is immediately sent out to the committee stage where hearings are conducted regarding the bill, amendments made and some are put aside and never looked at again. Next the bills are timetabled as there are so many ready for the Second Reading where the bills are debated and votes taken on amendments, a simple majority is required to pass the bill. The Third Reading is the final opportunity to debate the bill and depending on the changes the bill is looked at again and another vote will be taken. The Conference Committee stage is afterwards but this is not necessarily mandatory as if there are no substantial differences between the two houses then no Conference Committee will be held. The President though has many powers available to him that not only underline the power of the Executive but also prevent Congress from passing any bills. The President has the power to veto bills by sending it back to Congress within ten days of receiving it. A two-thirds majority in both houses can override this but this is very difficult to achieve as it only occurred twice from 36 Clinton vetoes. The President can also use the pocket veto, which means he can leave the bill until Congress ends but this can only happen after the last ten days of Congress, thus showing the President can block nearly all legislation passed.

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In theory Congress holds a great deal of power over the Executive as it has the power to remove leading officials of the executive, including the President. However, impeachment proceedings have only ever become a consideration in the most extreme or unusual circumstances. In total, two executive officers and thirteen judges have been impeached. The President can only be impeached for “high crimes and misdemeanours” and if indeed this did occur a two-thirds majority would be necessary to remove the President from office. This power seems stronger and more effective than it is in theory because in practice it is seldom used meaning it is essentially useless. It has been used to impeach Andrew Johnson in 1868 and he was removed from office and most recently in 1998 against Bill Clinton. This was following claims he had committed acts of perjury and obstructed justice. He was, however acquitted by the Senate showing the strength of the President.

The President needs the approval of the Senate regarding all major issues affecting foreign policy because Section 8 of the constitution states: Congress has the right to declare war. Foreign treaties made by the President need two-thirds approval from the Senate. However because of the War Powers Resolution Act 1973 this allows the President to inform Congress within 60 days if American troops are to be committed abroad and Congress can issue these troops to be removed if they want. Generally since WW1 America has pursued a more active foreign policy especially now with the threat of Nuclear weapons and because of terrorism regarding September 11th 2001. Since the late 1940’s there has been increasing pressure put on Congress, as there is obviously more and more foreign policy legislation to deal with this in turn though has meant that there is an increase of power for the President. The increase of power is evident as if Congress blocked the President going to war now then it would be seen as being unpatriotic. This shows the power the Executive holds and similarly over treaty ratification. It can be seen that on the whole the Senate does not block the Presidential treaties, again, because it is unpatriotic and secondly he has the majority of the power. Instead of forming an official treaty with a country he can by-pass the Senate by forming an executive agreement and these agreements outnumber official ones 10 to 1. The President clearly has all the power concerning foreign policy especially by the fact the President can get around by not declaring action as a war and allows him to commit troops. For example Vietnam was not a war it was stopping the spread of communism and Nixon secretly invaded Cambodia without the approval of Congress and similarly with Grenadier to restore Democratic government. Basically because of modern technology you now do not need 60 days for war to finish, as they don’t last that long meaning the President clearly controls the Senate over foreign policy.

The Senate has the power to control the Executive over the appointment of senior federal officials such as Cabinet Secretaries, federal judges and Ambassadors; these are “advice and consent” powers. The Senate’s powers extend to the ratification of treaties signed by the President with foreign powers. Under the constitution, these require a two-thirds majority and although the President generally gains the assent of the Senate to his appointments and proposed treaties, there have been important exceptions. This process is not straightforward as in 1987; President Reagan nominated a well-known conservative judge, Robert Bork, to the Supreme Court bench. The Senate Judiciary Committee – guided by prominent Democrats asserted that Bork’s views disqualified him from serving on the Court. He was rejected and goes to show that occasionally the President can have difficulty appointing the people he wants depending on the make-up of the Senate and demonstrates that the Executive does not fully dominate. However, the Senate cannot make appointments they can only reject meaning the President still holds the upper hand as he can keep making suggestions.

One of Congresses greatest powers is the Power of the Purse as this gives it a great deal of power as Money is controlled by Congress and as a result the Executive has very little power in this particular area. Congress is involved before the money is spent and can control public policy as it decides where the money is distributed. It is the appropriations committee that controls finance and this particular committee decides how much money projects and programs receive and because of the huge workload they are divided into sub-committees. Even though they don’t have the power to reject legislation or money programs but they can severely restrict the funds that bills and programs receive. This has been a block on many Presidential ideas such like Space Research and anti-crime programs. However it is difficult to judge effectively how much power Congress holds over the Executive in this area as if Congress is aligned to the same party, as the Executive then financial backing will be given to Bills. If the party alignment is different then you would expect less funding to be given to bills as Congress are more likely to give money to its own initiatives. The Executive also is unable to make significant funds by raising taxes because the government is reluctant to put up taxes as congressmen will not want to because of pressure from constituents and the fact they are elected every two year means they are constantly trying to appease them.

In order to control the Executive, Congress has Oversight powers, which allows Congress to review and monitor the executive departments through standing committees. They have the power to question any executive official and access to all relevant documents. The standing committees in the USA are a great deal more powerful than in the UK as not only are they permanent but also in extreme circumstances the committee can recommend that the House impeach the executive official. Together with the Freedom of Information Act it allows standing committees to scrutinise the Executive effectively and when the committees are considering a bill they create an enquiry team in which they can call outsiders to the meeting to scrutinise it more effectively. Other than the scrutiny of bills and the questioning of executive officials they also can set up ad hoc committees, that are set up for specific investigative purposes such like the Irvin committee on Watergate. Congresses Oversight powers are a successful check on the Executive and the President, however, the President does have an advantage because of the Seniority Rule. Even though this was abandoned, it is tradition that the committee chairmen are usually appointed by being the longest serving majority party member of the committee. This means that the President forms close relationships with the chairman and they make all the important decisions between themselves.

The President clearly has a great deal of power and other than those mentioned above he also has informal powers through persuasion. Richard Neustadt believes the Presidents “power is to persuade”. The Presidents one big advantage he has over Congress is known as “carrot and sticks” named after leading a donkey by a carrot. It is compared to what a President can do to a congressman as if he wanted him to vote a particular way then he would offer perks through persuasion such like having his pictures taken with them and invite them to visit the Whitehouse. If this fails, then the President can go on national television to appeal over the heads of members of Congress directly to the people to gain support for a particular issue and in turn makes Congressmen vote in favour of the President to please the Congressmen’s constituents.

I believe that Congress does not really control the Executive a great deal as really the President dominates other than with the power of the purse and to some extent the Oversight powers where Congress has the upper hand. In truth these are the only real time Congress can control the Executive effectively. The President controls the passage of bills with the use of his pocket veto and blocking of bills and although this can be overturned this is very unlikely because of how difficult it is to get a two-thirds majority. Impeachment is seldom used and although the Senate can block the appointing of officials they cannot suggest replacements so the President can keep putting forward candidates. The issue of foreign policy shows how much power the President has as now if Congress stand his way it is deemed unpatriotic and with the power of persuasion and perks he can offer Congressmen it means that the Executive dominates Congress.