Congress: Enumerated Powers

1. a) Just as a democracy should be, Congress is empowered by the people. The House of Representative members have always been elected by the people and as of 1913 when the Seventeenth amendment passed, so is the Senate. In the Constitution, Congress is given specific powers called enumerated powers that are appointed only to this part of the government. Also in Section 1 Article 8 is the elastic clause. This clause gives Congress the power make any necessary and proper laws to carry out its enumerated powers. 1. b) Although the Founders wanted the legislative branch to have enough power to carry out its duties, they also were in fear of a branch that was too strong and therefore placed constraints on the powers Congress has. Creating a bicameral …show more content…
a) reapportionment- The number of representatives in the House per state is based upon the population and because of this every 10 years cencus is taken to provide an accurate count of the population. If the population has increase or decreased, changes must be made to the number of representatives. Since the House only has 435 representatives, some seats may be taken from the states that lost population and given to those that population has risen. This process is called reapportionment. Gerrymandering- After census has been counted and reapportionment has taken place, new district lines can be drawn. The amount of districts is determined by the amount of representatives and then every district has its own representative. Gerrymandering is the redrawing of lines by the majority party to benefit and increase election results. This political strategy is usually extremely beneficial and gives advantage to particular candidates and …show more content…
Actors in the economic policy making are the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the president, the executive branch, appropriation committees and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The OMB is part of the Executive Office of the President. Together, the OMB and the President prepare annual budget to be prepared in Congress. The budget is very broad in the beginning stages. It proposes the total amount of government spending, revenues to fund spending, and spending limits of departments and agencies. Executive branch agencies then try to gain more money to fullfill personal missions though usually not outrageous requests given that many other agencies are doing the same. It is the job of the OMB to examine these requests. After that, the next stage of approving the budget goes to Congress. The House and Senate set specify how the broad boundaries are to be spent. The appropriations committees then set specific spending levels in the budget. Congress and the commitees get their help from the CBO which is an agency that provides technical support and research services on budget