Working with Others
The Congress interacts with the other branches and institutions of government on a regular basis. Three relationships in particular — the president, the courts, and the bureaucracy — help define the various powers and roles of Congress.
The President
Since the inception of the Republic, the relationship between the Congress and the president has been a complex one. There has always been a natural tension between the two as each has struggled to gain dominance over the other.
But, this is by the design. The Founding Fathers believed that the best way to avoid oppressive and unjust rule was by making it difficult for government to act at all. They also believed that the real threat of tyranny lies with the president, not the Congress. Thus, they provided for a strong Congress with many enumerated powers, and a relatively weak president with few specific powers.
Over the years, the balance of power has shifted between the two, with both branches enjoying pre-eminence at one time or another. The Congress held the upper hand for most of the nineteenth century as it overshadowed a succession of caretaker presidents, but since the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, the White House has been the first branch of government. Its ascension was further spurred by four events: the Great Depression, World War II, the cold war, and the war on terrorism.
All through this, the relationship between the Congress and the president has alternated between cooperation and confrontation. Presidents with clear electoral mandates, such as Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, and Ronald Reagan, have enjoyed relatively smooth relations with Congress during their first terms, and used their broad popularity to achieve sweeping legislative successes — the New Deal, the Great Society, and a series of tax cuts dubbed “Reaganomics,” respectively.
During his first term, President Reagan was able to push sweeping tax reform through a Democratically controlled Congress by winning over a group of southern Democrats nicknamed the “Boll Weevils.” Reagan wisely barnstormed through swing states where he received a majority of the vote and appealed directly to voters to pressure their representatives to support his tax plan.
Other presidents, like Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, and George H. W. Bush, either squandered their goodwill or lost the confidence of the people, and as a result were unable to accomplish much on the legislative front without bending to the will of Congress. It's no coincidence that Carter and George H. W. Bush were only one-term presidents.
The Courts
The Founding Fathers also vested Congress with broad authority to establish the federal court system. The Senate, in particular, was given the power to confirm judicial appointments. With that being the case, the Congress has been instrumental in shaping both the infrastructure of the court system and its ideological makeup.
The Congress also can influence the courts in more subtle ways. In the case of lawsuits brought against federal agencies, the courts will often interpret the “legislative intent” of the members in order to better understand the meaning of the federal statute at issue. Knowing this, legislators in both chambers have increasingly begun to leave vast paper trails explaining the meaning and intent of legislation passed by the Congress. In most cases, this legislative intent is mostly partisan spinning, and it tends to bear little resemblance to the actual intention of the statute. Nonetheless, courts are obliged to consider Congress's meaning when the plain language of the statute is unclear or ambiguous.
Both the Congress and the president share responsibilities when it comes to the fourth branch of government — its bureaucracy. The Congress has the power to establish and disband departments, agencies, commissions, and quasi-governmental corporations, while the president staffs, administers, and sets policy direction. Ministering to the bureaucracy is a frequent source of turf battles between the two branches.
The Bureaucracy
One of the most important activities of Congress is overseeing the federal bureaucracy. It's up to Congress to ensure that the laws it passed are being properly administered and enforced. Members can hold committee and subcommittee hearings, conduct investigations, and subpoena documents to make this determination. Should something be amiss, Congress can force the bureaucracy into compliance by reducing the size of agency budgets or refusing to vote on key appointments. Members rely upon the General Accounting Office (GAO) to help determine whether agencies are following the letter of the law.
