This document discusses the organization and roles of political parties in Congress. It explains that Congress is organized along party lines, with parties serving as advancement mechanisms. It then outlines the leadership positions in the House and Senate, including the Speaker of the House, Majority Leader, and Minority Leader. The document also describes the roles of party committees and caucuses in managing members, setting priorities, and providing campaign support. Finally, it defines types of roll call votes and measures of party unity.

1. POL 375
Fall 2017

6.  Congress organized along party lines
 Party as advancement mechanism
 Parties signify contrasting issue positions
 Party Polarization – Ideological Distance Between
Major Parties j
 Increased overTime

8.  Speaker of the House: Paul Ryan (R-WI)
 Presiding officer of the House
 Leader and chief spokesman for majority party
 House Majority Leader: Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)
 Works with Speaker on party agenda
 Coordinates with committees on legislation
 House Minority Leader: Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
 Highest-ranking minority party member
 Spokeswoman for minority and crafts agenda

9.  Find out members’ voting preferences on
major legislation
 Helps leadership plan party strategy
 Persuade members to support party positions
 Make sure votes are around when needed

11. PRESIDENT OF SENATE
VICE PRES. MIKE PENCE
PRESIDENT PROTEMPORE
SEN. ORRIN HATCH (R-UT)

12. MAJORITY LEADER
MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY)
MINORITY LEADER
CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY)

13.  Managing party membership
 Scheduling Senate business for members
 Monitoring deliberations on Senate floor
 Intermediary for Congress andWhite House
 Representing party/Senate to media

14.  Republican Conference / Democratic Caucus
 General Organization; Represents All Members
 Steering Committees
 Selects and assigns party members to committees
 Policy Committees
 Identifies party’s position on proposed legislation and sets issue
priorities
 Campaign Committees
 Provides campaign support to party’s congressional committees
 House: NRCC (GOP) and DCCC (Dem)
 Senate: NRSC (GOP) and DSCC (Dem)

15.  Roll-CallVotes
 Vote call in which each legislator's yes or no vote is recorded as
clerk calls names of members.
 Party UnityVotes
 Roll-call votes in the House or Senate
 Majority (at least 50%) of the members of one party take a
position on an issue
 Opposed by majority (at least 50%) of members in other party.
 Party Unity Scores
 Percentage of times an individual legislator votes with his or her
party on party unity votes.