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The On the Hill: Breaking Down DC podcast is a collection of sharing more about what’s happening in DC without the bias, ways for you to get involved with the US government, and interviews with friends, colleagues who can help pull back the proverbial curtain of Washington, DC. Katherine Getty, host of the OTH podcast, is a 10-year Washingtonian who lives and breathes politics.
Unknown Speaker 0:01
Hi, and welcome to the on the Hill podcast with me your host, Katherine Getty. Each Thursday, I'll peel back the curtain of what happens in Washington, from breaking down current events without bias, to interviews with fellow political nerds, and even and maybe most importantly, ways for you to get involved with our US government.
Unknown Speaker 0:24
Welcome back to another episode of On the hill podcast with me your host, Katherine Getty, falling last week's episode, which if you haven't listened to Episode Five is all about the House of Representatives. Today, I'm going to dive into the US Senate, I felt like it was only fair. And as we begin this journey of the on the Hill podcast, it's, it is really my sincere hope that in sharing with you context, or history without the bias for what's or even sharing what's happening in DC, at just a timeline basis, that I am going to kind of take down the temperature, I think that US politics is often boiled down to simply a cry on on the TV, or a tweet that elicits anger or joy or sadness. And my goal is to give you maybe what you missed in civics or maybe give you a refresher of our government so that the next time you happen to have a conversation about politics, or a policy area, that you have more tools of understanding of the basis of our, you know, constitutional republic of this US government, so that when you have that conversation with the family, the friend or maybe even yourself, of trying to debate what the policy areas that you have some context, I think sometimes, you know, obviously politics affects us at a very personal level. And so I think it's important that we have an understanding of kind of the structure. And that is my hope. So today is all things about the Senate. And this episode is going to give you a few things in two key buckets. Just like last week, I wanted to structure it the same way first a definition of what the Senate is, what's the basis. And second, I want to give you some key moments within the Senate that shaped the body. And it's by proxy, or by what it's supposed to do shaped the country as a whole. So first, the Senate's basis. And let's take a trip in our Miss Frizzle school bus or if you want to say Doc Brown's DeLorean back to the at the federal convention of 1787, otherwise known as the Constitutional Convention, where the framers establish Article One, which is the structure and the powers of Congress, and the delegates gathered in a very what I can imagine hot and steamy summer in Philadelphia, to revise the existing form of government and to frame out the Constitution in 1787. You know, the whole thought was one house would be, in the words of George Mason, a grand depository of democratic principle, government. And that is really the basis of the house. It's the popular influence on the national government. It's supposed to be faster, it's supposed to be reactive. And then James Madison proposed another house that would be small, deliberative, independent from the larger, more democratic being of the house. And that's the Senate. I think there's also some layers of, you know, we were a British colony, or colonies for a period of time, and I there is, there has been some connection to the House of Lords and House of Commons to our form of government. But for the US, there was the house, which was supposed to be Democrat more, you know, popular influence faster. And then the house the more deliberative body, the slower chamber. And slower doesn't mean, bad. I call these differences out really, the big versus small, deliberative versus popular opinion, because I think, sometimes the, you know, the house was the House and Senate were designed to be very different. And I think it's easy for us to say maybe when are the party that we tend to vote for is in control of one body or the other to malign the structure or the fastness or slowness of the other chamber, because it's easier to but I think it's really important that we understand there is supposed to be very much differences. They're supposed to be, you know, hat serving different purposes. And so I want to dive into some of the unique features that separated from the house from design, you know, from length of term to the number of senators who some of their key powers, even down to the design of the chamber that they legislate or aid from. So equal representation of the states. The Senate is
Unknown Speaker 5:00
designed to provide equal representation to each state with two senators per state, regardless of population. Now remember, we talked about the house, each member represents typically the same, or approximately the same number of people. So this kind of equalizes it to some degree, this equal representation was really a compromise during that constitutional convention, we were just at ensuring that both small states and large states had a voice. If you think back to 1787, there were some states that had wielded a lot of power, and some states that, you know, not as much. And so this was a way of kind of equalizing that, and I think that's really important to call out. Additionally, unlike the house, they have six year terms and staggered election. So senators serve six year terms, and it's a longer tenure, providing, you know, stability, more community continuity, versus the house, it's every two years in those staggered elections with basically 1/3 of the Senate, being up every couple of years, is supposed to prevent, like complete brain drain, I think you sometimes and we can dive into this another time of you know, term limits, there's to some degree, a brain drain. Now term limits have, let's say, pluses and minuses probably. But the hope of a staggered election was that there will be some, again, continuity, when it comes to particular powers that are different from the house. They have advising consent power, the Senate has the constitutional authority to provide that advice and consent to the President on certain matters. So federal judges, so think Supreme Court, cabinet members and ambassadors. So you think back, you know, to 2021, when President Biden came in, you saw a whole host of his Cabinet members going up for nomination hearings, or when a Supreme Court justice, you know, either passes away, or decides they no longer want to be a Supreme Court justice, and in a vacancy happens. You see the Senate conducting those, those nomination hearings. So that advice and consent powers, you know, the house does not have that, again, raise impeachment, one, because I think it's important kind of in the structure of the Senate, but two, I think we're more familiar with it. Now, when it comes to impeachment, they have the power, the Senate has the power to do impeachment trial. So if the House of Representatives and peaches, finds, you know, the Federal official did, you know high crimes and misdemeanors, then the Senate serves as the court for the trial, and the conviction and removal from office requires a two thirds majority vote, which is a very high threshold, obviously, I think those are kind of key facets of it as well. And then I'll Lastly, say filibuster and cloture. These are things that I think over the last few years have heard, there's been more kind of conversations about similar to the impeachment trials, but the Senate is, you know, is allowed to have extended debate on legislation through the filibuster. So a senator can stand on the floor, and basically read Dr. Seuss books to keep the floor open and to slow down things. So filibuster, and cloture think the filibuster has gotten a lot more attention over the last couple of years. And really what what the filibuster is at its base level is there can be extended debate on legislation through a filibuster where a senator can speak for extended period of time, I've seen where senators have quite literally gone to the Senate floor and read Dr. Seuss books. There's a lot of debate about the filibuster, because it requires a simple majority to pass after the debate has ended. But to get actually to that vote, there's a procedural hurdle of it taking 60 votes to cut off debate. You know, there are a lot of concerns about the filibuster, there's a lot of pro the filibuster, I think on the concern, you know, people think, well, it shouldn't just take a simple majority to get something passed, we shouldn't have to worry about, you know, getting to 60 votes to get a simple majority. And I hear that there's on the other side, the filibuster is supposed to protect the rights of the minority party. I'm going to be honest, the filibuster is a very hot topic. And again, I'm giving myself lots of episodes, but I think we go into the filibuster more. And especially in that kind of context of the recent history, but at a base level, the filibuster is extended debate and allow senators to go on the floor and they have to stay on the floor continuing to debate. Then there's also cloture cloture is that reaching of 60 votes
Unknown Speaker 10:00
It's you know, cloture is the end of debate and taking a vote. I think those kind of pieces we can dive into more, but I wanted to highlight those pieces for understanding. The The last thing I want to highlight about the Senate, it's different than the house is the design of the chamber to some degree. You know, the House and the Senate have similar but I think it's interesting to see that in the Senate chamber that distinctive, some semi circular layout is aimed at fostering a sense of, you know, facilitating conversations. And collegiality doesn't always happen in the Senate, but that's okay. And I think desks are arranged in that circular pattern to really share the equal status of every member. This is not to say that the house is not in a similar structure to some degree, they have a semicircular as well, but just something that I saw that I thought was really interesting that I'd like to highlight. So in the first kind of section of this, of this episode, we've gone through kind of the basis of the Senate from their six year terms to sogard elections, equal representation of states, those powers that are different than the house. So the advising consent, the impeachment trials, they actually serve as the court for the trial, the filibuster and the cloture. Now, we've gotten some of the kind of the key facets of the Senate, let's go into the history. So we've talked at the beginning of this episode of that constitutional convention in 1787, where James Madison really designed the Senate to be the counterpart of the house but had more deliberative and made it more deliberative. So kind of making it a deliberative, I think, sometimes we can think of as a slower chamber, it was designed to be slower. That first Senate happened in 1789. It was March 4. So you know, coming up on its little anniversary in New York City, and the initial Senate had 22 members, two senators from 11 states that are ratified the Constitution. Now, over the 19th century and eight to 1800s, there was a lot of expansion and growth, think about where the country was we were getting more states. So as the United States expanded, new states were admitted to the unit. And, like the house, the senate played a key role in the Missouri Compromise of 1820. And the compromise of 1850, which were crucial legislative measures that addressed the balance between slave and free states in the Senate. As we enter the Civil War. And even into the Reconstruction period, the Senate played a role similar to the house and ensuring that there were that reconstruction actually happened in the manner that we would all hope it would. So, you know, there were a lot of debates over slavery and states rights. And during Reconstruction, the Senate was involved in the process of readmitting, Southern seats, the union, you see them also, you know, doing a lot of the work of ensuring that some of our rights were codified, then into kind of that progressive area, you know, so into kind of the pre World War One, I would say, the Senate really evolved. And one key thing that I, as a part of that constitutional convention was states at the time, were allowed to send up to representatives. It wasn't until 1913, and the passage of the 17th amendment that we had direct election of senators. That's a really interesting feature. I mean, it's just a little over 100 years that we were voting for our senators, kind of crazy to think when we get into World Wars, and then even the Cold War, the Senate was crucial and approving, and I keep saying crucial, but they were really important in approving these declarations of World War One and World War Two and even into the Cold War. The Senate was involved in debates of foreign policy, what was our role? How do we, you know, what treaties we approve what, you know, the creation of international organizations that were supposed to keep that balance of, you know, peace, then into the 50s and 60s, the Senate was a Key Arena for debates. During the Civil Rights Movement, the passage of landmark civil rights legislation, like the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the voting rights of 1965 had a profound impact on our nation. And I think now, and I think this is where kind of the current maybe dynamics are is that in the modern era, the Senate has been involved in addressing various challenges and issues like economic policies, health care reform, Supreme Court nominations, and international relations. So they've really continue to kind of develop in that sphere. It
Unknown Speaker 15:00
Interestingly enough, and maybe something I should have highlighted in the context, but bear with me, but the Senate is led by the Vice President, who serves as the president of the Senate and the Senate Majority Leader and Minority Leader played crucial roles in guiding legislative priorities. So I think it's important to understand that if you think back to just a few years ago, it was a 5050. Senate. The Vice President was making tiebreaker votes all the time. And that's a portion of what the Vice President does is making those tiebreaker votes. You know, as serving as the president of the senate, there have been 301 tie breaking votes cast by Vice Presidents. And as of December 5 2023, VP, Harris has cast the most heartbreaking loads of any vice president. I think the 5050 Senate had a lot to do with that. But I think it's interesting to show kind of the role of the VP as it comes to the history of the Senate. So what have we dived into today, we have dived into the context of who makes up the Senate, how many senators from each state, they're staggered elections, the importance that they are supposed to be the deliberative body, they're supposed to be a little bit slower in action. They have those six year terms. I think it's important to highlight the filibuster, cloture, their role in advising consent, you know, the nominations of federal judges, cabinet members and ambassadors, something that's different than the house. And then their role and impeachment trials when it comes to they are they serve as the court for trial of the House of Representatives and pieces of federal official. Now, beyond that, we have also gone through the history of the US Senate, we've gone through kind of the origin story to some of the key facets that they have approved over the years. And now up to modern times, what we have been seeing in these tie breaking votes are the role of VP. I think it's so important that I always highlight some of the resources I utilize senate.gov. And I will include this in the show notes provided a lot of the background for this. I hope that you share this with someone. I think it's so important that we share more about what is the basis of our US government so that we can have better, stronger conversations not maybe they come into debates. That's okay. As always, thank you so much for tuning in to this episode. If you want to learn more about me your host Katherine Getty, but Instagram is at Katherine Getty, and the podcast Instagram is on the Hill DC podcast. As always, tune in next week to another episode of The on the Hill podcast.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai