Expanded Congress

Expanded Congress is a premium setting that adds an ongoing congressional game on top of the ordinary pass-or-fail verdict on a policy. Bills drafted by Congress arrive on the president's desk to be signed or vetoed. Two meters track the loyalty of the president's own side in Congress and the mood of the opposition, and these meters add or cost votes on the floor. Six named leaders of the two chambers also form their own opinion of the president and can be approached for favours. The setting is offered in every era and starts off for a new presidential game; on the career builder it is offered and starts on. It is forced off in Designated Survivor and in The Fourth Estate, and workshop packs can force it on or off. Expanded Congress and Dirty Tricks share the same underlying game; this page covers the congressional half of it.

The bills desk

Most months bring one or two new bills up from Congress, fewer when the two chambers are held by different parties, and none once Congress has been dissolved. A pending bill has three fates:

• Signing it applies its effects. Signing a bill from the president's own side, or a bipartisan bill, helps approval and standing with the party; signing the opposition's bill costs the same instead.
• Vetoing it withholds the effects, at the opposite cost to approval and party standing. Congress can attempt to override the veto the following month; a bill with support across both parties is likely to be overridden, while one that mainly appeals to a single party rarely is, and both chambers must vote to overturn it.
• Leaving it pending to the end of the month lets it become law without a signature, at no cost.

The president's own legislation uses the same desk: if Checks and Balances changes a bill the president proposed, the changed version waits here for a signature, and none of its effects take place unless it is signed. A career governor's dealings with the state legislature run on the same panel.

The two meters

Caucus loyalty tracks how far the president's own side in Congress will go along with him, and opposition attitude tracks how the other side feels. Left alone, both drift back toward a resting point over time. High loyalty wins extra votes from the president's own side on the floor, and low loyalty costs him votes; a friendly opposition can also bring across a few crossover votes, though a hostile one brings none. These effects apply to ordinary legislation only, not to executive orders or challenges in court.

Both meters move on what the president does. Legislation that passes helps loyalty, and a bill that is watered down or defeated on the floor hurts it. A bipartisan policy helps the opposition's attitude, a policy aimed pointedly at the other side also helps attitude but costs loyalty, and a policy seen as radical or unconstitutional damages attitude. On election night the caucus judges the president by how his party did in the House: gaining seats helps loyalty, losing them hurts it. A Dirty Tricks scheme can move either meter, and getting caught costs both.

The power brokers

Six seats are filled when the game begins: the Speaker of the House, the majority and minority leaders of each chamber, and a senior figure of the president's own majority known as the caucus lion. In the game's preset presidencies, these seats carry the real leaders of that Congress, from Sam Rayburn and Joseph Martin in 1949 through Mike Mansfield and Everett Dirksen in the 1960s to Dennis Hastert and Tom Daschle in 2001. A custom president gets six figures created for that game, and a career governor sees the state's own chamber leaders in these seats instead. The Speaker carries the most weight of the six, followed by the two majority leaders, then the two minority leaders, then the caucus lion.

Each broker forms his own opinion of the president, shaped by party, political outlook, and how strongly he cares about the issue at hand, and a cautious broker punishes a radical policy especially hard. Opinion is quicker to fall than to rise, and once it turns favourable enough it feeds into the loyalty or attitude meter, a broker from the president's own side feeding loyalty and one from the opposition feeding attitude; enough hostile leaders on the president's own side can drag loyalty down rather than help it. Opening a broker's card offers a favour: the broker names a concrete task, and completing it through ordinary play banks a favour to call in later. The Speaker can offer floor time, a quiet burial in committee, a showcase hearing, or a hard whip on a vote. The Senate majority leader can offer a fast confirmation hearing or the votes needed to end a filibuster. The minority leaders can offer a word across the aisle, token opposition, standing down a filibuster, or access to their donor network. Any of the six will also accept plain goodwill in place of a specific request, which improves the relationship without spending a favour already banked, though a broker who has turned hostile enough will refuse to take the president's call at all.

What it changes elsewhere

With this setting on, Dirty Tricks offers schemes aimed at the caucus, the opposition and named brokers by name, and an impeachment vote is shaded by the opposition's attitude and by where the chamber's leaders stand. Without Expanded Congress, none of this is available.