United States Congress
By Levi Clancy for Student Reader on
updated
- United States government
- Subpages
- Checks and Balances Against Congress
- Committee Structure of Congress
- Congress' enumerated military powers
- Drawing Congressional Districts
- Duties of the House and Senate
- Four Functions of Congress
- Incumbent Advantages
- Legislative process
- Members of Congress
- United States House of Representatives
- United States Senate
After the Articles of Confederation failed, the founders wanted to create a federal government with increased power. They split this power between the legislative (Congress), judicial (Supreme Court) and executive (President) branches. Most of this power was placed in Congress -- the legislative branch. Congress was meant to debate and figure out issues, with national policies fashioned from compromise and accommodation within Congress.
The founders split Congress into two separate and powerful chambers. This two-chamber structure is called bicameral. One chamber was the House of Representatives and the second chamber was the Senate. The House of Representatives has representatives from each state based on population, while members of the Senate has two politicians from each state regardless of state populations.
For a bill to become law, it must be passed in identical form by both chambers. This was established as a compromise when the Constitution was written in summer of 1787. Smaller states wanted all states to have equal representation, while larger states wanted representation based on population. The Great Compromise was: small states had equal representation in the Senate; representatives in the House were based on population; only the House could originate revenue-related legislation.
The Constitution further specifies that each state has two senators who serve six-year terms of office. Senators' six-year terms are staggered so that one-third of the Senate is elected every two years. The Constitution originally specified that Senators were elected by state legislature, but the Seventeenth Amendment was ratified in 1913 and provided for direct election of senators by popular vote.
Due to population, nine states can overpower forty-one states in the House of Representatives if each state's representatives vote unanimously. However, smaller states can exert their power in the Senate. The twenty-six smallest states represent 50m people, while the twenty-four larger states represent 230m people. Regardless, just a handful of those smaller states can outvote the larger states in the Senate. This forces compromise between large and small states.
The Constitution also states that members of the House of Representatives are directly elected by popular vote. Each member serves two-year terms, and all House seats are up for election simultaneously. There are 435 members of the House of Representatives. Each state's representation in the House is in proportion to its population, which -- according to the Constitution -- is determined via a census every ten years. Population shifts are handled by reapportionment (redistribution) of seats after each census is taken. Each representative is elected from a congressional district within his or her state, and each district elects only one representative. Each congressional district within a state must be roughly the same population.
In summary, Congress' basic structure grew out of the Great Compromise at the Constitutional Convention. As a result of that compromise, each state is represented in the upper house (or Senate) by two senators, who serve staggered six-year terms; in the lower house (the House of Representatives), states are represented according to their population. Members of the lower house serve two-year terms. In 1929, the total number of representatives was fixed at 435. Whenever the population shifts (as demonstrated by a decennial census), the country’s 435 single-member legislative districts must be reapportioned to reflect the changes and provide equal representation.
Glossary
Reapportionment | Redistribution of representatives based on population changes recorded at each census. |
Impeachment | Formally charging the president, vice president and other national government civil officers with serious crimes. |
Incumbents | With regards to an office, the politician currently in that seat. |
Gerrymandering | Redrawing of congressional districts to disadvantage another group or party. |
Casework | Assisting constituents to deal with the federal government. |
Descriptive Representation | The belief that only representatives sharing a voters' demographics can properly represent that voter. |
Racial Gerrymandering | Redrawing of congressional districts to impact minority representation. |
Veto | A president's refusal to sign a bill, thus stopping it from becoming law. This can be overcome by a Congressional override. |
Pocket Veto | A pocket veto occurs when the President refuses to sign a bill and Congress does not adjourn within the next 10 days. The bill does not become law. |
Standing Committee | A permanent committee. |
Joint Committee | A committee containing Representatives and Senators. |
Select Committee | A committee established to accomplish a particular task. |
Conference Committee | The committee that works with both Congressional chambers if they disagree on a bill. |
Seniority | Years of consecutive service on a specific congressional committee. |
Oversight | Congress has oversight to ensure the executive branch properly administers its policies. |
Speaker of the House | Member of the majority, party, the Representative presiding over the House. |
Majority Leader | Member of the majority party, the Senator with right of first recognition who sets committee assignments, allocates office space and schedules legislation |
Filibuster | An extended debate abused in a largely symbolic attempt to stop legislation. |
Cloture | Requiring 60 Senatorial votes, cloture limits debate to 30 additional hours. |
Constituents | Those who elect a politician. |
Trustee | A representative who favors the good of the nation over constituents. |
Delegate | A representative who favors constituents, even at the expense of the nation. |
Parliament | A government where the chief executive is determined by the majority party in the legislature. |
Earmarks | Money inserted into bills for general use by a congressional district. |