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Congress
Congress is the legislative branch of the
American national government. It is
one of the three branches making up our separation of power system. The powers of Congress are defined in Article I of the U.S.
Constitution. Congress is made up
of two coequal chambers: The U.S.
Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives.
There are 100 Senators, two from each State of the Union, and 435
Congressmen. The number 435 has
been established by statute. After each U.S. Census, conducted
every ten years, the House and the Electoral College is reapportioned
according to the population shifts within the country.
Reapportionment results in a lot of gerrymandering as the party in power
at the State level seeks to maximize the number of seats that it is
likely to win.
113th Congress
The Green Papers. Available
online at
http://www.thegreenpapers.com (Accessed on January 28, 2013).
The House
of Representatives.
Representatives must be at
least 25 years of age, citizens of the United States for at least seven years,
and, at the time of their election, live in the State whose Congressional
District they represent. Every ten
years, a census of the population of the U.S. must be held, after which House
seats are reallocated among the states on the basis of population. Each state
has at least one Representative; thereafter seats depend on number of people
living in that state.
The Official Web Site of the U.S. House of Representatives is http://www.house.gov/
U.S. Senate
Senators
must be at least thirty years old, citizens of the United States for at least
nine years, and must, at the time of their election, be inhabitants of the State
which they will represent. They do
not necessarily have to be residents of that state at the time of election. This makes the U.S. Senate a malapportioned or unrepresentative body. Until 1913 when the Seventeenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was added, U.S. Senators were not even popularly elected. They were chosen by their respective State legislatures. Only as our Republic became more democratic did popular election procedures come to be applied to the Senate. The Official Web Site of the U.S. Senate is http://www.senate.gov/ Since U.S. Senators serve for six years, one third of the membership is elected every two years. U.S. Senators are grouped into three classes. Class 3 States have races for the U.S. Senate in 2010.
Organizational Structure of Congress Congress is organized on the basis of three overlapping principles: It is organized on the basis of our political parties. It is functionally organized on the types of legislation enacted. And Congress has its own leadership organization. Both the leadership organization and the committee organization of Congress are linked to the party organization. 1. Party Organization. Almost all members of Congress are elected on the basis of their political party affiliation. They run as either Republicans or Democrats. Third party candidates, who usually call themselves Independents, are rarely elected. Once elected, Congresspeople and Senators affiliate either with the Republican Conference or the Democratic Caucus. Both political parties have Policy Committees to help the parties make strategic and tactical decisions. Both parties also maintain Campaign Committees to help members gain re-election and to defeat Members of Congress from the other party. House and Senate maintain distinct committees. 2. Leadership Organization. Each political party elects its own leaders. These leaders become the leaders of the Congress. The party with the majority in the House or Senate had the Majority Leadership positions and the party with the minority in the House and Senate has the minority positions.
House Leadership:
Senate Leadership 3. Committee Organization. The actual work of Congress, both in the House and Senate, is done through committees. There are four types of committees: a) standing committees, b) select committees, c) joint committees, and d) conference committees. a. Standing Committees are the real workhorses of Congress. They are functionally organized in ways similar to the organization of the Executive Departments. All bills are submitted to standing committees and must go through these committees before being approved by the full House or Senate. b. Select Committees are created for special reasons to investigate some current issue or problem, which is not being handled by the regular standing committees. c. Joint Committees have members from both the House and Senate. They are created for either very important reasons such as the Joint Committee on Intelligence or very mundane reasons such as the Joint Committee on the Library of Congress. The need for secrecy motivates the first; its narrow significance the creation of the second. d. Conference Committees are created each time a bill is passed in different versions by the House and Senate. Conference Committees are designed to iron out the differences. Conference Committees have members from both House and Senate. They are, thus, a kind of joint committee, but they function only until a given bill is reconciled. Whichever party has a majority in the House or Senate has a majority of the members on each committee and subcommittee of that legislative body. Functions of Congress
How a Bill Becomes a Law House and Senate are co-equal branches of government. I: Introduction Bill is given a number by the Clerk of the House or Senate. HR No 1 for House or S No 1 for Senate. Number, title, and sponsors of bill are printed in Congressional Record. Considered first reading. Sent to relevant standing committee. II: Standing Committee and Subcommittee Action Most bills die in committee when no action is taken. Bill is sent to subcommittee. Hearings Taken up by full committee. There may be additional hearings; mark up; vote. A majority and minority report may be printed including discussion and testimony. This becomes part of the legislative history of the bill. Reported out of Committee Placed on appropriate calendar awaiting further action III: Calendars House Calendars House Calendar Role of House Rules Committee in managing access to floor of House Senate Calendar Senate generally works through unanimous consent. Majority and minority leaders reach agreement on taking up a bill. When Bill passes one house, it must also be passed with the exact wording by the other house. The Congressional record records when a bill has been approved by a Standing Committee. This constitutes the second reading. IV: Floor Action House is the larger body (435 members), more disciplined, more rules, limited debate. Majority Party runes the House. Control by leadership: Speaker of the House, Majority Leader, Majority Whips. Party loyalty and discipline Rules Committee has become a tool of leadership. Minority Party is relatively powerless. Senate is the smaller body (100 members). Used to be called the most exclusive club in the world. is more informal. power of individual Senator is enhanced by their traditional right to take to the floor at any time and to speak on any subject for any length. This gives rise to the filibuster. You can talk a bill to death or threaten to use the filibuster to force concessions (blackmail). Rules of Senate procedure can be changed at the beginning of a new Congress by a majority vote. Rarely done because both parties benefit from filibuster. Abuse of filibuster. Vote of cloture requires sixty Senators. Senate has special powers Treaties require a 2/3 vote by US Senate Advise and consent of Senate required for most important Presidential appointments: Federal judges including U.S. Supreme Court justices Cabinet Secretaries and top political executives within federal bureaucracy US District Attorneys Ambassadors Commissions for Officers in the U.S. Military Voting Procedures Increased Use of Electronic Voting Roll Call Votes Teller Vote Voice Vote Congressional Record records actions of Congress Approval of a bill by one of the Houses constitutes its third reading. V. Conference Committee If the House and Senate version of a bill differ from each other, then the bill is sent to a Conference Committee. The leadership in House and Senate create a different Conference Committee for each bill that needs to be reconciled. An equal number of Representatives and Senators serve on the Conference Committee. Often, the conferees do horse trading. Disagreements on the dollar amounts may be split. It is possible, however, that the House Conferees accept the Senate version. Riders. The Senate has the power to add amendments to a bill that are not germane to its main subject matter. In the House, non relevant amendments are generally prohibited. A Senate rider might include a civil rights provision in a defense spending bill. The purpose is to force the President to sign something which he would prefer not to accept. Since the President has no item veto, he must either accept all of the bill or veto all of it. If the Conferees reach agreement, the the full Senate and the full House vote on the bill. A bill must be passed by both Houses in identical form. VI. Presidential Action Once Congress has passed a bill, it is sent to the U.S. President. 1. The President can sign the bill and it becomes statutory law. 2. The President can veto the bill and send it back to both houses of Congress with his veto message. It takes a 2/3 majority vote of both houses to override a veto of the President 3. Pocket Veto. During the last ten days of a Congressional session, the President has the pocket veto. Unless he signs the bill within ten days of having received it from Congress, the bill is dead. 4. No Item Veto. the President does not have the item veto, which many State Governors have. The item veto allows governors to srike down particular financial items within a bill VII: Statutory Law Once a bill is signed or passed over the President's veto,
then the bill becomes a Statute. The U.S. Code is a compilation of all the
statutory laws passed by Congress.
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