In the Senate however, the majority has the power to schedule when various bills come to the floor for voting but a single Senator can slow legislation from coming to the floor for a vote. Since debate in the Senate is not concluded until 60 senators vote for a cloture motion to approve a bill for consideration, the majority must also coordinate with the minority part to set the rules for debate on legislation. Under this system, legislation can be debated for one or two weeks on the Senate floor alone.
Why does Congress use the committee system? Congress deals with a broad variety of different policy issues and it is more efficient to have work done at the committee level than on the House or Senate floor. In addition, this system allows members to gain expertise in specific issue areas they are interested in. Throughout history, committees have been created to address particular issues before Congress. The House has 23 committees while the Senate has a total of 20 committees.
How does a bill become a law? Passing legislation into law is a complicated and lengthy process between the House and Senate before the bill is presented before the President to be signed into law. For a thorough explanation of the legislation process, please see the How a Bill Becomes a Law section on the House website.
Do Members of Congress pay into the social security system? Since January 1, , all Members of Congress participate in the Social Security system and are required to pay Social Security taxes. What kind of retirement plan do Members of Congress have? What kind of health care do Members of Congress receive? Senators have the same authority as Representatives to propose legislation, with two exceptions.
The Constitution states that all revenue bills must originate in the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives traditionally has insisted thar this constitutional provision also requires that appropriation bills originate in the House. Senators may amend all bills, including revenue and appropriation bills. Furthermore, Senators usually may propose amendments in plenary sessions that are unrelated to the subject of the bill that the Senate is considering.
This right enables Senators to initiate revenue and appropriation proposals, even though these proposals are presented as amendments to bills that the House ef Representatives already has passed. There are only a few constitutional requirements that govern how the Senate conducts its business. The legislative procedures of the Senate are distinctive in two respects. First, as noted immediately above, Senators usually may offer amendments on any subject in plenary sessions, without regard to the subject of the bill that the Senate is debating.
Second, there usually is no time limit on the length of Senators'speeches. This creates the opportunity for a filibuster that the Senate can end only by invoking cloture, which requires the support of three-fifths of all Senators. If the President vetoes a bill that both houses of Congress have approved in precisely the same form, Congress may enact the bill into law by a two-thirds vote of the Senate and a two-thirds vote of the House. The chamber in which the bill originated has the first opportunity to vote on whether to override the President's veto of that bill.
The Constitution requires that any vote in the Senate or the House to override a presidential veto must be conducted by a call of the roll in which the votes of individual members are recorded publicly. However, there is no requirement that either house must vote within a certain period of time on whether to override a veto.
The Senate tries all cases in which the House of Representatives has impeached an official of the Federal Government for the purpose of removing that official from office.
To convict an impeached official requires the vote of two-thirds of the Senators present and voting. The Senate has the exclusive constitutional power, by a two-thirds majority of the Senators present and voting, to authorize the President to ratify a treaty that has been negociated on behalf of the United States. If legislation is required to implement a treaty that the President has ratified after receiving the advice and consent of the Senate, both houses of Congress must approve that legislation.
The Senate also has the exclusive constitutional power to confirm, by simple majority vote, the nomination of persons whom the President has nominated to high executive and judicial positions, including cabinet secretaries, ambassadors, and federal judges. The House of Representatives is not involved in the confirmation of nominations.
Disproportion in representatives is unconstitutional and districts must be approximately equal in. The Voting Rights Act prohibits states from gerrymandering districts. Gerrymandering Comparison : In this example, the more even distribution is on the left and the gerrymandered distribution is on the right.
As a check on the popularly elected House, the Senate has several distinct powers. The House, however, can initiate spending bills and has exclusive authority to impeach officials and choose the President in an Electoral College deadlock. The Senate and House are further differentiated by term lengths and the number of districts represented. Unlike the Senate, the House is more hierarchically organized, with leadership roles such as the Whips and the Minority and Majority leaders playing a bigger part.
Moreover, the procedure of the House depends not only on the rules, but also on a variety of customs, precedents, and traditions. In many cases, the House waives some of its stricter rules including time limits on debates by unanimous consent. With longer terms, fewer members and in all but seven delegations larger constituencies, senators may receive greater prestige. The House and Senate are equal partners in the legislative process; legislation cannot be enacted without the consent of both chambers.
Article I of the Constitution states all legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives.
The House and Senate are equal partners in the legislative process—legislation cannot be enacted without the consent of both chambers. However, the Constitution grants each chamber some unique powers. The Senate ratifies treaties and approves presidential appointments while the House initiates revenue-raising bills. The House initiates impeachment cases, while the Senate decides impeachment cases. A two-thirds vote of the Senate is required before an impeached person can be forcibly removed from office.
Some critics have charged that Congress has, in some instances, failed to do an adequate job of overseeing the other branches of government. In the Plame affair, critics, including Representative Henry A. Waxman, charged that Congress was not doing an adequate job of oversight in this case. There have been concerns about congressional oversight of executive actions such as warrantless wiretapping, although others respond that Congress did investigate the legality of presidential decisions.
Congress also has the exclusive power of removal, allowing impeachment and removal of the president, federal judges and other federal officers. There have been charges that presidents acting under the doctrine of the unitary executive have assumed important legislative and budgetary powers that should belong to Congress.
Past presidents, including Ronald Reagan, George H. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush have made public statements when signing congressional legislation about how they understand a bill or plan to execute it, and commentators including the American Bar Association have described this practice as against the spirit of the Constitution.
There have been concerns that presidential authority to cope with financial crises is eclipsing the power of Congress. The impeachment trial of President Clinton : Floor proceedings of the U.
Senate, in session during the impeachment trial of Bill Clinton. Committees write legislation. While procedures such as the House discharge petition process can introduce bills to the House floor and effectively bypass committee input, they are exceedingly difficult to implement without committee action. Legislative, oversight, and internal administrative tasks are divided among about two hundred committees and subcommittees which gather information, evaluate alternatives, and identify problems.
They propose solutions for consideration by the full chamber. They also perform the function of oversight by monitoring the executive branch and investigating wrongdoing. In order to form a bill or resolution, first the House Financial Services committee meets. Committee members sit in the tiers of raised chairs, while those testifying and audience members sit below. Ideas for legislation can come from members, lobbyists, state legislatures, constituents, legislative counsel, or executive agencies.
Usually, the next step is for the proposal to be passed to a committee for review. A submitted proposal usually takes one of the following forms:. A compromise plan was adopted where representatives were chosen by the population and two senators were chosen by state governments.
The two-chamber structure had functioned well in state governments. A compromise plan was adopted and representatives were chosen by the population which benefited larger states.
Two senators were chosen by state governments which benefited smaller states. When the Constitution was ratified in , the ratio of the populations of large states to small states was roughly 12 to one.
The Connecticut Compromise gave every state, large and small, an equal vote in the Senate. Since each state has two senators, residents of smaller states have more clout in the Senate than residents of larger states.
However, since , the population disparity between large and small states has grown. For example, in California had 70 times the population of Wyoming. Critics, such as constitutional scholar Sanford Levinson, have suggested that the population disparity works against residents of large states and causes a steady redistribution of resources from large states to small states.
However, others argue that the framers intended for the Connecticut Compromise to construct the Senate so that each state had equal footing that was not based on population. Critics contend that the result is successful for maintaining balance. A major role for members of Congress is providing services to constituents. Constituents request assistance with problems. Providing services helps members of Congress win votes because elections can make a difference in close races. Congressional staff can help citizens navigate government bureaucracies.
According to political scientist Richard Fenno, there are specific ways to categorize lawmakers. First, is if they are generally motivated by reelection: these are lawmakers who never met a voter they did not like and provide excellent constituent services. Second, is if they have good public policy: these are legislators who burnish a reputation for policy expertise and leadership. Third, is if they have power in the chamber: these are lawmakers who spend serious time along the rail of the House floor or in the Senate cloakroom ministering to the needs of their colleagues.
Providing services helps members of Congress win votes and elections and can make a difference in close races. Committees investigate specialized subjects and advise the entire Congress about choices and trade-offs.
Senators often choose a different specialty from that of the other senator from their state to prevent overlap. Some committees specialize in running the business of other committees and exert a powerful influence over all legislation; for example, the House Ways and Means Committee have considerable influence over House affairs.
All major Republican geographic constituencies are visible: red dominates the map, showing Republican strength in the rural areas, while the denser areas i. Notable exceptions include the Pacific coast; New England; the Black Belt, areas with high Native American populations; and the heavily Hispanic parts of the Southwest. One way to categorize lawmakers, according to political scientist Richard Fenno, is by their general motivation:.
Congressional oversight refers to oversight by the United States Congress of the Executive Branch, including the numerous U. Congressional oversight is the review, monitoring, and supervision of federal agencies, programs, activities, and policy implementation.
Congress exercises this power largely through its congressional committee system. However, oversight, which dates to the earliest days of the Republic, also occurs in a wide variety of congressional activities and contexts. These include authorization, appropriations, investigative, and legislative hearings by standing committees; specialized investigations by select committees; and reviews and studies by congressional support agencies and staff.
It is an integral part of the American system of checks and balances. Oversight is an implied rather than an enumerated power under the U. There was little discussion of the power to oversee, review, or investigate executive activity at the Constitutional Convention of or later in the Federalist Papers, which argued in favor of ratification of the Constitution. The lack of debate was because oversight and its attendant authority were seen as an inherent power of representative assemblies, which enacted public law.
Oversight also derives from the many, varied express powers of the Congress in the Constitution. Congress could not reasonably or responsibly exercise these powers without knowing what the executive was doing; how programs were being administered, by whom, and at what cost; and whether officials were obeying the law and complying with legislative intent.
The Supreme Court of the United States made the oversight powers of Congress legitimate, subject to constitutional safeguards for civil liberties, on several occasions. Oversight occurs through a wide variety of congressional activities and avenues. Some of the most publicized are the comparatively rare investigations by select committees into major scandals or executive branch operations gone awry.
The precedent for this kind of oversight goes back two centuries: in , a special House committee investigated the defeat of an Army force by confederated Indian tribes. The Library of Congress provides public information and educates the public about legislation among other general information. The Library of Congress, spurred by the reorganization, began to grow and develop more rapidly. Herbert Putnam held the office for forty years from to , entering into the position two years before the Library became the first in the United States to hold one million volumes.
Putnam focused his efforts on making the Library more accessible and useful for the public and for other libraries.
He instituted the interlibrary loan service, transforming the Library of Congress into what he referred to as a library of last resort. Library of Congress: The collections of the Library of Congress include more than 32 million cataloged books and other print materials in languages; more than 61 million manuscripts. In , he persuaded President Theodore Roosevelt to transfer by executive order the papers of the Founding Fathers from the State Department to the Library of Congress.
Putnam expanded foreign acquisitions as well. In , Putnam established the Legislative Reference Service as a separative administrative unit of the Library. In , Congress passed an act allowing the Library of Congress to establish a trust fund board to accept donations and endowments, giving the Library a role as a patron of the arts.
The Library received the donations and endowments of prominent individuals such as John D. Rockefeller, James B. Wilbur and Archer M. A number of chairs and consultantships were established from the donations, the best known of which is the Poet Laureate Consultant. Congress acquired nearby land in and approved construction of the Annex Building later the John Adams Building in Although delayed during the Depression years, it was completed in and opened to the public in When Putnam retired in , President Franklin D.
Roosevelt appointed Archibald MacLeish as his successor.
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