CON - Structure of Congress Lesson

Structure of Congress

The House of Representatives

Background

Exclusive Powerd of the House: The power to initiate revenue bills, to impeach officials, and to elect the President in case there is no majority in the Electoral College.

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the United States Congress (bicameral legislature). It is frequently referred to as the House. The other house is the Senate.

The composition and powers of the House are established in Article 1 of the United State Constitution. The major power of the House is to pass federal legislation that affects the entire country although its bills must also be passed by the Senate and further agreed to by the United States President before becoming law (unless both the House and Senate re-pass the legislation with a two-thirds majority in each chamber). The House has several exclusive powers: the power to initiate revenue bills, to impeach officials, and to elect the President in case there is no majority in the Electoral College.

Each U.S. state is represented in the House in proportion to its population but is entitled to at least one representative. The most populous state, California, currently has 53 representatives. Law fixes the total number of voting representatives at 435. Each representative serves for a two-year term. The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, who presides over the chamber, is elected by the members of the House, and is therefore traditionally the leader of the House Democratic Caucus or the House Republican Conference, whichever of the two Congressional Membership Organizations has more (voting) members.

Apportionment

The population of U.S. Representatives is allocated to each of the 50 states and DC, ranked by population. DC (ranked 50) receives no seats in the House. Under Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution, population, as determined by the census conducted every ten years, apportions seats in the House of Representatives among the states. Each state, however, is entitled to at least one Representative.

Qualifications

Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution sets three qualifications for representatives. Each representative must: (1) be at least twenty-five years old; (2) have been a citizen of the United States for the past seven years; and (3) be (at the time of the election) an inhabitant of the state they represent. Members are not required to live in the district they represent, but they traditionally do. The age and citizenship qualifications for representatives are less than those for senators. The constitutional requirements of Article I, Section 2 for election to Congress is the maximum requirements that can be imposed on a candidate. Therefore, Article I, Section 5, which permits each House to be the judge of the qualifications of its own members does not permit either House to establish additional qualifications. Likewise, a state could not establish additional qualifications.

Elections

Elections for representatives are held in every even-numbered year, on Election Day the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Representatives must be elected from single-member districts by plurality voting.

In most states, major party candidates for each district are nominated in partisan primary elections, typically held in spring to late summer. In some states, the Republican and Democratic parties choose their respective candidates for each district in their political conventions in spring or early summer. They often use unanimous voice votes to reflect either confidence in the incumbent or as the result of bargaining in earlier private discussions.

Representatives and Delegates serve two-year terms, while the Resident Commissioner serves for four years. The number of voting representatives in the House of Representatives is fixed by law at no more than 435—providing a proportional representation of the 50 states. Additionally, there are five delegates representing the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The Constitution permits the House to expel a member with a two-thirds vote. In the history of the United States, only five members have been expelled from the House.

Spotlight on Impeachment- Definition: The act of impeaching a public official, either elected or appointed, before a tribunal charged with determining the facts of the matter. In the history of the United States, the House of Representatives has impeached sixteen officials, of whom seven were convicted. (Another, Richard Nixon, resigned after the House Judiciary Committee passed articles of impeachment but before a formal impeachment vote by the full House.) Only two Presidents of the United States have been impeached by the House: Andrew Johnson in 1968 and Bill Clinton in 1998. Both trials ended in acquittal; in Johnson's case, the Senate fell one vote short of the two-thirds majority required for coviction.

Different role conceptions:

  1. Trustee: Members of Congress listen to constituents and then vote based on their own opinions.
  2. Delegate: Members of Congress vote based on the wishes of constituents regardless of their own opinions.
  3. Politico: Members of Congress who vote with their constituents occasionally and will occasionally vote using their own judgement.

The Senate

Background

Exclusive Powers of the Senate: Consent to or confirm the appoinment of Cabinet secretaries, federal judges, other federal executive officials, military officers, regulatory officials, ambassadors, and other federal uniformed officers and responsible for trying federal officials impeached by the House.

The Senate has several exclusive powers not granted to the House. These include the power to consent to treaties as a precondition to their ratification. The senate may also consent to or confirm the appointment of Cabinet secretaries, federal judges, other federal executive officials, military officers, regulatory officials, ambassadors, and other federal uniformed officers. The Senate is also responsible for trying federal officials impeached by the House.

The Constitution stipulates that no constitutional amendment may be created to deprive a state of its equal suffrage in the Senate without that state's consent. The District of Columbia and all other territories (including territories, protectorates, etc. ) are not entitled to representation in either House of the Congress. The District of Columbia elects two shadow senators, but they are officials of the D.C. city government and not members of the U.S. Senate. The United States has had 50 states since 1959, thus the Senate has had 100 senators since 1959.

Qualifications

Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution sets three qualifications for senators: 1) they must be at least 30 years old, 2) they must have been citizens of the United States for at least the past nine years, and 3) they must be inhabitants of the states they seek to represent at the time of their election. The age and citizenship qualifications for senators are more stringent than those for representatives. In Federalist No. 62, James Madison justified this arrangement by arguing that the "senatorial trust" called for a "greater extent of information and stability of character."

The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution disqualifies from the Senate any federal or state officers who had taken the requisite oath to support the Constitution, but later engaged in rebellion or aided the enemies of the United States. This provision, which came into force soon after the end of the Civil War, was intended to prevent those who had sided with the Confederacy from serving.

Term and Elections

Senators serve terms of six years each. The terms are staggered so that approximately one-third of the seats are up for election every two years. This was achieved by dividing the senators of the first Congress into thirds (called classes), where the terms of one-third expired after two years, the terms of another third expired after four, and the terms of the last third expired after six years. This arrangement was also followed after the admission of new states into the union. The staggering of terms has been arranged such that both seats from a given state are not contested in the same general election, except when a mid-term vacancy is being filled.

Spotlight on Advice and Consent Powers: Advice on COnsent Powers: The term "advice and consent" first appears in the United States Constitution Article II, Section 2, Clause 2, referring to the Senate's role in the signing and ratification of treaties. The "advice and consent" powers, such as the power to approve treaties, are a sole Senate privilege. 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 length and the number of districts represented.

Comparing the House of Representatives and the Senate

The chart below compares the House of Representatives and the Senate in five key areas.

House of Representatives Senate
Membership

435 members (apportioned by population)

100 members (two from each state)
Term Office

2 years; entire House elected every 2 years

6 years; staggered terms with one-third of the Senate elected every 2 years
Qualifications

At least 25 years of age; citizen for 7 years; must live in the state where the district is located

At least 30 years of age; citizen for 9 years; must live in the state
Constituencies

Smaller, by districts

Larger, entire state
Prestige

Less prestige

More prestige

 

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