Учебный год 22-23 / The US Congress

Filchenkova Dasha, 218 group

The US Congress

Congress is the main legislative body in the US. Article 1 of the constitution vests all legislative Powers in the Congress. It consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate. One of the major disagreements among the Framers arose over the composition and a method of representation of the states in the Legislature. The result was the dual system of representation in bicameral Congress. The House of Representatives has proportional representation based on population and the Senate has equal representation from each state.

The Senate is composed of 100 Members – two from each state, regardless of population or area, elected by the people. Their term is six years. A senator must be at least 30 years of age, have been a citizen of the US for nine years and when elected, be a resident of the state for which the Senator is chosen. One third of the total membership of the Senate is elected every second year. Many of the state legislatures have granted their governors the power of appointment. Each Senator has one vote.

The House of Representatives is composed of 435 Members, elected every two years from among 50 states, proportional to their populations. California and New York have the biggest number of representatives. Alaska and Rhode Ireland each have one representative. The Constitution limits the number of Representatives to not more than one for every 30000 of population. A representative must be at least 25 years of age, have been a citizen of the US for 7 years and, when elected, be a resident of the state in which the representative is chosen. Each representative has one voice.

According the provisions of the 20th amendment to the Constitution the Congress must assemble at least once every year on the 3rd of January. A Congress is divided into 2 sessions. The rules of proceedings are adopted by each House by itself. The House of Representatives adopts its rules on the opening day of each Congress. The Senate operates under standing rules changed from time to time.

The chief function of Congress is the making of laws. It also has power to issue money, to establish a postal system, to create federal courts, to raise army, to declare war, to collect taxes, to spend money for the general welfare, to regulate interstate commerce, to confirm the Vice-President nomination and to check on executive and judicial power. It has the power of impeachment and removal from office any civil officers, including President. The Congress also plays a role in presidential elections. If no candidate receives the majority of the total electoral voted, the House of Representatives chooses the President from among three candidates having the largest number of electoral votes. The Senate then chooses the Vice President from the two candidates.

The vice-president of the country is the President of the Senate, but he has no vote except in the case of the tie of vote.

Unlike some parliamentary bodies both the Senate and the House of Representatives have equal legislative powers with certain exceptions. For example the Constitution provides that only House of Representatives originate revenue bills (it has the “Power of the Purse”). During the procedure of impeachment the House of Representatives presents the charges and the Senate plays the role of the court.

The party system is the most significant organizational unit in Congress. In each house of Congress each party has a caucus, made up of all legislators of that party. The legislative party system serves two functions-legislative governance and legislative consensus building or policy making.

There are three types of bills: noncontroversial (without the opposition – to rename a park or to name a street in honour of smb) and controversial (the majority of bills). “Must” bills are controversial bills that the legislature generally agrees must be resolved before the end of a legislative session. These bills gather the most attention.

Any Member of the House of Representatives can introduce a bill at any time without any permission. A member introducing the bill is known as the primary sponsor. The bill is assigned its legislative number and then referred to the appropriate committee by the Speaker. The most important phase of the legislative process is the action by committees. There are 19 standing committees in the House of Representatives. A senator may introduce a bill at any time by obtaining unanimous consent for that purpose. Then the bill is passed to the appropriate committee. There are 16 committees in the Senate. Simple majority is needed to carry an amendment in it and to pass the bill. The bills are included into the calendar.

After the bill goes to the House of Representatives or the Senate, there are debates about it. If it passes it goes to the Conference Committee where the Members of House of Representatives and the Senators meet to enact a compromise bill. Then the bill is returned back and if the bill passes in both houses, it goes to the President who signs or vetoes it. The Congress can override a veto by two-thirds majority vote in both the Houses. Then the bill becomes the statute. The statute is divulged and comes into force.