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Congress
1. Historical and constitutional background of legislative power
2. Congress membership
3. Sources of legislation in the USA.
4. Introduction and referral to committees
5. Senate action
6. Congress`s investigative oversight role
7. The enactment process
8. The party organization
My essay deals with the the Congress. Congress can defined as the legislative body of the federal government, created under US Constitution. art. I, § 1 and consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Firstly, I’ll describe historical and constitutional background of legislative power.
Article I vests "all legislative Powers herein" in the Congress and later lists those powers. This list of powers was a compromise resulting from one of the major differences of opinion at the convention. The final compromise language listed particular subject-matter areas. Another major disagreement among the Framers arose over the composition and the method of selection of the national legislature provided for under Article I. As a result the following compromise was reached - a dual system of representation in a bicameral or two-chamber Congress was agreed to. Besides the Frames reached the compromise on slavery. Southern delegates insisted that they be counted the same as citizens in determining the number of representatives in Congress. A compromise was reached to count slaves as three-fifths of a free person. Another area of disagreement that arose during discussions of the legislative power was how to deal with conflicts between federal legislation and state law. As a result it was established the rule about the supremacy of federal law. And at last a power of Congress about which the Framers did not disagree was the "power of the purse." They resolved that the sole power to decide whether and to what extent to tax and fund governmental programs must be lodged in Congress.
Now let`s move to the next point of my essay – Congress membership.
The Senate is composed of 100 Members - two from each state, regardless of population or area - elected by the people in accordance with the 17th Amendment to the Constitution. A Senator must be at least 30 years of age, have been a citizen of the United States for nine years, and be a resident of the state for which the Senator is chosen. The term of office is six years and one-third of the total membership of the Senate is elected every second year. If a Senator dies or resigns during the term, the governor of the state must call a special election unless the state legislature has authorized the governor to appoint a successor. Each Senator has one vote.
The House of Representatives is composed of 435 Members elected every two years from among the 50 states, apportioned to their total populations. A Representative must be at least 25 years of age, have been a citizen of the United States for seven years, and, when elected, be a resident of the state in which the Representative is chosen. Unlike the Senate where a successor may be appointed by a governor when a vacancy occurs during a term, if a Representative dies or resigns during the term, the executive authority of the state must call a special election. Each Representative has one vote.
The Constitution authorizes each House to determine the rules of its proceedings. Unlike some other parliamentary bodies, both the Senate and the House of Representatives have equal legislative functions and powers with certain exceptions. For example, the Constitution provides that only the House of Representatives originate revenue bills. By tradition, the House also originates appropriations bills. The Senate has the function of advising and consenting to treaties and to certain nominations by the President. The Congress play a great role in presidential elections. If no candidate receives a majority of the total electoral votes, the House of Representatives chooses the President from among the three candidates having the largest number of electoral votes. The Senate, each Senator having one vote, chooses the Vice President from the two candidates having the largest number of votes for that office. In the matter of impeachments, the House of Representatives presents the charges - a function similar to that of a grand jury - and the Senate sits as a court to try the impeachment. No impeached person may be removed without a two-thirds vote of the Senate.
The third part of my essay concerns the sources of legislation in the USA.
Sources of ideas for legislation are unlimited and proposed drafts of bills originate in many diverse quarters. Primary among these is the idea and draft conceived by a Member. This may emanate from the election campaign during which the Member had promised, if elected, to introduce legislation on a particular subject. In addition, the Member's constituents, either as individuals or through citizen groups, may avail themselves of the right to petition and transmit their proposals to the Member. The right to petition, is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution. Similarly, state legislatures may "memorialize" Congress to enact specified federal laws by passing resolutions to be transmitted to the House and Senate as memorials. In modern times, the "executive communication" has become a prolific source of legislative proposals. Many of these executive communications follow the President's message to Congress on the state of the Union. The most important of the regular executive communications is the annual message from the President transmitting the proposed budget to Congress.
The next point we should stop is such important phase of the legislative process as the action by committees.
The committees provide the most intensive consideration to a proposed measure as well as the forum where the public is given their opportunity to be heard. A tremendous volume of work, often overlooked by the public, is done by the Members in this phase. There are, at present, standing committees in the House and in the Senate as well as several select committees. In addition, there are standing joint committees of the two Houses, with oversight responsibilities but no legislative jurisdiction. Each committee's jurisdiction is divided into certain subject matters under the rules of each House and all measures affecting a particular area of the law are referred to the committee with jurisdiction over that particular subject matter. Membership on the various committees is divided between the two major political parties. The proportion of the Members of the minority party to the Members of the majority party is determined by the majority party. The respective party caucuses nominate Members of the caucus to be elected to each standing committee at the beginning of each Congress. Membership on a standing committee during the course of a Congress is contingent on continuing membership in the party caucus that nominated a Member for election to the committee. If a Member ceases to be a Member of the party caucus, a Member automatically ceases to be a member of the standing committee. Each committee is provided with a professional staff to assist it in the innumerable administrative details involved in the consideration of bills and its oversight responsibilities.
It’s necessary to describe now senate actions.
The Member introducing a bill is known as the primary sponsor, who must sign the bill before its introduction. Other Members may cosponsor a bill; there are original or additional cosponsors. Only members of a legislature can introduce a bill in their respective chamber, though bills may originate in either the HR or the Senate. When the bill is introduced it is given its number. The most important work is held in the committees, which provide intensive consideration to a proposed measure. Usually a bill is sent to a number of committees, each with a particular jurisdiction. Once the bill has emerged from committee consideration, it moves to the floor of either the HR or the Senate. The entire chamber then debates and may amend the bill. The chamber then takes an open vote on the bill. The Senate relies heavily on the practice of obtaining unanimous consent for actions to be taken, a simple majority vote is necessary to carry an amendment as well as to pass a bill. For non-controversial bills the chamber takes a voice vote, but if any legislator asks for a roll call, each vote is made public.
If the bill passes the first chamber, it is sent to the other one where the same process takes place. If the bill is amended in the second chamber, it must be sent back to the first chamber as both chambers must agree on the amendments. If they cannot agree, the bill will be sent to a joint committee to work out a compromise. If the joint committee is successful, the bill will be returned to both chambers for a vote.
Now let`s move to the next point of my essay - Congress`s investigative oversight role.
Proposals for legislation, budgets, approval of Presidential appointments, and all manner of other legislative business must generally survive intensive committee scrutiny before it can be brought forward for a vote on the floor. And on the floor, the relevant committee’s recommendations have weight among busy members of Congress who may be only vaguely aware of the details of much legislation outside their areas of concern and expertise. The subject matters of some of the more important standing committees that both houses of Congress have are agriculture, appropriations, armed services, banking, education, energy, foreign affairs, etс. The original purpose of committees and Congressional agencies was to deal with the increased complexity and specialized nature of legislation in the modern world. But with the changing nature of the legislation and the growth of administrative agencies, committees have taken on the more general task of overseeing the operations of government. Committee investigative hearings are nowhere mentioned in the Constitution, but the connection to Congress’s legislative power that investigations have is that they are undertaken to determine whether there is a need for legislation. Investigations can take on political overtones and the more political congressional investigations are, the more controversial they are.
Now I would like to concern such point as the enactment process.
A bill is a proposal for a change in the law that becomes a statute after it has been enacted. Ideas for legislation can emanate from a variety of sources, for example, legislators, lobbyists, constituents, legislative staffs, and, perhaps most importantly, the executive branch. Only members of a legislature can introduce bills. A member who introduces a bill is known as the bill’s sponsor. A bill may have a number of sponsors or cosponsors. In the U.S. House of Representatives, bills are introduced by depositing a bill in the “hopper”, provided for that purpose in the chamber. In the Senate, bills are usually introduced in a similar manner. Only a small percentage of bills become law. Bills occupy a number of cubbyholes that roughly bespeak their possibilities for passage: bills with little support, noncontroversial bills, controversial bills, major bills, and “must” bills. Noncontroversial bills are bills that are expedited through the process without opposition, generally by the use of special calendars. Controversial bills are those around which swirls political controversy. They are usually major bills, those pieces of legislation that have broad redistributive or regulatory impact. «Must» bills are controversial bills that the legislature generally agrees must be resolved before the end of a legislative session.
I’d like to finish my essay with describing the party organization.
In each house of Congress, and in each house of most state legislatures, each party has a caucus made up of all legislators of that party. The caucuses also establish committees to aid in the performance of their functions. Although the legislative caucuses bear the name of national and state political parties, to a substantial extent they exist separately from these parties. National and state parties are dominated by presidential and gubernatorial politics. The legislative party system serves two functions; legislative governance and legislative consensus building or policy making. As a consensus builder, the caucus serves as a forum for policy and political debate, hammering out critical differences among party members on many issues in order to provide for a unified front to the opposite party on the floor of the chamber.
This unifying role is particularly important given American two-party system, in which legislators in one party may hold a variety of conflicting points of view. In fact, almost every view on every issue is represented in each party. Individuals choose to become Democrats or Republicans for a wide variety of reasons.