Venn Diagram of the House of Representatives and the Senate
The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government and consists of two houses: the lower house known as the House of Representatives and the upper house known as the Senate. The words "Congress" and "House" are sometimes used colloquially to refer to the Business firm of Representatives. There are 535 members of Congress: 100 senators and 435 representatives in the House.
Republicans currently control the Senate (54 to 44 Democrats) and the Firm (246 to 188).
Comparing chart
 | Business firm of Representatives | Senate |
|---|---|---|
| Introduction | The Usa Business firm of Representatives is i of the two houses of the Usa Congress. It is frequently referred to as the House. | The United States Senate is the upper firm of the bicameral legislature of the Usa Congress. |
| Type | Lower house. Responds to the needs of the people faster since representatives merely have a ii yr term. Laws dealing with acquirement must kickoff in the House. | Upper house. The 6 year term means the Senate can be slower and consider the long-term effects of laws. |
| Seats | 435 voting members, 6 non-voting members: 5 delegates, 1 resident commissioner | 100 |
| Seats apportioned | Based on the population of each land | 2 for each state |
| Length of term | 2 years. All 435 seats are upwardly for reelection every two years. | 6 years. Here there is a continuous body idea. Merely i/3 of the senate seats are elected every two years. So only 34 or 33 senators are up for election at one time. |
| Term limits | None | None |
| Leadership | Nancy Pelosi (D) (Speaker); elected past the House of Representatives. | The President of the Senate [currently Kamala Harris (D) only votes in example of a necktie. When he or she is non available, the President pro tempore, a senator elected by the Senate [currently Patrick Leahy (D)] takes over on his behalf. |
| Majority Leader | Steny Hoyer (D) | Chuck Schumer (D) |
| Minority Leader | Kevin McCarthy (R) | Mitch McConnell (R) |
| Majority Whip | James Clyburn (D) | John Thune (R) |
| Minority Whip | Steve Scalise (R) | Dick Durbin (D) |
| Political groups | Democratic (219), Republican (211), 5 vacant seats | Republican (48), Democratic (48), Contained (ii) |
| Voting system | First-past-the-mail service | Start-past-the-post |
| History | Based on Virginia Program | Based on New Jersey Plan |
Size of Senate vs. House
While there are 100 seats in the Senate (two senators from each land), there are 435 seats in the House of Representatives (i representative from each of the various congressional districts, with the number of congressional districts in each land determined by the population).
The Reapportionment Act of 1929 set the final number of the House at the current 435, with commune sizes adjusted according to population growth. Yet, as district borders were never defined definitively, they can and frequently do stretch into peculiar shapes due to a practice known as gerrymandering.
Gerrymandering is used at the state legislature level to create districts that overwhelmingly favor ane party. Federal and Supreme Court rulings take overturned gerrymandering efforts that have been perceived to exist based on race, but otherwise some districts take been reconfigured to give one or another political party an extreme political reward, thus allowing that party to secure more power in the country and in the House of Representatives.
A line graph showing which political parties have controlled the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate over the years. Click to enlarge.
Roles of Representatives and Senators
The House plays a major role in government, mainly that of initiating all revenue-based legislation. Any proposal to heighten taxes must come from the Firm, with Senate review and approval. The Senate, on the other paw, has sole power of approval on foreign treaties and chiffonier and judicial nominations, including appointments to the Supreme Court.
In cases of impeachment (e.chiliad., Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998), the House determines if charges can exist brought against the official, and a simple bulk vote approves or rejects the filing of charges (the impeachment procedure). If approved, the Senate then serves equally the investigative/judicial body to make up one's mind if the charges merit removing the accused official from his or her function. However, the vote in the Senate has to represent "a meaning bulk," usually taken to mean 67 of the 100 votes.
Members of Congress are deemed to be "beyond the ability of arrest" while in office, except in cases of treason, murder, or fraud. This stipulation has been used by representatives and senators to avoid subpoenas and other judicial procedures. A senator can waive the privilege at any time, but a member of the House has to submit his or her petition to a full general vote. If a simple majority approves, the privilege tin can be waived.
Congress has the power to subpoena any citizen. Noncompliance with a congressional subpoena can bear upward to a one-yr jail sentence. The case is heard in a judicial forum, and punishment (a sentence) for those plant guilty of "antipathy of Congress" is handled strictly by the judicial system.
The succession club in the federal government is president, vice president and so Speaker of the House, the leader of the representatives. The vice president is considered the "president" of the Senate, though he or she is not required or even expected to attend nigh Senate sessions. The Senate elects a "President Pro Tempore," often the senior, or longest-serving, senator of the bulk political party, who is responsible for managing mean solar day-to-day business.
Length of Terms
Senators are elected for a six-twelvemonth term, but House representatives simply take 2-yr terms before they demand to seek reelection. Every member of the House is up for election or reelection every 2 years, but the Senate has a staggered system wherein only i-third of the Senators are up for ballot or reelection every 2 years. It is possible for the House to change to a large extent (in terms of party control) every two years, but changes are slower in the Senate. In both chambers, incumbents take a bully advantage over challengers, winning more than 90% of all contested races.
Qualifications
To exist eligible as a representative, a person needs to be at least 25 years old at the fourth dimension of the ballot and take lived continuously in the U.S. for at to the lowest degree vii years. To go a senator, ane must be at least xxx years quondam at the fourth dimension of the election and have lived continuously in the U.Southward. for at least ix years. It is not a requirement to be a natural-born citizen in order to become a member of Congress.
Committees
Most of Congress' work takes place in committees. Both the House and Senate have continuing, special, briefing, and joint committees.
Continuing committees are permanent and provide longer-serving members with power bases. In the Firm, fundamental committees include Budget, Ways and Means, and War machine, while the Senate has Appropriations, Foreign Relations, and Judiciary committees. (Some committees exist in both chambers, such every bit Budget, Armed Services, and Veterans Diplomacy.) Special committees are temporary, formed to investigate, clarify, and/or evaluate specific bug. Conference committees are formed when legislation is canonical in both the House and Senate; they finalize the language in legislation. Joint committees feature members of the House and Senate, with leadership of each committee alternate betwixt members of each chamber.
Committees also take subcommittees, which are formed to focus more closely on sure issues. Some have go permanent, but most are formed for limited time frames. Although useful for zeroing in on key issues, the proliferation of committees, and especially subcommittees, has decentralized the legislative procedure and significantly slowed information technology, making Congress less responsive to irresolute trends and needs.
Debating legislation has stricter rules in the Firm than in the Senate, applicable at both the committee and whole-body levels. In the House, debate time is restricted and topics are set beforehand, with discussions limited to the calendar. In the Senate, the tactic called filibustering is immune. Once the floor is ceded to a senator, he or she tin can speak for as long every bit the senator chooses, on whatsoever topic; no other business can be transacted while the person speaks. A delay is used to block potential legislation or Senate decisions until a favorable vote can be chosen. This has resulted in sometimes comically absurd efforts on the office of senators. For example, during a 2013 filibuster over the Affordable Intendance Act, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) read from Greenish Eggs and Ham.
Origins of House and Senate
In general, the House represents the population, while the Senate represents a "landed/large property" populace. In colonial times, the proposed "legislative body" had two models. The Virginia Plan, endorsed past Thomas Jefferson, created a group of representatives based on population sizes, so that more than populous states would accept a greater vocalism in legislative issues. Opposing it was the New Jersey Plan that express each state to the same number of representatives; the plan suggested that there be something betwixt two to five representatives per land. The New Jersey Plan was criticized for holding larger states "hostage" to smaller states, as each would have the same power base. This article in The New Yorker dissects it well:
James Madison and Alexander Hamilton absolutely hated the idea that each country should exist entitled to the aforementioned number of senators regardless of size. Hamilton was withering on the topic. "As states are a collection of individual men," he harangued his fellow-delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, "which ought we to respect most, the rights of the people composing them, or of the artificial beings resulting from the composition? Nothing could be more preposterous or absurd than to sacrifice the former to the latter."
Per the Connecticut Compromise at the Ramble Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, the United States adopted the bicameral organisation of the English Parliament (i.east., House of Lords and House of Commons). The compromise was between the Virginia plan (small country) and the New Jersey proposal (large state), two competing ideas on whether each state should get equal representation in the federal government or whether representation should be based on population. The compromise established that representatives in the lower house (Business firm of Representatives) volition be based on a population number (called a "district") while the upper house (Senate) would contain two representative from each state. Information technology was as well decided that all classes would be eligible to become senators, subject area to age and residency restrictions.
References
- Congress.gov
- The Arrangement of Congress - Cliff Notes
- Wikipedia: United States House of Representatives
- Wikipedia: United states Senate
- Wikipedia: Structure of the The states Congress
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