A House Member Represents a District of About _____ People

The Usa Congress is fabricated upwards of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Learn more about the powers of the Legislative Branch of the federal government of the United States.

Established past Commodity I of the Constitution, the Legislative Branch consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate, which together form the Us Congress. The Constitution grants Congress the sole authority to enact legislation and declare war, the right to ostend or reject many Presidential appointments, and substantial investigative powers.

The House of Representatives is made upwards of 435 elected members, divided among the 50 states in proportion to their full population. In add-on, there are 6 non-voting members, representing the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and four other territories of the United states of america. The presiding officer of the bedroom is the Speaker of the House, elected by the Representatives. He or she is third in the line of succession to the Presidency.

Members of the House are elected every two years and must be 25 years of historic period, a U.South. citizen for at to the lowest degree seven years, and a resident of the state (but non necessarily the district) they represent.

The House has several powers assigned exclusively to it, including the power to initiate revenue bills, impeach federal officials, and elect the President in the case of an electoral college tie.

The Senate is equanimous of 100 Senators, 2 for each state. Until the ratification of the 17th Amendment in 1913, Senators were called by country legislatures, not past popular vote. Since and then, they accept been elected to six-year terms by the people of each state. Senator's terms are staggered so that about one-third of the Senate is upwardly for reelection every 2 years. Senators must be 30 years of age, U.South. citizens for at least ix years, and residents of the state they stand for.

The Vice President of the United States serves equally President of the Senate and may cast the decisive vote in the consequence of a necktie in the Senate.

The Senate has the sole power to confirm those of the President's appointments that require consent, and to ratify treaties. In that location are, however, two exceptions to this dominion: the House must also corroborate appointments to the Vice Presidency and any treaty that involves foreign merchandise. The Senate also tries impeachment cases for federal officials referred to it by the House.

In order to pass legislation and send it to the President for his signature, both the House and the Senate must pass the same pecker by majority vote. If the President vetoes a bill, they may override his veto by passing the bill again in each sleeping room with at least two-thirds of each trunk voting in favor.

The Legislative Process | Powers of Congress | Regime Oversight

The Legislative Process

The first step in the legislative procedure is the introduction of a bill to Congress. Anyone can write it, but only members of Congress can introduce legislation. Some important bills are traditionally introduced at the request of the President, such as the annual federal budget. During the legislative procedure, however, the initial bill can undergo drastic changes.

Later being introduced, a bill is referred to the appropriate committee for review. There are 17 Senate committees, with 70 subcommittees, and 23 House committees, with 104 subcommittees. The committees are not set in stone, just change in number and course with each new Congress every bit required for the efficient consideration of legislation. Each committee oversees a specific policy area, and the subcommittees have on more than specialized policy areas. For example, the House Committee on Ways and Means includes subcommittees on Social Security and Merchandise.

A beak is offset considered in a subcommittee, where it may exist accepted, amended, or rejected entirely. If the members of the subcommittee agree to move a bill frontwards, information technology is reported to the full committee, where the procedure is repeated again. Throughout this stage of the process, the committees and subcommittees phone call hearings to investigate the merits and flaws of the bill. They invite experts, advocates, and opponents to appear before the committee and provide testimony, and can hogtie people to appear using amendment power if necessary.

If the full committee votes to approve the neb, information technology is reported to the floor of the House or Senate, and the majority party leadership decides when to place the bill on the calendar for consideration. If a neb is particularly pressing, it may be considered right away. Others may wait for months or never be scheduled at all.

When the bill comes up for consideration, the House has a very structured debate process. Each member who wishes to speak only has a few minutes, and the number and kind of amendments are usually limited. In the Senate, debate on most bills is unlimited — Senators may speak to bug other than the beak under consideration during their speeches, and any amendment can be introduced. Senators tin use this to filibuster bills under consideration, a procedure past which a Senator delays a vote on a pecker — and by extension its passage — by refusing to stand downwards. A supermajority of threescore Senators can break a filibuster past invoking cloture, or the cession of contend on the neb, and forcing a vote. Once fence is over, the votes of a simple majority passes the beak.

A neb must pass both houses of Congress before it goes to the President for consideration. Though the Constitution requires that the two bills have the exact same diction, this rarely happens in practice. To bring the bills into alignment, a Conference Committee is convened, consisting of members from both chambers. The members of the committee produce a conference written report, intended equally the terminal version of the nib. Each chamber and then votes again to approve the conference study. Depending on where the bill originated, the final text is then enrolled past either the Clerk of the House or the Secretarial assistant of the Senate, and presented to the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate for their signatures. The bill is then sent to the President.

When receiving a bill from Congress, the President has several options. If the President agrees essentially with the bill, he or she may sign it into constabulary, and the bill is and then printed in the Statutes at Large. If the President believes the law to be bad policy, he may veto it and send it back to Congress. Congress may override the veto with a two-thirds vote of each chamber, at which point the bill becomes law and is printed.

There are ii other options that the President may exercise. If Congress is in session and the President takes no activeness within 10 days, the bill becomes constabulary. If Congress adjourns before 10 days are up and the President takes no action, then the pecker dies and Congress may not vote to override. This is called a pocket veto, and if Congress even so wants to pass the legislation, they must brainstorm the entire process anew.

Powers of Congress

Congress, as 1 of the iii coequal branches of government, is ascribed significant powers by the Constitution. All legislative power in the regime is vested in Congress, significant that information technology is the only role of the authorities that tin can make new laws or modify existing laws. Executive Branch agencies issue regulations with the full force of constabulary, merely these are only nether the dominance of laws enacted by Congress. The President may veto bills Congress passes, only Congress may likewise override a veto past a two-thirds vote in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Article I of the Constitution enumerates the powers of Congress and the specific areas in which information technology may legislate. Congress is as well empowered to enact laws deemed "necessary and proper" for the execution of the powers given to whatever part of the regime under the Constitution.

Role of Congress's exercise of legislative authority is the establishment of an annual upkeep for the regime. To this finish, Congress levies taxes and tariffs to provide funding for essential government services. If enough money cannot be raised to fund the government, and then Congress may also authorize borrowing to brand up the divergence. Congress tin too mandate spending on specific items: legislatively directed spending, ordinarily known as "earmarks," specifies funds for a item project, rather than for a regime bureau.

Both chambers of Congress have extensive investigative powers, and may compel the production of evidence or testimony toward whatever end they deem necessary. Members of Congress spend much of their fourth dimension property hearings and investigations in commission. Refusal to cooperate with a Congressional amendment can result in charges of antipathy of Congress, which could consequence in a prison term.

The Senate maintains several powers to itself: It ratifies treaties by a two-thirds supermajority vote and confirms the appointments of the President by a bulk vote. The consent of the House of Representatives is also necessary for the ratification of trade agreements and the confirmation of the Vice President.

Congress also holds the sole ability to declare war.

Government Oversight

Oversight of the executive branch is an important Congressional check on the President's ability and a balance confronting his discretion in implementing laws and making regulations.

A major way that Congress conducts oversight is through hearings. The Firm Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs are both devoted to overseeing and reforming government operations, and each committee conducts oversight in its policy area.

Congress also maintains an investigative organization, the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Founded in 1921 equally the General Accounting Office, its original mission was to inspect the budgets and fiscal statements sent to Congress past the Secretary of the Treasury and the Manager of the Office of Direction and Budget. Today, the GAO audits and generates reports on every aspect of the government, ensuring that taxpayer dollars are spent with the effectiveness and efficiency that the American people deserve.

The executive branch also polices itself: Sixty-4 Inspectors General, each responsible for a different agency, regularly audit and report on the agencies to which they are fastened.

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Source: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/1600/legislative-branch

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