Mace of the United States House of Representatives

The United States Congress is the legislative co-operative of the federal government and consists of 2 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 House (246 to 188).

Comparing chart

Firm of Representatives versus Senate comparison nautical chart

	House of Representatives	Senate
Introduction	The United States House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the United states Congress. It is ofttimes referred to as the House.	The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United states of america Congress.
Blazon	Lower house. Responds to the needs of the people faster since representatives only have a two year term. Laws dealing with revenue must start in the House.	Upper house. The six twelvemonth term means the Senate can be slower and consider the long-term effects of laws.
Seats	435 voting members, 6 non-voting members: v delegates, 1 resident commissioner	100
Seats apportioned	Based on the population of each land	Two for each state
Length of term	2 years. All 435 seats are up for reelection every two years.	half-dozen years. Here in that location is a continuous body thought. But i/3 of the senate seats are elected every ii years. So merely 34 or 33 senators are up for election at 1 time.
Term limits	None	None
Leadership	Nancy Pelosi (D) (Speaker); elected by the Firm of Representatives.	The President of the Senate [currently Kamala Harris (D) only votes in case of a necktie. When he or she is not available, the President pro tempore, a senator elected past 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)
Bulk 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), Independent (2)
Voting arrangement	First-past-the-post	First-past-the-post
History	Based on Virginia Plan	Based on New Jersey Plan

Size of Senate vs. House

While there are 100 seats in the Senate (2 senators from each state), at that place are 435 seats in the House of Representatives (one representative from each of the various congressional districts, with the number of congressional districts in each state adamant 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. However, equally district borders were never defined definitively, they can and oftentimes 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 one party. Federal and Supreme Court rulings have overturned gerrymandering efforts that take been perceived to be based on race, but otherwise some districts accept been reconfigured to requite one or some other party an extreme political advantage, thus allowing that party to secure more power in the state 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 raise taxes must come up from the Firm, with Senate review and blessing. The Senate, on the other paw, has sole power of approving on strange treaties and cabinet and judicial nominations, including appointments to the Supreme Courtroom.

In cases of impeachment (e.g., Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998), the House determines if charges tin be brought confronting the official, and a uncomplicated majority vote approves or rejects the filing of charges (the impeachment procedure). If approved, the Senate then serves as the investigative/judicial body to determine if the charges merit removing the accused official from his or her function. However, the vote in the Senate has to represent "a meaning majority," usually taken to mean 67 of the 100 votes.

Members of Congress are deemed to be "across the power of arrest" while in role, except in cases of treason, murder, or fraud. This stipulation has been used past representatives and senators to avoid subpoenas and other judicial procedures. A senator can waive the privilege at any time, but a member of the Business firm has to submit his or her petition to a full general vote. If a simple bulk approves, the privilege can be waived.

Congress has the power to subpoena whatsoever citizen. Noncompliance with a congressional subpoena can deport up to a one-yr jail sentence. The instance is heard in a judicial forum, and punishment (a sentence) for those found guilty of "antipathy of Congress" is handled strictly by the judicial organization.

The succession order 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 fifty-fifty expected to attend most 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 day-to-solar day business.

Length of Terms

Senators are elected for a six-twelvemonth term, merely House representatives just have ii-year terms earlier they need to seek reelection. Every member of the House is upward for election or reelection every ii years, but the Senate has a staggered system wherein but one-third of the Senators are up for election or reelection every ii years. It is possible for the House to change to a large extent (in terms of party command) every two years, but changes are slower in the Senate. In both chambers, incumbents take a great advantage over challengers, winning more than than ninety% of all contested races.

Qualifications

To be eligible equally a representative, a person needs to be at least 25 years erstwhile at the time of the election and have lived continuously in the U.S. for at least 7 years. To become a senator, one must exist at least xxx years old at the time of the election and have lived continuously in the U.Southward. for at least 9 years. It is not a requirement to be a natural-born citizen in lodge to get a member of Congress.

Committees

Virtually of Congress' work takes identify in committees. Both the Business firm and Senate have continuing, special, conference, and articulation committees.

Standing committees are permanent and provide longer-serving members with power bases. In the House, central committees include Upkeep, Means and Means, and Armed Services, while the Senate has Appropriations, Foreign Relations, and Judiciary committees. (Some committees exist in both chambers, such as Budget, Armed Services, and Veterans Diplomacy.) Special committees are temporary, formed to investigate, analyze, 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 characteristic members of the House and Senate, with leadership of each commission alternating between members of each chamber.

Committees also accept subcommittees, which are formed to focus more closely on certain problems. Some have become permanent, but most are formed for express time frames. Although useful for zeroing in on key issues, the proliferation of committees, and especially subcommittees, has decentralized the legislative process and significantly slowed it, making Congress less responsive to changing trends and needs.

Debating legislation has stricter rules in the House than in the Senate, applicative at both the commission and whole-body levels. In the House, contend time is restricted and topics are set beforehand, with discussions express to the calendar. In the Senate, the tactic called filibustering is immune. In one case the floor is ceded to a senator, he or she can speak for as long as the senator chooses, on whatsoever topic; no other business organization can be transacted while the person speaks. A delay is used to block potential legislation or Senate decisions until a favorable vote can be called. This has resulted in sometimes comically absurd efforts on the part of senators. For instance, during a 2013 filibuster over the Affordable Care Act, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) read from Green 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 by Thomas Jefferson, created a grouping of representatives based on population sizes, so that more populous states would take a greater voice in legislative problems. Opposing it was the New Jersey Plan that limited each state to the same number of representatives; the plan suggested that at that place be something between two to v representatives per state. The New Jersey Plan was criticized for holding larger states "hostage" to smaller states, as each would accept the same power base of operations. This article in The New Yorker dissects it well:

James Madison and Alexander Hamilton absolutely hated the idea that each state should be entitled to the same number of senators regardless of size. Hamilton was withering on the topic. "As states are a collection of private men," he harangued his fellow-delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, "which ought we to respect virtually, the rights of the people composing them, or of the bogus beings resulting from the composition? Goose egg could be more than preposterous or absurd than to cede the old to the latter."

Per the Connecticut Compromise at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, the United states adopted the bicameral organization of the English Parliament (i.e., Business firm of Lords and Business firm of Commons). The compromise was between the Virginia plan (small state) and the New Bailiwick of jersey proposal (large state), ii 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 business firm (House of Representatives) will be based on a population number (called a "district") while the upper house (Senate) would contain ii representative from each state. It was also decided that all classes would exist eligible to get senators, subject to age and residency restrictions.

References

• Congress.gov
• The System of Congress - Cliff Notes
• Wikipedia: United states House of Representatives
• Wikipedia: United states Senate
• Wikipedia: Structure of the United States Congress

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