Leaders are elected by the two-party conferences in each chamber—the House Democratic Conference and House Republican Conference. These conferences meet regularly and separately not only to elect their leaders but also to discuss important issues and strategies for moving policy forward. Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky a , the majority leader in the Senate, and Republican Paul Ryan of Wisconsin b , the Speaker of the House, are currently the most powerful congressional leaders in their respective chambers.
The most important leadership position in the House is elected by the entire body of representatives—the Speaker of the House the only House officer currently mentioned in the Constitution. The Constitution does not require the Speaker to be a member of the House. The Speaker is the presiding officer, the administrative head of the House, the partisan leader of the majority party in the House, and an elected representative of a single congressional district.
Since , the holder of this position has been second in line after the vice president to succeed the president in an emergency.
The Speaker serves until his or her party loses a majority of seats, or until he or she is voted out of the position or chooses to step down. The Speaker wields significant power, such as the ability to assign bills to committees and decide when a bill will be presented to the floor for a vote.
The Speaker also rules on House procedures, often delegating authority for certain duties to other members. Finally, when the Senate joins the House in a joint session the Speaker presides over these sessions because they are usually held in the House of Representatives. Below the Speaker, the majority and minority conferences each elect two leadership positions arranged in hierarchical order.
At the top of the hierarchy are the floor leaders of each party. These are generally referred to as the majority and minority leaders. The minority leader has a visible if not always a powerful position.
The majority leader also has considerable power and historically is in the best position to assume the speakership when the current Speaker steps down. Whips make the rounds in Congress, telling members the position of the leadership and the collective voting strategy, and sometimes wave various carrots and sticks in front of recalcitrant members to bring them in line.
The remainder of the leadership positions include a handful of chairs and assistantships. The Senate also has majority and minority leaders and whips, each with duties very similar to their counterparts in the House. However, the Senate does not have a Speaker. The duties and powers held by the Speaker in the House fall to the majority leader in the Senate. Apart from this and very few other exceptions, the president of the Senate does not actually operate in the Senate.
Instead, the Constitution allows for the Senate to choose a president pro tempore —usually the most senior senator of the majority party—to preside over the Senate.
Despite the title, the job is largely powerless. The real power in the Senate is in the hands of the majority leader and the minority leader. Because of the traditions of unlimited debate and the filibuster , the majority and minority leaders often occupy the floor together in an attempt to keep things moving along. At times, their interactions are intense and partisan, but for the Senate to get things done, they must cooperate to get the sixty votes needed to run this super-majority legislative institution.
With members in Congress and a seemingly infinite number of domestic, international, economic, agricultural, regulatory, criminal, and military issues to deal with at any given moment, the two chambers must divide their work based on specialization. Congress does this through the committee system. Specialized committees or subcommittees in both the House and the Senate are where bills originate and most of the work that sets the congressional agenda takes place.
Committees are roughly approximate to a bureaucratic department in the executive branch. There are well over two hundred committees, subcommittees, select committees, and joint committees in the Congress. The core committees are called standing committees. There are twenty standing committees in the House and sixteen in the Senate.
Members of both parties compete for positions on various committees. They are typically filled by majority and minority members to roughly approximate the ratio of majority to minority members in the respective chambers, although committees are chaired by the majority party. Committees and their chairs have a lot of power in the legislative process, including the ability to stop a bill from going to the floor the full chamber for a vote. Indeed, most bills die in committee. But when a committee is eager to develop legislation, it takes a number of methodical steps.
It will reach out to relevant agencies for comment on resolutions to the problem at hand and even hold hearings with experts to collect information. In the Senate, committee hearings are also held to confirm presidential appointments. Next the committee meets to discuss amendments and legislative language. Finally the committee will send the bill to the full chamber with a committee report.
Four types of committees exist in the House and the Senate. The first is the standing, or permanent, committee. This committee is the first call for proposed bills, fewer than 10 percent of which are reported out of committee to the floor. The second type is the joint committee. Joint committee members are appointed from both the House and Senate to explore key issues such as the economy and taxation. However, joint committees have no bill-referral authority whatsoever—they are informational only.
A conference committee reconciles different bills passed in both the House and Senate. The conference committees are appointed on an ad hoc temporary basis when a bill passes the House and Senate in different forms. Ad hoc, special, or select committees are temporary committees set up to address specific topics. These types of committees often conduct special investigations. Members of Congress bring to their roles different backgrounds, interests, and levels of expertise, and try to match these to committee positions.
For example, House members from states with large agricultural interests will seek positions on the Agriculture Committee. Senate members with a background in banking or finance may seek positions on the Senate Finance Committee. Committee chairs are very powerful. A chair can convene a meeting when members of the minority are absent or adjourn a meeting when things are not progressing as the majority leadership wishes.
Chairs can hear a bill even when the rest of the committee objects. They do not hold these powerful positions indefinitely, however. In the House, rules prevent committee chairs from serving more than six consecutive years and from serving as the chair of a subcommittee at the same time. A senator may serve only six years as chair of a committee but may, in some instances, also serve as a chair or ranking member of another committee.
Because the Senate is much smaller than the House, senators hold more committee assignments than House members.
There are sixteen standing committees in the Senate, and each position must be filled. Initiatives in foreign policy usually are taken by the president, but Congress is also involved in the making of foreign policy through its power to tax and spend, to finance foreign policies, to declare war, and to ratify treaties which require the approval of two-thirds of the Senate.
Congress placed unusual limitations on the conduct of foreign relations in when it passed the War Powers Act, restricting the president's authority to commit U. In various other ways, Congress influences the work of the executive branch. Senate confirmation is required for presidential nominations of cabinet officials, ambassadors, federal judges, and certain other officials.
Congressional committees investigate executive agencies and officials and regularly review the administrative implementation of congressionally enacted programs. Ultimately, Congress has the power to remove the president from office through impeachment, a process in which the House investigates alleged wrongdoing and votes on the charges, and the Senate tries the president on these charges.
In , Andrew Johnson was impeached by the House and tried by the Senate, narrowly escaping conviction. Richard M. Nixon resigned in after the House Judiciary Committee recommended impeachment charges. Bill Clinton was impeached December on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice but won acquittal in the Senate by a comfortable margin. From time to time Congress sets up special committees to investigate subjects that do not fall directly in the jurisdiction of its standing committees.
Its power of investigation is considered one of the essential functions of Congress. Special committees have been created to investigate criminal charges against members, to study social and economic problems, to probe into unethical political activities, and to publicize controversial issues. Famous special committees were the House Committee on Un-American Activities, set up in to investigate fascist, Communist, and other extremist political organizations, the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities commonly known as the Watergate committee , set up in , and the House and Senate select committees investigating the Iran-contra affair in In the s, Congress accelerated its use of the legislative veto, a device originated in the s by which provisions were written into a law requiring the executive to seek congressional approval before taking actions authorized under that law.
By the s, legislative veto provisions had been included in more than laws, including the War Powers Act. This practice came under mounting attack from presidents and other executive branch officials, and eventually it was challenged in the federal courts. In the U. Supreme Court ruled that the legislative veto was an unconstitutional intrusion by the legislature into the executive sphere. A line-item veto, by which a president could veto isolated portions of a law, was enacted by Congress in but ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in Congress and the Public Members of Congress live and work under great pressure.
House members, whose terms are only two years, must start planning for their next campaign as soon as they are elected to the first one.
Members commonly travel weekly to their districts, maintain staff and offices there, send newsletters to their constituents, and campaign vigorously for reelection even when their districts are considered "safe" seats. They make extensive use of free postal services and the printed reports of the Congressional Record to show their constituents that they are active in their behalf. Members are also constantly canvassed by lobbyists representing special-interest groups.
Under pressure from the public to open up its deliberations, the House in authorized television coverage of its proceedings on C-SPAN, the public-affairs network. The Senate followed suit in In the early s, Congress also took up reform proposals relating to campaign finance and lobbyists'contributions. In the House banking facility was closed after revelations of members' overdrafts. Bibliography: Arnold, R. Calvin, eds. Download the PDF from here. Create a List. List Name Save.
Rename this List. Rename this list. List Name Delete from selected List. Save to. Save to:. Save Create a List. Create a list. Save Back. Congress of the United States.
Grades 6—8 , 9— The Congress of the United States, the nation's lawmaking body, is made up of two houses, the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The main power of Congress, as set forth in the U. Constitution, is to make laws that, when signed by the president, become the law of the land, governing American life.
Congress also has the responsibility to determine that public policies are being administered by the government in accordance with the law and as efficiently and effectively as possible. The news reporting of congressional hearings, debates, and other activities provides citizens with much information about what their government is doing. Congress sometimes is required to perform specialized judicial and electoral functions. It acts as a judicial body in the process of impeachment and removal of the president, and it has the power to choose the president and vice-president should no candidate gain a majority of electoral votes following a presidential election.
Samuel C. Must have been a citizen of the United States for 9 years. Congressional Leadership I. Selected by majority party. Usually most senior member of the Senate majority party. Majority Whip. Policy Committee. Reviews legislative proposals and makes recommendations to senators of the majority party. Steering Committee. Minority Leader. Chairman of the Conference. Committee on Committees. Assists the leader, rounds up votes, heads large group of deputy and assistant whips.
Steering and Policy Committee. Assists the leader, rounds up votes, heads large forum of deputy and assistant whips. The following is a brief summary: To levy and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises. To borrow money. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, among the states, and with Indian tribes. To establish rules for naturalization that is, becoming a citizen and bankruptcy.
To coin money, set its value, and punish counterfeiting.
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