Congress

                Initially, the Framers’ idea of Congress’s authority was much narrower than it is today. Those who had attended the Constitutional Convention had only wanted to create a legislative body that would be able to make laws and raise and spend revenues. The changes in the demands made on the national government over time have allowed the executive and judicial branches to gain powers at the expense of the legislative branch, making it difficult for Congress to maintain its initial role.

                The Constitution created a bicameral legislature with members of each body to be elected differently, to represent different constituencies. Each state is represented in the Senate by two senators, regardless of the state’s population. The number of representatives each state sends to the House of Representatives, in contrast, is determined by that state’s population, so after every U.S. Census, district lines must be redrawn to reflect population shifts. Each state is allotted its share of these 435 representatives based on its population. After each U.S. Census, the number of seats assigned to each state is adjusted by a constitutionally mandated process.  After seats are assigned, congressional districts have to be redrawn by state legislatures to reflect population shifts to ensure that each member in Congress represents approximately the same number of residents.

Senators are elected for six-year terms, and originally they were chosen by state legislatures because the Framers intended for senators to represent their states’ interests in the Senate. Members of the House of Representatives are elected to two-year terms by a vote of the eligible electorate in each congressional district. The Framers expected that House members would be more responsible to the people, both because they were elected directly by them and because they were up for reelection every two years. Congress is also given formal law-making powers in the Constitution. But, presidents issue proclamations and executive orders with the force of law bureaucrats issue quasi-legislative rules and are charged with enforcing laws, rules, and regulations and the Supreme Court and lower federal courts render opinions that generate principles that also have the force of law.

                Political parties are extremely important in the way Congress is organized. The Speaker of the House is usually a member of the majority party, and other leadership roles such as majority and minority leaders and whips are also controlled by the parties. The Speaker presides over the House of Representatives, oversees House business, and is the official spokesperson for the House, as well as being second in the line of presidential succession. After the Speaker, the next most powerful people in the House are the majority and minority leaders. The majority leader is the head of the party controlling the most seats in the House of Representatives or the Senate. The minority leader is the head of the party with the second highest number of elected representatives in the House of Representatives or the Senate. The official chair of the Senate is the president pro tempore, who is selected by the majority party and presides over the Senate in the absence of the vice president. The true leader of the Senate is the majority leader, elected to the position by the majority party. The minority leader and the Republican and Democratic whips round out the leadership positions in the Senate and perform functions similar to those of their House counterparts.

In addition to the party leaders, Congress has a several committees and subcommittees that cover the entire range of government policies. There are four types of congressional committees: standing; joint; conference; and select . Standing committees are the committees to which bills are referred for consideration; they are so called because they continue from one Congress to the next. . Joint committees are standing committees that include members from both houses of Congress and are set up to conduct investigations or special studies. They focus public attention on major matters, such as the economy, taxation, or scandals. Conference committees are special joint committees created to reconcile differences in bills passed by the House and Senate. A conference committee is madeup of members from the House and Senate committees that originally considered the bill. . Select committees are temporary committees appointed for specific purposes, such as investigating the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.