THE STRUCTURE OF THE US CONGRESS
Introduction
Article 1 of the US constitution,
describes the structure of the US Congress. The Congress of America is one
of the powerful legislative body that is bicameral in nature. The lower house is
called the House of Representatives, based on population while the upper
house is called the Senate, which has two members from each state.
House of
representative
The House of
Representatives of the US Congress meant to be the “people’s house “or the part of government
most responsive to public opinion. The number of members of the House of Representatives
is based on the population of the country. Each state gets its share of
membership based on the population of that particular state. California has the
highest representation in HOR, 54 while Montana, Alaska has one, one membership
in the chamber respectively. Each district is represented by one member, while
the total membership of the House of Representatives is 441 including six
nonvoting members thus elected members that return from a constituency are 435.
The tenure of the house is two years. Each candidate returns to its
constituency for re-election after two years.
Senate
Senate is the upper house of US Congress. It is considered as
the house of statesmen, wise and experienced persons. As to ensure check on
democracy on 1/3 of the Senate elect each after two years. Another reason for
this 1/3 election every two years is that the thinking of the members of the Senate
must change continuously and not a single group remain dominant for a long
time.
Representative of
senate
The total membership of
the senate is 100 and each state has two Senators in the Senate. The term of
the Senate is six years. The main reason for the long term is to insulate the Senators
from the changing public opinions so that they can work independently.
For nearly 100 years Senators
were elected by state legislative assembly but after 17 amendments (1917), now
people have the power to elect the Senators of their states directly. A person
must be of 30 years, to serve in the senate.
The effect of equal
representation
Each state has equal
representation in the Senate. Each state is represented by two members. The
reason behind equal representations is to protect the interest of small states.
If the Senate too were based on population, the small states were then bulldozed by
the big states. This thread was sensed by the framers of the constitution thus
equal representation was given to each state despite its population.
Political partied and
leadership in congress
Although the political
party system is not mentioned in the constitution of the USA. However, after 1850
the parties system emerged in the United State politics. There are/were dozens
of political parties in the country but there are only two mainstream and
national parties, the democrats and republican, those have roots in every
region of the country and influence the politics of the country. In congress,
one party occupied the majority seats while other the minority. Based on their
proportion of seats, each party chooses their in-house leaders, organized votes
and frame strategies. At the start of each session, the parties members in the
congress meet in a caucus, an informal meeting of people with a common
interest, caucus consists of members interested in particular issues.
House of
representative leadership
In the House of Representatives, the leader of the house is the speaker of the house who is
elected from the majority party in the house. Speaker responsibilities are to
schedule the session, count the votes on the floor and maintain the decorum of
the house. The majority party leader elects from the majority party of the
house. The majority party leader works closely with the speaker and leaders of
the Caucus. There is also a minority leader, which represents the minority
party of the house. The leaders of both minority and majority parties have a
great deal of control over their party members in the house because they are
the leaders of their respective parties. Moreover, they have the power to
reward or punish the members by awarding the membership of the committees of
their interest.
Senate leadership
Constitutionally, the
vice president of the country presides the senate session. But in reality, the
most senior member of the senate, know as President Pro-Term, preside the
session in the absences of the Vice President. Here also majority party has
majority leader and minority leader for the minority party but their power of
awarding the committee to the party members are very limited than the powers of
their counterpart in the House of Representative.
Floor debate rule
In both houses,
the majority vote is required for a bill to pass but the method and rule for
debate and voting are different from each other greatly.
The debate in the
house of representative
Due to the large size
of the house, the bill must first go to the House Rule Committee. The House
Rule Committee studies the bill and sends rules along with the bill to house
that includes how many debates and how many amendments to be made.
Debate in senate
- The Senator is supposed to be free and experienced legislators, so they are allowed to debate as much as they want and propose as many amendments as they want. This sometimes leads to the Filibuster, which a tactic is used by the minority party to hold the debate as long as they want until the majority vote against it. The Filibuster is stopped by Cluster, sixty votes against the Filibuster. This is an uncommon practice but a threat to the majority party from the minority.
Filibuster is a stuff of legends. Former Senator Storm
Thurmond of South Carolina holds the record for the longest Filibuster,
Twenty-Four hours and Eighteen minutes against the Civil Rights Bill in 1957.
Committee little
legislature
Members of the congress serve
on many committee and sub-committee that are called Mini Legislature, due to
its powers and influences. This committee does most of the legislation
work and therefore, has great power in determining. The standing committee decides
which bill gets review and in shaping the laws in which way the bill my pass.
The committee system allows congress to operate more efficiently through the division of labor and specialization.
Types of committee
Major type of
congressional committee:
- Standing committee
Committees which are related to
permanent legislative issues.
2 2. Conference committee
The leaders of both houses form a committee
to build consensus.
3 3. Select committee
Committee forms for a limited period and
a specific purpose.
4 4. Joint committee
Committee consists of members from both
houses
Congressional standing
committee
Congressional standing
committees have great powers in legislature. Many drafts of the bill are
introduced in congress but only a few moves for voting to congress. Every draft
of the bill is first forwarded to the standing committee and the committee
decides whether the bill fulfills the rule and regulation of the congress or not.
If it fulfills, the draft along with the rule of debates and possible amendments
move to the congress for debate and voting.
0 Comments