An explanation of the US Congress

American news reports quite often talk of things like sufficient votes in Congress, Senators blocking a reform bill, or a power shift in the House of Representatives.

But who are these shadowy characters and institutions?

Together they are the United States Congress – the centre of American power and a political force that is largely unknown or misunderstood.

Simply put, the congress makes laws while the White House runs the country.

But rather than being a physical room itself, congress is the term used to collectively describe America’s two law-making houses – the lower house called the House of Representatives, and the upper house called the Senate.

Both houses (or chambers) are in the Capitol building in Washington, which is located about 1.6 miles from the White House in the suburb of Capitol Hill (named after Capitoline Hill in Rome).

For a bill (a set of proposed rules) to become law, it needs to be passed with a majority vote in both houses before going to the president to sign into law.

Politicians who work in congress have two different titles.

Politicians in the House of Representatives are known as Congressmen or women, whereas those in the Senate are known as Senators.

Technically, members of the Senate are also Congressmen and women, but in practice the term only refers to those in the House of Representatives.

The House of Representatives

With 435 representatives, ‘the House’ is the larger law-making body of the two.

These representatives come from 435 congressional districts around the country, which are divided among the various states in proportion to their population.

For instance, California has 53 representatives, while seven states including Delaware and Alaska have only one.

These representatives must stand for election in their district every two years, as a way of keeping in touch with the voters.

They first have to win the ‘primary’ election to become their party’s candidate, and then must defeat their Democrat or Republican opponent in the main election.

These congressional elections occur at the same time as the presidential election, and again in the midterm elections two years later.

When in power, the representatives’ main job is to create, analyse and pass laws with a 218-vote simple majority.

Their special power over the Senate is that any bill regarding taxes or how government money is spent must be introduced by the House of Representatives.

Furthermore, the same version of any bill must be passed by both houses. And if the Senate makes changes to the House of Representatives’ version, it must go back to the House for a new vote (and vice versa).

The Senate

Instead of states being proportionally represented by population-size, the Senate has two Senators for each state (100 Senators representing 50 states).

And rather than stand for election every two years, they serve six-year terms (which are staggered so that every two years, a third of the seats are elected).

Senators approve international treaties and top presidential appointments like judges.

They also serve on a range of committees that investigate matters of public interest and oversee a lot of what the government does.

In contrast to the House of Representatives which requires a simple majority, the Senate usually requires 60 votes (a three-fifths majority) to pass laws.

If there are more than 50 votes but less than 60, the opponents can effectively delay laws indefinitely by using long speeches and introducing amendments.

This time-wasting tactic is known as a filibuster, and is mostly threatened by opponents if the required 60 votes aren’t there.

Criticism

Questions have been raised about loose campaign finance rules that curb candidate competition and give undue power to wealthy special interests.

Politicians in congress often deliberately block laws just to make the other side look bad or to protect those special interests, rather than considering the interests of their voters.

Some believe they get away with it by effectively drawing up their own congressional district boundaries to help them get re-elected – a practice known as gerrymandering.

As a result, experts suggest that Republicans and Democrats have approximately 190 districts each that are never really contested, leaving only 55 seats that can swing the balance of power in the House.

It’s part of the reason why 90% of politicians in the Senate and the House of Representatives are re-elected every time.

So even though a lot of the country’s damage is done in congress (i.e. the laws causing the financial collapse), much of the voter resentment is simply taken out on the president.

In November, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives as well as 37 seats in the Senate are up for election.

And although it doesn’t get as much coverage internationally, these results are often more influential in terms of America’s performance as a country than the severely-hyped presidential election.

By The Casual Truth

Photo – The Capitol building in Washington D.C.