Legislative Branch Vs Executive Branch

Today in America there is the Executive Branch of government, the Judicial Branch, and the Legislative Branch. We are going to primarily focus on the relationship between the Executive and Legislative Branches. There are limited powers, separation of powers, checks and balances, popular sovereignty, and federalism. Many question whether there is an imbalance of power or a balance of power, also whether these two branches truly work together. In both branches there are limited powers. The Legislative Branch of government is the law making branch. It is divided into two houses, House of Representatives and Senate. The House of Representatives has 435 members in total, from all fifty states. Depending on the population of the state, that determines …show more content…
The Legislative branch has all their regular powers that they can use to check up on the president. They can make a law to limit presidential actions. For example, the 1974 War Powers Act which limited President Nixon. The Legislative Branch also can use the power of the purse to check on the president. The power of the purse is the power of one group to control the actions of another group by withholding funds. So if they decide they do not want to fund one of the president's agencies, then he most likely will have to close that agency. The Legislative Branch also has oversight. Having oversight they can call for hearings and also call in members of the bureaucracy and question them under oath. They can ask for reports and report backs from different bureaucratic agencies. They can also impeach, the House would have to vote to impeach and the Senate would have to have a trial to be able to remove someone from Office. A prime example of this is when Bill Clinton was impeached by the House. However, the Senate did not find him guilty, so he was not removed from Office, but rather was let off the hook. The Senate also does a lot for the President. They ratify his treaties, or they vote on them. They also must confirm all nominees that he wants to appoint or he would like to run different departments. The Executive Branch likewise has all their regular powers as well. They can also sign and veto different …show more content…
There are 535 members in this branch and these members are divided between the House and the Senate and separated by party. For these reasons it makes it difficult to truly exercise these powers granted to the branch to their full potential. The House and The Senate often get caught in debates and disagreements causing for not much to get done, and the president can then step in. The President can take this action because he has no one to debate, he doesn't have to debate himself over power. However, these actions are quite limited, as there are restrictions such as boundaries that he can cross and how much power he really has. Another question presented is do the Legislative Branch and the Executive Branch really work together? The political party who holds power in the Executive Branch will most likely work with the same party in the Legislative Branch. However, if there is a unified government, in which case the same party controls both the Executive and Legislative Branch, then work is made to be much easier. On the other hand if it is divided it can be very hard to get tasks accomplished between the two branches. The Legislative Branch and the Executive Branch have many different powers and responsibilities. Depending on many factors such as which party is in power in which branch, and the task at hand, the branches have the potential