Legislative Branch Research Paper

Decent Essays
Article 1 The Legislative Branch of the United States has a very important role in our government. The structure of our Congress is bicameral which means it has two chambers, a Senate and House of Representatives. Those are also the two parts of the Legislative Branch government. The Senate consists of one hundred members which means that there are two from each of the fifty states. Anyone can run for senate member as long as they meet the requirements. The person running for this office must be at least thirty years of age, be a U.S. citizen for nine years, and live in the state they are running for office. The starting date each year for Senate is on the first of January. Members of the senate have unlimited six year terms. Senators …show more content…
President Pro Tempore is usually the senator who has served the longest in the majority party. President Pro Tempore leads the senate in any absence of the Vice President and fills in for him. The House of Representatives consists of 435 members. The amount of members per state varies depending on the population. That means that if the state has a big population there are more representatives than a small population. Anyone can run for office as long as they qualify. The qualifications are, you must be at least twenty-five years of age, be a U.S. citizen for seven years, and live in the state you are running for representative. The terms are for four years, but are unlimited. The House of Representatives begin meetings and sessions on the first week of January. An extremely important officer is the Speaker of the House which is elected by the House of Representatives. This office has the power of impeachment, initiating tax increases, and start bills to raise a state's income. A bill becomes a law after it has gone through either the committee of the Senate or the House of Representatives. The committee can either agree, rewrite, or reject the bill. The Senate or House of Representatives debate and then vote on the revised bill

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    For the senate, the number of senators is an equal number, it being two for each state. To prevent concentration of power, the constitution divides the federal government into three branches (legislative, executive, and judicial). The congress shall consist of a…

    • 532 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It is bicameral meaning it has the Senate and the House and they make laws that influence daily life for their constituents. There are 100 members in the Senate and 435 members in the House of Representatives. Congress also makes the budget for the year, laws, and oversees the other branches of government. Article 1 of the Constitution describes what the founding father intend the role of Congress to be. It states important ideas include the separation of powers between branches of government (checks and balances), the election of Senators and Representatives, and the process by which laws are made, and the powers that Congress has.…

    • 962 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Another major difference is the structure of the two Chambers. The House has 435 members, with two-year terms, and is closer to the people in their districts. The House is more hierarchically organized with the Speaker of the House being the most powerful and power is distributed less evenly. There are more committees and subcommittees in the House and one important committee the House has that the Senate does not is the rules committee. The rules committee decides what…

    • 580 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Articles Of Confederation

    • 1386 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Unlike the Senate, the House of Representatives was based on the state’s population. Therefore, the more people you have the more representatives that state has. Each member of the House of Representatives was elected by the people of the state and would serve a term of two years. Members of the Senate were appointed by the state legislatures and served six year…

    • 1386 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Term Limits In Office

    • 651 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The average length time congressmen are in office is between nine and ten years. While this may be fine, at least two members of the House and Senate have spent more than fifty years in office. This lack of political turnover is some Presidents, including Donald Trump, campaigned to create turn limits. While sounding appealing, no President would ever turn on their party by creating term limits. Along with the line item veto, the Supreme Court ruled that congressional terms limits were unconstitutional.…

    • 651 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    United States congress is a bicameral legislature with a lower chamber known as the House of Representatives and the higher being known as the Senate. Congress men and women have various rights and privileges to help them serve the nation the best way possible. Congress checks on the courts and on the President. The constitution gives very broad powers to the congress “All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a congress of the United States” (Politics in America) The founding fathers envisioned congress being the most powerful branch of government.…

    • 1144 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The US Congress is the national legislative body of government that consists of the Senate and the House of Representative. When people think of the word congress they most likely think of this definition, but congress is so much more. The US Congress is the reason we have all the laws that keep us safe. The word congress means coming together and legislature means making law, which put together congress means coming together to make laws, which is exactly what they do. Congress is a locally elected body of government that makes national policy.…

    • 808 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The House of Representatives is composed of members that were elected by the people from their home state, and it consisted of the number of people living there. Then the Senate is composed of two members from each state who are elected by the House of Representatives. Actually, the House of Representatives can be described as the democrats and the senate as the republicans due to their similar ideas. In this branch, their job is to make laws that will help the people of The United States. Then the second branch of government is the Executive.…

    • 1152 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    According to the American constitution, it provides the procedure that presidential election takes. It starts by stating who is eligible to serve as the president of United States. The person must be: at least 35 years old, a resident in the United States for at least 14 years and a United States citizen by natural…

    • 1575 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    There are many things that make up the organizational structure of congress. The first would be informal structures. There are various norms that provide an informal structure for the way congress works. There is universalism which is a norm that states when benefits are being split up they should be awarded to as many districts and states as possible. When handing out federal highway dollars or expenditures for the Pentagons weapons programs, the benefits are generally spread across the entire country which means that voters in support of these bills tend to be very uneven.…

    • 1048 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Texas Legislature is the most significant representative institution within the whole state. It is also the most powerful out of the three branches of government. The Texas Legislature consists of a bicameral body that is organized of one hundred and fifty House of Representatives members and of thirty-one Senate members. The House of Representatives has a chief presiding officer that is known as the Speaker of the house. Speaker of the house is one of the individuals that has a powerful political figure within the state.…

    • 2562 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Senate Impeachment

    • 124 Words
    • 1 Pages

    The Senate is composed of 100 senators, which means that each state gets 2 Senators. They have been elected to 6 year terms and are staggered so they have at least one-third of the Senate that is for reelection every 2 years. Senators must be 30 years of age, U.S. citizens for at least 9 years, and residents of the state they represent. Our vice president serves as the President of the Senate, he may cast a vote in the event that a tie were to happen within the Senate. The Senate’s main role is to confirm those of the President’s appointment that require consent and to ratify treaties.…

    • 124 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Usually, a member of the legislative body will propose a bill to be voted on by the members of the governing body. Debate procedure will follow and then most likely, the bill or policy in question will be voted on by members of the governing body with a certain quota likely needed in order to pass the bill or policy. The legislative chair basically controls the flow of conversation during the legislative body meetings. When someone wants to speak, they need permission from the chair and the chair is also responsible for calling meetings and ending meetings. The chair has a lot of power and can even impeach members on the executive, legislative or judicial bodies if the quota reached is received by the members of the general body.…

    • 1275 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Compared to California’s legislative branch, the Federal Government’s legislative branch, herein referred to as Congress, has the authority to revise and annul public laws. Similar to California’s legislation, the Congress also has two chambers with a total of 635 members. The Senate, consisting of 100 members, proposes, and votes on policies that would affect the United States as a whole. An example of such policy would be the domestic and foreign policy. This is different from the State Legislation’s concern as the State cares about bills and laws in their own state.…

    • 1224 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The legislative branch is the nations Congress, that is comprised of the Senate, House of Representatives and other agencies. They have many responsibilities that include: constructing laws, confirming presidential appointments, grant money to the executive and judicial branches and can declare war. Recently, the Senate has decided to hold off on approving the presidential appointment of a Supreme Court nominee, after the recent passing of one of its members in February. The Republican senators believe it should fall on the next elected president to appoint the new member (Liptak, 2016). Another responsibility they hold are keeping the judicial branch in check by: overriding the president’s veto with two-thirds majority vote, directly funding the executive branch, preside over the impeachment of a president and oversee the approval of the presidential appointment in the Senate.…

    • 777 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays