Congress Organizational Structure

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. A good example would be the $662 billion 2012 defense appropriations bill contained some spending in every part of the country and approved by an 86-13 vote in the senate …show more content…
When serving in the house, you are up for reelection every two years. The house has 435 members and they need to have more rules than the senate. They are more centralized and formal. They adopt new rules at the start of each session. They start impeachment procedures and they make them more effective with not too much debate. The house initiates revenue bills and impeachment. The house also emphasizes tax and revenue policies. They also pass impeachment bills. When serving in the senate, you serve six terms. They are less centralized and less formal than the house. They haven’t had a general reaffirmation of its rules since 1789 and rules can be changed at the beginning of sessions if they need to meet the needs of new members. They approve treaties and they only need 100 rules. They give the okay and approval to a lot of presidential appointments. The senate emphasizes foreign policy. They are also becoming more and more specialized. There are many leadership positions in both the house and the senate. There is the speaker of the house which is the top leader in the house. They influence the legislative agenda, committee assignments, scheduling, and party strategies. There is the majority leader which is a national spokesperson for each party that helps with day to day operations for the legislative process. The minority leader holds the minority of seats in the house and the senate. There are also the minority …show more content…
There is the standing committee, select committee, joint committee, and the conference committee. The standing committee is a permanent part of the house and the senate structure and they hold more importance and authority than any other committee. They draft legislation and overlook the implementation of the laws they pass. Like the Agriculture Committee in the house and the one in the senate is an example. They have jurisdiction over farm programs like commodity price supports, crop insurance, and soil conservation. They also create and oversee policy for rural electrification and development and the food stamp and nutrition programs. The select committee addresses specific topics or issues for one or two terms. They don’t have the same legislative power as the standing committee and the mostly serve to gather information, provide policy options, and draw attention to a given issue. The next is joint committees. They are made up of members of the house and the senate that don’t really have legislative authority. For example, the Joint Committee on Taxation doesn’t really have authority to send legislation regarding tax policy to the floor of both the house and the senate. They instead assemble information and provide estimates of the consequences of proposed tax legislation. They may also be temporary. The last is the conference committees. They are created to resolve certain differences between the house and the senate versions of