The Congress Structure
The American legislative branch is a bicameral legislature made of the lower chamber and the upper chamber. The lower chamber is the House of Representatives in which the public opinions are responded to. Each United States’ state has a representative in the House of Representatives. The number of representatives is determined by the number of districts in each state. The upper chamber is known as the Senate. Each state has two senators in the upper house who make decisions according to experience and wisdom.
Some of the leadership positions in the House of Representatives include the speaker of the house, who is the primary leader of the house, and the spokesperson. The speaker leads daily sessions, maintains order, decides when bills reach the floor, appoints committee leaders and members, and sign legislations. Speaker pro tem is another leadership position in the house (Barone, 2019). Speaker pro tem run the duties of the speaker in the speaker’s absence and performs other duties assigned by the speaker. In the Senate, leadership positions include the president of the senate and president pro tem. The president of the Senate leads the daily sessions, maintains order in the Senate, acts as the spokesperson of the Senate, assign committee leaders and members, and sign legislations. President pro tem takes over the duties of the president when the president is absent and performs other duties assigned by the president.
There are three types of committees in congress. There is the standing committee that is created by permanent panels through the chamber rules. The committees consider bills and issues and suggest measures to be taken by the respective chambers. There are select committees that are created by the chamber to examine evolving issues—the joint committees created by the house and the Senate to execute housekeeping tasks.
There are major differences between the Senate and the house. In representation, the house members are determined by the population of the states while in the Senate, all the states have the same members (Stone, 2016). There are differences in terms in office and election process. The house representatives serve for two years and after which an election is conducted. The senators serve a six year term with a third of the house getting elected after every two years. The third difference is in the powers of the chambers. The Senate checks the democratic excesses of the house.
References
Barone, M. (2019). Will Congress have to learn to write laws again?. Washington Examiner. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/will- congress-have-to-learn-to-write- laws-again.
Stone, L. (2016). Want To Fix Congress? Add 5,500 New Representatives. The Federalist. https://thefederalist.com/2016/03/14/want-to-fix-congress- add-5500-new- representatives/.