Legislative Branch

The Senate

To start you off with a good understanding of the senate you need to know some of the basic requirements of the senate. First off there are 100 members of the U.S. senate because every state has 2 senators, one senior senator and one junior senator. Each one is required to be at east 30 years old, a resident of he state (even if it’s only for a few weeks in some cases), and they must be a U.S. citizen for nine years. In the  senate senators are able to govern more because they are allowed a six year term.

Rules for the Senate: The rules for senate are fewer than the House of Representatives most likely because the senate has less members. The senate allows filibusters. A filibuster is a debate that was created to kill bills and it s designed s that the minority has a say over the majority. In order to conduct a filibuster you need to stand up and talk for as long a you can without eating, drinking, or sitting. The only possibility of a break is if you take a question you may sit and answer the question.

representation in the Senate: There are two different kinds of representation in the senate, descriptive and substantive. Descriptive representation is the representation of constituents by copying their characteristics. Substantive representation is the representation of interest groups.

Senate Elections: Many people say that senators have a harder time in elections because they have a bigger part of state to represent, therefor, they are don’t have such a personal connection with the people the represent. This makes it more difficult for people to form an opinion on the senator.

The House of Representatives

    Some of the basics you would need to know about the House of Representatives would be that there are 435 members. Unlike the Senate, the house represents each state based on its population, therefor it favors largely populated states. That’s also why explains why the House has more members in it because not every state has two members like the senate. Example: California has 53 members and Montana only has 1. Some basic requirements

Rules for the House: The House of Representatives has many more rules to it than the senate does. It makes sense because the House has more members.

Representation in the house: Representation in the House is different from that in the senate. The primary difference is that representation in the House is in favor of largely populated states.This is the case because the numbers of representatives in your state are based on how many people live in your state.

House Elections: House Elections are said to be easier because most people running for House seat are incumbents. Incumbents are representatives that are already holding office which increases their chances of being reelected by more than 60 percent of the vote. Most

 Salaries an Benefits of Senate and the House of Representatives- The average member of congress has a salary of $174,000 and they get retirement and health benefits.

 Congressional Committees:

Standing Committees are permanent committees that deals with particular issues like bills in certain subjects.

Joint Committees are committees that focus their work on policy areas. These committees consist of House and Senate members.

Conference Committees are When the Senate and the House pass a bill in a variety of forms to pull out all of the bugs out of the bill so that they can perfect it as much as possible and create one really good bill.

Select Committees are the opposite of standing committees because these committees are temporary and are made for specific cases only.