What Powers Do the Senate and House of Representatives Share

The Usa Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government and consists of two houses: the lower house known as the House of Representatives and the upper business firm known as the Senate. The words "Congress" and "House" are sometimes used colloquially to refer to the Business firm of Representatives. There are 535 members of Congress: 100 senators and 435 representatives in the House.

Republicans currently control the Senate (54 to 44 Democrats) and the House (246 to 188).

Comparison chart

House of Representatives versus Senate comparison chart

	Firm of Representatives	Senate
Introduction	The U.s. House of Representatives is one of the ii houses of the United States Congress. It is oft referred to as the House.	The United States Senate is the upper firm of the bicameral legislature of the United states Congress.
Type	Lower house. Responds to the needs of the people faster since representatives only have a two year term. Laws dealing with revenue must start in the House.	Upper house. The 6 year term means the Senate can be slower and consider the long-term effects of laws.
Seats	435 voting members, six non-voting members: 5 delegates, 1 resident commissioner	100
Seats apportioned	Based on the population of each state	Ii for each state
Length of term	2 years. All 435 seats are up for reelection every 2 years.	6 years. Hither there is a continuous body thought. Only 1/3 of the senate seats are elected every two years. And so merely 34 or 33 senators are upward for election at one time.
Term limits	None	None
Leadership	Nancy Pelosi (D) (Speaker); elected by the Business firm of Representatives.	The President of the Senate [currently Kamala Harris (D) only votes in case of a tie. When he or she is not available, the President pro tempore, a senator elected by the Senate [currently Patrick Leahy (D)] takes over on his behalf.
Majority Leader	Steny Hoyer (D)	Chuck Schumer (D)
Minority Leader	Kevin McCarthy (R)	Mitch McConnell (R)
Majority Whip	James Clyburn (D)	John Thune (R)
Minority Whip	Steve Scalise (R)	Dick Durbin (D)
Political groups	Democratic (219), Republican (211), five vacant seats	Republican (48), Democratic (48), Independent (2)
Voting system	Offset-by-the-post	First-past-the-post
History	Based on Virginia Plan	Based on New Bailiwick of jersey Plan

Size of Senate vs. House

While there are 100 seats in the Senate (2 senators from each country), there are 435 seats in the House of Representatives (i representative from each of the various congressional districts, with the number of congressional districts in each land determined past the population).

The Reapportionment Human activity of 1929 set the concluding number of the House at the current 435, with commune sizes adjusted according to population growth. However, every bit district borders were never divers definitively, they can and often practice stretch into peculiar shapes due to a practice known every bit gerrymandering.

Gerrymandering is used at the land legislature level to create districts that overwhelmingly favor i party. Federal and Supreme Court rulings have overturned gerrymandering efforts that have been perceived to be based on race, just otherwise some districts have been reconfigured to give one or another party an farthermost political reward, thus allowing that party to secure more power in the state and in the House of Representatives.

A line graph showing which political parties have controlled the U.Due south. House of Representatives and Senate over the years. Click to enlarge.

Roles of Representatives and Senators

The Business firm plays a major role in government, mainly that of initiating all revenue-based legislation. Any proposal to enhance taxes must come up from the House, with Senate review and approval. The Senate, on the other mitt, has sole power of approval on foreign treaties and chiffonier and judicial nominations, including appointments to the Supreme Court.

In cases of impeachment (due east.k., Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998), the House determines if charges can be brought against the official, and a simple majority vote approves or rejects the filing of charges (the impeachment process). If approved, the Senate then serves every bit the investigative/judicial body to decide if the charges merit removing the accused official from his or her office. Even so, the vote in the Senate has to represent "a significant majority," usually taken to mean 67 of the 100 votes.

Members of Congress are deemed to exist "across the power of arrest" while in office, except in cases of treason, murder, or fraud. This stipulation has been used by representatives and senators to avert subpoenas and other judicial procedures. A senator tin can waive the privilege at whatsoever time, but a member of the Firm has to submit his or her petition to a full general vote. If a simple majority approves, the privilege tin be waived.

Congress has the power to subpoena any citizen. Noncompliance with a congressional subpoena can carry upward to a one-year jail judgement. The case is heard in a judicial forum, and punishment (a sentence) for those establish guilty of "antipathy of Congress" is handled strictly past the judicial system.

The succession social club in the federal authorities is president, vice president and so Speaker of the House, the leader of the representatives. The vice president is considered the "president" of the Senate, though he or she is not required or even expected to attend most Senate sessions. The Senate elects a "President Pro Tempore," often the senior, or longest-serving, senator of the majority party, who is responsible for managing twenty-four hours-to-day business.

Length of Terms

Senators are elected for a six-year term, simply House representatives only have two-yr terms before they demand to seek reelection. Every member of the House is up for ballot or reelection every two years, but the Senate has a staggered arrangement wherein only one-3rd of the Senators are upward for ballot or reelection every 2 years. It is possible for the Business firm to modify to a large extent (in terms of political party command) every two years, merely changes are slower in the Senate. In both chambers, incumbents accept a dandy reward over challengers, winning more than xc% of all contested races.

Qualifications

To be eligible every bit a representative, a person needs to be at least 25 years onetime at the time of the election and accept lived continuously in the U.S. for at least 7 years. To get a senator, one must be at least 30 years erstwhile at the time of the election and have lived continuously in the U.S. for at least nine years. It is non a requirement to be a natural-born citizen in order to become a member of Congress.

Committees

Well-nigh of Congress' work takes place in committees. Both the House and Senate have continuing, special, conference, and joint committees.

Standing committees are permanent and provide longer-serving members with ability bases. In the Business firm, fundamental committees include Budget, Ways and Means, and Military machine, while the Senate has Appropriations, Foreign Relations, and Judiciary committees. (Some committees be in both chambers, such equally Upkeep, Armed Services, and Veterans Affairs.) Special committees are temporary, formed to investigate, clarify, and/or evaluate specific issues. Briefing committees are formed when legislation is approved in both the Firm and Senate; they finalize the linguistic communication in legislation. Articulation committees feature members of the Business firm and Senate, with leadership of each committee alternating between members of each chamber.

Committees also take subcommittees, which are formed to focus more closely on sure bug. Some have become permanent, but nigh are formed for limited time frames. Although useful for zeroing in on central issues, the proliferation of committees, and especially subcommittees, has decentralized the legislative process and significantly slowed it, making Congress less responsive to changing trends and needs.

Debating legislation has stricter rules in the House than in the Senate, applicable at both the committee and whole-body levels. In the Firm, contend fourth dimension is restricted and topics are set beforehand, with discussions limited to the agenda. In the Senate, the tactic called filibustering is allowed. In one case the flooring is ceded to a senator, he or she can speak for as long equally the senator chooses, on whatever topic; no other business can be transacted while the person speaks. A filibuster is used to block potential legislation or Senate decisions until a favorable vote can be called. This has resulted in sometimes comically absurd efforts on the part of senators. For example, during a 2013 filibuster over the Affordable Care Act, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) read from Green Eggs and Ham.

Origins of House and Senate

In general, the Business firm represents the population, while the Senate represents a "landed/big property" populace. In colonial times, the proposed "legislative body" had two models. The Virginia Plan, endorsed by Thomas Jefferson, created a group of representatives based on population sizes, so that more populous states would have a greater voice in legislative issues. Opposing it was the New Jersey Plan that limited each state to the same number of representatives; the programme suggested that at that place exist something between two to five representatives per state. The New Jersey Plan was criticized for holding larger states "hostage" to smaller states, as each would have the aforementioned power base. This article in The New Yorker dissects it well:

James Madison and Alexander Hamilton absolutely hated the idea that each land should exist entitled to the same number of senators regardless of size. Hamilton was withering on the topic. "As states are a collection of individual men," he harangued his beau-delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, "which ought we to respect well-nigh, the rights of the people composing them, or of the bogus beings resulting from the composition? Zilch could be more than preposterous or absurd than to sacrifice the former to the latter."

Per the Connecticut Compromise at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, the Us adopted the bicameral system of the English Parliament (i.eastward., House of Lords and Firm of Commons). The compromise was between the Virginia plan (small state) and the New Jersey proposal (large state), 2 competing ideas on whether each state should get equal representation in the federal government or whether representation should be based on population. The compromise established that representatives in the lower house (House of Representatives) will be based on a population number (chosen a "district") while the upper firm (Senate) would contain two representative from each state. Information technology was as well decided that all classes would be eligible to become senators, subject area to age and residency restrictions.

References

• Congress.gov
• The Organisation of Congress - Cliff Notes
• Wikipedia: The states Firm of Representatives
• Wikipedia: United States Senate
• Wikipedia: Structure of the United States Congress

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