How To Be A Member Of Congress

It’s been argued ever since the constitution was made how in touch the congress members where with the people who elect them and this argument still goes on today. With the 425 members of the House each has a district which averages nearly 650,000 people, this is a vast number with many arguing that there is little chance that congress can be in touch with the people when they have to represent such vast numbers. However, the other side of the argument displays evidence that in fact the members of congress are able to stay in touch and represent the people who elect them.

There is a hierarchy which exists within Congress and its committees. For example, each committee and subcommittee is presided over by a chair, presiding officer, or party leader. A considerable amount of authority is afforded to these leaders, which enables strong partisan influence within the committees. Because committee chairs are selected by majority leaders in both the House and Senate, the controlling party can assign committee chairs who sympathize with the party’s agenda. According to the textbook, “To

Being a part of Congress is one of the most powerful political positions in America. Congress is made up of the House of Representative and Senate for a grand total of 535 members. While that may not give give an individual power, it gives the large group so much power to do many things and even override the president on certain occasions. Most decisions they make need a ⅔ vote from the group. Congress many other powers, maybe too much power. Congress has too much power because of its expressed powers, implied/inherent powers, and its “voting powers”.

When looking how effectively a country represents its citizens, it is important to take into account the manner in which they are represented. The two main types of representation are descriptive and agency representation. Descriptive representation is the concept that those who represent the American people should not only have the same political interest, but should also mirror the demographic makeup of the people. Agency representation, which is what the United States congress looks like, is when the representation does not reflect the demographic, but they speak for their constituents’ interests in congress. The constituents are able to hold the representatives accountable and can choose not to elect them in the next term, so the representatives

Congress is a complex lawmaking function that runs the country. In other words is the legislative body of our country made up of a Senate and a House of Representatives. Difficulties that are involved by the representation function have to do with Congressmen wanting to be reelected, opposition between the two parties, and the lobbying that takes place. These three difficulties are what causes the conflict with the lawmaking function of Congress.

The Committee chairpersons are the ones with the real power. There is an unwritten rule that the majority party member with the longest continuous service on a committee becomes chairperson when a vacancy occurs. The committee chairperson is the only one in the committee that actually has a real say in what is going on, and that opportunity is given to the one that has served his time the longest. However, that is no longer allowed. A historical event that has influenced Congress’s operations is the Legislation Reorganization act of 1970.This act ensures that there will be no more seniority because. Now a secret ballot elects them, however, the member with the most seniority usually wins anyway.

Members of Congress are voted to office by their electorate as their representatives at the congress level of democracy. In their capacity, they may decide to exercise their powers by the will of the people or according to their personal judgment. When the members of Congress opt to be the people’s delegate, their actions in the House and other congressional engagements are a reflection of the will of their district. As such, the delegate representative does not have or exercise the autonomy to represent and decide for their district. Instead, a strenuous consultation process is required to keep the people in control of all relevant decisions.

As mentioned before, the U.S. Congress is made up of two chambers-the House and the Senate- that is provided by the constitution as a bicameral legislature. They each cater to different constituencies. The House is known to be more responsive to the people and the Senate is responsive to the elite. They both are elected directly by the people. Four hundred thirty-five of the members of the U.S. Congress are apart of the House and one hundred of the members are apart of the Senate (Lowi, 136). Can you imagine having to make compromises and decisions on thing with five hundred thirty-five people? I can imagine with that many people apart of the U.S. Congress that they dealt with a lot of conflict when having to make decisions.

Another way members of Congress represent their constituents is by taking the role of the

Congress plays an important role in ruling the United States. Congress job is to represent the citizens of the U.S. by sharing the power with the current president of the United States of America and Supreme Court. Congress is one of the three branches of the United States. One of the main Congress jobs is to make law, basically, America without the Congress is pretty much without no laws. The Congress today is suffering from partisanship, parties are not working together as one hand causing it to fail its job. The Republicans are now controlling the Senate ( both houses ) when they earned it in 2014 elections making the majority Republican in Congress. Some people believe that the Congress is a broken branch and how it is failing America and we need to get it back on track. While the other believe that the Congress is fine and doing it job. I believe that the Congress is a broken branch since the United States of American government has a lot of partisanship.

The first influence is representational view. Author James Wilson says “Representational view is the reasonable assumption that members want to get reelected, and therefore vote to please their constituents” (Wilson, pg.340). Representational view sounds a lot like trying to impress someone to get on their good graces or trying to please someone. When a congressman votes like this, it really gets in the way of what is important. Do they really care what is going on? It does not sound like it, according to James Wilson. When a congressman vote like this, Wilson mentions the example of gun control and that sometimes they get conflicting views and that whichever way they vote, it may cost them dearly in the next election. What is even more frustrating is that “occasionally, members of Congress in this situation will try to be out of town when the matter comes up for a vote” (Wilson, pg. 341). What is the point of being in Congress if you are not going to be around for the major decisions? Just along for the free ride I am assuming. All in all,

As advocates of the United States of America, congressmen/women choose between two styles of representation: the trustee model (reflects closer to the Senate), or the delegate model (reflects closer to the House of Representatives). The election of these models will depend on the agents’ list of priorities and placement of interests. The first mentioned model consists on a very trustful body of citizens in which full liberty and faith is set on the elected trustee representatives for them to work on the people’s behalf and take deeply into consideration

In my opinion, I feel that constituents have power over congress members because they have the power to vote them in or out of office. On the other hand, I feel that voting constituents have the least amount of influence over congress members, who strive for money contributions in order to, run their political campaigns, compared to donors and PACs.

When i was younger my parents always teached me to help others when they need it , and the one thing that i'm good at is speaking two languages , and with that i can help others communicate with one another . And i'm also thankful to my parents for giving me the opportunity to learn as i was developing instead of leaning as a teen because it would've been harder and a longer process.

Congress has many functions to keep it working and functioning. They do many things to make laws, make sure they’re fair, and much more. There are also many committees with important jobs. There are many things that influence congressional elections such as reapportionment, redistricting, much more. There are many people who make up the House and Senate and they have many important jobs to keep things running smoothly.