Power Of The Congress

The book How Congress Works, by Lee H. Hamilton, tells us a brief summary of the interworking’s of congress. The book begins to convey the role of congress in chapter one, the author begins with congresses important roles in our democracy. Which are passing budgets, manage conflicts that arise, debate issues facing the country and most importantly to act within the system of checks and balances. In our government neither congress nor president is supreme, most of the authority is with the citizens. The United States government is balanced into three branches of government: Congress, POTUS, SCOTUS, the House of Representatives and the Senate: also between the Federal Government and the States. The States are broken down into different regions with different issues facing them and different interests eventually boiling down to the bill of rights. Congress has the power of lawmaking, along with what the President’s agenda is, recommending bills to congress, and the power of the President to veto bills. Congress contains the power of the purse in which Congress controls the power of taxation and spending. Congress legislations and policies control some aspects of our lives like taxation or when they regulate us. Our Government

Oliver Ellsworth, an important American lawyer and politician that lived during the first American Independence day, states his opinion on a new American Congress, “The powers of congress must be defined, but their means must be adequate to the purposes of their constitution. It is possible there may be abuses and misapplications; still, it is better to hazard something than to hazard at all”. In the original United States Constitution, the Framers wanted to make three different and equal branches of government, but today that is not the case. In present day government, Congress is more powerful than the President. The Legislative Branch, or Congress, is the second branch of the United States Federal Government. Congress is made up of two houses called the Senate and the House of Representatives. The main purpose of

small states. The larger states are not more powerful than the smaller states. All population appoints the House of Representatives. Each state at least has to have 1 senator some states get more the 1 and some states only have 1 senator. They all have the same amount of powers. According to the constitution article 1 section 2 “Representatives… shall not be apportioned … according … to (population) …… the number of representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each state shall have at least one representative. “ Meaning the government makes them have the same amount of power so they can check one

Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress its powers and limits. Congress is the legislative branch of the government, meaning they are the ones to make laws for the United States of America. The article also creates the two sections of Congress, which is called a bicameral legislature. The first of the two is the Senate, which is made up of two senators from each state. The second is the House of Representatives, which has representatives from each state based on the

In the Federalist 51 of the Federalist Papers James Madison writes “In republican government, the legislative authority necessarily predominates...the weight of the legislative authority requires that it should be thus divided.” It is necessary for the legislative branch to have the most power because they reflect the will of the people since we directly elect members of Congress and the laws the legislative branch creates inevitably affects the people. The members of the legislative branch are the closest link to the people; they represent specific interest groups and must be responsive to those interest groups or risk losing re-election. The framers of the constitution such as James Madison believed that since Congress is closest to the people they would have a democratic legitimacy that neither the Executive or Judicial branches would possess.

Our Legislative Branch has two chambers or as some will call it bicameral. The chambers consist of the Senate and the House of Representatives just like the National Legislative Branch. In our Senate we currently have a total of 31

The number of representatives for each state is based off of population. For every thirty thousand people living in each state, there shall be one representative, and to keep up with population growth, a census is taken every three years, as stated in Document D. Every state gets two senators, which are chosen by the legislatures, and each senator gets one vote, which is described in Document D. Having this system allows for a fair way to give each state a set amount of representatives without having one state more powerful than

According to the Constitution “Representatives shall be appointed according to population.” Meaning the larger the population, the more representatives that state has. “The Senate… shall be composed of two senators from each states…” This means each state gets two senators no matter what the size of the population. If senate wasn’t there the larger states would have more power because the House of Representatives is based on population.

Between the Senate and the House of Representatives, they try to balance their governments by establishing how many representatives and senators would be elected into each state. The amount of representatives that the state would elect would be based off of population, “Representatives … shall be apportioned … according to … (population).... The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand” (Constitution of the USA). The Senate would consist of two senators serving for a six-year term, “The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two senators from each state, chosen by the legislatures thereof for six years” (Constitution of the USA). If the Senate or the House of Representatives were composed of different amounts of people, one would have more power than the other.

The House of Representatives is population run, with one representative for every thirty thousand in each state. States such as Virginia had up to ten representatives, while other states like Rhode Island and Delaware only had one. Because the voting in Congress wouldn't be fair all population based, the Senate has exactly two seats for every state, no matter the population/size. Larger states tend to be happier with the setup of the House of Representatives since they have more people in the house, and therefore more of a say. On the other hand, smaller states like Senate because they get just as much of a say as the other and larger states.

The number of representatives in the house is based on a state's populous, each state gets a minimum 1 representative and 1 more for the allotted amount of people in the state. This came from the virginia plan, to make it fair to big states to gain more representation in congress, the New Jersey plan favored small states and is featured in the senate where each state gets 2 representatives. Small states wanted an equal say and a voice in congress so two senators were elected in each state (Doc D). No senator can serve in both senate and house at the same time in order to keep them separate and no Congress member can be a judge or president while still serving as the elected official (Doc B). When the senate or house wants to pass a bill it must pass both the Senate and the House and then will be sent to the president to check, and it will be either signed or vetoed, so that congress cannot pass laws that are in favor of their power (Doc

In the Senate each state has two representatives. In the House of Representatives the number of representatives differs and depends on the population of each state. Congress also has the power to raise an army. In order to change the Constitution two thirds of Congress and three fourths of state representatives have to agree on the change. To pass a law fifty prevent of Congress has to agree as well as getting the President’s approval.

Each of the three branches is controlled by the other two in several ways. The president can veto a law which was passed by Congress, yet Congress can override the veto with a two-thirds vote of both houses. Members of the Supreme Court, which are appointed by the president and approved by Congress, can declare a law passed by Congress is unconstitutional. The U.S. Constitution, Article 1 Section 1, states that the legislative branch be created from two separate bodies: a House of Representatives and a Senate, together is known as Congress.

In order for something to be broken it must have been whole to begin with, let us first discuss what Congress used to represent and how it used to function. Most everyone knows that Congress is bicameral and consists of two parts: The House of Representatives and The Senate. Congress’s powers are outlined in Article I of the Constitution. The framers formed two parts of Congress so that they would balance each other out: no one branch would become too powerful and the laws would be more complex and well-thought.The Constitution had initially intended for the legislative branch (Congress) to be the most powerful branch of government and at the beginning of post-constitution United States history it was. Congress was given the powers to enact laws (Gateways to Democracy, pp. 388).The Framers were purposeful in making sure that Congress represented each individual state by allowing each state to have two senators and for the number of representatives to be dependent on the size of each state, thereby balancing out the powers each state had in Congress (Gateways to Democracy, pp. 389).

Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution outlines the powers granted to Congress are enumerated. The Congress of United States shall have the right to collect taxes, duties, and excises, and pay the debts of nation. Many of the powers outlined in the Constitution for Congress have been interpreted in a broad sense. This has allowed Congress the flexibility to determine which powers they shall enforce and emit others. The role of Congress has become more complex as it has seen a rise in special interest groups controlling their actions. Over the past ten years, Congress has received more attention from the citizens calming it is incompetent. However, even as citizens have grown to no longer support the actions Congress it plays an important