Washington State Symbols

Summary 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

Children are taught at a young age learning the three branches of the United States and how well they work however Mexico’s government is very similar to the US. Mexico’s government is a lot more developed than you might think; it has a good structure with three branches also

Chapter 12 Journal: Congress 1. How Congress Represents the American People The United States Congress is more than likely the most significant representative institution in the United States government. Each member of Congress has a primary obligation to the district, to his or her constituency. Though Congress is divided into two parts, called the House of Representatives and the Senate, they both play different roles in the legislature process. Senate is more deliberative and the House is the more centralized and organized. Congress is supposed to represent the American people but they will not always make the “right” decisions, according to some individuals. Obviously it is impossible to please everybody, but surely the laws that are being passed are because Congress views some sort of usefulness from it. There are two different types of representation that was spoken about in the chapter including sociological and agency representation. Sociological is based off of the idea that if two individuals have similar background, character, interests, and perspectives, then they can correctly represent others’ views. Agency is when a representative is held accountable to a constituency for when that constituency is represented poorly. The constituents have the power to hire and fire their representatives.

The Three Branches of Government The government of the United States of America is a federal constitutional republic. In layman 's terms, this means that the country 's national, central government and the smaller, unitary governments of

The United State of America: Political System The political system that runs the United States of America is a result of the Constitution, Amendments and the Civil War. As mentioned before, there are 50 states that help govern the nation along with the national government, referred to as the Federal Government. The Federal Government is comprised of three branches: Legislative Branch, Executive Branch and Judicial Branch. These three branches were developed to satisfy the principle known as ‘separation of powers’. This is the idea that no one institution has too much power. This also means that no individual member can be more than one institution. The principle of ‘checks and balance’ also falls under this idea. Each branch has limited authority to act on its own. With that being said, each branch regulates the other two and vies-a-versa to a certain extent. The House of Representatives and the Senate make up the Legislative Branch. Together they make the laws of the nation. There are two senates per state, meaning 100 senators in the Senate House, and today in the 11th Congress there are 435 members. All congress members are elected by their respective states into either the Senate or House of Representatives.

In 1787, one of the most debated issues was the size of the House of Representatives. During the Constitutional Convention, the delegates proposed that 40,000 citizens should be represented by one congressional district. However, George Washington intervened and argued that 40,000 was too high, and reasoned that 30,000 was more reasonable and allow people to be represented adequately Washington’s proposal was incorporated in Article One, Section Two of the Constitution which states “representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State.” While the number of representatives did increase throughout the history of the United States, the number has been set at 435 members since 1929. Congress in 1929 passed the Permanent Apportionment Act that set the number of representatives at 435, which was set after a 1910 census. Currently each representative represents 700,000 citizens and congressional seats are redistricted around the nation based on population changes. But the currently number of representatives does not adequately represent the present population and a single district cannot represent a huge number of people. Therefore, the current number of representatives must be increased.

“In the Senate, the states are represented equally, two Senators per state. In the House, the states are represented proportionally, based on population. This plan for representation is known as the "Great Compromise" and was a sticking point at the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. The tension stemmed from the fact that states are not created equal in size or population. In effect, the Senate represents the states and the House represents the people.”

There are 435 representatives in the House of Representatives and the number of representatives each state gets is based on its population. When it comes to senators, there are 100 and each states get two. The role of the Legislative is to make laws

There are two chambers in Congress: the Senate and the House of Representatives. They both share many powers between them as in declaring wars, raise an army and navy, borrow and coin money, regulate interstate commerce, create federal courts, establish rules for the naturalization of immigrants, and make all laws pertaining to the afore mentioned. There are also separate

Geography has influenced the political trend of Washington state in many ways One way is in Washington we have smaller businesses and the owners don't want to be told what to do. So they vote one way so they can be in charge of their own businesses. That way

Legislative Branch The Legislative branch has the power to pass federal laws, establish federal courts, override a Presidential veto, and impeach the President. The size of the House of Representatives resulted out of the Great Compromise. The number of Representatives is determined by Congress based on the state population. At minimum each state would have one representative, with larger states having more. When the House was created there was one representative for every thirty thousand people, yet currently we have one

We get the name "Washington" because of the 1st U.S. president George Washington who appears on the state flag and state seal. It's the only state to be named after a president.

Washington state was named after the first president George Washington. To honor the first president of the United States. All of the states on the East Coast had their names before they officially became States. That was why none of them were called Washington except for Washington city. That is why Washington city has the same name as Washington state. Washington State has a nickname which is known as the Evergreen State. It is nicknamed as the Evergreen state because the state is known for it’s green leaves and plants.

The easternmost portion of Washington houses Spokane, a city of a quarter of a million residents that's only a few minutes from the Idaho border. Spokane is close enough to the Cascades to make it an attractive tourist destination, especially for ski trips. Plenty of green space and a recent downtown renaissance gives Spokane a fresh small-town appeal despite its size. Hints of the city's industrial roots