Why Are Citizens Holding Congress?

The United States Congress is made up of two chambers the House of Representatives and the Senate. All together there are 485 congress people that come together to alter current laws or suggest new legislation. They are required to meet once per year on January 3 by the US Constitution, but they come together much more often than that. Their sessions can last months if the topic is very controversial. US legislation is slow and at times painfully inefficient. In order to make new legislation, the Congress has to go through a long process of getting a majority in the house as well as the Senate, and even after all that the President still has to approve of the bill in question. An example of this is the Healthcare bill that Barack Obama successfully passed in during his first term as President. He had to fight in order to get the reform passed, persuade the members of Congress that his bill should even be considered, and after all that the Supreme Court almost ruled that the legislation was unconstitutional. The US Congress is a headache on its best day. The system is set up to create gridlock and for the past 200 years it has works.

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 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.

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.

Separation of Powers/Checks and Balances. For much of 2011 and 2012, public dissatisfaction with Congress rose to all time highs, with 70-80% expressing disapproval with how Congress does its job. Many commentators note that Americans are fed up with Washington “grid-lock” that makes government apparently unable to address important problems. Other observers believe that the national government is acting according to its design, based on separation of powers and

branches of government. These are just a few of the duties of our U.S. Congress.

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 United States Congress is the legislative branch of our government made up by the Senate and the House of Representatives. Our Congress, just as all branches of our government, derives its power from the US Constitution, specifically Article 1 section 8 which outlines the specific enumerated powers of Congress. This Article also outlines the implied powers of Congress. These implied powers include all things which are deemed necessary in order for Congress to carry out the jobs assigned to it by their enumerated powers.

When first created, the Legislative branch had a lot of power, as a result a system to keep the power in check was created. “no law or resolution can pass without agreement, first of the majority of the people (via the House) and then of the States (represented by the Senate). This complicated Legislative may hinder as well as help” (Hamilton 93). When the Senate comes up with a bill or law it has to be agreed with by the House

When first created, the Legislative branch had a lot of power, as a result a system to keep the power in check was created. “no law or resolution can pass without agreement, first of the majority of the people (via the House) and then of the States (represented by the Senate). This complicated Legislative may hinder as well as help” (Hamilton 93). When the Senate comes up with a bill or law it has to be agreed with by the House and the President before it becomes official. This is the

Is our congress bad? Many political leaders have come and gone, they all have different ideology and good interest of this country at heart. Congress is a political system which is mandate to maintain and protect the fundamental freedom and the right of the people. The political candidates in congress are often characterized by disagreeing parties on general policies beliefs and political affiliations. Due to some of this policies beliefs, congress appears at loggerheads with one another and public confidence in the ability of congress to solve important issues has waned because of policy and ideology, election victory, and

The Legislative Branch is the branch of government that is responsible in deciding what bills turn into laws and what bills do not. It is shown that only 103 out of the 7,207 bills have become laws. In the Vox’s article, “Beating the Odds: Why One Bill Made It through a Gridlocked Congress - and so Many Don't,” the first three steps in creating a law or bill revolve around getting involved in, getting support and approval from interest groups. This is because interest groups are very organized and objective based. These people worked together to get one thing done verses the many people of the masses all saying they want different but similar things in an unorganized mass of people and opinions. This method is way more productive in getting bills and laws passed. While this process is primarily run by interest groups it does have to be supported by the House of Representatives, Senate and the President himself. This then introduces the Elite theory of

Over recent years, the legislative branch has grown much more polarized. Congress’s polarization is very likely to continue increasing due to an increase in Americans’ mobility, which is beneficial because the mobility and grouping of like-minded citizens yields a more accurate representative for a larger amount of people.

Congress. A word that comes with it, feelings of anger, hope and, frustration to most people. The United States Congress was created to represent and govern the citizens of the United States of America. In doing so it has done a remarkable job. The past 200 years of this country proves this. In recent years though, Congress has gained the reputation of being indifferent in creating and passing laws. Many factors come in to effect in supporting this claim. Republican and democratic congressman are constantly fighting over laws and proposals. Each wanting to be loyal to their own party without compromise. There 's also the constant beating of elections (Every 2 years in The House of Representatives, 6

Additionally to the reasons listed by Norman Ornstein and Thomas E. Mann on why Congress is the broken branch, “Much of the failure to implement the changes needed over the past four years can be laid at the feet of Congress and its leaders.” The legislative branch had the opportunity to come in agreement with itself and mainly the members within Congress. Senators opposed one another's views and compromised with no regards for the protection of the people. Congress became the broken branch because it failed to fulfill its responsibilities as a representative of the