What Does the House of Representatives Do Vs the Senate
The U.s.a. Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government and consists of two houses: the lower house known equally the House of Representatives and the upper house known as the Senate. The words "Congress" and "House" are sometimes used colloquially to refer to the Business firm of Representatives. At that place are 535 members of Congress: 100 senators and 435 representatives in the Business firm.
Republicans currently control the Senate (54 to 44 Democrats) and the House (246 to 188).
Comparison chart
 | House of Representatives | Senate |
|---|---|---|
| Introduction | The United states Business firm of Representatives is one of the 2 houses of the U.s. Congress. It is frequently referred to every bit the House. | The United states of america Senate is the upper house 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 acquirement must start in the House. | Upper business firm. The 6 year term means the Senate tin be slower and consider the long-term furnishings of laws. |
| Seats | 435 voting members, vi non-voting members: five delegates, ane 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 ii years. | 6 years. Here at that place is a continuous trunk thought. Only one/three of the senate seats are elected every two years. So only 34 or 33 senators are up for election at one time. |
| Term limits | None | None |
| Leadership | Nancy Pelosi (D) (Speaker); elected past the House of Representatives. | The President of the Senate [currently Kamala Harris (D) just 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. |
| Bulk 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), v vacant seats | Republican (48), Autonomous (48), Independent (2) |
| Voting system | First-by-the-mail service | Showtime-by-the-postal service |
| History | Based on Virginia Plan | Based on New Jersey Program |
Size of Senate vs. House
While there are 100 seats in the Senate (ii senators from each state), there are 435 seats in the Business firm of Representatives (ane representative from each of the various congressional districts, with the number of congressional districts in each state determined past the population).
The Reapportionment Act of 1929 set the concluding number of the Business firm at the current 435, with district sizes adapted according to population growth. Even so, as district borders were never defined definitively, they can and often practise stretch into peculiar shapes due to a practice known as gerrymandering.
Gerrymandering is used at the state legislature level to create districts that overwhelmingly favor one political party. Federal and Supreme Court rulings take overturned gerrymandering efforts that take been perceived to be based on race, but otherwise some districts take been reconfigured to requite ane or some other political party an extreme political advantage, thus allowing that political party to secure more power in the state and in the House of Representatives.
A line graph showing which political parties take controlled the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate over the years. Click to overstate.
Roles of Representatives and Senators
The House plays a major role in government, mainly that of initiating all revenue-based legislation. Any proposal to raise taxes must come from the House, with Senate review and blessing. The Senate, on the other hand, has sole ability of approval on strange treaties and cabinet and judicial nominations, including appointments to the Supreme Court.
In cases of impeachment (e.thou., Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998), the House determines if charges tin can be brought confronting the official, and a simple majority vote approves or rejects the filing of charges (the impeachment process). If canonical, the Senate then serves as the investigative/judicial torso to decide if the charges merit removing the accused official from his or her office. However, the vote in the Senate has to correspond "a significant bulk," normally taken to mean 67 of the 100 votes.
Members of Congress are deemed to be "beyond the power of arrest" while in part, except in cases of treason, murder, or fraud. This stipulation has been used by representatives and senators to avoid subpoenas and other judicial procedures. A senator tin can waive the privilege at any fourth dimension, only a fellow member of the House has to submit his or her petition to a general vote. If a simple majority approves, the privilege tin be waived.
Congress has the ability to amendment whatsoever denizen. Noncompliance with a congressional subpoena can carry up to a one-year jail sentence. The case is heard in a judicial forum, and punishment (a sentence) for those found guilty of "contempt of Congress" is handled strictly by the judicial system.
The succession society in the federal regime is president, vice president and then 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 nourish near Senate sessions. The Senate elects a "President Pro Tempore," frequently the senior, or longest-serving, senator of the bulk party, who is responsible for managing day-to-twenty-four hours business.
Length of Terms
Senators are elected for a six-yr term, only Firm representatives only accept two-year terms before they need to seek reelection. Every member of the Firm is up for election or reelection every ii years, but the Senate has a staggered organization wherein only one-third of the Senators are up for election or reelection every two years. It is possible for the House to change to a large extent (in terms of party control) every 2 years, merely changes are slower in the Senate. In both chambers, incumbents have a neat reward over challengers, winning more than ninety% of all contested races.
Qualifications
To exist eligible as a representative, a person needs to exist at to the lowest degree 25 years erstwhile at the time of the election and take lived continuously in the U.S. for at least 7 years. To get a senator, one must be at least thirty years sometime at the fourth dimension of the election and take lived continuously in the U.Due south. for at least ix years. Information technology is not a requirement to be a natural-born denizen in order to become a member of Congress.
Committees
Most of Congress' piece of work takes place in committees. Both the House and Senate have standing, special, conference, and joint committees.
Standing committees are permanent and provide longer-serving members with power bases. In the House, key committees include Budget, Ways and Means, and Armed services, while the Senate has Appropriations, Strange Relations, and Judiciary committees. (Some committees exist in both chambers, such every bit Budget, Armed Services, and Veterans Affairs.) Special committees are temporary, formed to investigate, analyze, and/or evaluate specific issues. Conference committees are formed when legislation is approved in both the Business firm and Senate; they finalize the linguistic communication in legislation. Joint committees feature members of the House and Senate, with leadership of each commission alternating between members of each chamber.
Committees also take subcommittees, which are formed to focus more closely on certain problems. Some have go permanent, but most are formed for limited fourth dimension frames. Although useful for zeroing in on primal issues, the proliferation of committees, and especially subcommittees, has decentralized the legislative procedure 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 commission and whole-body levels. In the House, debate time is restricted and topics are set beforehand, with discussions limited to the agenda. In the Senate, the tactic called filibustering is allowed. Once the floor is ceded to a senator, he or she can speak for as long equally the senator chooses, on whatsoever topic; no other business tin exist transacted while the person speaks. A delay is used to block potential legislation or Senate decisions until a favorable vote tin exist called. This has resulted in sometimes comically cool 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 full general, the House 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 past Thomas Jefferson, created a group of representatives based on population sizes, then that more populous states would have a greater vocalization in legislative issues. Opposing it was the New Jersey Plan that limited each state to the aforementioned number of representatives; the program suggested that there exist something between two to five representatives per state. The New Jersey Program was criticized for property larger states "hostage" to smaller states, as each would accept the same power base. This article in The New Yorker dissects it well:
James Madison and Alexander Hamilton admittedly hated the idea that each state should be entitled to the aforementioned 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 most, the rights of the people composing them, or of the artificial beings resulting from the composition? Nothing could be more preposterous or cool than to sacrifice the former to the latter."
Per the Connecticut Compromise at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, the United States adopted the bicameral system of the English Parliament (i.eastward., House of Lords and House of Commons). The compromise was betwixt the Virginia plan (small country) and the New Jersey proposal (big state), 2 competing ideas on whether each land should get equal representation in the federal regime or whether representation should exist based on population. The compromise established that representatives in the lower business firm (House of Representatives) will be based on a population number (called a "district") while the upper house (Senate) would contain two representative from each state. Information technology was too decided that all classes would exist eligible to become senators, subject to historic period and residency restrictions.
References
- Congress.gov
- The Organization of Congress - Cliff Notes
- Wikipedia: United States House of Representatives
- Wikipedia: United States Senate
- Wikipedia: Structure of the United states Congress
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