U.s. Congress

Congress)
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Type
Bicameral

Houses
Senate
House of Representatives

President of the Senate
President pro tempore
Dick Cheney, (R)
since January 20, 2001
Robert C. Byrd, (D)
since January 4, 2007

Speaker of the House
Nancy Pelosi, (D)
since January 4, 2007

Members
535 plus 4 Delegates and 1 Resident Commissioner

Political groups
Democratic Party
Republican Party

Last elections
November 7, 2006

Meeting place
United States Capitol

The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States of America, consisting of two houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Both senators and representatives are chosen through direct election.
As provided by the United States Constitution, each of the 435 members of the House of Representatives represents a district and serves a two-year term. Every two years, approximately one-third of the Senate is elected.
Article I of the Constitution vests all legislative power in the Congress.

The House and Senate are equal partners in the legislative process (legislation cannot be enacted without the consent of both chambers); however, the Constitution grants each chamber some unique powers. Revenue-raising bills must originate in the House of Representatives, which also has the sole power of impeachment, while the Senate has the sole power to try impeachment cases.
The Congress meets in the U.S.

Capitol in Washington, D.C.
The term Congress actually refers to a particular meeting of the national legislature, reckoned according to the terms of representatives. With no executive or judicial branch, and minimal authority given to the Congress, this government was weak compared to the states.

The smaller states, however, favored a unicameral Congress with equal representation for all states; William Paterson countered Madison's proposals with the New Jersey Plan. Eventually, a compromise was reached: the House of Representatives was to provide representation proportional by population, whereas the Senate would provide equal representation by states.

In order to preserve further the authority of the states, it was provided that state legislatures, rather than the people, would elect senators.
The Constitution gave more powers to the federal government, such as regulating interstate commerce, managing foreign affairs and the military, and establishing a national currency. Furthermore, the legislative body would be bicameral, so there would be checks and balances. The Constitution was ratified by the end of 1788, and its full implementation was set for March 4, 1789.
The post-Civil War Gilded Age was marked by Republican dominance of the Congress.The Progressive Era saw the Seventeenth Amendment (ratified in 1913), which provided for the direct election of senators. The early 20th century witnessed the rise of strong party leadership in both houses of Congress.

In the House of Representatives, the office of Speaker became extremely powerful. Leaders in the Senate were somewhat less powerful; individual senators still retained much of their influence.

After the revolt against Speaker Joe Cannon in 1910, the seniority system emerged. Members became powerful chairmen through years of seniority, regardless of the leadership.

Numerous New Deal initiatives were proposed from the White House and sent to Congress for approval, rather than legislation originating in Congress. After the Watergate scandal and other abuses of power by the Nixon administration, Congress began to reassert its power to oversee the executive branch and develop legislation.
During the administration of President Franklin D. However, after the Democratic Party again won back control in the elections of 1954, it was the majority party in both houses of Congress for most of the next 40 years; the Republicans were only able to win control of the Senate for a six-year period (1981–87).

The Republicans won a majority position in both houses of Congress in the elections of 1994. In the 110th Congress (2007–08), the Democratic voting bloc has a 51-49 majority in the Senate because the two independents, Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, align themselves with the Democratic Party.
Powers
Article I of the Constitution sets forth most of the powers of Congress, which include numerous explicit powers enumerated in Section 8.

Congress also has implied powers derived from the necessary-and-proper clause of the Constitution.
Congress has authority over financial and budgetary matters, through the enumerated power to "lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States." (power of the purse) The Sixteenth Amendment extended power of taxation to include income taxes. The Constitution also gives Congress power over appropriating funds, with all government spending required to be included in congressional appropriations. This power is an important way for Congress to keep the executive branch in check. Other powers granted to Congress include the authority to borrow money on the credit of the United States, regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the states, and coin money.
The Constitution also gives Congress an important role in national defense, including the exclusive power to declare war, to raise and maintain the armed forces, and to make rules for the military.Congress also has the power to establish post offices and post roads, issue patents and copyrights, fix standards of weights and measures, establish courts inferior to the Supreme Court, and "To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof." Congress also has the power to admit new states to the Union (Article Four).
One of the foremost non-legislative functions of the Congress is the power to investigate and to oversee the executive branch. This power is usually delegated to United States congressional committees—standing committee, select and special committee, select committees, or joint committee composed of members of both houses.

Congress also has the exclusive power of removal, allowing impeachment and removal of the President.
Enumerated powers
Among the enumerated powers given Congress in Article I Section 8, are:
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;

To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;

To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States;

To establish post offices and post roads;

To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;

To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;

To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations;

To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;

To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;

To provide and maintain a navy;

To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;

To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles (16 km) square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings.

Other congressional powers have been granted, or confirmed, by constitutional amendments. The Thirteenth (1865), Fourteenth (1868), and Fifteenth Amendments (1870) gave Congress authority to enact legislation in order to enforce rights of African Americans, including voting rights, due process, and equal protection under the law.
Implied powers
Congress also has implied powers derived from the necessary-and-proper clause of the Constitution which permits Congress "To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof." The Supreme Court has interpreted the necessary-and-proper clause broadly, to recognize the Congress has all the power and delegates it rather than being burdened with a separation of powers.
Checks and balances


View of the United States Capitol from the United States Supreme Court building

The Constitution provides checks and balances among the three branches of the federal government.

The authors of the Constitution expected the greater power to lie with Congress and it has been theorized that that is one reason they are described in Article One.
The influence of Congress on the presidency has varied from one period to another; the degree of power depending largely on the leadership of the Congress, political influence by the president, or other members of congress and the boldness of the president's initiatives. Under the first half-dozen presidents, power seems to have been evenly divided between the president and Congress, in part because early presidents largely restricted their vetoes to bills that were unconstitutional.
The impeachment of Andrew Johnson made the presidency much less powerful than Congress.

The twentieth and twenty-first centuries have seen the rise of the power of the Presidency under Theodore Roosevelt (1901–09), Woodrow Wilson (1913–21), Franklin D. Bush (2001–) (see Imperial Presidency). In recent years, Congress has restricted the powers of the President with laws such as the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 and the War Powers Resolution; nevertheless, the Presidency remains considerably more powerful than during the nineteenth century.
The Constitution concentrates removal powers in the Congress by empowering and obligating the House of Representatives to impeach federal officials (both executive and judicial) for "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors." The Senate is constitutionally empowered and obligated to try all impeachments.

In the history of the United States, the House of Representatives has impeached sixteen officials, of whom seven were convicted. Furthermore, treaties negotiated by the President must be ratified by a two-thirds majority vote in the Senate to take effect.

The House of Representatives has no formal role in either the ratification of treaties or the appointment of federal officials, other than filling vacancies in the office of Vice-President.
In 1803, the Supreme Court established judicial review of federal legislation in Marbury v. Madison, holding, however, that Congress could not grant unconstitutional power to the Court itself.The Constitution does not explicitly state that the courts may exercise judicial review; however, the notion that courts could declare laws unconstitutional was envisioned by the founding fathers. Witnesses who refuse to testify may be cited for contempt of Congress, and those who testify falsely may be charged with perjury.

Most committee hearings are open to the public (the House and Senate intelligence committees are the exception); important hearings are widely reported in the mass media.
Legislative procedure
Term
The House of Representatives elects a Speaker to preside over debates. (The new Congress would then meet for some days, for the inauguration, swearing in new members, and organization.)
The Constitution forbids either house from meeting any place outside the Capitol, or from adjourning for more than three days, without the consent of the other house.

The provision was intended to prevent one house from thwarting legislative business simply by refusing to meet. The consent of both bodies is required for Congress's final adjournment, or adjournment sine die, at the end of each congressional session.

Meetings of Congress for Presidential Inaugurations may also be Joint Sessions, if both House and Senate are in session at the time, otherwise they are formal joint gatherings.
At some time during the first two months of each session, the President customarily delivers the State of the Union Address, a speech in which he assesses the situation of the country and outlines his legislative proposals for the congressional session. Thomas Jefferson discontinued the original practice of delivering the speech in person before both houses of Congress, deeming it too monarchical.

Instead, Jefferson and his successors sent a written message to Congress each year. In 1913, President Woodrow Wilson reestablished the practice of personally attending to deliver the speech; few Presidents have deviated from this custom since.
Joint Sessions and Joint Meetings are traditionally presided over by the Speaker of the House except for the joint session to count electoral votes for President, when the Constitution requires the President of the Senate (the Vice President of the United States) to preside.
Bills and resolutions


The House Financial Services committee meets.

Most legislative proposals are introduced as bills, but some are introduced as joint resolutions. Joint resolutions are the normal method used to propose a constitutional amendment or to declare war.As an example, Harry Reid, Dennis Hastert, former Representative Tom DeLay, and Roy Blunt all have immediate family members who are (or were) lobbyists.
Bills (and other proposals) may be introduced by any member of either house. However, the Constitution provides that: "All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives." As a result, the Senate does not have the power to initiate bills imposing taxes.

They may also amend the bill, but the full house holds the power to accept or reject committee amendments. Both houses provide for procedures under which the committee can be bypassed or overruled, but they are rarely used.

Finally, the President may choose to take no action, neither signing nor vetoing the bill. However, if Congress adjourns (ends a legislative session) during the ten day period, then the bill does not become law.

These are:
Act of Congress: "Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled."
Joint resolution: "Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled."

Quorum and vote
The Constitution specifies that a majority of members constitutes a quorum to do business in each house. Of the 73 discharge petitions submitted to the full House from 1995 through 2007, only one was successful in securing an definitive yea-or-nay vote for a bill on the floor of the House of Representatives. Not without reason have congressional committees been called independent fiefdoms.
In 1931 a reform movement did temporarily reduce the number of signatures required on discharge petitions in the U.S.

If convicted in court, an individual found guilty of contempt of Congress may be imprisoned for up to one year.
From 1789 to 1815, members of Congress received only a per diem (daily payment) of $6 while in session. To do this, the Congressional Research Service provides detailed, up-to-date and non-partisan research for senators, representatives, and their staff to help them carry out their official duties.

Conversely, the congressional system also allows for a larger role for extra-governmental actors such as lobbyists, as the lack of strong party whips present in parliamentary systems exposes members of Congress to greater outside influence.
The offices of Speaker of the House of Representative and Speaker of the House of Commons, while holding very similar titles and presiding over their respective bodies, differ greatly.