Hello class and welcome to our lesson on the U.S. Congress. This is chapter 11 in your textbook if you're following along. So first let's start with where does Congress get its authority?
So the U.S. Constitution, the very first article, article 1 of the U.S. Constitution states that all legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives.
Further in the Constitution under Article 1, specifically Section 8, there is a clause called the Necessary and Proper Clause. Again, this is called the Necessary and Proper Clause. This clause in the Constitution gives Congress the power to make laws. So the overwhelming portion of Congress's work is tied to this clause, the Necessary and Proper Clause.
This is the clause that gives Congress the authority to make laws. More about Congress. So Congress is bicameral.
This means both chambers are equal in power. So in Congress you have the Senate and you have the House. The House of Representatives commonly referred to as just the House. They're bicameral, both have equal powers, they share powers.
So first we'll start with the the House of Representatives. So again as I mentioned it's simply known as the House. The House of Representatives has the power to levy and collect taxes along with appropriations power. The House has the power of the purse.
This means Congress controls the money. Appropriation bills, bills dealing with money and funding, all originate in the House of the House of Representatives. Some numbers.
Let's discuss some of the numbers of the House. So how many members are in the House of Representatives? There are 435 members, and that's representing the 435 districts all across the U.S.
So each district in the U.S. has one House member, totaling 435 members. So why 435? So the first Congress in 1791 only had about 65 representatives, and they each represented about 30,000 people in the U.S.
As the U.S. population grew, so did Congress, eventually reaching 435 members after the 1910 census. So Congress failed to uh reapportioned membership because it became deadlocked on the issue. In 1929, an agreement was reached to permanently cap the number of seats in the House at 435 members. So that was in 1929 that they capped the number to 435. Is 435 members enough to represent each person, each district? Or is it too many, not enough?
So today there's about 750,000 people per district. That's one representative for every 750,000 U.S. citizens. In 1791, there were only about 30,000 citizens per district.
So as the population grew, so did the numbers in the House, however, capping out at 435 in 1929. So how old must you be to serve in the House? So to be a member of the House, to be elected to serve in the House, you must be 25 years old. They serve for two-year terms, so the term of office for members of the House is two years.
They serve as long as they wish. There are no limits, there's no term limits in the House of Representatives. In other words, they can serve as long as they keep getting re-elected every two years.
The most important position in the House of Representatives, which we'll discuss, the most powerful position, is the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The Speaker presides over the House of Representatives. So a little bit more about the Speaker.
As I mentioned, it's the most important leadership position in the House. It's the only House officer mentioned in the Constitution. So the only position in Congress that's actually mentioned in the Constitution is the Speaker of the House. That also tells you how important this position is.
The Constitution does not require the Speaker to be a member of the House. Which is interesting, so you can be the Speaker of the House and not be an elected member of Congress. But to date, all speakers have actually been members of the House. The Speaker is the presiding officer, the administrative head of the House, the partisan leader of the majority party in the House, and an elected representative of a single congressional district. As a testament to the importance of the Speaker, since 1947, The holder of this position has been second in line to succeed the president in an emergency, that is after the vice president.
We'll talk about more about the line. Succession for the president in our next lesson on the presidency. Also, a little more about the House of Representatives. The House writes articles of impeachment against high-ranking officials. So all articles of impeachment, in other words, impeachment is the House's ability to impeach or formally accuse the president or other federal officials of wrongdoing.
That's the first step in removing that person from office. So in other words, the articles of impeachment, they all start in the House. They are where the articles originate.
The Senate is where the trial, the jury trial is held. So we'll talk a little bit more about that here in a few minutes. That's the second step in impeachment, the trial and removal. That takes place in the U.S.
But as far as the House is concerned about impeachment, what you need to know is that the articles of impeachment originate in the House. And they are used as a process of removing a federal official. Presidents, judges, federal officials, but they all originate in the House.
Alright, so let's talk a little bit about the U.S. Senate now. We've discussed the House, let's briefly discuss the U.S. Senate.
In the Senate, there are 100 senators in the United States Senate. So why 100 senators? Well, the Constitution tells us why. The Constitution specifies that... every state shall have two senators who shall each serve a six-year term.
With 50 states in the union, there are currently 100 seats in the U.S. Senate. Senators were originally appointed by state legislatures, but in 1913, the 17th Amendment allowed senators to be elected by popular vote in each state.
So again, there are two senators per state. Senators serve six-year terms. The Senate acts as the jury in all trials of impeachment.
So once the articles of impeachment have passed the House, they're walked, literally they walk them over to the Senate. The Senate accepts the articles and then the jury is selected. Well, the jury is the Senate. You can say they're selected. All senators are the jury.
And they act as the jury during the trial. When a president is tried for impeachment, the The leader of the Supreme Court, the head of the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court Chief Justice, acts as the presiding officer, as the judge. However, it's the senators who act as the jury, and they make the determination, they vote on whether a president is impeached or removed from office. To date, no presidents have been removed through impeachment.
The Senate also confirms presidential nominations of cabinet members. The Senate confirms U.S. Supreme Court justices.
So who is the president of the Senate? There is a position that's called the president of the Senate. The vice president of the United States is actually the president of the Senate.
Now the only role that the vice president has as the president of the Senate is to vote in cases of a tiebreaker. This is the only constitutional duty listed. for the vice president as it pertains to this role.
Another question for you. So what is the Senate tradition that gives a voice to the minority power, that's the part of the, I'm sorry, the minority party, the party that's not in control, and is used to prevent a vote on a bill? So what is the Senate tradition that gives a voice to the minority power and is used to prevent a vote on a bill? You guessed it. That is a filibuster.
So filibusters... are basically a tool the Senate has to basically slow down debate or even halt, you know, debate on any topic or any issue in the Senate. The purpose of this is to prevent a bill from coming to the floor to be voted on to be passed in the law. So it's a way, it's a method that some senators have of the party that's not in power to basically stop a bill from being passed if they don't want the bill to be passed.
The longest filibuster was about 24 hours and that was by Senator Strom Thurmond. And it was in opposition to the Civil Rights Bill. Closure.
So another term you need to be familiar with is called closure. C-L-O-T-U-R-E. Closure. So this is a process by which the Senate can vote to place a time limit on consideration of a bill or other matter, and thereby overcome a filibuster. So basically a closure is a way that the Senate can overcome, can basically stop a...
a filibuster from proceeding. So it takes two-thirds of the Senate to pass a closure, to overturn, or basically stop a filibuster. Okay, we talked about the House and the Senate, now let's talk about how a bill becomes law.
Once a bill or a proposed piece of legislation, a proposed law written by or proposed by any member of Congress, once a bill clears one chamber, it is sent to the other. So it can originate into either the House or the Senate, and any senator, any member of Congress can propose a bill, can draft a piece of legislation. It then clears that chamber, goes to the other chamber, either the House or the Senate. If both chambers pass the same wording, and it's got to be the exact same wording, the bill is then sent to the president. If not, both chambers create a conference committee.
So if it doesn't pass the Senate or the House, but they want to consult each other and they think they can probably get something passed, if they can agree on the wording, they'll meet in conference committees. Then they'll hash out their differences. So say it passes the House, passes the Senate, goes to the president.
The president is then given 10 days. to either sign or veto a bill, veto a bill or not. The president can just sign it or not. If he doesn't sign it after 10 days, it's automatically vetoed. That's called a pocket veto.
Or the president can just outright veto it as soon as it hits his desk, his or her desk. However, Congress also has the power to override vetoes. Vedos can be overridden by a two-thirds vote in each chamber.
That's each chamber, the Senate and the House both have to vote. And it takes two-thirds of each chamber to override a presidential veto. Some other powers of Congress. Congress also has the power of oversight.
So both chambers of Congress, that is the House and Senate, have the power of oversight, or the right to review and monitor other branches of government, such as the executive branch. Another topic when discussing Congress is gerrymandering. It's an important topic to discuss.
So what is gerrymandering? gerrymandering is the intentional redrawing of congressional districts in order to isolate members of a particular political party so that a maximum number of representatives of that party will be elected. In other words, gerrymandering seeks to draw or redraw legislative districts that isolate members of a particular political party so that a maximum number of representatives of that party will be elected.
How does gerrymandering work? So every 10 years, states redraw their legislative and congressional district lines following the census. Both parties gerrymander. Both parties, the Democrats and the Republicans, have heavily gerrymandered their respective districts.
Some of the most gerrymandered districts in the U.S. are Chicago, a lot of districts in Texas, within Houston, Dallas. North Carolina has some very gerrymandered districts, but most all states to some degree have some level of gerrymandering. And both parties are heavily involved in this, what many would call an undemocratic process. And it can be highly controversial, gerrymandering.
It's further divided the two parties. It has certainly made the House of Representatives more partisan. In other words... Districts can now more heavily lean Democrat or Republican.
As the districts become more gerrymandered, they basically limit the opposition. So it can be a very controversial topic and process. Well that's that's a brief overview of the US Congress.
I hope you enjoyed this lesson and please be sure to review chapter 11 on the US Congress in your textbook and have a good day.