CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES

CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES

The Congress of the United States is the highest lawmaking body in the United States and one of the oldest national legislatures in the world.

Established under the terms of the U.S. Constitution in 1789, the House of Representatives
and the Senate have for over 200 years created the federal laws governing the United States. Congress remains one of the few national assemblies that research and draft their own legislation rather than simply voting on bills created by the government in power. In addition to its legislative functions, the U.S. Congress is empowered by the Constitution to ensure that the administration of government is carried out according to the laws it establishes, to conduct special investigations, and to exercise other special powers in relation to the executive and the judiciary.

History and Structure
Between 1774 and 1789, the CONTINENTAL CONGRESS served as the federal lawmaking body for the 13 American colonies and (after it passed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776) the United States. The Continental Congress proved to be an ineffective national legislature, however, particularly after ratification of its founding constitution, the ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION, in 1781. This congress lacked the authority to raise funds from the states and was not adept at the administration of federal government.

The Framers of the Constitution, meeting in the Constitutional Convention of 1787,
attempted to repair the shortcomings of the Continental Congress by creating a more effective federal legislature. The resulting Congress, made up of a House of Representatives and a Senate, first met with a quorum of members on April 1, 1789, in New York City, eventually reaching its full size at 65 representatives and 26
senators.

Article I of the Constitution sets forth the
basic form and powers of Congress. As designed
by the Constitution’s Framers, the House is
more responsive to public sentiment, and the
Senate is a more deliberate and stable body.
JAMES MADISON, writing in The Federalist, no.
62, argued that members of the Senate should
have a “tenure of considerable duration” and
should be fewer in number in order to avoid the
“intemperate and pernicious resolutions” often passed by “single and numerous” legislative
assemblies. Accordingly, the Constitution
requires that senators serve six years in office,
with one-third of them up for reelection every
two years—whereas all House members, called
representatives, go up for reelection every two
years. In addition, the Constitution requires that
senators be at least 30 years old to take office,
whereas representatives must be a minimum of
25 years old. Moreover, senators were originally
elected by state legislatures and representatives
rather than the general population, but this procedure was ended with the passage of the SEVENTEENTH
AMENDMENT in 1913.
Congress has grown steadily in size as the
nation has gained population and added states.
The House reached its current size of 435 members
in 1912, and the Permanent Apportionment
Act of 1929 (46 Stat. 21, 26, 27) fixed its
size at this number. The Senate reached 100
members after the admission of Hawaii as a state
in 1959.
Powers of Congress
Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution
defines the powers of Congress. These include
the powers to assess and collect taxes; to regulate
commerce, both interstate and with foreign
nations; to coin money; to establish post offices
and post roads; to establish federal courts inferior
to the Supreme Court; to declare war; to
establish rules for the government; and to raise
and maintain an army and navy.
Article I, Section 8, also declares that “Congress
shall have Power . . . 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.” Called the NECESSARY
AND PROPER CLAUSE or the Implied
Powers Clause, this part of the Constitution
enables Congress to undertake activities not
specifically enumerated by the Constitution but
implied by its provisions. The Necessary and
Proper Clause has been used to greatly expand
congressional authority (MCCULLOCH V. MARYLAND,
17 U.S. [4 Wheat.] 316, 4 L. Ed. 579
[1819]).
Another power vested in Congress is the
right to propose amendments to the Constitution
upon approval by two-thirds of both
houses. Should two-thirds of the state legislatures
demand changes in the Constitution, Congress
must call a constitutional convention.
Proposed amendments are valid as part of the
Constitution when ratified by the legislatures or
by conventions of three-fourths of the states.
Either means of ratification may be proposed by
Congress.
Congress retains a number of other special
powers. It may act as a judicial body to impeach
and try a president or other civil officer for misconduct;
in such cases, the House impeaches, or
charges, the official, and the Senate conducts the
trial. Congress is also empowered to create and
use administrative agencies and boards, such as
the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
and the NATIONAL MEDIATION BOARD, to
determine facts and to enforce its legislative
policies and enactments.
The Constitution vests each house of Congress
with distinct powers as well. The House,
for example, has sole responsibility for originating
all tax bills, and the Senate has power to
approve treaties. The House also chooses the
president and vice president if no candidate
wins a majority of electoral votes in the presidential
election.
Section 9 of Article I of the Constitution
imposes prohibitions upon Congress. This section
forbids Congress to suspend the privilege of
HABEAS CORPUS, except in cases of rebellion; to
pass EX POST FACTO, or retroactive, laws; to
impose duties on exports; or to grant titles of
nobility.

Apportionment

Seats in the Senate are apportioned, or distributed,
evenly across the states, with each state
receiving two. Seats in the House of Representatives
are apportioned between the states on the
basis of population, with the most populated
states receiving the most representatives and no
state receiving less than one. The Constitution
requires that a census be conducted every ten
years in order to determine the number of seats
allotted to each state. An apportionment
method called equal proportions is used so that
no state will receive less than one member.
The Constitution does not mandate that
states having more than one representative be
divided into congressional districts, although a
state legislature can make such a division. States
cannot apportion congressional districts on a
discriminatory or unreasonable basis.
Investigations

The Senate and the House of Representatives,
acting together or independently, can
authorize investigations, or hearings, to obtain
information for use in connection with the exercise
of their constitutional powers. Information
gathered in congressional hearings helps lawmakers
draft legislation and monitor the actions
of government. It also informs the public about
important issues confronting the nation. Noted
congressional investigations have included the
TEAPOT DOME inquiry in 1923, the 1973–74
Senate WATERGATE hearings, and the IRAN-CONTRA
investigation in 1987. Congress has also
examined perceived threats to the government, as in the Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954 in
which Senator JOSEPH R. MCCARTHY (R-WI) led
an investigation into Communist influence in
the U.S. government.

A congressional committee may conduct an
appropriate investigation under the authority
granted to it, but the methods used in the exercise
of its investigative power must not violate
the constitutional rights of those under investigation.
The extent of the authority of a congressional
committee must be determined at the
time the particular information is sought and
cannot be extended by later action of Congress.
Congressional investigations can be held to
obtain information in connection with Congress’s
power to legislate and to appropriate
funds, in addition to other express powers it
possesses. Congress has wide discretion to determine
the subject matter it studies as well as the
scope and extent of its inquiry. An investigation
must, however, be based on direct statements
made to Congress, its members, or its committees.
Congress or its committees may not indiscriminately
examine private citizens in order to
learn valuable information or to inhibit the
exercise of constitutionally protected rights,
such as FREEDOM OF SPEECH.
Individuals summoned in a proper manner,
or subpoenaed, by Congress or a committee
must comply and conform with the summoner’s
procedure. However, witnesses are legally entitled
to refuse to answer questions that are
beyond the power of the investigating body or
that are irrelevant to the matter under inquiry. A
witness who has not been given a grant of
IMMUNITY can refuse to answer questions that
tend to be incriminating under the protection
afforded by the Self-Incrimination Clause of the
FIFTH AMENDMENT to the Constitution.
Committees and Staff
The work of preparing and considering legislation
is done largely by committees of both
houses of Congress. The membership of the
standing committees of each house is chosen by
the political parties in Congress. Committee
seats are generally distributed to members of
different political parties in a ratio equivalent to
party membership in the larger House or Senate.
Thus, if a party has two-thirds of the seats in the
House, it will have approximately two-thirds of
the seats in each House committee.
Each bill and resolution is usually referred to
the appropriate committee, which may report it
out (send it to the floor of the House or Senate)
in its original form, favorably or unfavorably;
recommend amendments; or allow it to die in
committee without action.
A growing workload and the increasingly
complex nature of the legislation it passes have
caused Congress to hire an increasing number of
staff. Thousands of staff workers support the
Congressional members in their work.

FURTHER READINGS
Corwin, Edward S. 1978. The Constitution and What It
Means Today. 14th ed. Rev. Harold W. Chase and Craig
R. Ducat. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press.
Davidson, Roger H., and Walter J. Oleszek. 1981– . Congress
and Its Members. Washington, D.C.: Congressional
Quarterly.
Egan, Tracie. 2004. How a Bill Becomes a Law. New York:
Rosen Pub. Group.
Felten, Eric. 1992. The Ruling Class: Inside the Imperial Congress.
Washington, D.C.: Heritage Foundation.
“Gingrich Puts More Power into Speaker’s Hands.” 1995.
Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report (October 7).
“Glossary of Congressional Terms.” Congressional Quarterly’s
Washington Alert (February).
Hamilton, Alexander, James Madison, and John Jay. 1787–
88. The Federalist Papers. Ed. Clinton Rossiter. Reprint,
New York: New American Library of World Literature,
1961.
Harrigan, John J. 1984. Politics and the American Future.
Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley.
“How a Bill Becomes Law.” 1994. Congressional Quarterly’s
Washington Alert.
Jones, Gordon S., and John A.Marini, eds. 1989. The Imperial
Congress: Crisis in the Separation of Powers. Mahwah,
NJ:World Almanac Books.
Oleszek,Walter J. 1989. Congressional Procedures and the Policy
Process. 3d ed. Washington, D.C.: Congressional
Quarterly.
Riddick, Floyd M. 1985.Majority and Minority Leaders of the
Senate. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing
Office, April 3. S. Doc. 99-3.

CROSS-REFERENCES
Constitution of the United States.

How a Bill Becomes a Law

Before a federal law can exist in the
United States, it must first be introduced
as a bill in Congress, and then pass
through a series of steps. At any of these
steps it may be effectively vetoed, or nullified,
if it does not attract a majority of
support. As a result, only a small percentage
of all bills succeed in becoming
laws. In the 103d Congress (1993–95),
for example, 8,544 public bills and joint
resolutions (generally the same as bills)
were introduced, and only 465 became
laws.
Introduction of bills Bills must
be introduced, or sponsored, by a member
of the House or Senate.Most bills are
introduced simultaneously in both
houses in order to speed their passage.
Sponsored bills are placed in the “hopper,”
a mahogany box near the
House Speaker’s podium. A
bill may be cosponsored by
other members of Congress in
order to earn wider political
support. Bills receive special
designation codes to identify
their house of origin and the
order in which they have been received.
For example, the code H.R. 171 designates
the 171st House bill of that congressional
term, and S. 52 indicates the
fifty-second Senate bill.
Ideas for bills may come from a variety
of sources other than members of
Congress, including the president, other
government officials, interest groups,
scholars, constituents, staff, and state
and local officials. Although a member
of Congress must sponsor a bill, anyone
may draft a bill. Proposed bills are often
drafted by executive agencies and special
interest groups. Also, experts in the Senate
and House offices of legislative
counsel help members of Congress draft
bills.
Frequently, bills are grouped together
into comprehensive bills, also called
omnibus bills or package bills, to increase
their chances of approval. This practice
has become increasingly common, and as
a result, Congress has enacted fewer but
lengthier laws in recent decades.
Bills may be either private or public.
Public bills include those authorizing
spending for the federal government and
those establishing the federal laws applicable
to the general public, including
criminal laws. Private bills deal with more
specialized matters such as the claims of
individuals regarding land titles and citizenship.
If approved, these bills become
private laws.
Although most laws originate
as bills, some originate as
joint resolutions, designated
H.R.J. Res. or S.J. Res. Joint resolutions
must pass through the
same hurdles as bills, including
required acceptance by both
houses and the president, but generally
deal with more limited matters. Constitutional
amendments begin as joint resolutions,
though they require ratification
by three-fourths of the states instead of
presidential approval.
Bills introduced in Congress must be
approved by both houses in identical
form during the congressional term in
which they are introduced. (Each congressional
term is two years; the 100th
Congress, for example, officially began its
term at noon on January 3, 1987, and
ended it at noon on January 3, 1989.)
Thus, a bill that is introduced during the
105th Congress must be passed before
the beginning of the 106th Congress. If it
is not passed during that congressional
term, it must be reintroduced in the next
Congress.
Committee action After a bill
has been introduced in the House or Senate,
it is referred to an appropriate committee
by the House Speaker or the
presiding officer in the Senate. Committee
referral can be a crucial determinant
of a bill’s success. If a bill is referred to a
hostile or unreceptive committee, it may
fail to be reported out of the committee,
or be passed.
A committee assigns the bill to a subcommittee,
which may hold hearings to
consider the bill’s merits. The subcommittee
often amends the bill, in a procedure
known as markup. After the
subcommittee completes its work, the
committee votes to approve and report
the bill with amendments; to make further
amendments; or to table the bill—
that is, take no more action on it.
House Rules Committee House
bills, unlike Senate bills, must pass
through a rules committee before proceeding
to the House floor. The House
Rules Committee establishes the limits
for debate and amendment of the bill,
elements that can determine the bill’s
outcome. The Speaker of the House
appoints all majority party members to
the committee and exerts great influence
over the committee and, as a result, the
fate of legislation in the House.
Floor action Bills that are reported
out of committee—including those that
have passed through the House Rules
Committee—proceed to the floor of the
House and Senate.
The Speaker decides when the House
will debate a bill. On the day that a bill is
scheduled for debate, the House first
votes on the rules of debate proposed by
the Rules Committee. Once these have
been approved, general debate begins.
The typical length of general debate on
the House floor is one to two hours, but
for a controversial bill, debate may last
four to ten hours. Each political party
receives an equal amount of time to
debate the bill.
After general debate, the bill proceeds
to the amending phase. Here,
House members engage in more lively
debate as they attempt to win passage of
the bill or kill it through the amendment
process. Successful amendments can
greatly alter proposed legislation, and
even unsuccessful amendments can win
significant publicity for a representative.
During this process, House members
vote on each amendment as it comes up
for consideration.
Finally, after all amendments have
been made, the House votes on the bill.
Usually, this vote is recorded. Since 1973
the House has used an electronic voting
system in which members insert a personalized
card (roughly the size of a
credit card) into one of more than forty
voting stations on the House floor. They
then press a button indicating whether
their vote is Yea, Nay, or Present.
Because it is a much smaller body,
the Senate maintains floor procedures
that are much less formal than those of
the House. The Senate allows each of its
members more freedom to debate bills,
and it allows the minority party to make
more decisions than in the House.
Scheduling of bills in the Senate is
determined jointly by the majority and
minority party leadership, though the
majority leader makes the final decisions.
For most bills, the majority leader
then obtains the unanimous consent of
the Senate regarding the date a bill will
be brought to the floor and the rules
regarding its amendment and debate.
Generally, senators are able to offer an
unlimited number of floor amendments
during debate. Debate is also theoretically
unlimited; it does not end until all
members are through talking. The Senate
has a rule passed in 1917 called a cloture
rule, which limits debate to thirty
hours before a final vote is taken on a
bill. The cloture rule is difficult to invoke
because it requires the approval of sixty
senators.
During floor debate, senators may
engage in a practice called the filibuster,
in which they speak on the floor for many
hours in order to delay, defeat, or amend
a bill. A senator may filibuster for as long
as he or she can remain standing. Two
senators may work together in a filibuster;
when one tires, the other continues.
In 1957 Senator STROM THURMOND,
of South Carolina, then a Democrat,
set the record for the longest solo filibuster
in Senate history when he spoke
for twenty-four hours and eighteen minutes
in an attempt to defeat a CIVIL
RIGHTS bill.
After debate is over, the Senate conducts
a roll call vote to determine
whether the bill passes or fails. In a roll
call vote, each senator is asked to state
aloud his or her vote on the bill.
Conference committee If the
House and Senate versions of a bill differ,
the two chambers form a conference
committee to resolve the discrepancies.
Roughly 10 to 15 percent of all bills—
usually the most controversial ones—
passed by Congress end up in a
conference committee. Members of the
conference committee are typically
drawn from the committees that
reported the bill. During the 1980s and
1990s, conference committees sometimes
became quite large, involving as many as
two hundred conferees when debating
large budget measures. Party ratios on
these committees reflect the ratios in
Congress itself. Since 1975 conference
meetings have been open to the public.
When the conference committee is
done, a majority of conferees from each
house sign the compromise bill and
report it to Congress. The House and
Senate then vote to approve the common
bill. No amendments are allowed at this
point. Because members have invested
much time and effort in the bill by the
time it has left a conference committee, it
is nearly always approved.
Enactment into law Following
approval by both houses of Congress, a
bill is presented to the president for
approval. Article I, Section 7, of the Constitution
outlines the procedure for presidential
judgment of legislation. The
president has four options: sign the bill,
which makes it law; VETO the bill and
return it to Congress; refuse to take any
action, in which case, after ten days, the
bill becomes law without the president’s
signature; or, if less than ten days are left
in the congressional term, “pocket veto”
the bill by not signing it (because Congress
has no time to take up the bill, the
pocket veto kills the bill).
In the case of a normal veto, the bill
must be approved again by Congress, this
time by a two-thirds majority in each
house. Because of this supermajority
requirement, vetoes are difficult to override.
No amendments can be made to a
vetoed bill. Congress is not required to
vote on a vetoed bill, and such bills are
often simply referred to committee and
tabled.

CROSS-REFERENCES
Joint Resolution.

Senate Majority Leader

The Senate majority leader has somewhat less
official power than the Speaker of the House.
This is because the vice president is technically the
Senate’s presiding officer, a ceremonial position that
calls chiefly for casting a vote in the event of a tie.
The Senate majority leader’s official duties include
helping make committee appointments, helping
establish a legislative timetable, and directing
debate. Notably, in the Senate, these duties usually
involve consultation with the leadership of the minority
party. The comparatively diminished procedural
powers of the majority leader hardly reduce the position’s
significance. As chief strategist and
spokesperson for the majority party, the majority
leader exercises considerable influence over political
debate, and certain unique duties of the Senate
itself lend extra influence to the role.
Differences between the House and Senate
account for the contrasts in leadership duties. The
House sends bills to the Senate, where they are
debated extensively at a slower, more deliberate
pace. For this reason, the majority leader is chosen
from within the party’s caucus less for the Senator’s
bureaucratic efficiency than for his or her knowledge,
experience, and persuasive abilities. The Senate
leader does not have the House Speaker’s extensive
authority over the legislative agenda: instead, bills are
called up for debate depending on when the committees
report them and on when both parties’ leaders
have agreed to schedule them. The majority leader
can speed up the process for certain bills but requires
the unanimous consent of the Senate to do so.
However, the majority leader exercises influence
in important areas not open to the House Speaker.
Only the Senate can approve treaties with foreign
governments, and the Senate alone has the authority
to confirm presidential nominations to the cabinet
and federal courts. The majority leader, assisted by a
lieutenant known as the majority whip, seeks to marshal
the votes of the party’s members on these matters.
The responsiveness of the majority leader to the
president’s wishes thus plays a crucial role in shaping
domestic and foreign policy as well as the composition
of the federal judiciary.
The national importance of the majority leader
was highlighted in December 2002 when Senator
TRENT LOTT (R-MS) was engulfed in a firestorm of
public criticism that forced him to give up his position
as majority leader in the Congress beginning in January
2003. Lott, who had served as majority leader
from 1996 until 2001, ignited the controversy at a
100th-birthday tribute to Sen. STROM THURMOND (RSC).
Lott said he was proud Mississippi had voted for
Thurmond for president in 1948, when the South Carolinian
ran on the segregationist “Dixiecrat” platform.
Lott then said: “If the rest of the country had
followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these
problems over the years.”
Once this statement was picked up by the press,
Lott tried several times to explain that his statement
did not mean to imply he supported SEGREGATION or
was a racist. President GEORGE W. BUSH, while supporting
Lott in his leadership position, chastised his
comments; within days commentators speculated
how long Lott could hold on to his post. Three weeks
after he made the comments, Lott resigned his leadership
position. Senator Bill Frist (R-TN) succeeded
Lott as majority leader. The episode made clear that
Senate majority leaders have both an institutional
role and a national leadership role in U.S. government.

FURTHER READINGS
Dinan, Stephen. 2002. “White House Turns Up the Heat When Lott Support Deteriorates.” The Washington Times (December 21).

Redman, Eric, and Richard E. Neustadt. 2001. The Dance of Legislation. Seattle: Univer. of Washington Press.

Speaker of the House

As the presiding officer of the House of Representatives,
the Speaker of the House holds one
of the highest positions in Congress. The position is
filled at the start of each two-year term in a vote by
the full House membership. The selection of the
Speaker is generally determined by the majority
party, and thus the Speaker is always a leading member
of that party. The Speaker’s broad powers and
privileges allow the majority to control the House’s
legislative agenda.
The significance of the office cannot be underestimated.
The Speaker is in a position to set the
rules of the House and to adjudicate when procedural
conflicts arise. The Speaker’s rulings can be
challenged, but rarely are; traditionally, they are
final. Behind the scenes, the office’s power is even
broader. This is because voting is a relatively small
part of the House’s business: its essential legislative
work is done in committees. The Speaker plays a
vital role in appointing committee chairs, influences
the referral of bills to the committees, and effectively
decides the timetables of the bills. Bills favored by
the Speaker will leave committee more quickly and
come to an early vote. The minority party’s concerns
will wait.
Outside Congress, the Speaker customarily
enjoys high visibility in U.S. politics. The media frequently
report the Speaker’s opinions, transforming
the office into a political bully pulpit much like that of
the Senate majority leader, and the Speaker often
campaigns for party loyalists in election years.
Depending on which party occupies the White
House, the Speaker can be either a strategically
placed ally or powerful foe of the president. The relationship
between the two branches of government
does not end there: under the rules of succession,
the Speaker is second in line after the vice president
to assume the presidency.
Not every Speaker has been a high-profile individual.
In 1999, the House elected J. Dennis Hastert
(R-IL) to serve as Speaker, replacing NEWTON GINGRICH.
Hastert served as a high school teacher for 16
years until he was elected to the Illinois House of
Representatives, where he served for six years. He
was elected to Congress in 1986.
Hastert has retained a relatively low profile in his
two terms as Speaker, especially compared to that of
his immediate predecessor. Gingrich was largely
credited with leading Republican victories in Congress
in 1994, when the GOP took control of both
houses for the first time since 1954. He remained in
the public spotlight for the next four years, including
strong advocacy to fulfill the CONTRACT WITH AMERICA
and other GOP programs. However, in 1997, he
faced several charges for ethical violations stemming
from alleged use of official House resources for
unofficial purposes, and he was reprimanded and
fined $300,000 by the House. Gingrich resigned suddenly
in November 1998, almost exactly four years
after the 1994 Republican victory.

FURTHER READINGS
Loomis, Burdett A. 2000. The Contemporary Congress. Boston:
Bedford/St. Martin’s.
Mayhew, David R. 2000. America’s Congress: Actions in the
Public Sphere, James Madison through Newt Gingrich.
New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Press.