Congress of the United States

V

Congressional Sessions

A new Congress begins in January every two years following congressional elections, in which voters choose all representatives and a third of the senators. The entire House membership faces reelection every two years, but the Senate is a continuing body because there is never an entirely new Senate. Since the First Congress, which met from 1789 to 1791, all Congresses have been numbered in order. The members elected in 1998 served in the 106th Congress, which convened in 1999 and 2000. Congress usually holds one session a year. Originally, most congressional sessions lasted from the first Monday in December until the following March 4. The 20th Amendment, which was adopted in 1933, changed the beginning of the congressional session to January 3, but permits Congress to select a different date. There is no fixed adjournment date. During the annual session Congress takes several recesses to allow members to return to their home states. Besides the regular sessions, the president can call special sessions of Congress.

The House and the Senate each convene in their own chambers in the Capitol. On rare occasions they gather for a joint session in the House chamber, usually to hear a speech by the president or by a dignitary from another country. Congress also meets in joint session to count the electoral votes for presidential elections.

VI

Structure and Responsibilities of the Senate

The Constitution grants the Senate special powers not shared by the House. Only the Senate has the power to approve treaties proposed by the president. The chamber also has the sole authority to confirm the president’s choices for diplomats, federal judges, cabinet members, and other important federal officials. The Senate also conducts impeachment hearings against the president and federal judges, but only after the House has voted to proceed with impeachment.

Under the Constitution, the vice president of the United States has formal control of the Senate and is officially known as the president of the Senate. In practice, the vice president comes to the chamber only for important ceremonies and to cast tie-breaking votes. The Senate’s majority party appoints its most senior member to assume the vice president’s leadership duties, taking the title president pro tem (temporary president). This office is also primarily ceremonial. Normally, recently-elected senators—sometimes called junior senators—take turns presiding over the Senate, aided by experts in Senate procedure called parliamentarians.

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Most Senate power rests in the hands of the floor leaders—that is, the leaders of the majority and minority parties. Floor leaders and their assistants, known as whips, try to organize members’ support behind their party’s legislative program. The floor leaders and whips also arrange the Senate schedule, make procedural motions to support or block legislation, and try to prevent the Senate from taking action that absent senators might find objectionable. These leaders also head up key party committees, make appointments to special committees, and speak to the news media on behalf of their parties.

The Senate is organized into 16 permanent committees, which in turn have nearly 70 subcommittees. These committees and subcommittees hold hearings, conduct research, and supervise the executive branch. Key committees include the appropriations, budget, and finance committees, and those specializing in agriculture, armed services, banking, commerce, and foreign affairs. The committees and subcommittees make many of the Senate’s most important legislative decisions. The average senator sits on three to four committees and about six subcommittees, so most senators work on a wide range of issues. In addition to their committee work, senators often try to affect legislation being considered by committees on which they do not serve.

VII

Structure and Responsibilities of the House

The House enjoys the sole authority to propose tax legislation, but the Senate must approve tax bills as they would any other type of legislation. By tradition, all bills funding government activities also originate in the House. The House also has the power to initiate impeachment proceedings against the president and other federal officials, but the Senate conducts the actual impeachment trials.

The Speaker of the House leads the House of Representatives, scheduling debates, assigning bills to House committees, and appointing members to special committees. The majority party nominates the Speaker, who is then confirmed by a vote of the entire House, which almost always follows party lines. Because of the office’s extensive powers, the Speaker stands as the most visible and important figure on Capitol Hill, and one of the most powerful leaders in the country.

The Speaker manages House business more tightly than is possible in the Senate. Members of the House can address the chamber only when the Speaker recognizes them (calls on them), and the Speaker also has strong influence on committee appointments. Within limits, the speaker can block a bill by sending it to a committee likely to vote down the proposal, or the Speaker can support a bill by directing it to a receptive committee. The Speaker can also kill a bill by choosing not to put it on the House schedule for a vote. The Senate’s floor leaders, in contrast, must rely much more on consensus and persuasion to manage Senate business.

As in the Senate, the House’s majority and minority parties each choose floor leaders and whips to organize party members. Party committees plan party policy and recommend members for committee assignments.

The House has 19 committees. Most of these committees in turn have subcommittees to consider narrower topics. On average House members work on two committees and three subcommittees. Because of the House’s large size, its committees usually frame issues for debate in the chamber. In contrast, major issues are sometimes shaped by the Senate as a whole. The House as a body usually defers to decisions made by individual committees, making House committees even more powerful than those in the Senate.

The majority party dictates how many majority and minority members sit on each committee. The political parties decide which committees their representatives will sit on. The most sought-after committees are appropriations (which oversees federal spending), ways and means (which oversees federal revenues, including taxes), transportation, commerce, and rules (which sets the terms of debate in the House chamber).

VIII

The Legislative Process

Each Congress proposes thousands of new laws, but only a small percentage win the approval of both chambers and the president. At every stage of the lawmaking process, these proposals are amended, modified, and refined. To become law, a measure must make it through committee and floor debates, win the support of important interest groups, gain a majority of votes in the two chambers, and then win the president’s signature.

A

Proposing New Laws

Only a member of the House or Senate can sponsor new laws. Members of Congress sometimes sponsor legislation at the request of the president. They also sponsor bills requested by interest groups, businesses, labor unions, and many other groups. Sometimes identical or similar bills are introduced simultaneously in each chamber. A bill’s backers may try to find additional members to cosponsor the legislation to demonstrate its broad support. To introduce a bill, a member hands it to the Senate clerk or puts it in the House hopper (a mahogany box at the Speaker’s podium). The bill is then assigned a number, such as HR 205 (House of Representatives number 205) or S 100 (the 100th bill introduced into the Senate during the session).

Most proposals are public bills, which means that they apply to large classes of people. Members of Congress may also sponsor private bills, which affect small numbers of people and often involve immigration status, patents, or claims against the government. A bill, whether public or private, must pass both chambers in identical form to become law. Congress also passes joint resolutions, often to enact temporary legislation such as short-term budget extensions. Joint resolutions have the force of law when signed by the president or when passed over the president’s veto. Congress sometimes expresses its opinions through concurrent resolutions, which do not require the president’s approval and do not carry the force of law. In 1998, for example, more than three dozen senators sponsored a concurrent resolution that condemned Iraq’s “continued threat to international peace and security.” If both chambers approve a concurrent resolution, it is published by the archivist of the United States. The House or the Senate can vote on its own to pass a simple resolution, which affects only the chamber that passes it.

Of the thousands of bills and resolutions proposed in each session of Congress, less than 10 percent are approved by both chambers and signed by the president. Many measures fail because they are seen as too extreme or because they are not seen as addressing pressing issues. Members of Congress sometimes propose laws they know have little chance of enactment, usually to draw attention to a problem, to stake out their position, or to curry favor with an interest group. Years or even decades may pass before public or group support pushes the bill to enactment.

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