How Congress Is Organised To Make Policy Essay

“They say women talk too much. If you have worked in Congress you know that the filibuster was invented by men” - Clare Boothe Luce. A filibuster is a long speech used to delay a bill or a piece of legislation. It is a loophole within the Senate rules that has proven useful in a Congressional debate. Filibusters grants a significant power created by taking a stand against a flawed rule which gave the minority group power over a more dominant group. Consequently, the majority mitigated any abuse of the filibuster by limiting it.

A benefit of a bicameral legislature is that constituents get better representation through the House of Representatives. According to Document B, the House of Representatives is meant to be closer to its constituents while the Senate focuses on being the more deliberate chamber. Basically, House members specialists while Senators are

28. House and Senate members often rely on which of the following inform their decision making on legislation because they frequently have policy expertise that can guide a legislator on an upcoming vote?

This explain that the more time pass the more powerless the congress become. Another example

While both houses were intended to have new members regularly with each election, the House of Representatives was especially supposed to change. James Madison wrote, in The Federalist No. 57 (1788), “[Representatives] will be taken from that class of citizens which will...be most likely to aim at an ambitious sacrifice of the many and the aggrandizement of the few.” Whereas Senators were

The US federal legislature is bicameral, therefore it consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and in theory they should both be of equal power. However, in reality it is the Senate which is considered to hold the most power, although there are arguments to in favour of them having equal rights. In order to reach a balanced judgement I will consider both sides of the argument, beginning with the claim that the Senate is more powerful than the House of Representatives.

Filibusters were a common tactic used for preventing the passing of a bill by holding the senate floor and using any means to delay or block

Otto von Bismarck once said, “Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.” The arduous process that a bill undergoes in order to become a law may seem grueling and pointless; however, the processes high caliber of difficulty allows for the extreme prestige and exclusivity of bills that are passed. Because the process is so exhausting, and filibusters, subsequently requiring a super-majority vote to pass a bill, have always been such a threat in Congress, historically, bills that attempt to reform sensitive issues have not fared well in the legislative branch. However, when Congress does pass controversial laws, it then also faces the task of effectively enforcing them. But, when the process is carried out to

The limitations on and difficulties of passing laws are very, very important. The split legislature creates a more complicated maze through which laws must find their way before being passed. First, a law must be introduced in either the House of Representatives or the Senate, the former having sole power to introduce laws concerning revenue. After the law is introduced, it must be approved by the other house, who may agree with, amend, or discard the law. Once

The Organizational Structure of congress in the United Stated is demonstrated through the fact that we have a House and a Senate that are separated from each other. Congress is a very complex structure that possesses many committees that all handle a variety of topics. The United States Senate is composed of only 100 members that serve six year terms. Some refer to the senate as the “upper house”, and only 1/3 of the members of the United Senate are re-elected every two years. The House of Representatives is composed of 435 members that each serve two year terms. The HOR is known as the “lower house” and all 435 members are up for re-election every two years. The top two leadership roles in the Senate are The Vice President of the United States who presides over the Senate, and required to vote when there is a tie in Senate. Also in the case of a death of a president, the Vice president must step up and preside over the nation. The second most vital role in Senate is the President Pro-Tempore. The President Pro-Tempore is the highest ranked senator as elected by the Senate. The top two positions in the House are The Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader. The Speaker of the House is arguably the most influential single legislator in both houses. The Speaker presides over proceedings on the House floor, designates which bills go to which committees, designates committee assignments for new members, appoints the party 's other leaders , and

Lobbyists and leadership staff also push to get these bills passed. An omnibus bill is usually compiled of 12 or so bills that should have really been separated and voted for separately. The strategy behind this is to get things passed that generally would not have made it through if they had been there own bill. Hamilton says “Less than half the bills that become laws these days go through all of the stages of the standard legislative process” (pg. 102). This indicates that bills are being grouped together more and more often lately. Genevieve Wood and Hamilton agree that these bills are a problem to our system. “Throwing funding for the entire government into one bill doesn’t just lead to more spending. It also leads to more spending on bad things” (Wood). On the matter, Hamilton acknowledges that most legislators know that this is not the way it should be, but think that it is the only way to get anything done anymore. Omnibus bills are ruining the careful voting that we used to have in Congress and replacing it with a wave of information to read and comprehend. “As opposed to bills that are bite sized chunks, we get 1000+ page bills that elected officials are supposed to review in a matter of 24 to 48 hours” (Woods). Congressman are expected to review these massive bills, but the information is just simply overwhelming. This allows certain legislation to slip through their fingers, which downplays the system that our founding fathers worked to

     In conclusion, there are many factors that influence Congress’s decisions of certain operations throughout history. Some of those factors include the committee system, seniority, and the public opinion. Most of the factors have to do with making sure that there are no corrupt congressmen, or unfit

Mentioning that by looking to satisfy ones own constituents, they are doing what is asked of a representative. Feno then goes on to talk about comities focusing more on the House. He states that there are two kinds of committees, "committees which its members wish to pyramid their influence and therefore maintain their influence of their committee in the house" and committees were members are interested in national recognition (388). He defends the seniority rule which is used as a determining factors when choosing a committee chair and often is criticized. He says that although he does not see it as the best way of determining importance, it is not the biggest problem with committees, and often the committee majority is responsible for many of the problems.

10. Voting: After the debate and the approval of any amendments, the bill is passed or defeated by the members voting. Congresspersons do not have to vote, or even be in the room during the vote.

The committee system is necessary in order to ensure that each piece of legislation receives the consideration that it deserves. Judy