What is the difference between the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives? Is the senator a higher level?

Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution specifies the structure, powers, and operations of Congress. The bicameral system of Congress was the result of the Connecticut Compromise, an attempt to strike a balance between the Virginia plan favored by the more populous states and the New Jersey plan favored by the less populous states. Bicameralism also represents the U.S. Constitutional Convention's distrust of popular democracy. In Sections 2 and 3 of Article I of the Constitution, they specified that members of the House of Representatives would be directly elected by the voters, but that senators in the Senate would be elected by state legislatures (the latter clause was adopted in Article 17 of the Constitution in 1913 The amendment later changed it to direct elections by state voters).

The Constitution also stipulates that the term of the House of Representatives is two years, and all are re-elected every two years, while the term of the Senators is six years (two years longer than the term of the President of the United States) [1], and every two years Re-elect one-third of the members. Congressional elections held two years after a presidential election year are called midterm elections.

Article 1, Section 8 to the end of Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power necessary to formulate policies, including taxing, lending, regulating interstate and foreign commerce, creating immigration procedures, Legislate to regulate bankruptcies, issue currency, regulate weights and measures, punish counterfeiters, establish post offices and post roads, protect copyrights, establish a court system, punish pirates, declare war, raise, maintain and regulate armies, navies and militia, suppress rebellions and repel Invasion and so on. The more important ones include taxing taxes, regulating interstate and foreign trade, and declaring war. Other constitutional provisions give Congress the power to regulate itself, regulate the Electoral College, and override presidential vetoes. Congress can also regulate interstate relations, the scope of Supreme Court review cases, and propose constitutional amendments.

Subsequent constitutional amendments added some powers to Congress, such as selecting the president and vice president when no candidate receives a majority of the votes in the presidential election (Article 12), and imposing income taxes (Article 16 ), determine an Acting President in the event of the President's death or incapacity (Articles 20 and 25), and govern the District of Columbia (Article 23).

Some powers are assigned to one part of Congress, such as

* Senate: ratifies treaties, approves or rejects presidential nominees for ambassadors, Supreme Court justices, and other executive branch officials, A trial is held when the president and his subordinate officials are impeached.

* House of Representatives: Propose motions related to finance, select the president and vice president when no candidate obtains a majority of votes in the presidential election, impeach the president and his subordinate officials

The U.S. Constitution also provides Constitutional constraints imposed on Congress. Restrictions imposed by Congress include not legislating to establish a state religion (guiding ideology); not treating various theories and expressions differently, or restricting freedom of religion and freedom of speech; (Article 1 of the Amendment to the U.S. Constitution) not passing any bill allowing for absentee trials; not passing any Bills that deprive citizens of their rights, confiscate property, and have retroactive effect; shall not pass any bill that imposes exit taxes, etc. The Supreme Court judges whether congressional actions and laws are constitutional.

The U.S. Congress consists of two houses: the Senate, also known as the upper house; and the House of Representatives, also known as the lower house. There is no subordinate relationship between the two houses. Although the Senate and the House of Representatives are two parts of the same legislative body, there are many differences between them.

The most obvious difference between the Senate and the House of Representatives is their size. There are 435 members of the House of Representatives from each state in the House of Representatives, as well as non-voting representatives from Washington, DC, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and Puerto Rico[4], while there are 100 senators from 50 states. This also makes the House of Representatives need more bills to regulate the conduct of debates in the House.

The Senate generally allows unlimited speeches on all issues, but also allows senators to terminate lengthy debates by voting. The House of Representatives has dedicated bill committees that place time limits on discussions of almost every proposal. This allows the House of Representatives to pass bills faster than the Senate even though the institution is larger than the Senate.

Due to their numbers, senators usually have more media exposure than representatives and have a higher status within the party, while representatives may gradually become experts in formulating policies in a certain area. , such as finance, taxation, environment or education policy.

Congressional elections

The Senate is elected by each state. Each state, regardless of size, elects two senators for six-year terms. One-third of the Senate is up for election every two years. But the election process is governed by the U.S. Constitution and federal law (Article 1, Section 4 of the Constitution). After the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1913, each state's two senators were no longer elected by state legislatures, but by popular vote in each state.

The Constitution stipulates that each state needs to hold a representative election every two years, and the number of representatives in each state and the constituency of each representative are determined by the data obtained through the census every ten years (for less than one constituency Small states with a large population are represented by one member of the House of Representatives).

In addition to the states, other U.S. territories, such as Washington, D.C., Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and Puerto Rico, also elect their representatives to Congress. These representatives do not vote but can participate in other activities such as surveys and debates.

Election candidates

The qualifications for a senator are that they must be over 30 years old when taking office, have been a U.S. citizen for more than 9 years, and must be a resident of the election state at the time of election. Representatives must be 25 years old or older when taking office, must have been a U.S. citizen for more than 7 years, and must be a resident of the district at the time of election.

Party candidates for Congress usually need to go through a party primary to determine the candidate nominated by the party in the general election. Because of the dominance of political parties in U.S. elections, most candidates are required to go through this process. In primaries, candidates may be aggressive on certain issues to appeal to local party votes, but in general elections, candidates may be moderate to appeal to centrist votes.

Swallowtail effect

Most members of Congress won re-elections. This is due to their rights and obligations as parliamentarians, such as polling voters and media reports. As members of a party, they will also help candidates of the same party in the election, allowing their party to maintain or increase its control of the district. This is called the swallowtail effect. However, voters will also change their voting goals in midterm elections based on the president's performance.

Because each House of Representatives’ district is drawn based on population density, the party with a majority in Congress strengthens itself during the decennial redistricting process based on census data. status. In some cases, redistricting results in districts with widely different voter populations or racial differences. In 1962, the Supreme Court cited the Equal Protection Clause and began to ban this type of behavior.

Although the Supreme Court protects the right of each person to one vote, political parties still try to strengthen their advantage through redistricting, for example, with the help of computers, to divide the opposition party's supporters into as few as possible constituencies, or draw as many constituencies as possible where control is secure.

Members’ Rights

Congress has its own information department to provide information services to members. In addition, members also have salaries that are much higher than those of ordinary people, their own offices, and dozens of employees. . According to Article 1, Section 6 of the Constitution, members also have less cited privileges and have fewer restrictions on their behavior when participating in parliament than citizens. Debates and speeches required for the MP's duties will also not be sued for defamation.

There are a lot of caucuses in Congress. The most influential are each party's caucuses, which inform members of the party's voting strategy and other information. Most of the other caucuses are related to various interest groups, such as the Albania caucus, the potato caucus, the athletes caucus, etc., which provide members with information on certain specific issues.

Congressional Structure

According to the U.S. Constitution, the Senate is nominally presided over by the Vice President of the United States, but the Vice President rarely invokes this right, and he only presides over the meeting and does not have the right to vote. When the voting results are equal, he has the right to cast his vote for the party he deems appropriate. In the absence of the Vice President, the Senate elects a President pro tempore to preside over the session. In practice, this ceremonial position is held on a rotating basis by the senior members of the Senate's majority party.

The actual power of the Senate lies in the hands of leaders and party governors elected by the caucuses of the two major parties. Leaders have the right to speak first, set the debate agenda, and designate committee tasks and members, while party supervisors are responsible for assisting leaders and party members in communicating.

The majority leader is the speaker of the Senate.

The structure of the House of Representatives is basically similar to that of the Senate, but the speaker of the House elected at the beginning of the session has similar powers to the Senate majority leader, who is the speaker's assistant and partisan spokesman.

Committees

Most legislative work in Congress is carried out by various committees and subcommittees. Generally, after a motion is proposed, it will be studied and reviewed by a professional committee before being put to a vote. Committee members are usually experts in the proposal being addressed. The effectiveness of congressional legislation largely depends on the effectiveness of these committees.

Because Congress assigns committees to handle specialized bills, and committee members are generally experts on the relevant matters, Congress rarely votes against the committee's actions. The committee is responsible for referring bills to subcommittees, scheduling hearings on the bills, and deciding whether to present the bills to the full membership for a vote.

Both houses have committees with standing members that deal with long-term issues such as the budget. The institutions of these standing committees are generally more complex than other committees, and the competition for positions is more intense. Members are generally appointed by the decision-making committees of the two parties. In addition, both houses of Congress will also set up special committees to address specific issues and bills. Although some special committees may be permanent, most special committees are temporary. In addition, the House of Representatives has a Committee on Regulations specifically designed to regulate the process of generating regulations.

In addition to such floor committees, committees facing Congress as a whole, such as joint committees such as the Joint Committee on the Library of Congress and conference committees that determine the final version of the bill, are composed of members of both houses.

The chairman of the committee is usually the most senior member of the majority party, but in recent years there has been a trend towards democratic elections within the committee.

Generation of Laws

Both Congress and executive agencies under the President can propose bills. Bills are usually introduced in both houses at the same time, unless they involve the exclusive rights of one house, such as finance or treaties. Afterwards, the House will transfer the bill to a special committee, where it will be studied, debated, heard and improved. After the committee completes its work on the bill and reports to the House, the Senate majority leader or the House Rules and Regulations Committee needs to schedule a time for public debate. If the bill passes in a plenary vote, and if different versions of the bill pass in both chambers, the two chambers will form a conference committee to resolve the differences. If the version reported by the conference committee to the House is approved by both houses, the bill will be sent to the president, unless the bill is a constitutional amendment, in which case the bill will be sent to the states for ratification.

If the president signs the bill, then the bill has legal effect and becomes law. If the president vetoes the bill, the chamber may amend the bill to gain the president's support, or override the president's veto with a 2/3 majority (no abstentions can be cast), making the bill automatically become law.

As long as 1/5 of the number of people present is required for voting on any motion, the names of the voters and the results of the votes must be published in the court newspaper for the convenience of voter supervision.