How are members of the US Senate and House of Representatives elected?

capitol hill

The highest legislative body in the United States consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Senators are directly elected by voters in each state, with two senators in each state, and the principle of equal representation in each state is implemented. At present, there are 100 members. An elected senator must be at least 30 years old, have been a citizen of the United States for nine years, and be a resident of the elected state at the time of election. The term of office is 6 years, and every 2 years 1/3. The number of members of the House of Representatives is distributed according to the population proportion of each state and directly elected. Each state has at least 65,438+0 members, with a fixed number of 435 members. They must be at least 25 years old, have been American citizens for seven years, and be residents of the elected state when they are elected. The term of office is 2 years, and if re-elected, it can be re-elected. Long-term re-election of members of both houses of parliament is extremely common. Members shall not concurrently hold other government positions.

The United States Congress exercises legislative power. Generally, a bill has to go through the procedures of proposal, committee deliberation and general meeting of the whole hospital. After the first hospital passed, it was sent to another hospital and followed the same procedure in turn. The bill is passed by the two houses and then submitted to the president for signature; If the president doesn't veto it, or if it is vetoed but re-passed by two-thirds of the members of both houses, it will officially become law. Congress also has other constitutional powers, such as the right to declare war on foreign countries and the right to amend the constitution. The Senate and the House of Representatives also have special powers. For example, treaties concluded by the president with foreign countries and senior officials appointed by the president must be "negotiated and agreed" by the Senate; The Senate also has the power to hear impeachment cases and re-elect vice presidents under special circumstances; The House of Representatives has the right to introduce financial bills and impeachment cases, and to re-elect the president under special circumstances. The legislative activities of Congress are often influenced by lobbying groups.

Both houses of Congress work with the support of their respective speakers. The speaker of the House of Representatives is elected by the general assembly of the whole hospital, and the vice president is the ex officio speaker of the Senate. There are many committees in the two houses, and there are also joint committees composed of members of the two houses. Most parliamentary work is carried out in each Committee.

[Edit this paragraph] History

Article 1 of the Constitution of the United States stipulates the structure, power and operation mode of Congress. The bicameral system of Congress is the result of compromise in Connecticut, trying to strike a balance between the Virginia plan supported by the more populous state and the New Jersey plan supported by the less populous state. The bicameral system also represents distrust of the representatives of the National Democratic Constituent Assembly of the United States. In the second and third paragraphs of Article 1 of the Constitution, they stipulate that members of the House of Representatives are directly elected by voters, but senators of the Senate are elected by state legislatures (the latter clause was changed to be directly elected by state voters after the amendment of Article 17 of the Constitution was passed in 19 13).

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

2006165438+17 October, the mid-term election was held. [ 1]

The responsibility of congress

The American Constitution stipulates that the tasks of Congress are legislation, speaking on behalf of voters, supervision, public education and mediation of conflicts, among which legislation and representation are the two most important statutory duties.

[Edit this paragraph] Legislative tasks

The most important and obvious task of Congress is legislation. In the United States, Congress is the highest legislative body, making laws that affect every American. Legislation usually requires decisions on controversial issues, such as the federal budget, health insurance reform, gun control, and war and peace. However, Congress did not initiate most of the proposals it finally considered. Most of the suggestions come from executive agencies, while many others come from political parties and interest groups. Through a series of compromises and exchange of interests, as well as a lot of debates and discussions, the proponents of the proposal tried to establish a majority alliance to formulate national policies.

Representative task

The tasks of deputies include expressing the wishes and needs of voters in their constituencies or states, and also representing broader national interests, such as environmental protection. Because the wishes of voters often conflict with national policies, representatives often conflict with legislative tasks that affect the country. For example, although the implementation of anti-dumping duties may be beneficial to the protection of industries in some countries, the country's exports may suffer losses due to retaliatory anti-dumping duties.

Considering the representatives of national interests and political transactions between political parties and groups, members sometimes act against the wishes of voters in their constituencies or States. For example, although the Federalist Party was in the majority in New York State, Martin Van Buren often voted for democracy and the party's military action against Britain during his tenure as a senator in New York State. However, in order to succeed in re-election, members often listen to the voices of voters to decide their positions and vote against their own political parties and groups. Strictly speaking, members of parliament do not fully represent the country, nor do they fully represent the voters in their constituency or state, but represent a mixture of the two.

Councillors and their employees spend a lot of time serving voters. Through case service, members help voters handle some affairs, such as disputes with government departments, promoting local businesses, explaining the significance of specific proposals and their impact on local voters, and so on.

Supervision task

The executive branch is responsible for enforcing laws passed by Congress. In order to supervise the implementation of the administrative organs, Congress has taken a series of actions to ensure that the laws passed are implemented. This is through holding hearings and conducting investigations, changing an agency's budget, and reviewing candidates nominated by the President for administrative agencies and law enforcement agencies.

Public education task

The task of public education is to hold public hearings, exercise the power to supervise the government, or hold public debates on important issues. By carrying out this task, Congress provides different opinions to the public on issues that affect the whole country. Congress also decides whether and when to hold hearings and debates. This kind of progress control is also one of the multi-faceted tasks of public education.

Mediation task

Congress is considered to be the main institution to solve domestic conflicts. Interest groups representing various racial, ideological, gender and economic groups lobby members to express their dissatisfaction and seek help. This enables Congress to meet the requirements of various interest groups as much as possible when passing laws, and to resolve conflicts among all parties. In the process of gaining the support of most interest groups, Congress established people's support for the country.

[Edit this paragraph] Congressional power

See the Constitution of the United States.

Explicit power

From the eighth paragraph of Article 1 to the end of Article 1 of the Constitution of the United States, Congress has the necessary powers to formulate policies, including taxation, borrowing, regulating interstate and foreign trade, establishing immigration procedures, legislating bankruptcy, issuing currency, stipulating weights and measures, punishing counterfeiters, setting up post offices and postal routes, protecting copyright, establishing a court system, punishing pirates, declaring war, raising, maintaining and regulating the army, navy and militia, suppressing rebellion and repelling aggression, and so on. Among them, the more important ones include taxation, regulating interstate and foreign trade and declaring war. Other constitutional provisions give Congress the power to self-regulate, manage the electoral college and overturn the presidential veto. Congress can also regulate interstate relations, review the scope of cases of the Supreme Court, and propose constitutional amendments.

Subsequent constitutional amendments have increased the powers of some parliaments, such as choosing the president and vice president when no candidate wins a majority of votes in the presidential election (Article 12), collecting income tax (Article 16), deciding to act as the president when the president dies or loses the ability to work (Articles 20 and 25), and ruling Washington, D.C. (Article 23).

Some rights are allocated to a part of Congress, such as

Senate: ambassadors who ratify treaties, approve or refuse to approve presidential nominations, judges and other administrative officials of the Supreme Court [2], and conduct trials when the President and his subordinate officials are impeached [3].

House of Representatives: Propose bills related to finance, choose the president and vice president when no candidate wins a majority of votes in the presidential election, and impeach the president and his subordinate officials.

Necessary and appropriate terminology

In addition to these constitutional rights, the Constitution also authorizes Congress to adopt necessary and appropriate legislation to ensure the implementation of these express rights. In many constitutional amendments, such clauses have also been added.

Restrictions on sb.' s power

The constitution of the United States also stipulates the constitutional constraints on Congress. Restrictions on Congress include not legislating to establish a state religion (guiding ideology); Do not treat all kinds of theories and speeches differently, and restrict freedom of religion and speech; (Article 1 of the Amendment to the Constitution of the United States) No bill allowing trial in absentia may be passed; No retrospective bill of deprivation of citizens' rights or confiscation of property shall be passed; No exit tax bill may be passed. The Supreme Court is responsible for judging whether the actions and laws of Congress are constitutional.

[Edit this paragraph] Congressman

See United States Senate and House of Representatives.

President Bush delivered a State of the Union address at a joint session of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The United States Congress consists of two houses: the Senate, also known as the House of Lords; The house of representatives is also called the lower house, and there is no relationship between the two houses. Although the Senate and the House of Representatives are two parts of the same legislature, there are many differences between them.

Obama has become the president of the United States, and Biden is the vice president, the president of Congress and the president of the Senate.

Edit this paragraph size

The most obvious difference between the Senate and the House of Representatives is their size. In the House of Representatives, there are 435 state house members, non-voting representatives from Washington, D.C., Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and Puerto Rico [4], and more than 65,438,000 senators from 50 states. This also makes the House of Representatives need more bills to regulate the debate behavior of the House of Representatives.

The Senate usually allows unrestricted speech on all issues, but it also allows senators to end lengthy debates by voting. The House of Representatives has a special bills committee, which restricts the discussion of almost every bill. This allows the House of Representatives to pass bills faster than the Senate, even though the organization is larger than the Senate.

Because of the number of people, senators usually have more media exposure and higher party status than deputies, and deputies may gradually become experts in formulating policies in certain fields, such as finance, taxation, environment or education policies.

[Edit this paragraph] Congressional elections

The Senate is elected by the states, and each state elects two senators regardless of [font] size [/font] for a term of six years. One third of the seats in the Senate are re-elected every two years, but the election process is subject to the US Constitution and federal laws (Article 1, Paragraph 4 of the Constitution). 19 13 after the amendment to article 17 of the constitution was passed, the two senators from each state were no longer elected by the state legislature, but were elected by universal suffrage.

According to the constitution, every two years, each state needs to hold a representative election, and the number of representatives in each state and the constituency of each representative are determined by the data obtained from the census every ten years (for a small state with a population of less than one constituency, it is stipulated that there should be one representative).

In addition to the states, other parts of the United States, such as Washington, D.C., Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and Puerto Rico, also elect their own congressional representatives. These representatives do not participate in voting, but can participate in other activities, such as surveys and debates [5].

Elect candidates

A senator must be at least 30 years old when he takes office, have American citizenship for more than 9 years, and be a resident of the election state at the time of election. Representatives must be at least 25 years old when they take office, have American citizenship for more than 7 years, and must be residents of their constituencies at the time of election.

Congressional candidates with political parties usually need to decide the candidates nominated by the party in the general election through the primary election within the party. Because of the dominant position of political parties in American elections, most candidates need to go through this procedure. In the primary election, candidates may take a radical attitude on some issues to attract votes from local parties, but in the general election, candidates may take a moderate attitude to attract votes from the middle.

Dovetail effect

Most members of Congress won re-election. This is attributed to their rights and obligations as parliamentarians, such as investigating voters and media reports. As members of a political party, they will also help the candidates of the same political party in the election, so that their own party can maintain or enhance the control of the constituency, which is the so-called dovetail effect [2]. However, voters will also change the voting target of the mid-term election according to the president's political achievements.

Since the constituency of each member of the House of Representatives is divided according to the population density, the political party with the majority seats in the parliament will strengthen its position in the process of redrawing the constituency according to the census data every ten years. In some cases, the result of redistricting makes the voter population of each constituency vary greatly, or the ethnic difference is great. 1962 the supreme court began to ban this kind of behavior by citing the equal protection clause.

Although the Supreme Court protects the right of one vote per person, political parties are still trying to strengthen their advantages in redrawing constituencies, such as dividing opposition supporters into as few constituencies as possible or as many constituencies as possible with the help of computers.

[Edit this paragraph] Member rights

Congress has its own information department to provide information services for members. In addition, members have salaries far higher than those of the general public, their own offices and dozens of employees. According to the sixth paragraph of Article 1 of the Constitution, members of parliament also enjoy the privilege that is rarely cited, and their participation in the actions of parliament is less restricted than that of citizens. Debates and speeches required by members' duties will not be prosecuted for libel.

There are a large number of core groups in Congress. The most influential is the core meeting of all parties, which informs members of the party's voting strategy and other information. Other core meetings are mostly related to various interest groups, such as the core meeting on Albania, the core meeting on potatoes and the core meeting on athletes. To provide members with information about some specific issues.

[Edit this paragraph] Congressional structure

According to the Constitution of the United States, the Senate is nominally presided over by the Vice President of the United States, but the Vice President rarely invokes this right. He only presides over meetings and has no voting rights. Only if the voting results are equal can he have the right to vote for the party he thinks fit. In the absence of the vice president, the Senate will elect a temporary speaker to preside over the meeting. In fact, this ceremonial position is held by senior members of the Senate majority party in turn.

The actual power of the Senate is in the hands of the leaders and party leaders elected by the core meetings of the two major parties. Leaders have the right to speak first, set the agenda for the debate, and specify the tasks and members of the Committee. The party chief is responsible for assisting leaders to communicate with party member. The leader of the majority party 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 of Representatives elected at the beginning of the meeting has similar rights to the majority leader of the Senate, who is the assistant of the speaker and the spokesman of the party.

appoint

Most of the legislative work in Congress is carried out by various committees and their subordinate committees. After the general motion is put forward, it will be studied and examined by the professional Committee and then put to the vote. Committee members are usually experts in dealing with proposals. The efficiency of congressional legislation depends largely on the efficiency of these committees.

Because Congress appoints committees to handle special bills, and members of the committees are generally experts in related matters, Congress rarely votes against the actions of the committees. The Committee is responsible for transmitting the bill to the subcommittees, arranging the hearing of the bill, and deciding whether to submit the bill to all members for voting.

Both houses have standing committees to deal with long-term issues such as the budget. 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, the two houses will also set up special committees on special issues and bills. Although some special committees may be permanent, most special committees are temporary. In addition, there is a supervision committee in the House of Representatives, which is responsible for the process of formulating regulations.

In addition to such a House Committee, committees facing the whole Congress, such as the Joint Committee of the Library of Congress and the Conference Committee that decides 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 of democratic election in the Committee.

[Edit this paragraph] The emergence of law

Both the Congress and the executive agencies under the leadership of the President can introduce bills. Usually, bills are introduced in both houses at the same time, unless they involve the exclusive rights of one house, such as finance or treaties. After that, the House of Representatives will transfer the bill to a special committee, where it will be studied, debated, heard and improved. When the Committee completes the bill work and reports to the House of Representatives, the Senate Majority Leader or the House Law Committee needs to plan the time for public debate. If the bill is passed by a unanimous vote, if the versions of the bill passed by the two houses are different, then the two houses will set up a meeting Committee to resolve their differences. If the version of the report submitted by the Conference Committee to the House of Representatives is approved by both houses, the bill will be submitted to the President, unless it is a constitutional amendment, in which case it will be submitted to the Parliament for approval.

If the president signs the bill, it will have the force of law and become law. If the president vetoes the bill, the House of Representatives can amend the bill to gain the president's support, or override the president's veto by a two-thirds majority (without abstaining) to make the bill automatically become law. If the session of Congress is less than ten days before the President, and the President fails to sign it during the session, the bill will be shelved and automatically become invalid. Parliament can reintroduce the bill at the next meeting.

When voting on any bill, as long as there is a requirement of attendance 1/5, the names of voters and their voting results shall be published in the newspaper of the college for voters' supervision.

[Edit this paragraph] Budget generation

According to the Constitution of the United States, Congress has the right to levy taxes, and all motions for taxation and appropriation must be put forward by the House of Representatives. Congress also requires the president to prepare and submit an annual budget. The fiscal year, that is, the start date of the annual budget, is 10 month per year. Starting from 18 months before the start date of the annual budget, the US Office of Management and Budget is responsible for reviewing the budgets proposed by various departments and preparing the annual budget submitted by the President to Congress nine months before the start date of the annual budget. Congress should approve the budget before the start date of the annual budget, but the approval date of the regular budget will exceed the start date of the annual budget. At this time, Congress needs to pass temporary laws to allow the government to operate normally before the budget is passed.

Criticism of congress

1. Congress is inefficient

2. The Congress lacks representativeness

3. Congress lacks morality

4. Congress lacks collective responsibility system