THE
U.S. CONGRESS
In the
aftermath of their little tiff with King George and his Brits, the
U.S. founding fathers may have been exhibiting a bit of paranoia when
they devised the structure for the Legislative branch of the federal
government. Or they may have simply been aware of the foibles of human
nature - particularly career politicians.
The essential
structure of Congress is largely redundant or, in the language of
politicalese "bi-cameral." Two legislative bodies, the Senate and
the House of Representatives, provide a set of checks and balances
on one another. These two bodies have a few differences in responsibilities,
but they are both primarily charged with devising, debating andpassing
bills that lead to new laws or the repeal of existing ones. The major
differences have less to do with what they do than with how they go
about it.
Rumor
has it that the bi-cameral structure actually came about as a Solomon's
Solution at the first Constitutional Convention. Those states with
large populations lobbied for representation according to population
size. The less populous states wanted a fixed and equal number of
representatives. The Great Compromise provided for both: The House
of Representatives is based on population while the Senate is comprised
of exactly two representives from each state.
HOUSE
OF REPRESENTATIVES
It's
probably a really good thing that the total number of representatives
was frozen at 435 back in 1910. If the original ratio given in the
U.S. Constitution - 1 representative for every 30,000 population,
had been retained, by now we would have 20 times the number of politicians
we have today. A terrifying concept!
These
are the folks that we mean when we yell "I'm going to write my Congressman!"
though, technically this term applies to Senators as well. The House
was intended to represent the populus, the little guy, you and me,
brothers and sisters. Representatives are elected for only two years
at a time. Because these terms are so short, they are answerable to
their constituencies for very immediate and timely concerns. Another
way of looking at it is that Reps tend to vote whichever way they
think will get them re-elected tomorrow. They don't get a lot of breathers
between campaigns.
Each
new Congress elects its own officers. The big kahuna, the guy with
the most clout, is the Speaker who is inevitably (though not required
to be) a member of the majority party. He (or perhaps in the future,
She) has a lot of weight to throw around. He has the authority to
recognize Members to speak or not, decides the legislative agenda
and sends things off to committees to be hashed out. Since most bills
in the House are first considered in committee, those committee assignments
are critical and a source of a lot of friction between parties. Unless
an individual Member can pull together 218 votes, they have no ability
to circumvent the Speaker's wishes (or whims) regarding consideration
of bills, something that tends to irritate the bejeebers out of minority
party members.
If something
happens to both the President and the Vice President at the same time,
the mantle of government passes next to the Speaker.
The main
constitutional power that differentiates the House from the Senate
is their authority over the almighty dollar. All revenue bills must
originate in the House. By extension, this power has come to include
all spending bills as well. All tax bills start here. The House giveth
and the House taketh away. In order for a bill to become law, the
Senate must enact the same measure, but only the House has the authority
to initiate revenue bills.
Since
the House is nearly five times the size of the Senate, House debates
are formal and limits are put on the amount of time they can take
up. An hour is the usual limit and members are generally given five
minutes maximum to make their points which tends to keep the windiest
of the windbags from overinflating. When making changes to a bill,
only germane (relevant to the original subject) amendments may be
introduced.
The requirements
for a house member are that the individual must be 25 years of age,
have been a citizen of the U.S. for 7 years and must be an inhabitant
of the state from which he or she is elected.
THE
SENATE
If the
House of Representatives is supposed to stand for the common people,
the Senate was specifically designed to protect them against themselves
- and their whims, fads and passions. Senators are elected to a six
year term, a virtual aeon in politic tenure. This long stretch between
elections was originally intended to give them distance from popular
notions of the day - too much distance in some current opinions.
The Constitution,
when written, did not even provide for U.S. Senators to be elected
by popular vote - they were to be elected by their individual state's
legislature. The 17th Amendment, adopted in 1913, changed this to
direct election, giving citizens yet one more opportunity to vote
their choice between two or more evils. Elections for the Senate are
staggered so that one third of the total body comes up for re-election
every two years, leaving the remaining two thirds in office. This
makes it a continuing body that never goes out of existance. Some
of these folks have held their seat since your grandpa was in short
pants.
Ratification
of treaties negotiated between the President and foreign nations is
one of the unique responsibilities of the Senate. Another key Senate
responsibility is approval of cabinet officers, federal judges, ambassadors
and other high-level positions, giving Senatorial committees ultimate
power over presidental appointments. Many presidents have found themselves
repeatedly thwarted by this particular power as their nominations
are stonewalled, delayed or flat out rejected by a Senate dominated
by the opposing political party. An appointment can languish in committee
for months while the position goes unfilled - or until a more politically
expedient candidate is put forth.
For those
who wonder just what in heck the Vice President does besides waiting
around for the President to kick off, his day job is acting as President
of the Senate. This is largely a ceremonial role. The VP generally
only shows up for special occasions or when that 101st vote is needed
to break a tie. When he is off playing golf or otherwise spending
his time productively, the hat of presiding officer passes to the
"President pro tempore" who is the senior senator of the majority
party. In reality, however, the president pro-tem is also rarely available,
usually being in a meeting or power breakfast. The routine job of
presiding is rotated among a procession of junior majority party Senators
who take turns staying awake for an hour or two at a time.
Unlike
the House which bars non-germane amendments and keeps discussion to
a minimum, legislative bills put before the Senate may be subject
to endless debate and the introduction of any number of unrelated
amendments. This little loophole gives Senators a great device for
putting undesireable bills out of their misery - or for sneaking in
a tricky bit of legislation that wouldn't fly under other circumstances.
A Senate agenda is as likely to be a work of wishful thinking as an
actual meeting schedule. When possible, the two majority leaders try
to negotiate voluntary restrictions and time limits on debate and
on the nature of the amendments in order that some legislative business
actually get accomplished.
The fine
old tradition of "filibustering" or wearing down the opposition by
talking endlessly for hours (or even days) on a particular topic is
still alive, however, and the Senators do have the constitutional
right to extemporize ad nauseum until their opponents cave in through
sheer exhaustion and the need to keep their lunch reservations. Since
bills have to be passed by both houses of Congress before being sent
on to the President for signature or veto, a bill that slides swiftly
through the House can die of old age in the Senate.
To
be elected to the Senate, an individual must be at least 30 years of
age, a U.S. citizen for at least 9 years, and a resident of the state
in which he/she is elected.
