Get answers to frequently asked questions about committees from the Clerk of the House. All committees have websites where they post information about the legislation they are drafting.
The House will sometimes form a special or select committee for a short time period and specific purpose, frequently an investigation. Each committee has a chair and a ranking member.
The chair heads the full committee. The ranking member leads the minority members of the committee. Congress has created a wide variety of temporary and permanent commissions to serve as advisory bodies for investigative or policy-related issues, or to carry out administrative, interparliamentary, or commemorative tasks.
Such commissions are typically created by either law or House resolution, and may be composed of House members, private citizens, or a mix of both. In some cases, the commissions are entities of the House or Congress itself; in other cases, they are crafted as independent entities within the legislative branch.
Often beginning early in the morning with topical briefings, most representatives move quickly among caucus and committee meetings and hearings. They vote on bills, speak with constituents and other groups, and review constituent mail, press clips and various reports. Work can continue into the evening with receptions or fundraising events. Share your thoughts with your representative. Use the Find Your Representative box in the banner of this site to identify your representative, then use the contact form to share your thoughts.
The Rules of the House of Representatives for the th Congress were established by the House with the adoption of H. A section by section analysis is also available. The Committee on Ethics has jurisdiction over the rules and statutes governing the conduct of members, officers and employees while performing their official duties. The Rules Committee controls what bills go to the House Floor and the terms of debate.
The makeup of the Rules Committee has traditionally been weighted in favor of the majority party, and has been in its current configuration of 9 majority and 4 minority members since the late s. The Rules Committee has an online Parliamentary Bootcamp that gives an overview of House Floor procedures, process and precedents. As outlined in the Constitution , the House represents citizens based on district populations, while the Senate represents citizens on an equal state basis.
In , the House assembled for the first time in New York. It moved to Philadelphia in and then to Washington, DC, in The House of Representatives moved into the House wing on the south side of the Capitol in , four years before the wing was fully completed. Skip to main content. The House determines whether to impeach and if an impeachment is called for; the Senate decides whether to convict and remove the official from office.
This follows a pattern established in the British government and American colonial governments dating back to the 17th century, as the Senate website explains. However, the 17th Amendment, approved in , mandates the direct election of U. As the Senate website explains, the amendment was in response to corruption and other problems that prevented state legislatures from choosing U.
The Senate is known as the upper chamber of Congress because it has fewer members than the House. The Constitution requires that senators be at least 30 years old, U. Senate terms are for six years; the terms are staggered so that approximately a third of all senate seats are up for election every two years. This is intended to protect the Senate from short-term political pressure and to ensure that turnover in the Senate occurs evenly, rather than having stasis for six years followed by upheaval.
As the Senate website indicates, the reason the framers decided to allow each state to be represented by two senators was to prevent the large states from overpowering their smaller counterparts. Benjamin Franklin believed that states should have equal votes in all matters except those involving money. Article I, Section 8 assigns to the House the power to tax and spend; this clause is described in the following section.
The Senate has the constitutional authority to set its own rules, just as the House does. The Constitution makes the vice president the president of the Senate, but the vice president is allowed to vote only to break a tie. The Senate is empowered to choose its own officers and president pro tempore to preside over the Senate when the vice president is unavailable. An impeachment conviction requires a two-thirds majority vote of the full Senate.
However, the powers granted to both houses of Congress are derived from Article I, Section 1, as the Legal Information Institute explains.
In the early Supreme Court case McCulloch v. Paired with this doctrine is the ruling that legislative powers may not be delegated to any other branch of government. Subsequent rulings have modified these two doctrines, resulting in new categories of powers derived from this constitutional foundation.
The power to declare war, levy taxes, and regulate commerce are among the congressional powers enumerated in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. The taxing and spending clause and the commerce clause have been used to broaden congressional authority over federal tax and economic policy.
For example, p residents have tried to expand their power to engage the U. For example, in the period after World War II, presidents committed troops to the Dominican Republic, Laos, and Vietnam, among other countries, without requesting or receiving authorization from Congress.
Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution states that bills intended to raise revenue must originate in the House. This is one of the major differences between the House and Senate. The Senate is allowed to propose amendments to spending and taxing legislation, just as it can with other bills sent to it from the House. The decision of the framers to allow bills to pass the House after getting a simple majority of votes was motivated by the desire to allow legislation to be enacted quickly.
The responsibility for assessing and developing bills belongs to standing committees that are chaired by members of the majority party, but are made up of members of both parties, as the Congressional Research Service explains.
The important role of political parties in the organization and functioning of the House is described by the House of Representatives Archive. The majority party elects a speaker of the house and chooses other leadership positions, including the chair of all House committees.
There are more members of the House than of the Senate, so the majority party wields more power in the lower chamber. The speaker of the house usually selects the House majority leader. The minority party chooses a minority leader whose impact on the House policy agenda is much more limited. Among the duties of the speaker of the house are presiding over all House proceedings, determining which bills go to which committees, influencing committee assignments for new House members, and deciding the priorities for bills to be debated and voted upon by the entire body of representatives.
While majority party members are chosen to chair all House committees, they must work with the ranking member of the minority party to prepare bills for deliberation by all House members. The House of Representatives Archives describes the three types of House committees :. Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution describes the basic composition, operation, and duties of the Senate, although the Constitution grants the Senate leeway in determining how it will conduct its business.
The Senate website describes the powers and procedures of the legislative body , which include trying impeachments, reviewing and approving presidential nominees, approving treaties, and managing internal matters. The Senate receives all its authority from the Constitution. Similarly, the Senate is empowered to approve treaties proposed by the president by a two-thirds majority vote.
To shield senators from short-term political pressure, their terms were set at six years rather than the two-year terms of House representatives. The Senate was intended to act more deliberately than the House. It also serves as a check against the impulsiveness of the House. The rules also let Senators propose floor amendments to pending bills that are outside of the subject matter of the bills themselves.
To bring some order to Senate proceedings, the majority leader is given priority in being recognized to speak and to propose the bills and legislation that the body will consider. The duties of the Senate majority leader include handling all procedural matters that arise on the Senate floor and informing members of the majority party about the content, implications, and status of all pending legislation.
Education Government Congress The legislative branch of the federal government. Major Differences Between the Two Houses of Congress: House members serving two-year terms Speaker's referral of bills to committee is hard to challenge.
Rules Committee powerful; controls time of debate, admissibility of amendments. Committees almost always consider legislation first. Debate usually limited to one hour. Non-germane amendments may not be introduced from floor.
Senate members serving rotating six-year terms Referral decisions easy to challenge. Rules Committee weak; few limits on debate or amendments. Committee consideration easily bypassed. Unlimited debate unless shortened by unanimous consent or by invoking cloture. Non-germane amendments may be introduced riders. List of United States Senate Classes. Qualifications for Entering Congress: House: Must be 25 years of age when seated, not when elected. Must have been a citizen of the United States for 7 years.
Must be an inhabitant of the state from which elected. NOTE: custom, but not the Constitution, requires that a representative live in the district that he or she represents. Senate: Must be 30 years of age when seated, not when elected.
Must have been a citizen of the United States for 9 years. Congressional Leadership I.
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