The American Congress: House of Representatives and Senate

1. Congress in the constitutional scheme

Article I vests “All legislative Powers herein granted” in a Congress of two Houses. The bicameral form came from the Great Compromise at Philadelphia: the House represents the people by population; the Senate represents the states equally. Unlike Westminster, Congress is not dominated by the executive. The President cannot dissolve it, ministers do not sit in it, and party discipline is loose. Woodrow Wilson called it the “informing and controlling” organ of government, and wrote that “Congress in its committee-rooms is Congress at work.”

2. The House of Representatives

• Membership. 435 voting members, fixed by statute since 1911 (made permanent in 1929), apportioned among the states by population after each decennial census; every state has at least one. Non-voting delegates represent the District of Columbia and the territories.
• Election. Directly, from single-member districts, by simple plurality.
• Qualifications. 25 years of age, seven years a citizen, an inhabitant of the state.
• Tenure. Two years; the whole House is elected every second November. The short term keeps members close to their voters.
• Presiding officer. The Speaker, elected by the House and in practice the leader of the majority party. Unlike the British Speaker, he is a partisan figure who directs the majority’s legislative programme; he is second in the line of presidential succession after the Vice-President.

Powers and functions.

1. Shares equally with the Senate in making all federal law.
2. Revenue bills must originate in the House (Article I, section 7), though the Senate may amend them freely.
3. Sole power of impeachment.
4. Elects the President if no candidate has a majority in the electoral college.
5. Proposes constitutional amendments by two-thirds with the Senate; controls spending and investigates through committees.

3. The Senate

• Membership. 100 Senators, two from each of the 50 states irrespective of population.
• Election. Originally chosen by state legislatures; directly elected by the people since the Seventeenth Amendment, 1913.
• Qualifications. 30 years of age, nine years a citizen, an inhabitant of the state.
• Tenure. Six years. The Senate is a continuing body: one-third retire every two years, so it is never dissolved as a whole.
• Presiding officer. The Vice-President, with a casting vote; in his absence the President pro tempore. Real leadership lies with the Majority Leader.

Powers and functions.

1. Legislative. Equal partner with the House; no bill becomes law without it, and it may amend revenue bills beyond recognition.
2. Executive: appointments. Its advice and consent is required for Cabinet secretaries, ambassadors, federal judges and senior officials. It has rejected Cabinet nominations and Supreme Court nominees.
3. Executive: treaties. Treaties need a two-thirds vote. The Senate’s rejection of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919–20 kept the US out of the League of Nations.
4. Judicial. Tries impeachments; conviction needs two-thirds.
5. Electoral. Chooses the Vice-President if no candidate has an electoral college majority.
6. Constituent. Proposes amendments with the House.

4. Why the Senate is the most powerful upper house

1. Equal legislative power. Unlike the Lords (delay only) or the Rajya Sabha (no say on money bills), the Senate can block any bill outright.
2. Executive powers over appointments and treaties, which no other upper house has.
3. Direct election gives it democratic legitimacy equal to the House.
4. Small size and long term make Senators national figures; many Presidents were Senators first.
5. Continuity. As a continuing body it accumulates experience and cannot be dissolved.
6. Unlimited debate. The filibuster: a minority can prolong debate to block a bill unless three-fifths of Senators (60) vote for cloture. Since 2013–17 a simple majority suffices for nominations.
7. Senatorial courtesy (below), which gives individual Senators a hold on federal appointments in their states.
8. Investigations through powerful standing committees.

5. Senatorial courtesy

Senatorial courtesy is a convention, not a rule of the Constitution. When the President nominates a person to a federal post located in a state (a district judge, a US Attorney, a federal marshal), he consults the Senators of his own party from that state. If such a Senator objects that the nominee is “personally obnoxious”, the Senate as a whole, out of courtesy to a colleague, will refuse to confirm. The related “blue slip” practice of the Senate Judiciary Committee lets home-state Senators signal objection to judicial nominees. The result is that local federal patronage is shared between the President and the Senators.

6. The committee system

• Standing committees (about twenty in the House and sixteen in the Senate): Appropriations, Ways and Means (House, on taxation), Finance (Senate), Foreign Relations (Senate), Judiciary, Armed Services, Rules (House, which fixes the terms of debate).
• Bills are referred to committee as soon as introduced; most die there. Committees hold hearings, mark up bills and report them.
• Conference committees reconcile House and Senate versions of a bill.
• Chairs come from the majority party, traditionally by seniority.

7. How a bill becomes law, in brief

1. Introduction in either House (revenue bills in the House).
2. Committee and subcommittee hearings and mark-up.
3. Floor debate and vote in the first House, then the same in the second.
4. Differences resolved by conference or by amendment ping-pong.
5. Presentation to the President: sign, veto (override by two-thirds of each House) or pocket veto.

How this is examined

The Senate is the favourite: “Discuss the structure, authority and role of the Senate” (February 2025) or “The American Senate is the most powerful second chamber. Discuss.” Answer with composition and tenure, the numbered powers, the eight reasons, and senatorial courtesy. A short note on the American Congress (January 2026) should give the two Houses side by side and a line on committees. The House of Representatives on its own also appears in older papers.