Legislative Branch

Committees

Types of Committees

Standing Committees: cmtes that meet regularly session to session

Select Committees: meet for a specific purpose and are short term

Joint Committee- have memmbers from both houses

Conference Committees: solve disputes between house and senate on a bill

Powers of Congress

Lay and collect taxes

Borrow money, coin money

Establish the rules for naturalization(process of becoming an immigrant)

Regulate interstate and foreign commerce

Key Positions of Congress

Declare war; create inferiour courts

House

Senate

Speaker of the house; majority and minorty leader of the majority and minority party; majority and minority whip(lead the discipline of the house)

President of the senate(VP of the US; tie breaker); President Pro Temp(is the VP when the actual VP is absent; majority and minority leaders and whips

Key Procedures

House

Senate

Committee of the whole- consists of all house members and is used to expediate the law making process

discharge petition- used to get a bill that is being stalled on to the floor of the house to be voted on

Cloture- can be used to end a debate on a bill

Filibuster- debatee on a bill excessively in order to prevent a bill on being voted upon

unanimous consent- all senators vote on the bill unless an objection is raised

hold: informal process in which a senator can prevent a bill from being voted on

Key elements that apply to house and Senate

Quorum: has to be a minimum number of reps present in order to vote on a bill

Earmarking: adding a revision to a bill that allocates funding for a specific program

Pork barrel- when a senator requests funding for a program in the home district of the said senator

Log rolling: when two or more senators support each others bill for political reasons

Bill Making process:

  1. Introduced in the house -> referred to house committee -> referred to sub cmte -> reported by full cmte -> sent to rules cmte -> house debate and votes on passage
  1. Introduced in the senate -> referred to senate cmte -> referred to sub cmte -> reported by full cmte -> senate debates and votes on passage
  1. Sent to conference cmte if there are any disputes and work out any differences between bills; compromise version sent to each chamber for final approval
  1. Bill sent to president who can either pass or veto the bill; Senate can override veto with 2/3 vote and w/o presidential signature