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Congress is the collective identity of the Senate and House of Representatives. The word is derived from the Latin for “coming together.” Just as representatives of the American colonies came together in the 1st Continental Congress, the elected representatives of the American people continue to meet together in the U.S. Congress. Sometimes Congress is applied incorrectly to the House of Representatives alone because representatives use the alternate title of congressman and congresswoman (whereas senators are always addressed as senators).

The term Congress also refers to the two sessions between each congressional election. For instance, the 1st Congress met from 1789 to 1791, and the 101st Congress met from 1989 to 1991. Although the House and Senate do most of their work independently of each other, they must eventually come together to pass all legislation. Bills that were debated as S. Res. 45 or H. Res. 230 become an act of Congress when passed.

The fact that Congress represents the nation coming together can be heard in the many regional accents spoken in its chambers. Every state sends two senators and at least one representative. These legislators bring local concerns to national debates, and they work to make sure that the particular needs and concerns of their constituents are addressed in national legislation. These varying needs sometimes pit different sections of the country against each other, whether industrial versus agricultural, energy-producing versus energy-consuming, or the Sun Belt of the Southeast and Southwest versus the Rust Belt of the Northeast and Midwest. Congress provides the forum where the people's elected representatives can debate these conflicting positions and forge some legislative solutions.

Popularity of Congress

As a collective entity, Congress has never been popular. Many members of Congress even run for reelection by running against Congress—by emphasizing their differences with the congressional majorities. This accounts for the contradiction that Congress as a whole rates low in public opinion polls while the individual members of Congress are reelected at a high rate. People like their own senators and representatives, who reflect their views and fight for their interests. They have less admiration for senators and representatives who represent other constituencies and promote other interests.

In 1925 House Speaker Nicholas Longworth (Republican–Ohio) noted that he had been a member of Congress for 20 years:

During the whole of that time we have been attacked, denounced, despised, hunted, harried, blamed, looked down upon, excoriated, and flayed. I refuse to take it personally. I have looked into history…. We were unpopular when Lincoln was a Congressman. We were unpopular when John Quincy Adams was a Congressman. We were unpopular even when Henry Clay was a Congressman. We have always been unpopular. From the beginning of the Republic, it has been the duty of every free-born voter to look down upon us, and the duty of every free-born humorist to make jokes at us.

See also Articles of Confederation; Bicameral; Continental Congress; House of Representatives; Senate

Sources

• Alvin M. Josephy, Jr., On the Hill: A History of the American Congress (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979)

The principal institution of representative democracy in the United States, Congress is defined in the first and longest article of the Constitution. The Constitution vests all legislative power in the Senate and House of Representatives, requiring them to assemble at least once every year. The length of each Congress is two years, normally divided between a first and second session. The Constitution enumerates a list of congressional powers that include taxation, borrowing and coining money, regulation of foreign and interstate commerce, establishment of post offices and post roads, creating a court system, raising and supporting military forces, and declaring war. It further authorizes Congress to make all laws "necessary and proper" for exercising those powers.

Following American independence, the first national government under the Articles of Confederation (1781–1789) consisted of a unicameral Congress, in which each state had one vote. That Congress lacked the power to tax or to regulate commerce, nor could it compel the states to comply with its actions. Economic decline and civil unrest encouraged the states to send delegates in 1787 to a Constitutional Convention to devise a more effective central government. Seeking to make the government more powerful without allowing it to grow autocratic, they divided authority among executive, legislative, and judicial branches and further split the Congress into two houses. Through this system of checks and balances they prevented any single branch from gaining absolute power.

The Constitutional Convention deadlocked over the issue of representation in Congress. The Virginia Plan, supported by the larger states, would have set member-ship in both houses of Congress according to the size of a state's population. The New Jersey Plan, offered by the smaller states, would have preserved the equality of the states in congressional voting. A special committee then devised the Connecticut Compromise, or Great Compromise, which apportioned the House by population and gave all states, regardless of size, two senators. The Constitution further stipulated (in Article 5) that no state could lose its equal vote in the Senate without its consent.

During the public debate over the Constitution's ratification, opponents objected to the absence of a Bill of Rights. As a remedy, the First Congress proposed the first ten amendments to the Constitution, which among other things prohibited Congress from making any laws regarding freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, or the right to assemble peacefully and to petition the government (First Amendment). Powers not delegated to the national government were reserved to the states (Tenth Amendment).

House and Senate

When the new government commenced in 1789, members of the House of Representatives were the only federal officials people directly elected by the people. The Electoral College elected the president, while state legislatures chose senators. Representatives had to be twenty-five years or older, residents of their states, and citizens for at least seven years. Members of the House stood for election every two years. In the case of vacancies special elections would be held, since no one could be appointed to the House. The House elected a Speaker, who was initially a neutral presiding officer, although over time that position evolved into a powerful party leader. The larger size of the House (which began at sixty-five members and rose to 435) encouraged the development of rules to limit the time for debate, expedite business, and allow the majority party to exert its will.

With all House seats contested biannually, the framers of the Constitution expected that body to reflect the prevailing political mood. As a "necessary fence" against the "fickleness and passion" of public opinion, they assigned senators six-year terms, with only one-third of the Senate seats contested in any general election. Since two thirds of the senators remained through each election, the Senate defined itself as a "continuing body" that did not need to readopt its rules at the start of each new Congress. Senators had to be at least thirty years of age, residents of their states, and citizens for nine years. Elected by state legislatures, senators were envisioned as "ambassadors" of their states. As a smaller body, the Senate was expected to perfect legislation originating in the House and to serve as an advisory council to the president. The Constitution gave the Senate sole authority to advise and consent on treaties and nominations.

While the "upper house" in most parliamentary governments steadily lost power to the "lower house," the U.S. Senate remained equal with the House of Representatives. This was due in part to the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which provided that the admission of each state permitting slavery would be balanced by the admission of a state that prohibited slavery. With the North and South equally divided in the Senate on this emotional issue, such leading members of the House as Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John C. Calhoun gravitated to the Senate, where debate centered in the tumultuous decades prior to the Civil War. Early in the twentieth century, when European reformers stripped upper houses of the power of the purse and of most of their ability to block legislation, Progressive reformers in the United States instead trusted the will of the people. The Seventeenth Amendment (1913) provided for direct election of senators, although reformers were deeply disappointed when voters reelected every incumbent senator running in 1914. The Senate survived the reform era with all of its powers intact and with the bonds between senators and citizens strengthened by the ballot.

Visiting Congress in 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville contrasted the boisterous, "vulgar demeanor" of the House with the sedate decorum and elegant orations of the Senate. He assumed that the Senate drew a better class of legislators; however, Thomas Hart Benton, who represented Missouri in both bodies, pointed out that most senators had previously served in the House. The different ethos of the two bodies reflected their contrasting sizes and rules of procedure. Since the Constitution authorized each house to set its own rules and elect its own officers, the rules and procedures of the two houses evolved differently. The larger House debates under specific rules that determine how many amendments to a bill may be considered and for how long. It can further expedite business by suspending the regular order and operating as a Committee of the Whole, a legislative strategy that the smaller Senate does not employ. The Senate allows for "unlimited debate" and generally does not restrict the number of amendments that senators may offer or require those amendments to be germane to the bill. Senate leaders can seek unanimous consent agreements to establish parameters for floor debates, but the objection of a single senator can prevent adoption of such agreements. The extreme version of unlimited debate is the Filibuster. Taken from the Dutch word for pirate, filibusters use extensive speeches and other delaying tactics to hold the floor and prevent the majority from calling for a vote.

Apportionment also accounted for differences between the Senate and the House. By the end of the twentieth century, California, with a population of more than 30 million, elected fifty-two members of the House, while Wyoming, with less than 500,000 residents, had one representative. Yet California and Wyoming each had two senators. Since a majority of the senators represent a minority of the population, the Senate does not operate as a "majoritarian" body. Senate rules and procedures require a supermajority of three-fifths of the senators to vote cloture and cut off filibuster, and they tolerate "holds" by individual senators that can delay votes on bills and nominations.

The Constitution does not require Congress to conduct its business in public. When the First Congress convened in 1789, representatives, who would face voters again in two years, immediately threw open their doors to the public and the press. The first Senate chamber, by contrast, had no public gallery. Senators conducted all business in closed sessions for five years. Even after admitting the public to its legislative debates, the Senate debated and voted on executive business—treaties and nominations—in closed session until 1929. The trend toward legislative openness continued with the enactment of "sunshine" rules in the 1970s that required committees to conduct most business in public view. The Constitution also required each house of Congress to publish a journal of its proceedings. The journals consist of minutes and recorded votes. The verbatim accounts of speeches and floor debates that appear daily in the Congressional Record, however, evolved from notes recorded and published by various newspapers. Congress eventually hired its own reporters of debate and since 1873 has published the Congressional Record. Congress also publishes most of the hearings and reports of its committees and the text of all bills and resolutions.

Congressional Leadership

While the Constitution provided for a Speaker of the House and made the vice president the presiding officer of the Senate, it made no mention of political parties or majority and minority leaders. When members of Congress divided into parties, they established party caucuses or conferences that made committee assignments and steering committees that decided the order of legislative business. The larger House began electing party floor leadership by the mid-nineteenth century. The Senate resisted formally designated leadership until the 1920s. Senate rules and precedents give party leaders few specific powers. The Senate Majority Leader controls the Senate calendar, determining what bills to call up for debate and in what order. Party leaders also have the right of "first recognition," meaning that the presiding officer will call on them before other senators. Otherwise, as Lyndon B. Johnson observed, a majority leader's chief power is the "power of persuasion."

To handle specific legislative tasks, the House and Senate at first elected a stream of ad hoc committees. By 1816 the need for sustained expertise on the myriad of legislative issues caused them to establish standing committees. House and Senate rules set the jurisdictions of these committees and the number of committees on which members could serve. The party conferences appoint members to the standing committees, where they advance via seniority to chairmanships. By the late nineteenth century, the committee chairs had amassed such power over the legislative agendas that they were called "barons." Chairmen could bottle up legislation, refusing to allow bills they opposed to be reported to the floor. Changes in the rules during the 1970s diminished that power and gave other committee members greater voice in matters of staff and agenda. The most influential committees have traditionally been the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, which raise revenue through tariffs and taxation, and the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, which authorize all federal funding. Through its "power of the purse" Congress exerts its greatest influence over the executive branch, which can spend nothing without congressional approval.

Congressional committees conduct oversight hearings over the activities of executive agencies and investigate corruption, mismanagement, scandal, and sedition. Congressional investigations date back to 1792, when the House inquired into a military defeat in the Northwest Territory. Other major investigations reviewed the CRé-Dit Mobilier scandal (1872), Teapot Dome (1923–1924), the Army-McCarthy hearings (1954), Watergate (1973–1974), and Iran-Contra (1987). Most investigations targeted government agencies and officials, but in McGrain v. Daugherty (1927) the Supreme Court ruled that even private citizens could be subpoenaed to testify before congressional committees. Sinclair v. United States (1929) further recognized Congress's right to investigate, whether or not it led to the enactment of any new laws. But the anticommunist investigations of the 1940s and 1950s raised questions about the abuse of witnesses. In Watkins v. United States (1957) the Supreme Court found the investigative powers of Congress subject to the limitations imposed by the Bill of Rights. Successful congressional investigations have required persistence, diligence, sharp questioning, and the ability to focus media attention on the issues under investigation.

Since 1800 Congress has met in the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. Starting as a small sandstone structure that housed the Senate, House, Supreme Court, and Library of Congress, the Capitol expanded along with the nation. The admission of new states to the union required the construction of massive wings on the Capitol in the 1850s to accommodate larger chambers, and the increased space permitted congressional commit-tees to hire their first clerks. Construction of the first House and Senate office buildings in 1906 and 1909 made room for members to hire personal staffs. Staff sizes remained small until the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 established professional staffs for committees and authorized members to hire administrative assistants. The rapid expansion of both legislative business and staff required construction of a complex of House and Senate office buildings and other support networks on Capitol Hill. Congress's ability to hire its own staff reduced its reliance on the expertise of cabinet agencies, especially after legislators grew suspicious of the executive branch during the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal. Congress eventually amassed the largest legislative staff in the world. Many new members of Congress now come to office with previous experience on the staff.

An Open Branch of Government

Under the "speech and debate" provision of the Constitution (Article 1, Section 6), members of Congress may not be prevented from attending a session or be subject to prosecution for libel or slander regarding anything that they say in Congress. But each house of Congress has the power to punish its own members for disorderly behavior. The House and Senate find it painful to discipline colleagues and would prefer for the voters to judge members' ethics. However, pressure from the press and public, as well as internal outrage, have periodically required Congress to censure or expel some of its members. The House or Senate may censure a member by a simple majority vote. Although censure carries no specific punishment, it is still a severe rebuke in a collegial body. Censured members rarely win reelection. Expulsion requires a two-thirds vote and is generally reserved for cases of treason or for conviction of a crime. The House, by a majority vote, may vote to impeach presidents, judges, and other federal officials. The Senate then sits as a court (with the chief justice of the Supreme Court presiding at presidential impeachment trials) and may remove that official from office by a two-thirds vote. Presidential impeachment trials of Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1999 both resulted in acquittal.

Congress has long operated as the most open branch of government, inviting the public to view its proceedings and establishing press galleries for the media. The Senate authorized the first press gallery in 1841, sixty years before the White House opened a press room. By 1880 both the House and Senate had turned over control of the press galleries to Standing Committees of Correspondents, which reporters themselves elect and which judge applications for press accreditation. Resistance from newspaper correspondents to admitting reporters for other media led Congress to establish separate press galleries for radio and television, periodical press, and press photographers. Congress has regularly employed the newest means of communication to maintain contact with its constituents. The first telegraphic news emanated from the Capitol in 1844. Committee hearings have been broadcast on radio and television, and since 1979 and 1986 the House and Senate respectively have permitted gavel-to-gavel TV coverage of their floor proceedings on C-SPAN (the Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network).

Despite these efforts to accommodate the press, presidents have tended to overshadow Congress in attracting media attention. The Cold War vastly increased presidential power and prestige, sharply reducing congressional influence over foreign policy. The adoption of a bipartisan foreign policy and the idea that "politics stops at the water's edge" further ceded authority to presidents, who sent troops into combat without requesting formal declarations of war. Presidents argued that they were better equipped to make decisions about war and peace than were "535 secretaries of state" in Congress. The Vietnam War disrupted bipartisan foreign policy, and the rise of an "imperial presidency" that could impound appropriated funds and ignore public protests over military escalations led Congress to reassert itself. Over presidential vetoes Congress passed the War Powers Act (1973) and Congressional Budget and Impoundment Act (1974).

At the same time the Senate also increased its scrutiny of presidential nominations. While senators have rejected only a tiny percentage of all cabinet nominations, believing that presidents deserve their own advisers, they have voted down a higher percentage of Supreme Court nominations, due to the justices' lifetime appointments and the independence of the judiciary. Some have argued that the Senate should restrict itself to examining a nominee's personal integrity and competence, but some nominees have been rejected because of political differences between the president and the Senate majority, as well as because of ideology, personal character, and offensive behavior. If senators from the nominee's home state object to the nomination, other senators generally support them out of "senatorial courtesy," a system that gives senators leverage over the appointment of judges, U.S. attorneys, federal marshals, and other positions in their states.

To enact legislation, both the House and Senate must pass a bill in the same language. If they produce different versions of the bill, they appoint a conference committee to reach a compromise. Each house must then pass the conference report "up or down," with no further amendments. If the president vetoes the bill, Congress may override that veto by a two-thirds vote in each house. Since 1803 the Supreme Court has claimed the right of judicial review and has declared various acts of Congress unconstitutional. These checks and balances mean that only a fraction of the many bills introduced in each session of Congress will ever become law. A bill will often require many years to make its way successfully to enactment. As cumbersome and frustrating as the process has seemed to activist presidents and reformers of all ideological hues, it reflects the original division of powers that the framers of the Constitution devised. Voters have regularly reinforced those divisions by electing presidents and congressional majorities from different parties, increasing the likeliness of legislative gridlock.

An institution of many contradictions, Congress has sought to balance local interests with national needs. Its members work for consensus legislation, but their individual success depends as much upon maintaining their relations with voters in their districts and states as upon their accomplishments in Washington. As a result, the conflicting demands of lawmaking and representation have often resulted in a low public opinion of the legislative branch as a whole but a high reelection rate of individual members.

Bibliography

Baker, Richard A. The Senate of the United States: A Bicentennial History. Malabar, Fla.: Krieger, 1988.

Binder, Sarah A., and Steven S. Smith. Politics or Principle? Filibustering in the United States Senate. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1997.

Currie, James T. The United States House of Representatives. Malabar, Fla.: Krieger, 1988.

Davidson, Roger H., and Walter J. Oleszek. Congress and Its Members. 7th ed. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2000.

Fisher, Louis. The Politics of Shared Power: Congress and the Executive. 4th ed. College Station: Texas A&M Press, 1998.

Ornstein, Norman J., Thomas E. Mann, and Michael J. Malbin. Vital Statistics on Congress. Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute, 2000.

Peters, Ronald M., Jr. The American Speakership: The Office in Historical Perspective. 2d ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.

Ritchie, Donald A. The Congress of the United States: A Student Companion. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

—Donald A. Ritchie

The legislative branch of the U.S. government, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The Congress of the United States is the highest lawmaking body in the United States and one of the oldest national legislatures in the world. Established under the terms of the U.S. Constitution in 1789, the House of Representatives and the Senate have for over two hundred years created the federal laws governing the United States. Congress remains one of the few national assemblies that research and draft their own legislation rather than simply voting on bills created by the government in power. In addition to its legislative functions, the U.S. Congress is empowered by the Constitution to ensure that the administration of government is carried out according to the laws it establishes, to conduct special investigations, and to exercise other special powers in relation to the executive and the judiciary.

History and Structure

Between 1774 and 1789, the Continental Congress served as the federal lawmaking body for the thirteen American colonies and (after it passed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776) the United States. The Continental Congress proved to be an ineffective national legislature, however, particularly after ratification of its founding constitution, the Articles of Confederation, in 1781. This congress lacked the authority to raise funds from the states and was not adept at the administration of federal government.

The Framers of the Constitution, meeting in the Constitutional Convention of 1787, attempted to repair the shortcomings of the Continental Congress by creating a more effective federal legislature. The resulting Congress, made up of a House of Representatives and a Senate, first met with a quorum of members on April 1, 1789, in New York City, eventually reaching its full size at sixty-five representatives and twenty-six senators.

Article I of the Constitution sets forth the basic form and powers of Congress. As designed by the Constitution's Framers, the House is more responsive to public sentiment, and the Senate is a more deliberate and stable body. James Madison, writing in The Federalist, no. 62, argued that members of the Senate should have a "tenure of considerable duration" and should be fewer in number in order to avoid the "intemperate and pernicious resolutions" often passed by "single and numerous" legislative assemblies. Accordingly, the Constitution requires that senators serve six years in office, with one-third of them up for reelection every two years — whereas all House members, called representatives, go up for reelection every two years. In addition, the Constitution requires that senators be at least thirty years old to take office, whereas representatives must be a minimum of twenty-five years old. Moreover, senators were originally elected by state legislatures and representatives rather than the general population, but this procedure was ended with the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913.

Congress has grown steadily in size as the nation has gained population and added states. The House reached its current size of 435 members in 1912, and the Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929 (46 Stat. 21, 26, 27) fixed its size at this number. The Senate reached one hundred members after the admission of Hawaii as a state in 1959.

Powers of Congress

Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution defines the powers of Congress. These include the powers to assess and collect taxes; to regulate commerce, both interstate and with foreign nations; to coin money; to establish post offices and post roads; to establish federal courts inferior to the Supreme Court; to declare war; to establish rules for the government; and to raise and maintain an army and navy.

Article I, Section 8, also declares that "Congress shall have Power … To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof." Called the Necessary and Proper Clause or the Implied Powers Clause, this part of the Constitution enables Congress to undertake activities not specifically enumerated by the Constitution but implied by its provisions. The Necessary and Proper Clause has been used to greatly expand congressional authority (see McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. [4 Wheat.] 316, 4 L. Ed. 579 [1819]).

Another power vested in Congress is the right to propose amendments to the Constitution upon approval by two-thirds of both houses. Should two-thirds of the state legislatures demand changes in the Constitution, Congress must call a constitutional convention. Proposed amendments are valid as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures or by conventions of three-fourths of the states. Either means of ratification may be proposed by Congress.

Congress retains a number of other special powers. It may act as a judicial body to impeach and try a president or other civil officer for misconduct; in such cases, the House impeaches, or charges, the official, and the Senate conducts the trial. Congress is also empowered to create and use administrative agencies and boards, such as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the National Mediation Board, to determine facts and to enforce its legislative policies and enactments.

The Constitution vests each house of Congress with distinct powers as well. The House, for example, has sole responsibility for originating all tax bills, and the Senate has power to approve treaties. The House also chooses the president and vice president if no candidate wins a majority of electoral votes in the presidential election.

Section 9 of Article I of the Constitution imposes prohibitions upon Congress. This section forbids Congress to suspend the privilege of habeas corpus, except in cases of rebellion; to pass ex post facto, or retroactive, laws; to impose duties on exports; or to grant titles of nobility.

Apportionment

Seats in the Senate are apportioned, or distributed, evenly across the states, with each state receiving two. Seats in the House of Representatives are apportioned between the states on the basis of population, with the largest states receiving the most representatives and no state receiving less than one. The Constitution requires that a census be conducted every ten years in order to determine the number of seats allotted to each state. An apportionment method called equal proportions is used so that no state will receive less than one member.

The Constitution does not mandate that states having more than one representative be divided into congressional districts, although a state legislature can make such a division. States cannot apportion congressional districts on a discriminatory or unreasonable basis.

Investigations

The Senate and the House of Representatives, acting together or independently, can authorize investigations, or hearings, to obtain information for use in connection with the exercise of their constitutional powers. Information gathered in congressional hearings helps lawmakers draft legislation and monitor the actions of government. It also informs the public about important issues confronting the nation. Noted congressional investigations have included the Teapot Dome inquiry in 1923, the 1973-74 Senate Watergate hearings, and the Iran-Contra investigation in 1987. Congress has also examined perceived threats to the government, as in the Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954 in which Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (R-Wis.) led an investigation into Communist influence in the U.S. government.

A congressional committee may conduct an appropriate investigation under the authority granted to it, but the methods used in the exercise of its investigative power must not violate the constitutional rights of those under investigation. The extent of the authority of a congressional committee must be determined at the time the particular information is sought and cannot be extended by later action of Congress.

Congressional investigations can be held to obtain information in connection with Congress's power to legislate and to appropriate funds, in addition to other express powers it possesses. Congress has wide discretion to determine the subject matter it studies as well as the scope and extent of its inquiry. An investigation must, however, be based on direct statements made to Congress, its members, or its committees. Congress or its committees may not indiscriminately examine private citizens in order to learn valuable information or to inhibit the exercise of constitutionally protected rights, such as freedom of speech.

Individuals summoned in a proper manner, or subpoenaed, by Congress or a committee must comply and conform with the summoner's procedure. However, witnesses are legally entitled to refuse to answer questions that are beyond the power of the investigating body or that are irrelevant to the matter under inquiry. A witness who has not been given a grant of immunity can refuse to answer questions that tend to be incriminating under the protection afforded by the Self-Incrimination Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

Committees and Staff

The work of preparing and considering legislation is done largely by committees of both houses of Congress. The membership of the standing committees of each house is chosen by the political parties in Congress. Committee seats are generally distributed to members of different political parties in a ratio equivalent to party membership in the larger House or Senate. Thus, if a party has two-thirds of the seats in the House, it will have approximately two-thirds of the seats in each House committee.

Each bill and resolution is usually referred to the appropriate committee, which may report it out (send it to the floor of the House or Senate) in its original form, favorably or unfavorably; recommend amendments; or allow it to die in committee without action.

A growing workload and the increasingly complex nature of the legislation it passes have caused Congress to hire an increasing number of staff. Over eleven thousand staff served the 103d Congress, in 1993-95.

See: Constitution of the United States; McCulloch v. Maryland; Parliamentary Law.

The legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Popularly elected, senators and representatives are responsible for advocating the interests of the constituents they represent. Numerous congressional committees are organized to study issues of public policy, recommend action, and, ultimately, pass laws. Congress plays an important role in the system of checks and balances; in fact, the two-house (bicameral) organization of Congress acts as an internal check, for each house must separately vote to pass a bill for it to become a law. In addition to lawmaking, Congress has a variety of functions, including appropriation of funds for executive and judicial activities; instituting taxes and regulating commerce; declaring war and raising and supporting a military; setting up federal courts and conducting impeachment proceedings; and approving presidential appointments.