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Senate

All states are represented equally in the U.S. Senate by two senators (in contrast to the House of Representatives, where a state's representation is in proportion to the size of the state's population). Senators serve six-year terms and are divided into three “classes,” so that only one class, or one-third of the Senate, is up for election every two years. With two-thirds of its membership carrying over after each election, the Senate is a “continuing body.” These longer terms (House members serve only two years) were intended to insulate the Senate—more than the House—from sudden shifts in public opinion.

The equality of the states' representation in the Senate, regardless of the size of the population, was designed to protect the smaller states. The Senate adopted rules that further enhanced minority rights. A small minority of senators, even a minority of one, can use the rules to delay or defeat objectionable legislation. The Senate's toleration of unlimited debate, in the form of the filibuster, has been its most notable difference from the House, whose rules favor the majority.

Although both houses of Congress share essentially the same powers, the Senate has the sole power of “advice and consent,” to confirm the President's nominations and to ratify treaties. The Vice President serves as president (or presiding officer) of the Senate, and the senators elect their other officers. Like the House, the Senate determines its own rules and disciplines its own members. The Senate also sits as a court of impeachment once the House has voted to impeach, or formally accuse, a federal officer.

Initially, the Senate met in secret session, and even after it opened its doors in 1794 it operated for years in the shadow of the House. But during the 1830s the Senate emerged as a powerful counterforce to the strong Presidency of Andrew Jackson. Such rivals to Jackson as Henry Clay and Daniel Webster used the Senate as their forum, and a new political party, the Whigs, developed around them. Because senators were evenly divided between free and slave states, the Senate became the center of efforts to preserve the Union. Senators sought legislative compromise to calm popular passions, but decades of compromise could not prevent the Civil War.

Senate leadership

The decades after the Civil War saw powerful committee chairmen exert strong party leadership over the Senate. By 1900 journalists were pointing to the Senate Four—Republicans Nelson Aldrich, William Allison, John C. Spooner, and Orville Platt—as being so influential that they could “block and defeat anything that the president or the House may desire.” Press criticism of the Senate as a “millionaires' club,” more responsive to powerful corporations than to public opinion, resulted in the 17th Amendment in 1913. It gave the privilege of electing senators to the voters rather than to state legislatures.

Throughout its first century, the Senate acted as a body of equals without official floor leaders. The position of majority leader emerged in 1913, when Democratic Caucus chairman John Worth Kern took on the role of directing his party's initiatives on the floor. The parties formalized the posts of majority and minority leader in the 1920s, and the leaders took the front-row seats on either side of the center aisle. Senate rules give the leaders the right of “first recognition,” meaning that the presiding officer must recognize them to speak before any other senators.

A clublike atmosphere

The atmosphere of the Senate has been compared to that of an exclusive club. Within that club developed an “inner club” made up of powerful committee chairmen and ranking minority party members. The “inner club” drew its membership largely from conservative Southern Democratic committee chairmen and generally excluded junior members and Northern liberals. During the 1950s Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson (Democrat-Texas) began to change this structure by appointing freshmen senators to important committees rather than making them spend years in apprenticeships on lesser committees. Johnson's successor as majority leader, Mike Mansfield (Democrat-Missouri), furthered the trend by spreading power more equally among all senators.

While the upper houses of most parliaments (such as the British House of Lords) have declined in influence in the 20th century, the Senate remains a powerful legislative body. As the Constitution intended, the Senate serves to balance the House, just as the Congress as a whole checks and balances the executive and judiciary branches of the government.

Sources

Richard A. Baker, The United States Senate: A Bicentennial History (Malabar, Fla.: Krieger, 1987).
George E. Reedy, The U.S. Senate: Paralysis or a Search for Consensus? (New York: Crown, 1986).
Donald A. Ritchie, The Senate (New York: Chelsea House, 1988)

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US History Companion: Senate

The Framers of the Constitution created the U.S. Senate as a safeguard for the rights of states and minority opinion in a powerful national government. They modeled the Senate on colonial governors' councils and on the state senates that had evolved from them. James Madison explained that the Senate's role was "first to protect the people against their rulers [and] secondly to protect the people against the transient impressions into which they themselves might be led."

To balance power between the large and small states at the Constitutional Convention, the Framers agreed that states would be represented equally in the Senate and in proportion to their populations in the House. Further preserving the authority of individual states, the Framers provided that state legislatures would elect senators. To guarantee senators' independence from short-term political pressures, the Framers assigned them a six-year term, three times as long as that of popularly elected House members. Madison reasoned that longer terms would provide stability. "If it not be a firm body," he concluded, "the other branch being more numerous, and coming immediately from the people, will overwhelm it." Responding to fears that a six-year Senate term would produce an untouchable aristocracy capable of conspiratorial behavior, the Framers specified that one-third of the terms would expire every two years, thus combining the principles of continuity and rotation in office.

In the early weeks of the Constitutional Convention, the Framers had tentatively decided to give the Senate sole power to make treaties and appoint federal judges and ambassadors. As the convention drew to a close, however, they moved to divide these powers between the Senate and the president, following Gouverneur Morris's reasoning that "as the president was to nominate, there would be responsibility, and as the Senate was to concur, there would be security." Consent to the ratification of a treaty would require a two-thirds vote, reflecting the concern of individual states that other states might combine against them, by a simple majority vote, for commercial or economic gain. In dealing with nominations, senators as statewide officials would be uniquely qualified to identify suitable candidates for federal judicial posts and would confirm them, along with cabinet secretaries and other key federal officials, by a simple majority vote.

The First Senate convened on March 4, 1789, in an elegant second-floor chamber of New York City's newly remodeled Federal Hall. Present were only eight of the twenty-two members from the eleven states that had then ratified the Constitution. On April 6 the twelve members necessary to provide a quorum answered the roll call and got down to business. The Senate elected New Hampshire's John Langdon president pro tempore and invited the House of Representatives to its chamber to count the electoral ballots for president and vice president. On April 21 John Adams took his oath as vice president, thereby assuming his responsibility under the Constitution to serve as the Senate's president. Nine days later, House members again crowded into the Senate chamber to witness George Washington's inauguration.

In its first session the Senate cautiously engaged its constitutional responsibilities, mindful of the precedent-setting nature of its every action. Senators gave serious attention to their duty to provide advice and consent to the president's nominations and treaties. A Georgia senator's objection to an appointment of a naval officer in his state resulted in the first Senate rejection of a presidential nominee. This reflected the understanding that senators were the best judges of appointees from their states to which other members would defer as a matter of "senatorial courtesy." When President Washington visited the Senate in August 1789 to consult about a recently negotiated Indian treaty, he expected an immediate response. To his frustration, the Senate referred the issue to committee for further study. After Washington received Senate approval, he vowed that he would never again seek the chamber's advice and consent in person.

The Senate's work load increased greatly during the final weeks of the 1789 session. This accorded with the Framers' notion that the House would serve as the principal workshop for crafting legislation, while the Senate would pass on the representatives' handiwork, polishing and reworking in consideration of what were presumably the nation's broader and longer-term interests. In a second session convened in January 1790, the Senate turned to legislation that would place the nation on a firm financial footing and provided for a permanent seat of government in a special federal district along the Potomac River. While that site was being prepared, Congress agreed to move the government to Philadelphia, where the final session of the First Congress met between December 1790 and March 1791.

During its ten-year residence in Philadelphia, the Senate conducted its proceedings in the second-floor chamber of that city's recently reconstructed "Congress Hall." That chamber witnessed the rise of political parties as the principal determinants of legislative debate and accomplishment.

A clash in 1794 between Federalists and Antifederalists over the seating of newly elected Pennsylvania Antifederalist senator Albert Gallatin brought a partial abandonment of the Senate's closed-door policy. Like the Constitutional Convention, but in contrast to the House, the Senate in 1789 had decided to conduct its sessions behind closed doors. In 1794 members of the Federalist majority feared that their planned rejection of Gallatin on questionable constitutional grounds would trigger charges of arbitrary behavior if done in secret. Opposition to the closed-door policy came principally from the state legislatures, whose members argued that they could not effectively assess the conduct of the senators they had elected if they operated in secret. Press coverage of open sessions in the House of Representatives helped popularize that body's role. The Senate was in danger of becoming the forgotten chamber. (The same attitude played a part when the Senate decided to allow its proceedings to be televised in 1986, seven years after the House.) Consequently, the Senate opened its doors for all legislative business, although the doors would remain closed for executive business related to presidential nominations and treaties until 1929.

On November 21, 1800, the Senate took up residence in basement quarters in the unfinished Capitol at Washington. In the following decade, the Senate moved to a grander chamber on the Capitol's second floor, where it remained until 1859. This large, semicircular room, with its plain walls and low-vaulted domed ceiling, provided an ideal setting, both acoustically and dramatically, for the Senate as it moved into its so-called golden age. Although the Senate operated in the shadow of the larger and more boisterous House of Representatives for the first three decades after its move to Washington, it dominated the House and the presidency, with the exception of the Civil War years, for the remainder of the nineteenth century.

In 1833 the Senate's membership had risen to only 48, compared with 242 in the House of Representatives. With fewer numbers and equal balance between slave and free states, the Senate offered a forum better suited to lively and discursive debate. In the face of growing national tensions associated with federal authority versus states' rights and the extension of slavery into the nation's territories, the Senate served as a workshop for fashioning major compromise agreements. In this era Daniel Webster most dramatically articulated northern interests; John C. Calhoun those of the South; and Henry Clay, Thomas Hart Benton, and Stephen A. Douglas those of the West. The sectional accords they vigorously debated bought time for a maturing nation. When civil war could no longer be held back, the national government had amassed the experience, balance, and strength to guarantee its survival under the Constitution.

The nation's territorial expansion in this era produced five new states between 1845 and 1850, and new quarters were needed to accommodate the additional members. On January 4, 1859, the Senate's sixty-four members moved to a larger chamber in the Capitol's newly completed north wing. This room, in which the Senate has met since that day, witnessed the crisis of the Civil War. In 1868, amid the turmoil of postwar reconstruction, it provided the setting for President Andrew Johnson's impeachment trial. (Seven years later Johnson would become the only former president to return to serve in the Senate.)

The Republican party controlled the Senate's majority from 1861 to 1913, with the exception of the 1879 and 1893 Congresses. During the final decades of the nineteenth century, chairmen of major committees exercised great power on the Senate floor. Most members, viewing the Senate as a way station in a political or business career, served only a single term. In an institution that had come to assign power on the basis of seniority, a few long-term senators, through the newly developed party caucus system, controlled key legislative strategy decisions.

In 1913 the Democrats won control and established the position of majority floor leader to push through the party's legislative agenda. Within a decade the post of party floor leader achieved the primacy in conducting the Senate's business that it possesses in modern times. A second major change in the Senate's structure occurred in 1913 with the ratification of the Constitution's Seventeenth Amendment, providing for direct popular election of senators. Selection of senators by state legislatures had worked reasonably well for half a century, but eventually deadlocks began to occur between the upper and lower houses of those bodies. This delayed state legislative business and deprived states of their full Senate representation. By the start of the twentieth century, direct popular election of senators had become a major objective for progressive reformers who sought to remove control of government from the influence of special interests and corrupt state legislators. Although this amendment did not significantly affect the quality of persons subsequently elected to the Senate, its passage marked the only structural modification of the Framers' original design of the institution.

The Constitution's Framers would likely recognize several of the modern Senate's roles, particularly its unique constitutional responsibility to provide advice and consent to nominations and treaties. During the Senate's first two centuries it objected to few cabinet nominees and rejected only eight. This reflected an attitude that presidents were entitled to choose their own advisers, unless those officials clearly demonstrated unfitness to serve. The Senate gave greater scrutiny, however, to judicial nominees with lifetime tenure. Directing particular attention to the Supreme Court, the Senate rejected approximately 20 percent of those nominated to the nation's highest tribunal. Of the thousands of treaties submitted, the Senate turned down fewer than two dozen, but it routinely influenced treaty negotiations with threats of modification through the addition of amendments, reservations, or understandings.

The Framers would also find much in the Senate, as in modern America, that would surprise them. They would surely be amazed that the Senate has grown to one hundred members, with seven thousand staff members housed in immense office buildings, or that members tend to view service as a long-term career. And they would be surprised at the importance the Senate accords to its committee system. In its earliest years, the Senate relied on temporary committees to draft specific legislative language after the entire body had reached a consensus regarding a measure's general objectives. The War of 1812 demonstrated the need for consistently available expertise based in permanent, or standing, committees. In 1816, the Senate established permanent committees organized according to the broad categories of the president's annual message. Throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Senate committees proliferated. At a time when only committee chairmen had staff and office space, the number of committees nearly equaled the number of members. In 1920 and again after World War II, the Senate eliminated many committees. Since the 1950s the Senate has provided committees with significant professional staff resources and has enacted reforms to minimize the autocratic control by chairs that had existed earlier.

Since the 1920s Senate committees have taken on a greater investigative role. Among the most notable special investigations have been those of oil leasing in the 1920s, securities regulation in the 1930s, war profiteering in the 1940s, organized crime in the 1950s, Vietnam in the 1960s, Watergate in the 1970s, and covert intelligence operations in the 1980s. Through its combined investigative and legislative powers, the Senate has sought to preserve its balance with the presidency, supporting presidential initiatives while maintaining vigilant oversight of executive branch operations.

In retrospect, the Constitution's Framers would appreciate the Senate's passion for deliberation, its untidiness, its aloofness from the House of Representatives, and its suspicion of the presidency. Neither they nor most of the eighteen hundred persons (including sixteen women) who served as senators during the first two hundred years would be surprised at the continuing calls for reform. Viewed over the broad sweep of its history, the U.S. Senate has demonstrated the ability to balance faithfulness to the Constitution's principles with requirements for measured change in response to the complex demands of a diverse society.

Bibliography:

Richard Allan Baker, The Senate of the United States: A Bicentennial History (1988); Robert C. Byrd, The Senate, 1789-1989: Addresses on the History of the United States Senate, 2 vols. (1988, 1990).

Author:

Richard Allan Baker

Law Encyclopedia: Senate

This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.

The upper chamber, or smaller branch, of the U.S. Congress. The upper chamber of the legislature of most of the states.

The U.S. Constitution reserves for the Senate special powers not available to the other branch of Congress, the House of Representatives. These powers include the trial of all impeachments of federal officials; the ratification, by a two-thirds vote, of all treaties obtained by the president of the United States; and approval or rejection of all presidential appointments to the federal judiciary, ambassadorships, cabinet positions, and other significant executive branch posts.

The Senate, with terms of six years for its members — as opposed to two years for members of the House of Representatives — and a tradition of unlimited debate, has long prided itself as the more deliberate of the two branches of Congress. Under its rules a senator may speak on an issue indefinitely, which is known as the filibuster. Sixty senators present and voting may pass a motion of cloture to stop debate.

Members

Under Article II, Section 3, of the Constitution, the Senate is made up of two members from each state, each of whom has one vote. Unlike the House of Representatives, in which the entire chamber is up for election every two years, only one-third of the senators are up for reelection every two years.

The Constitution requires that a senator be at least thirty years of age and a U.S. citizen for a minimum of nine years. A senator must make her legal residence in the state that she represents.

The Constitution originally provided for the election of senators by state legislatures. However, the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution, adopted in 1913, mandated the election of senators by popular vote. The Senate may punish members for disorderly behavior. With the concurrence of two-thirds of the senators, it can expel a member.

When a vacancy occurs in the representation of any state in the Senate, the governor of that state issues a writ of election to fill the vacancy. The state legislature, however, can empower the governor to make a temporary appointment until the people fill the vacancy through an election.

The vice president of the United States is president of the Senate but has no vote unless the senators are equally divided on a question. His vote breaks the tie.

Committees

The Senate uses a committee system to evaluate, draft, and amend legislation before it is submitted to the full chamber. During the 104th Congress (1995-97), the Senate had sixteen standing, or permanent, committees: Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry; Appropriations; Armed Services; Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; Budget; Commerce, Science, and Transportation; Energy and Natural Resources; Environment and Public Works; Finance; Foreign Relations; Governmental Affairs; Judiciary; Labor and Human Resources; Rules and Administration; Small Business; and Veterans' Affairs. The committees have an average of six to seven subcommittees. Senators typically belong to three committees and eight subcommittees. The Senate also has joint committees with the House, special committees, and investigative committees.

Officers

The vice president acts as the president of the Senate. In the vice president's absence, that position is filled by the president pro tempore, who is usually the most senior senator of the majority party. The majority leader has significant powers in the appointment of majority senators to committees. Political parties also elect majority and minority leaders to lead their efforts in the Senate. They are assisted by an assistant floor leader (whip) and a party secretary.

Other Senate officers include the secretary, who oversees Senate finances and official Senate pronouncements related to impeachment proceedings and treaty ratification, and the sergeant at arms, who serves as the law enforcement and protocol officer and organizes ceremonial functions.

See: Congress of the United States; Constitution of the United States.

Politics: Senate, United States

The upper house of the United States Congress. Two senators are elected from each state, regardless of state population, guaranteeing each state equal representation. Senators are elected for six-year terms. The Senate tends to respond more directly than the House of Representatives to issues of national, rather than local, concern, though both houses of Congress participate in all aspects of legislation and policymaking. The Senate has the exclusive right to try cases of impeachment, approve presidential appointments, confirm treaties, and elect a vice president if no candidate receives a majority from the Electoral College. The vice president serves as presiding officer of the Senate.

Wikipedia: United States Senate

United States Senate

Type

Upper House

President of the Senate

Richard B. Cheney, R
since January 20, 2001

President pro tempore

Robert C. Byrd, D
since January 4, 2007

Members

100

Political groups

Democratic Party
Republican Party

Last elections

November 7, 2006

Meeting place

Senate Chamber
United States Capitol
Washington, DC
United States of America

Web site

http://www.senate.gov

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The United States Senate is one of the two chambers of the bicameral United States Congress, the other being the House of Representatives. It is known informally as the "upper house."

In the Senate, each state is represented by two members, in accordance with the New Jersey Plan, proposed by William Paterson reached at the Philadelphia Convention of 1787. The Senate's membership is therefore based on the equal representation of each state, regardless of population. The nine most populous states, with just over half of the total US population, together elect only eighteen of the hundred senators, while the smallest nine states, with about 2.5% of the total US population, also elect 18 senators. For comparison, a Wyoming resident's vote is worth about 71 California residents' votes.^{[citation needed]}

Since there are now fifty states, with two senators per state, the total membership of the body is now one hundred. Senators serve for six-year terms that are staggered so elections are held for approximately one-third of the seats (a "class") every second year. The Vice President of the United States is the President of the Senate and serves as its presiding officer, but is not a senator and does not vote except to break ties. The Vice President rarely acts as President of the Senate unless casting a tie-breaking vote or during ceremonial occasions. As such, the duty of presiding usually falls to the President pro tempore, by tradition the most senior senator of the majority party, who almost always delegates the quotidian task of presiding over the Senate to junior senators from his party.

The Senate is regarded as a more deliberative body than the House of Representatives; the Senate is smaller and its members serve longer terms, allowing for a more collegial and less partisan atmosphere that is somewhat more insulated from public opinion than the House. The Senate has several exclusive powers enumerated in Article One of the Constitution not granted to the House; most significantly, the President cannot ratify treaties or, with rare exception, make important appointments—most significantly ambassadors, members of the federal judiciary (including the Supreme Court) and members of the Cabinet—without the advice and consent of the Senate.

History

Main article: History of the United States Senate

The Framers of the Constitution created a bicameral Congress out of a desire to have two houses to be accountable to each other. One house was intended to be a "people's house" that would be very sensitive to public opinion. The other house was intended to represent the states. Senators were selected by the state legislatures, not by the voters, until 1913 with the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. It was to be a more deliberate forum of elite wisdom where six year terms insulated the senators from public opinion. The Constitution provides that the approval of both chambers is necessary for the passage of legislation. The Senate of the United States was named after the ancient Roman Senate. The chamber of the United States Senate is located in the north wing of the Capitol building, in Washington, D.C., the national capital. The House of Representatives convenes in the south wing of the same building.

Members and elections

Senate composition following 2006 elections

Article One of the Constitution states that each state is entitled to two senators. Originally, each state legislature selected their senators; senators have been directly elected since the ratification of the 17th Amendment in 1913. The Constitution further stipulates that no constitutional amendment may deprive a state of its equal suffrage in the Senate without the consent of the state concerned. The District of Columbia and territories are not entitled to any representation. As there are presently 50 states, the Senate has 100 members. The senator from each state with the longer tenure is known as the "senior senator," and their counterpart is the "junior senator"; this convention, however, does not have any official significance.

Senators serve terms of six years each; the terms are staggered so that approximately one-third of the Senate seats are up for election every two years. The staggering of the terms is arranged such that both seats from a given state are never contested in the same general election. Senate elections are held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, Election Day, and coincide with elections for the House of Representatives. Each senator is elected by his or her state as a whole. Generally, the Republican and Democratic parties choose their candidates in primary elections, which are typically held several months before the general elections. Ballot access rules for independent and third party candidates vary from state to state. For the general election, almost all states use simple plurality voting, under which the candidate with the most votes (not necessarily an absolute majority) wins. Exceptions include Louisiana, which use the two-round system. In some states, runoffs are held if no candidate wins a majority.

Once elected, a senator continues to serve until the end of his or her term, death, or resignation. Furthermore, the Constitution permits the Senate to expel any member by a two-thirds majority vote. Fifteen senators have been expelled in the history of the Senate; fourteen of them were removed in 1861 and 1862 for supporting the Confederate secession. No senator has been expelled since, although many senators have chosen to resign when faced with expulsion proceedings (most recently, Bob Packwood in 1995). The Senate has also passed several resolutions censuring members; censure requires only a simple majority and does not remove a senator from office.

The 17th Amendment provides that vacancies in the Senate, however they arise, may be filled by special elections. A special election for a Senate seat need not be held immediately after the vacancy arises; instead, it is typically conducted at the same time as the next biennial congressional election. If a special election for one seat happens to coincide with a general election for the state's other seat, then the two elections are not combined, but are instead contested separately. A senator elected in a special election takes office immediately and serves until the original six-year term expires, and not for a full term. Furthermore, the amendment provides that any state legislature may empower the Governor to temporarily fill vacancies. The interim appointee remains in office until the special election can be held. All states except Arizona and Alaska have passed laws authorizing the Governor to make temporary appointments.^[1]

Senators are entitled to prefix "The Honorable" to their names. The annual salary of each senator, as of 2006, was $165,200;^[2] the President pro tempore and party leaders receive larger amounts. Analysis of financial disclosure forms by CNN in June 2003 revealed that at least 40 of the then senators were millionaires.^[3] In general, senators are regarded as more important political figures than members of the House of Representatives because there are fewer of them, and because they serve for longer terms, represent larger constituencies (except for House at-large districts, which also comprise entire states), sit on more committees, and have more staffers. The prestige commonly associated with the Senate is reflected by the background of presidents and presidential candidates; far more sitting senators have been nominees for the presidency than sitting representatives.

Qualifications

Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution sets forth three qualifications for senators: each senator must be at least 30 years old, must have been a citizen of the United States for at least the past nine years, and must be (at the time of the election) an inhabitant of the state he or she seeks to represent. The age and citizenship qualifications for senators are more stringent than those for representatives. In Federalist No. 62, James Madison justified this arrangement by arguing that the "senatorial trust" called for a "greater extent of information and stability of character."

Furthermore, under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, any federal or state officer who takes the requisite oath to support the Constitution, but later engages in rebellion or aids the enemies of the United States, is disqualified from becoming a senator. This provision, which came into force soon after the end of the Civil War, was intended to prevent those who sided with the Confederacy from serving. The amendment, however, provides that a disqualified individual may still serve if two-thirds of both Houses of Congress vote to remove the disability.

Under the Constitution, the Senate (not the courts) is empowered to judge if an individual is qualified to serve. During its early years, however, the Senate did not closely scrutinize the qualifications of members. As a result, three individuals that were constitutionally disqualified due to age were admitted to the Senate: twenty-nine-year-old Henry Clay (1806), and twenty-eight-year-olds Armistead Mason (1816) and John Eaton (1818). Such an occurrence, however, has not been repeated since.^[4] In 1934, Rush Holt was elected to the Senate at the age of twenty-nine; he waited until he turned thirty to take the oath of office. Likewise, Joseph Biden was elected to the Senate shortly before his 30th birthday in 1972; he had passed his 30th birthday by the time the Senate conducted its swearing-in ceremony for that year's electees in January, 1973.

Officers

The Senate meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.

The party with a majority of seats is known as the majority party; if two or more parties in opposition are tied, the Vice President's affiliation determines which party is the majority party. The next-largest party is known as the minority party. The President pro tempore, committee chairmen, and some other officials are generally from the majority party; they have counterparts (for instance, the "ranking members" of committees) in the minority party. Independents and members of third parties (so long as they do not caucus with or support either of the larger parties) are not considered in determining which is the majority party.

The Constitution provides that the Vice President of the United States serves as the President of the Senate and holds a vote that can only be cast to break a tie. By convention, the Vice President presides over very few Senate debates, attending only on important ceremonial occasions (such as the swearing-in of new senators) or at times when his vote may be needed to break an equally divided tie vote. The Constitution also authorizes the Senate to elect a President pro tempore (Latin for "temporary president") to preside in the Vice President's absence; the most senior senator of the majority party is customarily chosen to serve in this position. The President pro tempore is Senator Robert Byrd (D) of West Virginia. Like the Vice President, the President pro tempore does not normally preside over the Senate. Instead, he typically delegates the responsibility of presiding to junior senators of the majority party. Frequently, freshmen senators (newly elected members) are allowed to preside so that they may become accustomed to the rules and procedures of the body.

The presiding officer sits in a chair in the front of the Senate chamber. The powers of the presiding officer are extremely limited; he primarily acts as the Senate's mouthpiece, performing duties such as announcing the results of votes. The Senate's presiding officer controls debates by calling on members to speak; the rules of the Senate, however, compel him to recognize the first senator who rises. The presiding officer may rule on any "point of order" (a senator's objection that a rule has been breached), but the decision is subject to appeal to the whole house. Thus, the powers of the presiding officer of the Senate are far less extensive than those of the Speaker of the House.

Each party elects Senate party leaders. Floor leaders act as the party chief spokespeople. The Senate Majority Leader is, furthermore, responsible for controlling the agenda of the Senate; for example, he schedules debates and votes. Each party also elects a whip to assist the leader. A whip works to ensure that his party's senators vote as the party leadership desires.

The Senate is also served by several officials who are not members. The Senate's chief administrative officer is the Secretary of the Senate, who maintains public records, disburses salaries, monitors the acquisition of stationery and supplies, and oversees clerks. The Secretary is aided in his work by the Assistant Secretary of the Senate. Another official is the Sergeant-at-Arms, who, as the Senate's chief law enforcement officer, maintains order and security on the Senate premises. The Capitol Police handles routine police work, with the Sergeant-at-Arms primarily responsible for general oversight. Other employees include the Chaplain, who is elected by the Senate, and Pages, who are appointed.

Procedure

A typical Senate desk

Like the House of Representatives, the Senate meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. At one end of the Chamber of the Senate is a dais from which the Presiding Officer (the Vice President, the President pro tempore, or one of the junior senators designated by the President pro tempore) presides. The lower tier of the dais is used by clerks and other officials. One hundred desks are arranged in the Chamber in a semicircular pattern; the desks are divided by a wide central aisle. By tradition, Democrats sit on the right of the center aisle, while Republicans sit on the left, as viewed from the presiding officer's chair. Each senator chooses a desk on the basis of seniority within his party; by custom, the leader of each party sits in the front row. Sessions of the Senate are opened with a special prayer or invocation, typically convening on weekdays. Sessions of the Senate are generally open to the public and are broadcast live on television by C-SPAN 2.

Senate procedure depends not only on the rules, but also on a variety of customs and traditions. In many cases, the Senate waives some of its stricter rules by unanimous consent. Unanimous consent agreements are typically negotiated beforehand by party leaders. Any senator may block such an agreement, but, in practice, objections are rare. The presiding officer enforces the rules of the Senate, and may warn members who deviate from them. The presiding officer often uses the gavel of the Senate to maintain order.

A "hold" is placed when the Leader's office is notified that a senator intends to object to a request for unanimous consent from the Senate to consider or pass a measure. A hold may be placed for any reason and can be lifted by a senator at any time. A senator may place a hold simply to review a bill, to negotiate changes to the bill, or to kill the bill. A bill can be held for as long as the senator who objects to the bill wishes to block its consideration.

Holds can be overcome, but require time consuming procedures such as filing cloture. Holds are considered to be private communications between a senator and the Leader, and are sometimes referred to as "secret holds." A senator may disclose that he or she has placed a hold.

The Constitution provides that a majority of the Senate constitutes a quorum to do business. Under the rules and customs of the Senate, a quorum is always assumed to be present unless a quorum call explicitly demonstrates otherwise. Any senator may request a quorum call by "suggesting the absence of a quorum"; a clerk then calls the roll of the Senate and notes which members are present. In practice, senators almost always request quorum calls not to establish the presence of a quorum, but to temporarily delay proceedings. Such a delay may serve one of many purposes; often, it allows Senate leaders to negotiate compromises off the floor. Once the need for a delay has ended, any senator may request unanimous consent to rescind the Quorum Call.

During debates, senators may only speak if called upon by the presiding officer. The presiding officer is, however, required to recognize the first senator who rises to speak. Thus, the presiding officer has little control over the course of debate. Customarily, the Majority Leader and Minority Leader are accorded priority during debates, even if another senator rises first. All speeches must be addressed to the presiding officer, using the words "Mr. President" or "Madam President." Only the presiding officer may be directly addressed in speeches; other Members must be referred to in the third person. In most cases, senators do not refer to each other by name, but by state, using forms such as "the senior senator from Virginia" or "the junior senator from California."

There are very few restrictions on the content of speeches; there is no requirement that speeches be germane to the matter before the Senate.

The rules of the Senate provide that no senator may make more than two speeches on a motion or bill on the same legislative day. (A legislative day begins when the Senate convenes and ends with adjournment; hence, it does not necessarily coincide with the calendar day.) The length of these speeches is not limited by the rules; thus, in most cases, senators may speak for as long as they please. Often, the Senate adopts unanimous consent agreements imposing time limits. In other cases (for example, for the Budget process), limits are imposed by statute. In general, however, the right to unlimited debate is preserved.

The filibuster is a tactic used to defeat bills and motions by prolonging debate indefinitely. A filibuster may entail long speeches, dilatory motions, and an extensive series of proposed amendments. The Senate may end a filibuster by invoking cloture. In most cases, cloture requires the support of three-fifths of the Senate; however, if the matter before the Senate involves changing the rules of the body—most importantly, if it reduces the power of filibuster—a two-thirds majority is required. In current practice, the threat of filibuster is of more importance than its actual use; almost any motion that does not have the support of three-fifths of the Senate effectively fails. Cloture is invoked very rarely, particularly because bipartisan support is usually necessary to obtain the required supermajority, and a bill that already has bipartisan support is rarely subject to threats of filibuster in the first place. If the Senate does invoke cloture, debate does not end immediately; instead, further debate is limited to thirty additional hours unless increased by another three-fifths vote. The longest filibuster speech in the history of the Senate was delivered by Strom Thurmond, who spoke for over twenty-four hours in an unsuccessful attempt to block the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957.^[5]

When debate concludes, the motion in question is put to a vote. In many cases, the Senate votes by voice vote; the presiding officer puts the question, and Members respond either "Aye" (in favor of the motion) or "No" (against the motion). The presiding officer then announces the result of the voice vote. Any senator, however, may challenge the presiding officer's assessment and request a recorded vote. The request may be granted only if it is seconded by one-fifth of the senators present. In practice, however, senators second requests for recorded votes as a matter of courtesy. When a recorded vote is held, the clerk calls the roll of the Senate in alphabetical order; each senator responds when his or her name is called. Senators who miss the roll call may still cast a vote as long as the recorded vote remains open. The vote is closed at the discretion of the presiding officer, but must remain open for a minimum of 15 minutes. If the vote is tied, the Vice President, if present, is entitled to a tie-breaking vote. If the Vice President is not present, however, the motion fails.

On occasion, the Senate may go into what is called a secret or closed session. During a closed session, the chamber doors are closed, and the galleries are completely cleared of anyone not sworn to secrecy, not instructed in the rules of the closed session, or not essential to the session. Closed sessions are quite rare, and usually held only under very certain circumstances where the senate is discussing sensitive subject-matter such as information critical to national security, private communications from the President, or even to discuss Senate deliberations during impeachment trials. Any senator may call for and force a closed session as long as the motion is seconded by at least one other member.

Budget bills are governed under a special rule process called "Reconciliation" that disallows filibusters. Reconciliation was devised in 1974 but came into use in the early 1980s.

Committees

Dirksen Senate Office Building Committee Room 226 is used for hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee

Main article: U.S. Congressional committee

See List of United States Senate committees for the full list.

The Senate uses committees (as well as their subcommittees) for a variety of purposes, including the review of bills and the oversight of the executive branch. The appointment of committee members is formally made by the whole Senate, but the choice of members is actually made by the political parties. Generally, each party honors the preferences of individual senators, giving priority on the basis of seniority. Each party is allocated seats on committees in proportion to its overall strength.

Most committee work is performed by sixteen standing committees, each of which has jurisdiction over a specific field such as Finance or Foreign Relations. Each standing committee may consider, amend, and report bills that fall under its jurisdiction. Furthermore, each standing committee considers presidential nominations to offices related to its jurisdiction. (For instance, the Judiciary Committee considers nominees for judgeships, and the Foreign Relations Committee considers nominees for positions in the Department of State.) Committees have extensive powers with regard to bills and nominees; they may block nominees and impede bills from reaching the floor of the Senate. Finally, standing committees also oversee the departments and agencies of the executive branch. In discharging their duties, standing committees have the power to hold hearings and to subpoena witnesses and evidence.

The Senate also has several committees that are not considered standing committees. Such bodies are generally known as select committees or special committees; examples include the Select Committee on Ethics and the Special Committee on Aging. Legislation is referred to some of these committees, though the bulk of legislative work is performed by the standing committees. Committees may be established on an ad hoc basis for specific purposes; for instance, the Senate Watergate Committee was a special committee created to investigate the Watergate scandal. Such temporary committees cease to exist after fulfilling their tasks.

Finally, the Congress includes joint committees, which include members of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Some joint committees oversee independent government bodies; for instance, the Joint Committee on the Library oversees the Library of Congress. Other joint committees serve to make advisory reports; for example, there exists a Joint Committee on Taxation. Bills and nominees are not referred to joint committees. Hence, the power of joint committees is considerably lower than those of standing committees.

Each Senate committee and subcommittee is led by a chairman (usually a member of the majority party). Formerly, committee chairmanship was determined purely by seniority; as a result, several elderly senators continued to serve as chairmen despite severe physical infirmity or even senility. Now, committee chairmen are in theory elected, but in practice, seniority is very rarely bypassed. The chairman's powers are extensive; he controls the committee's agenda, and may prevent the committee from approving a bill or presidential nomination. Modern committee chairmen are typically not forceful in exerting their influence, although there have been some exceptions. The second-highest member, the spokesperson on the committee for the minority party, is known in most cases as the Ranking Member. In the Select Committee on Intelligence and the Select Committee on Ethics, however, the senior minority member is known as the Vice Chairman.

Legislative functions

Further information: Act of Congress

Most bills may be introduced in either House of Congress. However, the Constitution provides that "All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives." As a result, the Senate does not have the power to initiate bills imposing taxes. Furthermore, the House of Representatives holds that the Senate does not have the power to originate appropriation bills, or bills authorizing the expenditure of federal funds. Historically, the Senate has disputed the interpretation advocated by the House. However, whenever the Senate originates an appropriations bill, the House simply refuses to consider it, thereby settling the dispute in practice. The constitutional provision barring the Senate from introducing revenue bills is based on the practice of the British Parliament, in which only the House of Commons may originate such measures.

Although the Constitution gave the House the power to initiate revenue bills, in practice the Senate is equal to the House in the respects of taxation and spending. As Woodrow Wilson wrote:

“

[T]he Senate's right to amend [revenue bills] has been allowed the widest possible scope. The upper house may add to them what it pleases; may go altogether outside of their original provisions and tack to them entirely new features of legislation, altering not only the amounts but even the objects of expenditure, and making out of the materials sent them by the popular chamber measures of an almost totally new character.

”

The approval of both the Senate and the House of Representatives is required for any bill, including a revenue bill, to become law. Both Houses must pass the exact same version of the bill; if there are differences, they may be resolved by a conference committee, which includes members of both bodies.

Checks and balances

The Constitution provides several unique functions for the Senate that form its ability to "check and balance" the powers of other elements of the Federal Government. These include the requirement that the Senate may advise and must consent to the President's government appointments; also the Senate must ratify all treaties with foreign governments; it tries all impeachments, and it elects the Vice President in the event no person gets a majority of the electoral votes.

The President can make certain appointments only with the advice and consent of the Senate. Officials whose appointments require the Senate's approval include members of the Cabinet, heads of most federal executive agencies, ambassadors, Justices of the Supreme Court, and other federal judges. Under the Constitution, a large number of government appointments are subject to potential confirmation; however, Congress has passed legislation to authorize the appointment of many officials without the Senate's consent (usually, confirmation requirements are reserved for those officials with the most significant final decision-making authority). Typically, a nominee is first subject to a hearing before a Senate committee. Thereafter, the nomination is considered by the full Senate. The majority of nominees are confirmed, but in a small number of cases each year, Senate Committees will purposely fail to act on a nominations in order to block it. Also, the President sometimes withdraws nominations when they appear unlikely to be confirmed. Because of this, outright rejections of nominees on the Senate Floor are quite infrequent (there have been only nine Cabinet nominees rejected outright in the history of the United States).

The Senate has the power to try impeachments; shown above is Theodore R. Davis' drawing of the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson, 1867

The powers of the Senate with respect to nominations are, however, subject to some constraints. For instance, the Constitution provides that the President may make an appointment during a congressional recess without the Senate's advice and consent. The recess appointment remains valid only temporarily; the office becomes vacant again at the end of the next congressional session. Nevertheless, Presidents have frequently used recess appointments to circumvent the possibility that the Senate may reject the nominee. Furthermore, as the Supreme Court held in Myers v. United States, although the Senate's advice and consent is required for the appointment of certain executive branch officials, it is not necessary for their removal.

The Senate also has a role in the process of ratifying treaties. The Constitution provides that the President may only ratify a treaty if two-thirds of the senators vote to grant advice and consent. However, not all international agreements are considered treaties, and therefore do not require the Senate's approval. Congress has passed laws authorizing the President to conclude executive agreements without action by the Senate. Similarly, the President may make congressional-executive agreements with the approval of a simple majority in each House of Congress, rather than a two-thirds majority in the Senate. Neither executive agreements nor congressional-executive agreements are mentioned in the Constitution, leading some to suggest that they unconstitutionally circumvent the treaty-ratification process. However, the validity of such agreements has been upheld by courts.

The Constitution empowers the House of Representatives to impeach federal officials for "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors" and empowers the Senate to try such impeachments. If the sitting President of the United States is being tried, the Chief Justice of the United States presides over the trial. During any impeachment trial, senators are constitutionally required to sit on oath or affirmation. Conviction requires a two-thirds majority of the senators present. A convicted official is automatically removed from office; in addition, the Senate may stipulate that the defendant be banned from holding office in the future. No further punishment is permitted during the impeachment proceedings; however, the party may face criminal penalties in a normal court of law.

In the history of the United States, the House of Representatives has impeached sixteen officials, of whom seven were convicted. (One resigned before the Senate could complete the trial.) Only two Presidents of the United States have ever been impeached: Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. Both trials ended in acquittal; in Johnson's case, the Senate fell one vote short of the two-thirds majority required for conviction.

Under the Twelfth Amendment, the Senate has the power to elect the Vice President if no vice presidential candidate receives a majority of votes in the Electoral College. The Twelfth Amendment requires the Senate to choose from the two candidates with the highest numbers of electoral votes. Electoral College deadlocks are very rare; in the history of the United States, the Senate has only had to break a deadlock once, in 1837, when it elected Richard Mentor Johnson. The power to elect the President in the case of an Electoral College deadlock belongs to the House of Representatives.

Latest election

Main article: United States Senate elections, 2006

Summary of the November 7 2006 United States Senate election results

|- !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=left width=350 10em" colspan="2" rowspan="2" | Party !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=center colspan="3" | Breakdown !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=center colspan="3" | Seats !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=center colspan="2" | Popular Vote |- !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right| Up !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right| Elected !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right| Not Up !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right| 2004 !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right| 2006 !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right| +/− !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right| Vote !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right| % |- |- |bgcolor=#3333FF| | style="text-align: left" | Democratic Party | 17 | 22 | 27 | 44 | 49 | +5 | 33,134,651 | 53.91% |- |- |bgcolor=#FF3333| | style="text-align: left" | Republican Party | 15 | 9 | 40 | 55 | 49 | −6 | 26,127,486 | 42.38% |- |- |bgcolor=#999999| | style="text-align: left" | Independents | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | +1 | 878,4