How are the terms within Congress broken down?

Members of the House of Representatives serve two-year terms and are considered for reelection every even year. Senators however, serve six-year terms and elections to the Senate are staggered over even years so that only about 1/3 of the Senate is up for reelection during any election.

How is the legislative branch broken up?

Legislative Branch of the U.S. Government This branch includes Congress (the Senate and House of Representatives) and special agencies and offices that provide support services to Congress. American citizens have the right to vote for Senators and Representatives through free, confidential ballots.

Why is the legislative branch broken into two parts?

To balance the interests of both the small and large states, the Framers of the Constitution divided the power of Congress between the two houses. Every state has an equal voice in the Senate, while representation in the House of Representatives is based on the size of each state’s population.

What is the goal of gerrymandering?

The primary goals of gerrymandering are to maximize the effect of supporters’ votes and to minimize the effect of opponents’ votes. A partisan gerrymander’s main purpose is to influence not only the districting statute but the entire corpus of legislative decisions enacted in its path.

How does the legislative branch pass laws?

In order to pass legislation and send it to the President for his signature, both the House and the Senate must pass the same bill by majority vote. If the President vetoes a bill, they may override his veto by passing the bill again in each chamber with at least two-thirds of each body voting in favor.

What is the main job of the legislative branch?

The legislative branch is made up of the House and Senate, known collectively as the Congress. Among other powers, the legislative branch makes all laws, declares war, regulates interstate and foreign commerce and controls taxing and spending policies.

Is Congress the broken branch of the US government?

Therefore that is why Congress is and will remain for a long time to come the broken branch of US Government. When a minority within congress can take action, or rather not take action, that results in the government shutting down, clearly they have too much power.

What happened to the need for congressional reform?

In the past ten years, after a real sense in the first year of the Gingrich-led Republican Congress that they would clear the decks and implement sweeping change in the way Congress did business, there has been a complete expunging of any sense of need or desire for congressional reform – and worse.

Is the 112th US Congress broken?

Yes it is easy to say that as the 112th Congress was the most legislatively futile on record gaining 330 on the futility index, it could be suggested, and has been suggested that they are just fulfilling the functions given to them in the constitution No, not broken, but does need some improvements.

What happened to Congressional oversight of policymaking?

When the Republicans took control of Congress, there was substantial aggressive oversight – for the period when Bill Clinton was president, that is – although the oversight of policy was accompanied by a near-obsession with investigation of scandal and allegations of scandal. But when George Bush became president, oversight largely disappeared.