FAQs About Congress
How many members of Congress are there?
There are a total of 535 Members of Congress. One hundred serve in the
U.S. Senate, while 435 serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.
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How long do members of Congress' terms last?
House members, referred to as Congressmen/women or Representatives, serve
two-year terms and are up for reelection every even year (2006, 2008,
etc.). Senators serve six-year terms and elections to the Senate are
staggered over even years so that only about 1/3 of the Senators are up
for reelection in any given even year.
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How many members of Congress come from each of the 50 states?
Since the Senate is made up of 100 Senators, each state sends two Senators
to represent them in Washington. In the House of Representatives, a state's
representation is based on its population. States with small populations
like North Dakota, Vermont and Delaware send only one representative to
Washington, while the most populous state, California, sends 53 representatives
to serve in the House. Currently, New Jersey sends 13 representatives.
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How many people do congressmen and senators represent?
Members of the House each represent a section of their state, a Congressional
District, which average about 600,000 people. Senators represent the
entire state.
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How many Democrats, Republicans and Independents are currently
serving in Congress?
As the 110th Congress was sworn in on January 4th, the Senate was made
up of 49 Democrats, 49 Republicans and two Independents who caucus with
the Democrats, which gives Democrats a slim majority. In the House, there
are currently 233 Democrats and 202 Republicans.
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How are the two chambers (House and Senate) different?
In the House the majority party rules. The House conducts most of its
important business by passing rules that determine the framework under
which a bill will be debated. Since these rules only require a simply
majority, the party with the most votes controls the debate. In most
cases, rules limit debate so that major bills can be passed during one
day of legislative business.
In the Senate, the majority still holds a significant advantage when
it comes to scheduling which bills come to the floor, but any single senator
can stop legislation from moving forward on his or her own. While debate
is limited in the House to the guidelines created by the rule, debate
in the Senate does not end until 60 Senators vote for a cloture motion
that moves the bill forward for consideration. Since the majority does
not currently bring to the table 60 votes on its own, it must work with
the minority to set the rules for debate on important legislation. Often,
this means that major pieces of legislation can be debated for one or
two weeks on the Senate floor.
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Why does Congress use a committee system?
Since Congress deals with a broad variety of different issues, it is
impossible for all work to be done on either the House or Senate floor.
Therefore, throughout history, committees have been created to address
particular issues. Today, there are 21 permanent committees in the House
of Representatives and 15 in the Senate. The main purpose of these committees
is to collect information through hearings and investigations, and draft
legislation which is then reported out for consideration by the entire
chamber.
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How does a bill become a law?
Passing legislation into law is often a complicated and long process.
For a complete explanation of this process, please see our How
a Bill Becomes a Law section.
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