Here are some commonly asked questions about the U.S. Congress and how it works:
What does a member of Congress do?
Members of Congress are responsible for representing the people of their District in the United States Congress. Part of this responsibility is writing and voting on bills in the U.S. Congress. They decide whether to vote for or against every bill that comes before Congress. All bills must pass Congress before they can go to the President to be signed into law. They may also draft bills and works to get other Representatives to pass legislation.
In order to do my job well, I spends a lot of time meeting with people in Arkansas's Fourth Congressional District to tell them about what is happening in government and to listen to their concerns and ideas on every issue we consider in Congress.
Another important part of my job is to help you if you have a problem with the federal government. To see how I can help, click here.
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How many members of Congress are there?
The Reapportionment Act of 1929, enacted June 18, 1929, established the size of Congress at 535 voting members: 100 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 numbered year (2010, 2012, etc.). Senators serve six-year terms and elections to the Senate are staggered over even numbered years so that only about 1/3 of the Senators are up for re-election 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, D.C. 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, Arkansas sends four representatives: Rick Crawford (AR-01), Tim Griffin (AR-02), Steve Womack (AR-03) and Mike Ross (AR-04).
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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 700,000 people, as of the 2010 Census. Senators represent the entire state, regardless of its size.
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How many Democrats, Republicans and Independents are currently serving in Congress?
The 112th Session of Congress began on January 5, 2011. As of June 2011, the Senate has 51 Democrats, 47 Republicans and 2 Independents who caucus with the Democrats, which gives Democrats a majority. The House of Representatives, as of June 2011, has 240 Republicans, 193 Democrats and 2 vacancies, which gives the Republicans the majority and control of the House of Representatives. For a complete list of members of the House of Representatives, click here.
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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 20 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 the How a Bill Becomes a Law section on the House website.
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