Congress

The US congressional representation is organized in a unique way because it has a bicameral legislature. This means there are two separate chambers that make up Congress, The House and The Senate. This ideally balances out power between The House which represents the people as a whole and The senate that represents the states. The number of representatives in The House from each state is determined by the state’s population, therefore larger states have more House seats. Every ten years the U.S. The Census Bureau takes a census of the population in each state and this census determines if seats need to be reappointed. Every state regardless of population receives at least one house seat. The goal of this is that the population of each state is represented accurately in congress. The Senate is organized differently and each state only has two senate seats to fill. Popular representation of people is ideally reflected in The House and state representation is reflected in The Senate. Both The House and The Congress are a part of the legislative process. If legislation is introduced separate committees (usually subcommittees) the House and the Senate review the bill and if the bill is not pigeonholed and instead approved it will be reported to the full chamber. The idea is that the subcommittee can approve, add new amendments or draft a new bill before it reaches the full chamber. Floor debates are conducted differently in the House than the Senate because there are many more House members than members of the Senate. The bill will get voted on and if the bill word for word is passed in both chambers, the conference committee will create the final compromise on the bill before the bill is sent for presidential approval. The goal of this process and having both popular representation and state representation when creating new legislation. Ideally this would mean that any bill passed serves the interests of the American people (or the majority of people) as well as the state’s interest.