How Congress Works TOTD: Do you think the 535 members of Congress can truly represent the over 300 million people in the US? Explain. Quiz- amendments P23 Notes Portfolio Time

Congressional Rules - Developed to help Congress operate: 535 people making laws for over 300 million… There must be rules! -House has more rules than Senate why??? b/c there are more people in the HoR! -Parliamentary Procedures both Houses of Congress use a formal system of debate which keeps the debate orderly They LOVE order!

Congressional Leadership -Majority Leader -each House chooses a leader of the majority party to be floor leader -Minority Leader -each House picks a minority party member to its floor leader -Party Whip -each party in each House has a Party Whip to keep track of voting for important issues Each person in the HoR & Senate is either: 1. a republican 2. a democrat 3. an independent In the HoR, if there are more representatives that are Republican, then the majority party will be Republican. More democrats, then the majority will be Democrat! Same in the Senate! Each will have a leader to help

House Leaders - Speaker of the House - basically runs the House of Representatives -sets up the calendar and schedules bills for debate 2nd in Presidential succession! Senate Leaders - Vice President -official leader but only votes in a tie and is rarely present - President Pro-Tempore -mostly symbolic position given to the longest serving Senator from the majority party 3 rd in line to the presidency! V.P. Joe Biden (Constitutional leader) Speaker of the House John Boehner (R) Prsident Pro Tempore: Patrick Leahy (D)

Staff Support -personal staff of each member of Congress -Committee staff who function as experts in the committees area -Library of Congress- largest library in the world/ -General Accounting Office investigates and reports on gov’t spending -Government Budget Office -predicts the costs of gov’t programs

The Library of Congress The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with more than 138 million items on approximately 65 miles of bookshelves. The collections include more than 32 million books and other print materials, 2.9 million recordings, 12.5 million photographs, 5.3 million maps, 5.5 million pieces of sheet music and 61 million manuscripts.

Committee Government -developed committees to divide the work load of Congress 1. standing committees-- Permanent committees of Congress who study, revise, and pass legislation 2. select committees-- committees which study more temporary problems in society 3. joint committees-- committees which involve members of both Houses of Congress meeting together How are Members assigned to standing committees? 1 - Member requests: At the beginning of a new Congress, Members request assignments to the committees they prefer. The incumbent Members (those who are not new) usually keep the committee assignments they have because they have expertise & seniority. 2- Party approval: Each political party uses a committee in charge of committee assignments to recommend assignments. This committee on committees matches the Member requests with available committee seats, prepares and approves an assignment slate for each committee, and submits all slates to the full party for approval. The full party meets to approve the recommendations. 3-Full Chamber approval: Each committee (now made up of members from each political party) submits its slate to the full Chamber for approval. When a committee member resigns or is assigned to another committee, all of Congress is notified.

Committee Membership -Based on seniority -Term that refers to how long a member has been in Congress and is important in assigning committee memberships The older you are the better chance you will get on a committee of your choice! -Party leaders make committee assignments -majority party of each house appoints the chairperson of each committee