1. The Legislative Branch

2. Challenge You are at the Constitutional Convention, making the constitution. One of the hardest parts of making the constitution was deciding how the legislative branch would work. Big states (Virginia, New York, and Pennsylvania) want the number of seats in the legislative branch to be determined by the population of the state. Big states would get more seats than small states. Small states, (Vermont, New Hampshire) are afraid of this and want every state to be equal in the legislature. Can you think of a solution to this problem?

3. Two Houses The Legislative Branch (Congress) has two separate houses. The Senate The House of Representatives These two houses were made in what is called the Great Compromise when the Constitution was written

4. Jobs of the Legislative The primary job of the legislative branch is to make laws The legislative also confirms (approves) the President’s choices for the Cabinet and the Supreme Court The legislative can vote to impeach the President or Supreme Court Judges These are both checks on the other branches

5. The House of Representatives The House of Representatives has 435 members Each state elects their own representatives The number of representatives is determined by the population of the state Alaska- 1 Representative California- 53 Representatives

6. Speaker of the House The Speaker of the House is the leader of the House of Representatives The Speaker is chosen by the Political Party with the most members in the House.

7. Representatives Representatives are elected to two year terms They may be elected as many times as they want (no term-limits)

8. Alaska’s Rep Don Young

9. The Senate The Senate is the upper house of the Congress The Senate has 100 members Each state is given two Senators Senators are elected by the people. Senators serve 6 year terms. They have no term-limits

10. The Senate Continued The Senate is the final vote on proposed laws The Senate gets to confirm (approve) all of the President’s choices for Cabinet and Supreme Court

11. Alaska’s Senators Mark BegichLisa Murkowski

12. Committees Both the House of Representatives and the Senate are broken up into committees Committees work on laws that interest them. Example: The budget committee works on the budget for the country, Defense committees work on laws having to do with the military

13. Making a law House of Representatives Votes on a law Then the Senate gets to Vote The President may sign or Veto the law The Supreme Court review the law (Judicial Review)

14. Check for understanding What is the Speaker of the House? Why is he/she important in the Government? What are committees used for in the legislative branch? What is the upper house in Congress, what is the lower house?