Legislative Branch Essay

The Legislative Branch is responsible for making the law. Article 1, Sections 1-7, explains in detail what Congress can and cannot do. Section one is creating the legislative branch and dividing congress into two chambers, The House of Representatives and the Senate. Each party has different requirements to join congress as well as responsibilities The House of Representatives is focused on serving the people when the Senate is more towards fighting against popular pressure. Most important focus congress has is serving the people in a constitutional way.
Section two is the explanation on how the House of Representatives will work. Every two years the House is up for election. It declares that the people have authority to choose

how, when, and where the election occur. They also have the right to choose the member who they wish to represent the state they live in. The requirements to run for a seat in the House are being the age of 25 or older, must be a U.S. citizen, and must have been in the U.S. for a period of at least 7 years’ time; the candidate is also required to live in the state that they want to represent. Section three is the information on how the Senate works. The requirements are a little different but have the same concept. The senate consists of two people from each state and serve a term of six years. To be in the running as senator the person must be at least 30 years old, a United States citizen, has lived in the country for the last nine years, and reside in the state they are running for. The importance of these sections is to form a government that is successful and have limitations on how much control they have over all the people. Section’s eight and nine explain the powers of congress and the limits. Section eight lists the enumerated powers of the Congress; explaining what congress can and cannot do. This keeps the separation of government from the states. Section nine is a list of limits on congress. The list informs the House of Representatives and the senate on what they can act on. Having these two lists help ensure that if the rules are broken there is the constitution to fall back on to make the situation right. Section ten declares what the states can and cannot do. First they cannot act as if they have power like the federal government. Having a strict line between state and government keep the united states able to function in a successful manner.
Congress has five major functions, lawmaking, representing the people, performing over sight, helping constituents, and educating the people.

Legislative branch is where all laws are made and then passed on. The candidate running for office are Congress has many forms of how they represent the people. There is sociological representation, which consists of the representatives having similarity between them. It could be racial, gender, ethnic, religious, or educational background. It has been shown that if a representative and their constituents have similar characteristics make it easier to represent them because they can have an understanding in their point of view. Another style of representation is agency representation. Agency representation is when the representative is held responsible for professionally representing their constituent. If they fail to do so the constituent has the authorization to fire them. The House of Representatives are more effective and consistent in serving well organized local interest that have exclusive legislative agendas. Following the Senate focusing on larger and more heterogeneous

constituencies.
When it comes to the House and Senate each party has numerous amount of leader positions. There is a gathering every two years to elect their House leaders. The Republicans gather for a conference and the democrats gather for a caucus, which not only is the electing of leaders but to also discuss plans of strategy, or make decisions on legislative matters. The Speaker of the House is the most important leader. The roles that come with this position have much to do with how the sessions go during meetings as well as keeping structure in the chamber. The Speaker also declares the committee chairs and members, refers bills to committee, sign legislation writs and warrants. The most important role the Speaker has is to be a professional spokesman for the House. The majority leader is elected by the majority party, and is subordinate in the part hierarchy to the Speaker of the House. The party member in the House or Senate known as the whip, oversees the party’s legislative strategy, assembling support for key issues, and counting votes. In the Senate, most leaders are chosen by the greatest seniority to serve as president pro tempore, focus on ceremonial leadership. The real power belongs to the majority leader and minority leader.

The House of Representatives consist of twenty permanent committees.

Three main committees that stood out to me were Budget, Education and Labor, and Financial services. The Budget committee consists of primarily on creating a budget for the year and years to come. Setting budgets in certain categories I can see help that every area that needs funding can get the right amount of money they need if the committee has a set structure on how the money is distributed. Education and Labor committee primarily focus on educational subjects. This committee has had struggles in the past because the federal government believe that school should be ran by the states. The Financial services committee is explained well by Chairman Jeb Hensarling "Our committee is fighting for economic opportunity so hardworking taxpayers can achieve financial independence.” The Senate on the other hand has a set of seventeen committees. The Senate have a few of the same committees that are in the House of Representatives. Three different committees Environments and Public Works, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and Select Intelligence. They each work in the areas that are in their

title.

I feel that Congress so far have done their jobs usefully. I am not one to pay attention to closely to politics which this class has given me insight on me educating myself a little more about what occurs in the House and Senate. I think Congress should take more action in educating younger people in this area to help them grow to want to be more involved with knowing their rights.