The House has several powers assigned exclusively to it, including the power to initiate revenue bills, impeach federal officials, and elect the President in the case of an electoral college tie. The Senate is composed of Senators, 2 for each state. Until the ratification of the 17th Amendment in , Senators were chosen by state legislatures, not by popular vote.
Since then, they have been elected to six-year terms by the people of each state. Senator's terms are staggered so that about one-third of the Senate is up for reelection every two years. Senators must be 30 years of age, U. The Vice President of the United States serves as President of the Senate and may cast the decisive vote in the event of a tie in the Senate. The Senate has the sole power to confirm those of the President's appointments that require consent, and to ratify treaties.
There are, however, two exceptions to this rule: the House must also approve appointments to the Vice Presidency and any treaty that involves foreign trade. The Senate also tries impeachment cases for federal officials referred to it by the House. In order to pass legislation and send it to the President for his signature, both the House and the Senate must pass the same bill by majority vote. If the President vetoes a bill, they may override his veto by passing the bill again in each chamber with at least two-thirds of each body voting in favor.
The first step in the legislative process is the introduction of a bill to Congress. Anyone can write it, but only members of Congress can introduce legislation.
Some important bills are traditionally introduced at the request of the President, such as the annual federal budget. During the legislative process, however, the initial bill can undergo drastic changes. After being introduced, a bill is referred to the appropriate committee for review. There are 17 Senate committees, with 70 subcommittees, and 23 House committees, with subcommittees. The committees are not set in stone, but change in number and form with each new Congress as required for the efficient consideration of legislation.
Each committee oversees a specific policy area, and the subcommittees take on more specialized policy areas. Truman had committed U. Controversy over the War Powers Act continued after its passage. President Ronald Reagan deployed military personnel to El Salvador in without consulting or submitting a report to Congress.
President Bill Clinton continued a bombing campaign in Kosovo beyond the day time in And in , President Barack Obama initiated a military action in Libya without congressional authorization. In , the U. It was narrowly defeated. Congress did not pass The National Emergencies Act until , formally granting congress checks on the power of the president to declare National Emergencies. Created in the wake of the Watergate scandal , the National Emergencies Act included several limits on presidential power, including having states of emergency lapse after a year unless they are renewed.
Presidents have declared almost 60 national emergencies since , and can claim emergency powers over everything from land use and the military to public health. They can only be stopped if both houses of the U.
Baron de Montesquieu, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. The three branches of the U. According to the doctrine of separation of powers, the U. Constitution distributed the power of the federal government among these three branches, and built a system of checks and The legislative branch of the federal government, composed primarily of the U.
The members of the two houses of Congress—the House of Representatives and the Senate—are elected by the citizens of the United States. The heads of these 15 agencies are also members of the president's cabinet. These agencies are not represented in the cabinet and are not part of the Executive Office of the president. They deal with government operations, the economy, and regulatory oversight.
Congress or the president establish these smaller organizations to manage specific tasks and areas that don't fall under parent agencies.
Although they're not officially part of the executive branch, these agencies are required by federal statute to release certain information about their programs and activities in the Federal Register , the daily journal of government activities. The judicial branch interprets the meaning of laws, applies laws to individual cases, and decides if laws violate the Constitution. It is comprised of the Supreme Court and other federal courts. The Supreme Court is the highest court in the United States.
The Justices of the Supreme Court are nominated by the president and must be approved by the Senate. The Constitution gives Congress the authority to establish other federal courts to handle cases that involve federal laws including tax and bankruptcy, lawsuits involving U. Other federal judicial agencies and programs support the courts and research judicial policy.
Appointments for Supreme Court Justices and other federal judgeships follow the same basic process:. Learn how cases reach the Supreme Court and how the justices make their decisions. Use this lesson plan in class. View a larger version of the infographic. Emergency powers are another area of concern. Through the National Emergencies Act of , Congress gave the president nearly unlimited discretion to declare a national emergency and access sweeping statutory powers.
Chadha that legislative vetoes are unconstitutional. That leaves in place a vast delegation of extraordinary power with no meaningful checks to protect against abuse. It is one thing to give the executive authority and another to do so with no meaningful oversight for the misuse or overreach of that authority. There are examples of Congress fulfilling its oversight responsibilities. This type of investigation, however, has been the exception rather than the rule over the past 20 years.
At the most basic level, Congress should stop delegating and start legislating. This will require Congress to amend existing laws, taking back some of the powers it gave away — as in the case of the Patriot Act and the National Emergencies Act.
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