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The Legislative Branch

Added Jan 12, 2020 •

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United States Capitol more than any other building dominates the skyline of Washington DC over nearly 200 years the size and shape of the capital has changed but throughout its history it has remained one of the most prominent symbol for it has been the home of the United States Congress in this building senators and representatives have debated the most important issue facing our nation War has been declared and treaties approved presidents have come to Congress to find support for their Visions about what kind of nation we should have adhere has debated and voted on all federal laws has has passed effect almost every part of our lives from how we live and work to the quality of our entire to how we are educated this program will look at the role of Congress in our federal government the story of Congress began in Independence Hall in Philadelphia in 1787 delegates from the original states here to reorganize the federal national government and make it stronger hear the delegates wrote the United States Constitution the document that determines the powers and duties of our federal government the delegates were afraid of any government body becoming too powerful so in the Constitution they established not one but three separate branches of government today these branches are still the basis of our national government one branch executive branch is headed by the president among other things the president and the executive branch are responsible for making sure that the federal laws are executed or carried another Branch the judicial branch is headed by the Supreme Court it interprets the federal laws and finally there is the legislative branch Congress it is the job of Congress to pass the laws that the president executes and the Supreme Court interprets at first the delegates who gathered in Philadelphia over 200 years ago disagreed about how to organize the legislative one delegate James Madison of Virginia proposed that Congress consists of representatives from each state and that the number of a state's representative population under Madison's proposal states with a lot of people like Pennsylvania would have more Representatives than states with fewer people like Georgia the smaller States however worried that was this system they would have too little power Patterson a delegate from New Jersey proposed instead that all states have the same number of Representatives Patterson's plan would be unfair to them for a while this problem deadlock the convention but finally the delegates but two different legislative bodies today this compromise is still in effect in one house of Congress the Senate each state has the same number of Representatives 2 this means that California the largest the population of over 33 million has the same number of Senators as Wyoming with a population of less than 500,000 however in the other house of Congress the House of Representatives representatives for each state is based on population today the total number of Representatives is 435 but each state share this total is determined by how many people it has California for example has 53 Representatives while Wyoming has only one besides establishing a congress with two houses the Constitution also determined the qualifications a person must have to be elected to Chubby's house has members of the House of Representatives must be at least 25 years old they have to have in United States citizens for at least 7 years and then must be residents of the States from which they are elected the qualifications for the Senate are slightly different members of the Senate must be at least 30 as opposed to 25 Senators also have to have been United States citizens for at least nine years rather than 7 and Senators must be residents of the States from which they are elected the authors of the Constitution also specified how long members of the Senate and House could serve before they have to run for election Senator serve four terms of six years this is even longer than the four-year term a president serves because of their long terms in office senators are less affected by the pressures of running for re-election then most other elected officials the situation is different than the house according to the Constitution are representative can serve for only 2 year terms this means that every two years Representatives have to camp for re-election and voters can express their opinions about how their representatives are doing representatives and Senators also differ in terms of which people in their state they represent take Kansas for example the two Kansas represent all the people in their state but a member of the House of Representatives represent only the people in a single congressional district Kansas for example has four congressional districts with one representative which district in large states like New York and California Senators represent many different kinds of people from those living in large cities to people in the suburbs to Farmers and others living in rural areas but because a member of the House represents only a single congressional district he or she is likely to be the person in the federal government most sensitive to local issues and problems the founding fathers decided bicameral legislature the house and the Senate first of all so that each would check the other but from their perspective the house would represent the principle of freedom closer to the people the people can throw the members of the House out on a regular basis every two years smaller groups of people choose house members the Senate reflects the prince stability and Senator arms are longer 6 years and so it's harder to get rid of the senators in to gain control of the whole Senate in any given election year because only a third of the Senate is up re-election at any given time also in 1789 senators were elected by state legislatures they are not directly elect it at all by the people in this was a consciously designed effort to have the center not so closely tied to popular whims and popular wins of the day this was done precisely because there was some suspicion of too much democracy and the idea that the Senate would be a body that would be save differently as well besides establishing how senators and members of the House are elected and whom they represent the authors of the Constitution determine what powers the legislative branch has the Constitution gave congress the power to regulate trade and commerce with other countries it gave congress the power to raise and support an Army and Navy and to declare war it also Congress the power to establish a post office there are some powers in the Constitution that were granted to the House of Representatives alone only the house can write laws that determine how to raise money through taxes well it is not a power that is explicitly granted in the Constitution only the House of Representatives has the power to originate bills that authorize or appropriate the money that the federal government needs to operate its programs for example the house must have appropriate money to build new highways or to build and launch space probes to explore other planets they said it too has some powers that belong to it alone the Senate the power to approve or reject treaties that the president has made with other countries for example in 1987 President Ronald Reagan signed a treaty with Mikhail Gorbachev of what was the Soviet Union to limit nuclear weapons in Europe but before this treaty could go into effect it had to be ratified or approved by the Senate they said it also has the power to confirm and reject Presidential appointments to important Post in the executive branch actor George W Bush was elected in 2000 he appointed Colin Powell to be secretary of state of the United States but before Powell could have the job he first had to be questioned by a special senate committee and then approved by the whole Senate the Constitution gives still other powers to both the house and the Senate one clause in the Constitution states that Congress has the power to make all laws that she'll be missing Siri and proper this Clause is often called the elastic clause because it gives Congress the power to write laws on many different things that are not specifically mentioned in the constitution in the 1970s 80s for example Congress passed a series of environmental laws designed to protect the quality of our air and water among other things these laws restricted the amount of poisonous chemicals that factories could release into River lakes and oceans and harmful gases that power plants and factories could release into the atmosphere nothing in the Constitution specifically gave congress this power however the Constitution does say that purpose of the Federal Government is to promote the general welfare of the American people supporters of environmental laws necessary and proper to promote our general welfare by helping make our environment cleaner and safer over the years, as has passed thousands of laws never specifically affect many aspects of our lives there are fed our laws and make sure our food is safe to eat there are laws that provide help to schools in order to support education there are laws to make airplanes and other forms of transportation say make an alarm however is not a easy process a law starts out as a bill a bill is simply a law that someone proposes any member of Congress either a senator or representative can introduce a bill but in order to be A bill must be voted on and passed by both the House of Representatives and the senate in both the House and Senate a committee usually refers to a smaller subcommittee the subcommittee hold special meetings to examine the bill among other things Witnesses are called to testify for and against the bill for to argue for changes Adele to make it better based on these meetings this subcommittee or committee might rewrite the bill or the committee members might decide they don't like the bill and vote against it they might also kill the bill by simply not voting on it if a bill is accepted by committees in the House and Senate however it's still needs to be approved by members of both branches of Congress representatives and Senators debate the merits of the bill before voting to approve or rejected but even when a bill survives this process a bill approved by the house may end up being different from the one passed by the Senate if this happens a joint committee made up of several members both the House and Senate iron out the differences in the two versions of the bill this joint committee is called a conference committee if the bill goes back to both the House and Senate for another boat which passes the bill however it still doesn't become law the bill is then sent to the president if the president signs it then it becomes law he can also allow it to become law by not acting on within 10 days but the president can also veto a bill a veto prohibits the bill from becoming law the president then sent it back to congress with an explanation of why he wrote it override a presidential veto but in order to do this two-thirds of the members of both the House and Senate must vote in favor of making it is that out of the thousands of bills that are introduced in car is each year only a few hundred may survive this long hard process to become law while this process has remained essentially unchanged since the Constitution was written something else has changed when the founding fathers wrote the Constitution would be more powerful than the president and the executive the law that would govern the country while job of the executive branch would be to enforce and administer the laws but after Washington was sworn in as our first president it was he not Congress who proposed most new laws washing was held in such high regard that Congress usually went along with what he wanted ever since Washington many presidents such as George W bush have followed his example by proposing new laws rather than waiting for to do this when Washington was President he also signed new treaties with other countries without consulting Congress even though the Constitution says a president should consult with the Senate before making a tree ever since many presidents such as Ronald with other countries without consulting the although the Senate still has the power to reject the treaty the president has signed executive branch at the expense of the legislative branch but after he left office it was a shift in power and Congress often had more influence than the president in the early 1800s is Congress was led by people like Henry play who were called the War Hawks they got that name because they pushed the country into the War of 1812 with England despite the reservations of President James Madison this War the British burn the White House and Capitol building later Congress also played a dominant role in many of the events that led to the Civil War during the 1830s 40s and 50s the issue of slavery divided the North and South and the said it became the center of the debate much of the debate centered on how much power state government should have compared to the federal government and 18th South Carolina Senator Robert Hayne argued that states have the right to nullify or reject federal laws particularly those that restricted the right to own slaves Haines was opposed in the Senate by Daniel Webster chusetts Webster argued that if States could overrule federal laws they would eventually be war between the states Webster pleaded for keeping the nation together ended one speech with the famous words Liberty and Union now and forever one and inseparable sometimes a debate went beyond words and became violent it 1856 representative Carolina rushed onto the senate floor and beat Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts with a cane after Sumner made a passionate speech against slavery issues of slavery and states rights eventually add to the Civil War during the war one of our nation's strongest presidents Abraham Lincoln use the crisis as justification for using powers normally reserved for Congress among others Lincoln expanded the Army and Navy without Congressional approval and he spent money never authorized by Congress after Lincoln was assassinated in 1865 Andrew Johnson became Johnson's Authority was soon challenged by a group of Representatives and Senators called The Radical Republicans The Radical Republicans wanted to punish the defeated South by putting large parts of it under military when Johnson refused to go along with these measures his opponents in the house exercise to power granted to them in the Constitution voted to impeach Johnson impeaching Johnson using him of crimes that if proven would lead to his being removed from office as required by the Constitution a trial was held in the Senate where a conviction requires a two-thirds majority the Senate to convict Johnson Johnson remained in office both he and the presidency were considerably weakened by the actions of Congress that is Stephens a leader in the house posted no government official from the president and chief justice down can do anyone act which is not prescribed and directed by legislative power although most historians feel that Congress treated Johnson on fairly Congress during is time also accomplished many important things among other things it passed a series of four changes to the Constitution abolished slavery another gay. can American men the right to vote this made it possible for Hiram Revels to become the first African American in Congress when he won election to the senate in 1872 dozen other African Dragon Man became members of Congress after the Civil War but by the late 1880s wide seveners managed to pass new laws and create other insurmountable barriers which prevented most African-Americans from voting it would not be until the 1960s that African-Americans from Southern States would once again win election to Congress during the years following the Civil War the Senate became the most powerful body of the federal government just said it was also the center of several scandals newspapers Port rated as a Millionaire's Club that was more interested in promoting the interest of big business than in the welfare of ordinary people up until this time senators been elected by state legislatures and this often led to corruption especially by the end of the 19th century one increasingly found that members of the Senate would get the United States entered essentially by paying off State legislatures around the country because it was a state legislators that elected United States senators Senators to be elected directly by the people accountable to voters the Senate was finally forced to reform when the Constitutional Amendment passed giving the people the right to vote directly for their Senators rather than indirectly through their state legislators the Senators then had to appeal to the people rather than to the state legislatures and this made them more dependent upon and accountable to the people themselves the 20th century once can brought a shift in power as several strong presidents dominated the Affairs of the nation this was especially true during times of war the Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war but also makes the president the commander-in-chief the head of all our Armed Forces in the last hundred years presidents have usually taken that to me that they have wide-ranging powers to do what is necessary to defend our country is in and Congress has usually gone along one example occurred during World War II in 1917 and 1918 Congress gave President Woodrow Wilson the authority to take over factories and mines to further the more effort after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941 it was President Franklin Roosevelt not Congress who led the American war effort during World War II presidents took the leading role in the Korean war in the early 1950s end the Vietnam War of the 1960s and early 70s both the Korean War and the Vietnam War were called presidential Wars because president sent American troops to fight in these conflicts without first getting a declaration of war from Congress more recently after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington of September 11th 2001 Congress often hesitated to challenge the president's authority to wage war while George W bush sought the support of Congress before invading Afghanistan to Asda government that had provided Haven to terrorists he did not seek declaration of war nor did burciaga declaration of war in 2003 when American troops were sent to Iraq to ask the regime of Saddam Hussein it is part of a water larger processing 20th century we're by the war power has really shifted from the legislative branch to the executive branch in the 19th century Congress was the dominant National Institution in governance and Congress made the decisions regarding war and size and scope of the American Military and use of the military abroad but in the 20 Century Congress has increasingly yielded over to the president and presidents have increasingly taken war power discretion on their own way and decisively when Congress act how the process is much slower and more deliberate for one thing there may be a little agreement among the different members of Congress often a proposal will involve a series of debates in the house and the Senate Democrats and Republicans they disagree about what needs to be done and how Congress does have major power however over the presidency terms of war-making and that power is the power of the purse that's congress's major power Congress can refuse to fund in Army Congress can refuse to allow funds to be spent on a military campaign so it's not a Congress has no power about the declaration of war it still has power Congress can be slow and acting it helps protect our democracy because some of its powers over the Executive Branch from becoming too powerful even though so now proposed by the president Congress must pass these bills before they become laws Congress must also approve the president's budget cheer the president proposes a budget to run the executive branch but in order to get this budget approved the president frequently has to compromise with his rivals in Congress Congress can also limit the power of the president by investigating what the executive branch does special committees in bulk what does Watch Dogs that scrutinize everything from the executive branch has policies on education to how it wants to spend money on the military Congress also has the power to impeach a president the only president impeached since Andrew Johnson in 1868 has been Democrat Bill Clinton in 1998 the house controlled by the Republicans voted to impeach Clinton for lying under oath about a sexual affair Clinton was then tried in the Senate which voted not to convict him Clinton's impeachment was highly controversial while his critics argue that his actions Justified impeachment others felt that he was the victim of his political opponents in Congo who tried to Cripple his presidency by any means possible in this program we saw that the authors of the Constitution established Congress the legislative branch of the federal government and that they divided Congress two two separate bodies the House of Representatives and the Senate the Constitution outlines the powers and responsibilities of Congress only Congress has the power to declare war raise taxes and regulate trade other countries only Congress can approve legislation that when signed by the president becomes law the Senate must approve treaties signed by the president and the Senate must also approve people what did by the president to important government positions we still have our first President George Washington expanded the powers of the executive branch at the expense of the legislative branch we also saw that throughout much of the 1800s Congress was the most powerful part of the federal government in the halls of Congress senators and representatives heatedly debated slavery and other important issues and here too a reason president was impeached tried and eventually acquitted we looked at how in this Century several strong presidents have made the Executive Branch the most powerful branch of our national government that no president can effectively govern without the support of Congress and finally we saw that Congress is the only branch of the federal government where people representing different parts of the country and different trust can come together to debate issues that affect the whole nation

Uploaded by Wayne Elmore.

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