Civics At A Glance

Thanks to the "Great Compromise," the legislative branch is simple to understand. The "Great Compromise" was an agreement amongst the founding father that allows congress to benefit both the large states and the small states. Basically, what you need to know is that congress is bicameral-- it is split into two houses; The House of Representatives and the Senate.

CONGRESS

The House of Representatives

435 members
2 year terms
7 year resident
25 years old
based on population
must be a resident of your district

The Senate

100 members
6 year terms
9 year resident
30 years old
based on equality
must be a resident of the state

Leadership in the House of Representatives

The highest position of leadership in the House of Representatives is Speaker of the House. Speaker of the House is choosen by the majority party. Not only does the Speaker of the House "run" the House, he/she also assigns members to committees and assigns bills to certain committees.

Other positions of leadership in the House are majority and minority leaders and majority and minority whips. The leaders are in charge of getting votes for thier party and favored bills. The whips are then in charge of knowing the vote before the actual vote takes place. The whips are also in charge of convincing those that are back and forth on issues to lean toward their party.

Leadership in the Senate

The highest position of leadership in the Senate is the Vice President of the United States. Because the Vice President is not voted into the Senate, he is unable to vote unless it is to break a tie. He is also in charge of informing the Senate of the President's views.

Just as there are in the House of Representatives, there are majority and minority leaders. They have the same role in the House as in the Senate. They are in charge of getting votes for thier party and favored bills.

Being an incumbent: Incumbents are those already holding office. In congressional elections, incumbents usually win.

*USUALLY WIN WITH MORE THAN 60%*

Advertising: the goal is visibility, imcumbents have that
Email & The Franking Privilege
Credit Claiming
Incumbents have the ability to say, "look at all that has happened while I was in office! This was all thanks to me!" They can also use caseworking of pork barreling.
The only reason incumbents lose is usually because of corruption or scandals.

$Campaigns$

*House = 1.4 million

*Senate = 8.5 million

Committees

There are 4 different types of committees; standing, joint, conference, and select. The senate and congress split up into committees because not everyone can know everything-- it is better to have a group of specialists in the different categories. A standing committee is permenant. Although they exist in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, there are more in the House of Representatives. A joint committee basically describes itself, it is a committee consisting of people from both the House and the Senate. Conference committees are similar to joint committees in the sense that both consist of people from both the House and the Senate but conference committees work on forming a compromised version of two similar bills, one passed in the House and one passed in the Senate. Lastly, select committees are formed temporarily to address random, unexpected issues.