Legislative Branch
 (Above: The United States Congress Building in Washington D.C) CLICK ON PICTURE TO VISIT THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES WEBSITE The legislative Branch is also known as congress. Congress consists of the senate and the House of Representatives. The main objective of congress is to serve as the nation’s main policy making branch. Congress is run by senators and representatives who are elected into office. The goal is to elect people who will serve us well and represent our needs at a national level.
Congressional Committees: Committees exist in both the senate and in the House of Representatives. The goal of committees is to accomplish a certain objective so that the entire senate or the entire House of Representatives doesn't have to try to work on it. Basically committees are fancy groups for splitting up the work load. For instance if a bill was going to arise in the House of Representatives that talked about the dangers of tobacco usage, the whole entire house would have to learn about the bill and see if it should be revised edited passed or rejected. Instead the speaker of the house might send the bill to a committee that specializes in health and heath related bills. This committee would know more about the bill and its provisions and about the feasibility of the bill becoming a law. This way if the bill is unnecessary and stupid, the committee would shoot it down right there and the bill never would be voted on by the rest of the house. This way the time of all 435 representatives wouldn't be wasted. In total four types of committees exist in congress. Read the information below to find out more about each type of committee. Standing committees: Permanent committees that handle bills in specific subject areas. Joint committees: Membership drawn from the House of Representatives and senate to work on a common policy areas. Conference committees: Formed when the senate and the House of Representatives pass a different version of the same bill. Conference committees are supposed to work out the differences Select committees: Temporary committees created for a specific purpose (Investigation into Richard Nixon and the Watergate Scandal) Major players and key members in congress As in any corporation, team, or large group of people, congress has leaders. In the senate there is President of the Senate and President Pro Tempore of the senate. The President of the Senate is always the vice president so currently that position is filled by Joe Biden. His main responsibility is to preside over the senate although that is rarely done by today’s modern presidents of the senate. The president of the senate may only cast a vote in congress on issues that result in a tie. For example if 50 senators didn't want an education bill to pass and 50 senators did want an education bill to pass, the president of the senate would be allowed to cast the deciding vote. President pro tempore is appointed by the President of the senate to oversee the senate while the president of the senate is gone. For instance if Joe Biden has to be campaigning in California, the President Pro Tempore would be running the senate. Unitl he passed away on December 17th, 2012 the current President Pro Tempore was Daniel Inouye (picture bottom left) who is also a democrat. The next President Pro tempore will be Patrick Leahy a democrat from Virgina. In the house of representative there are also key leadership roles. The most important position is speaker of the house. The speaker of the house is responsible for presiding over the US House of Representatives. The speaker of the house has the ability to introduce bills to the floor of the house and has the right to hold votes on these bills. The speaker of the house also oversees the committees within the house. The current speaker of the house is republican John Boehner (pictured bottom right)
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