Congress In Action

1. Congress In Action Chapter 12

2. Congress OrganizesSection One

3. When Congress starts a new term, the House reorganizes because new members are taking seats.

4. The members elect their leader, who swears in all the members.

5. They then adopt their work rules and appoint the members of their permanent committees.

6. The Senate does not need to reorganize because two-thirds of its members stay the same from term to term.

7. Presiding over the House is the Speaker of the House, who may debate or vote on any matter before the House.

8. The Speaker is the majority party's leader and the most powerful person in Congress.

9. The Vice President of the United States acts as president of the Senate.

10. The Vice President oversees the Senate's sessions but cannot debate and votes only in a tie.

11. In the Vice President's absence, the president pro tempore presides.

12. Next to the Speaker, Congress's most powerful leaders are the majority and minority party floor leaders, the parties' chief spokespeople.

13. They are selected during the party caucuses-meetings of the members of each party just before Congress convenes.

14. The floor leaders help pass laws that their parties want.

15. They are aided by whips, or assistant floor leaders.

16. Committee chairmen are also powerful in Congress.

17. They head the standing committees that do most of Congress's work.

18. Each is almost always that committee's longest-standing member from the majority party.

19. This custom is part of the seniority rule, which gives the most important posts in Congress to party members who have served the longest.

20. EndSection One

21. Committees in CongressSection Two

22. Congress does most of its work in committees, or small groups.

23. The standing committees are permanent, specialize in one subject each, and handle all bills that relate to that subject.

24. The majority party holds a majority of seats on each committee.

25. The parties decide committee membership, and Congress ratifies the choices.

26. The House Rules Committee is one of the most powerful committees of the House.

27. Its members determine when and under what conditions the whole House will debate and vote on bills.

28. The Rules Committee can speed up, delay, or even prevent action on a bill.

29. Congress uses several special committees.

30. A select committee is a group set up for a specific and usually temporary purpose, such as an investigation.

31. A joint committee, which can be either temporary or permanent, includes members from both houses so that separate committees in the houses do not duplicate each other's work.

32. A conference committee is a type of temporary joint committee that is set up when the House and Senate have each passed different versions of the same law.

33. The conference committee works out a compromise bill that both houses will accept.

34. End Section Two

35. How a Bill Becomes a Law: The HouseSection Three

36. Congress considers thousands of bills and resolutions at each session.

37. A bill is a proposed law that applies to the nation as a whole or to certain people or places.

38. A resolution is a measure that one house passes but that does not have the force of law.

39. A concurrent resolution also lacks the force of law and deals with matters in which the House and Senate must act jointly.

40. A joint resolution does have the force of law and deals with unusual or temporary matters.

41. A bill or resolution usually deals with only one topic, but a rider regarding an unrelated matter may be included.

42. A rider is a proposal with little chance of passing on its own, so it is attached to a bill that probably will pass.

43. After a bill is introduced, it is read; the Speaker then sends it to the appropriate standing committee.

44. Most work on bills is done in subcommittees, or small groups within committees.

45. The committee may then act on the bill or set it aside and ignore it.

46. In the latter case, a discharge petition, approved by a House majority, may send a bill to the floor for debate.

47. Once out of committee, a bill is placed on a calendar, or schedule for debating bills.

48. Before the bill is debated, the Rules Committee must approve it or it dies.

49. Once on the floor, the bill is read again.

50. In the interest of speed, the entire House may debate it as a Committee of the Whole-one large committee that has less strict rules than does the House.