4. On Congress: You are teaching a visitor from Canada – a parliamentarian government system – about the U.S. Congress. Explain concisely how the legislative branch functions as a bicameral legislature – include examples of how it allocates power to make laws. Additionally, from Mayhew’s Congress, discuss four essential lessons the author teaches us about Congress – choose two from parts one and two. The United States runs off a system that is not too similar to the Parliamentarian
Government system in which Canada is based off of. We use a system called the U.S. Congress. This System erupted when the Constitution was instilled into the United States by our Founding Fathers. Article 1 Section 1 states “All Legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives.” This Section brings into place a bicameral legislature, in which the House of Representatives are elected directly by the people, and the Senate, consisting of two members from each state, are chosen by the legislatures of each state. This Bicameral Legislature gives all states equal representation, and allows us to check power in both houses. The goal of these two houses is to debate legislatures that are presented to them, in a series of committees to debate the pros on cons of these bills, to eventually send to the president to make it a law. The U.S. is not a single organization; it is very complex in which to organize the business of Congress, members of Congress form alliances. The Bicameral Legislature is organized into two different Parties, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. The Democrats and Republicans in the House and the Senate are organized by party leaders, which are elected by the full party membership in the House and Senate. The most important organizational feature of Congress is these parties all have different legislative committees, which deal with different issues. The U.S. Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature; each state is represented by two senators, regardless of the size of the state, who serve six-year terms. In the Senate there is a majority leader who’s primary task is to schedule the business of the Senate, with consultation to the minority leader. The Senate is also composed of Policy Committee, which helps the party leader schedule business, such as choosing which bills should be given attention.