Sunday, January 26, 2014

Describe the 3 most important things you learned after reading about the Congress (OR please comment on someone else's post between 11-17-13 & today).

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61 comments:

Anonymous said...

The average net worth for a member of Congress is now approximately 3.8 million dollars.

More than 50 percent of the members of the U.S. Congress are millionaires.

The wealthiest member of Congress is Michael McCaul, worth approximately 294 million dollars.

Cool stuff. I may join Congress.

Unknown said...

Only the House (U.S. House of Representatives) can originate a bill to raise taxes.

Only the House can impeach the President, Only the Senate can try and remove him from office

In the event electoral college ends in a tie, the House elects the President

Anonymous said...

Three important things I learned after reading about Congress are:
1)Only the House of Representatives can impeach the president, and only the Senate can try and remove him from office
2)Congress has five main duties: lawmaking, representing the people, performing oversight, helping constituents, and educating the public
3)The 100 senators are elected for six years, the 435 representatives are elected every second year from districts drawn after every census

Anonymous said...

1) passing a bill to make it a law is the primary responsibility of congress

2) The House of representatives can only impeach the president while the Senate can actually remove him/her from office.

3) Each state is represented equally with 2 senators giving each state an equal voice in the senate

Anonymous said...

1) the House initiates the impeachment of an official, while only the senate can remove them from their office
2) the House of Representatives has 435 members while the senate has 100 senators
3) the term for a House member is 2 years and the term for the Senate is 6 years

Anonymous said...

1. Congress has two parts: the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives

2. The House of Representatives has 435 members. The number of representatives are based on the state's population

3. The House and Senate get more than 10,000 bills(proposals for new laws) a year and only abut 650 of those bills become a law

Anonymous said...

1) The House of Representatives' members are determined by the state's population.

2) In the Senate, there are two Senators per state, no matter the state's population.

3) If there is a tie in the Electoral College, the House votes on who will be elected as the next President.

Unknown said...

The Senate is made up of 100 members that serve six years each, and the House Has 435 representatives. members of the House are elected every two years.

The House is the only group that can impeach the president, but the only group that can actually remove the president from office is the senate.

The congress receive over 10,000 bills but only about 650 of the bill are passed to create laws.

Unknown said...

1) only the house of representatives can impeach the president. However, the senate is the group that actually removes the president.
2) another responsibility of the house is to vote on who will become the president if the electoral is tied
3) congress has many duties, but it is mainly to pass bills into laws

Anonymous said...

1. There are congressional caucuses similar to presidential caucuses for political parties that are deciding upon their respective representatives.

2. After one chamber of the bicameral legislature approves of a bill with a majority vote, the other chamber reviews the proposal. Then the president can give his approval or veto the bill. After ten days the legislative branch can review it again, passing it with a 2/3 vote to make it a law if it was previously vetoed. This system creates checks and balances between the executive and legislative branches.

3. Each house can be generally dominated by a single political party. This can influence the bills that are approved and pass out of each chamber. If the Senate is controlled by one party and the House of Representatives is controlled by the other, the legislative process can be slowed down, and in extreme cases result in a government shutdown.

Unknown said...

The three most important things I learned about Congress are:

There are three categories of of laws-military, money, and commerce

Two types of bills- private bills and public bills

Bills are proposed in the House and Senate then they go through the committees then conferences and then the president can sign the bill or veto it

Unknown said...

Congress recieves 10,000 bills but only about 630 of them turn into laws.

The bill must pass multiple committees before it even gets voted on by either the House or the Senate.

Only the House of Representatives can originate a bill to raise taxes, while only the Senate can approve of Presidential cabinet appointments

Anonymous said...

The 3 most important things I learned are that Congress is split into two champers, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Every state has two senators, and the number of representatives depends on the population of the state.

Anonymous said...

The 3 most important things I learned are that Congress is split into two champers, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Every state has two senators, and the number of representatives depends on the population of the state.

Unknown said...

The three most important things i have learned about congress is congress has two parts the house and the senate. Each state has two senators and each state gets House representation based on population. In the unlikely event of a tie in the electoral college, the house decides on the president.

Unknown said...

1) They make the laws
2)represent people in their district
3)Bills must be passed by congress first before they go to president

Anonymous said...

1: I learned that a large portion of the people in congress are millionaires
2: The house of representatives can impeach the president while the senate has the duty of trying and removing the president from office
3:If a candidate does not receive the majority of electoral votes, congress decides who the president will be

Unknown said...

1) Congressmen/women are loaded! More than half are millionaires.
2)The House of Representatives will vote on the new president if the electoral college ties.
3)Every six years 100 senators are elected.

Nic Blommel said...

1) Congress has two parts the house of representatives and the senate
2) there are two senators per state
3) only the house can impeach the president

Anonymous said...

1. Congress has two parts to it, the house and the senate.
2. Congress receives thousands of bills, 10000 to be exact, and only around 600 are eventually made into laws.
3. The House of Representatives can impeach the president, while the senate has the right of trying to remove him/her from office.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

1. Congress was established under the constitution in 1789
2. Congress has powers that only they can use, such as borrowing money
3. The senate and house of representatives play an ultimately equal role

Anne Mark said...

Congress is primarily composed of older citizens: the average age of senators is 63, and the average age of house members if 57. Elder citizens vote, and they vote for older representatives.

The current (and apparent) inability of Congress to make deals and pass legislation is more closely linked to the deep division of the American people that they represent, rather than individual incompetence.

Congress has the power to impeach civil officers--including and beyond the president--with crimes that range from misdemeanor to bribery and treason.

Anonymous said...

1. Only the House of Representatives can impeach the President and only the Senate can try and remove him from office.
2. There are 435 members in the House and 100 members in the Senate.
3. The main goal of Congress is to passing bills into laws.

Anonymous said...

1. Only the House (U.S. House of Representatives) can originate a bill to raise taxes.
2. Vice President of the United States is President of the Senate and breaks all tied votes
3. The House can impeach the President, but only the Senate can try and remove him from office

Anonymous said...

Only the house of representives can impeach a president and the senate can remove them.

The main responsibitliy of the congress is passing a bill and make it a law.

The vice president is the president of congress and can break all ties.

Unknown said...

The main goal of Congress it making bills into laws.
There are two parts in Congress, the Senate and the House.
Only the House of the Representatives can impeach the president.

Unknown said...

Only the House can impeach the president

The Vice president is the president of the Senate

Certain demographics appear throughout members of Congress

Unknown said...

1. Only the House of Representatives can impeach a President, while only the Senate can remove him (or her) from office.
2. In the event of an electoral college tie, the House of Representatives elects the President.
3. The Vice President of the United States is the President of the Senate.

Anonymous said...

Only house can impeach president

Vice President is the leader of senate and decides ties

Congress has two parts, senate and house

KyleThurow said...

The senate was not elected directly until the progressive era.

The house charges impeachment and the senate has the final trial.

The salaries' of senators are around $150,000

Unknown said...

The three most important things I learned about Congress.

Congress has two chambers: the house of representatives and the Senate.

Only the senate has the power to impeach the president and this wouldn't remove him from office. Only the Senate can try to remove him from office.

I also learned that the primary role of Congress is to make laws by passing bills.

Unknown said...

1.) The primary responsibility of Congress is to pass a bill to make it a law.
2.) Representation in the Congress is different in the House of Representatives and the Senate. In the House, representation is determined by population; in the Senate, there are two senators per state.
3.) The House of Representatives elects the President if there is a tie in the Electoral College.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nick Berger said...

1) Congress is a bicameral legislature (House and Senate)
2)The House impeaches the president, but the Senate removes the president from power
3) Each state has 2 senators (a total of 100 in senate), each state has a certain amount of representatives based off of population of that state (a total of 435)

Unknown said...

1. Before bills are sent to the president, Congress must pass them first.
2. Congress is composed of two chambers, the Senate and the House of Representatives.
3. Members of the House of Representatives are determined by the population of the states.

Unknown said...

Congress' main goal to to make bills into laws

Congress is divided between Senate & House of Representatives

Only the House can impeach the president

Anonymous said...

The House of Representatives is developed through redistricting and population, while the Senate is developed by giving each state two representatives. Congress's powers are dictated by Article 1 section 8 of the constitution, the elastic clause always them to create laws and raise revenue to support laws put in place. The most influential cases that defined Congress's power was McCullouch vs Maryland, where the power of the elastic clause was put in full use in the cases against large banks.

Anonymous said...

the three things that I found most important reading about congress were
1. congress is that senators are elected every six years while house members only serve 2 year terms
2. Congress can declare war when they feel it is needed.
3. The house of representatives is the only chamber that has the power to impeach a president.

Anonymous said...

1- Redistricting is when districts are redrawn to represent changes in growth and redistribution in the state’s population but can by sometimes redrawn in order to favor a political party.
2- Incumbents in congress have an advantage over newer candidates because of the franking privilege in which they can provide essentially free campaigning. Another advantage they have is providing constituent services to citizens. Since they are in office, they have the power to provide organizations and services to the citizens which can result in people voting for the incumbent again (re-election).
3- The general goal of the bicameral legislature is to create and provide laws that people want and need in order to better the nation.

Unknown said...

These are three of the most important new things that I learned through reading about the Congress.

1. The House Rules Committee creates rules for debate and is the reason why the House is usually much more efficient than the Senate.
2. House members are generally policy specialists, while Senators are usually policy generalists because they are on a broader range of committees.
3. People have an extremely negative view of Congress as a whole, but they have a positive view of their Congressman because they have gotten mail from them, seen them in parades, talked to them in person, or at least recognize their name, so they feel like they have a small personal connection to them.

Anonymous said...

At Tom Schneider: You said the main goal of Congress is to turn bills into laws. I agree that that is a large part of what they do, but I would say the main goal for Congress is to regulate what our nation's citizen do and how they do it. Law making can definitely be used to do achieve this goal, but Congress has many other methods. In Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, Congress' enumerated powers are laid out for them. These including taxing and paying for the nation debt, regulating commerce, coin money, to declare war, and many other powers. Congress is also given its implied powers through the elastic clause. This grants them the ability to create laws that allow them to do what is necessary and proper for them to carry out their enumerated powers. National banks are a result of Congress using the elastic clause (McCulloch v. Maryland). Congress receives near 10,000 laws and passes about 600 of them, but Congress does more than just that.

Unknown said...

This is a question for Nicholas Staniszewski, you said that "Congress receives 10,000 bills but only about 630 of them turn into laws." I was wondering what the time frame is for that fact. For example does congress receive 10,000 bills a year and only about 630 become laws, or in a different time frame?

Anonymous said...

The strucutres of the house and the seante. Number of members and the process for their choosing. The president can only be impeached by the house. The leader of the house is the speaker of the house. The majority leader is the second in command of the house of representatives.

Unknown said...

Congress has 535 voting members, 435 Representatives and 100 Senators.

There are 2 senators for every state which stay in office for 6 years.

The number of house of representative members vary state to state and they have a 2 year term.

Unknown said...

At Jacob Arndt. You said "Congress can declare war when they feel it is needed", but I was wondering if there are certain rule and regulations along with that? Otherwise Congress could say its needed to start a war against Turkey because they said something bad about the Congress. I would assume something would regulate them.

Austin L said...

I've learned...

1 Leaders in congress
Senate: majority leader Harry Reid (d), minority leader Mitch McConnell (r)
House: speaker John Boehner (r), majority leader Eric Cantor (r), minority leader Nancy Pelosi (d)

2 The house impeaches the president, while the senate can remove him.

3 House Members earn the same amount as Senators - but leaders of the House and Senate earn a little more. The Speaker of the House earns about $217,000.

Mr. Bretzmann said...

@Paul The number that Nick gives is per session. A session is 2 years. We call the current Congress the 113th Congress. That means it is the 113th 2 year session. If a bill is introduced during a session and does not become law, it dies at the end of the two years. They start from scratch and have to re-introduce (or not) any bill with the new Congress.

Mr. Bretzmann said...

Katie, Ian, and Tom: I would say that the main purpose of Congress is not to pass bills into law (as evidenced by the few number of bills that are actually passed). I would say the main purpose of Congress is Oversight. Their oversight of the executive branch is a huge role (especially in Divided Government). Thoughts?

Unknown said...

House elections tend not to be competitive, with roughly 95 percent or more of incumbents who choose to stand for reelection retaining their office.

the house is typically more tightly organized and structured more elaborately with stricter rules probably because it is three times larger than the Senate.

a whip is a party leader who keeps close contact with all members of his or her party, takes vote counts on key legislation, prepares summaries of bills, and acts as a communications link with a party.

Unknown said...

1. The Speaker of the House is third in line for the presidency after the vice president.
2. When the electoral college fails to find a majority, the House of Representatives will elect the president.
3. The House of Representatives can propose a bill to raise taxes while the Senate cannot.

Unknown said...

1. The Speaker of the House is third in line for the presidency after the vice president.
2. When the electoral college fails to find a majority, the House of Representatives will elect the president.
3. The House of Representatives can propose a bill to raise taxes while the Senate cannot.

Unknown said...

1. The Speaker of the House is third in line for the presidency after the vice president.
2. When the electoral college fails to find a majority, the House of Representatives will elect the president.
3. The House of Representatives can propose a bill to raise taxes while the Senate cannot.

Unknown said...

Congress is the most direct connection to the people because they are the branch that can create and pass laws.

The two groups, the house and the senate, have only certain functions that one can perform. Examples consist of the house being able to impeach while the senate cannot.

Almost half of the congressmen and women are significantly rich. This is important to know so we can consider how they spend their own money relating to how they spend the governments.

Anonymous said...

I learned that Congress is almost worth 3.8 million dollars. I also learned that the House can impeach a president and the Senate can remove him from office. Also I learned that election process for Congress is a direct election.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

1)Both chambers of Congress are composed of committees and sub-committees that focus on specific legislation.

2)Any proposed bill must pass multiple committees within the Senate and the House before it can be voted on by either chamber.

3)The majority of members of Congress are white males that are generally older and more educated than the American public as a whole.

Anonymous said...

1. The differences between the Senate and the House. For example, there are leadership differences between the two chambers; the senate uses filibusters while the House does not; the House needs to have more strict rules mainly because of its larger size; etc.

2. When trying to get reelected, being an incumbent has a huge advantage. Also, aspects such as redistricting, the franking privilege, and constituent services add to the incumbency advantage.

3. The leadership that exists in the House and the Senate. While they are similar because they both contain majority leaders, minority leaders, and whips, the House and Senate differ in that the House has a Speaker of the House and the Senate has a president pro tempore.

Unknown said...

(1/13-2/2)
1.) Incumbents generally have a large advantage over first time candidates due to the Incumbency Advantage. This advantage includes things like already having a public connection to your name and the Franking Privilege, or virtually free mailings for incumbents.

2.) The vice president of the US is also the President of the Senate.

3.)Each state has only 2 senators, but House representatives are based on the population of the state.

Unknown said...

(1/13-2/2)
1.) Incumbents generally have a large advantage over first time candidates due to the Incumbency Advantage. This advantage includes things like already having a public connection to your name and the Franking Privilege, or virtually free mailings for incumbents.

2.) The vice president of the US is also the President of the Senate.

3.)Each state has only 2 senators, but House representatives are based on the population of the state.

Unknown said...

(1/13-2/2
A link to the information about the 2014 election for Congress:
http://goo.gl/yoAdqF