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How Congress Works. (Congress #2). Congressional Rules. - Developed to help Congress operate: 535 people making laws for over 300 million… There must be rules! -House has more rules than Senate: why ? - Parliamentary Procedures
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How Congress Works (Congress #2)
Congressional Rules • -Developed to help Congress operate: • 535 people making laws for over 300 million… • There must be rules! • -House has more rules than Senate: why? • -Parliamentary Procedures • both Houses of Congress use a formal system of debate which keeps the debate orderly • Imagine if we had 535 class members and no rules!!!
Congressional Leadership -Majority Leader -each House chooses a leader of the majority party to be floor leader -Minority Leader -each House picks a minority party member to be its floor leader -Party Whip -each party in each House has a Party Whip to keep track of voting for important issues • Each person in the HoR & Senate is either: 1. a republican 2. a democrat 3. an independent • More democrats, then the majority will be Democrat and vice versa • Each will have a leader to help
House Leaders Senate Leaders • -Vice President • -official leader but only votes in a tie and is rarely present • -President Pro-Tempore • -mostly symbolic position given to the longest serving Senator from the majority party • 3rd in line to the presidency! -Speaker of the House -basically runs the House of Representatives -sets up the calendar and schedules bills for debate • 2nd in Presidential succession!
Committees: Little Legislatures • The detailed work of lawmaking is done in committees. • Each house has permanent standing committees that continue their work from session to session. • Most are divided into smaller subcommittees that deal with specialized issues.
Committees (cont.) • Both houses also have select committees that are created to do a special job for a limited period. • They disband after completing their task. • Joint committees include members of both houses. • Temporary conference committees help the House and Senate agree on the details of a proposed law.