3.2 The House of Representatives

Article 1 Section 51

“Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings”

How many years did it take then VP Jefferson to write Congress’ first rules manual?

4 years and its still influences Congress today

What did Jefferson want to avoid?

To avoid angry confrontations, foster reasonable debate, and not speak directly to each other but to the presiding officer

What can members and must they do?

Can disagree w/ issues but not question each other’s motives or criticize other states

Must maintain decorum (polite behavior) in chamber

What chambers have rules and when do they update them?

Each chamber has rules and precedents

from years past that they use to update

their rule book every 2 years

House Debates

House limits representatives to speaking for 5

minutes

House debates rarely last more than 1 day

Which leaders have more power, House or Senate?

House leaders have more power than in

the Senate

Can make key decisions about legislative work

without consulting members

Committees

Perform most of the legislative activity

Allow representatives to have more influence than on the House floor

Work gives representatives time to study and shape bills

In both House and Senate, where does each party sit?

Democrats and Republicans sit on opposite sides of center aisle

Majority Party

Can select leaders of that body

Can control legislative work and appoint chairs of all committees

Speaker of the House

Powerful leader of the House

3rd in line for presidential succession

Talks to representatives to grant favors for votes

How do they choose the Speak of the House?

A caucus (closed meeting) or majority party chooses

Entire House membership then votes to approve speaker

What does the speaker do?

Presides over sessions

Influence proceedings (chooses who goes first)

Appoint some committee members

Refers bills to proper committees

House Floor Leaders

Majority and Minority leaders

Majority/Minority Leader

Helps Speaker planning the legislative program, steering important bills through House and making sure chairpersons finish their work

(not official positions of Congress, but elected by party)

Majority/Minority Whips

Watch how majority party vote, and persuade them to vote on issues important to the party, and makes sure members are there to vote

Lawmaking in the House

All laws start as bills

Reps. introduce a bill by dropping it in the hopper near the front of chamber

Speaker then sends bill to appropriate committee to study, discuss and review

When do bills become laws? And how many bills actually make it into the House?

A bill becomes a law when both house of Congress pass it and President signs it

Only about 10-20% of bills make it to the House for a full vote

House Rules Committee

Direct flow of major legislation and are called the “traffic officer’

Bills the pass committees makes it to the Rules Committee

(Can stop, quicken or hold back bills)

Favored Bills move up

Bills approval

House then votes for a bill

if approved, sent to President to signed/vetoed

If not, sent back to committee to be changed