Legislative Branch

Article 1

  • sets up the bicameral legislature (two chambers) the two chambers are the house and senate.

  • Smaller states and bigger states have fair and equal representation. house is fair and equal is senate because everyone gets two votes

  • lower house is apportioned by the population

senate has a 6 year term , 1/3 of the seats up for election ever two years. (continuous body) they have institutional memory, people who remain in the senate know how things operate so if they all got voted out at the same time, there would be no continuity.

house members have 2 year terms

House

  • raises a new tax/ initiate revenue bills

  • Two Year term

  • 435 individuals

  • formal in terms of procedural rules and strict because they like to talk against each other and are very rigid.

  • policy specialists, leaning on each others specialized knowledge

  • Tax Policy (ways and means committee generate the revenue)

  • appropriation committees

Senate

  • biggest power is the ADVISE & CONSENT powers of the senate.

  • 6 year terms

  • 100 individuals

  • behavior is more relaxed

  • judiciary committee - all the judges presidential appointed goes through the judiciary committee.

  • policy generalists over all of their state

  • foreign policy (senate foreign relations committee) takes international trips often.

  • more REMOVED from politics

  • senators respect the institution so much that you’re owed the respect of colleagues, they will not interrupt each-other

  • appropriation committees

if both chambers vote to appropriate money then it goes through to the desired receiver.

House

Apportion and redistricting

count every american every 10 years

determines representation

and then determines redistricting

state legislators draw congressional maps, gerrymandering takes place because its always political.

  • malapportionment, deliberately creating disparity of numbers of people in each district

  • gerrymandering drawing district lines in favor of the political parties.