How Government Works

Under the Constitution, the President is supposed to be the chief executive while the two Houses of Congress form the legislature.

Although there are only two parties, so that one party will almost always have a majority in each house, this does not mean that there is straightforward two-party government, with a government on one side backed by a solid majority and an opposition on the other side. Sometimes the President is of one party, while the majority in one House of Congress (or even in both Houses) is of the other party. Even when the President is of same party as the majorities in both Houses of Congress there is still no clear leadership of the party in power. This is because the party organization nationally is so weak, and the party in power has not a single agreed policy.

As there is no effective party discipline (they can vote against one another), the main sources of policy is the President himself, and he is in practice the main source of important new laws. In fact, the President’s influence on legislation is greater than the Constitution suggests.

Although the Constitution gives the power to tax to Congress, the President presents the annual budget, though Congress usually amends his proposals for both taxation and expenditure.

The Constitution tilts the balance in favor of the Congress and against the President. But in modern times power has concentrated more and more in the hands of single heads of government, so since 1960s, Congress has tried hard to maintain its role against that of the President (one Senate committee responded to the unpopularity of the Vietnam war by its detailed questioning; another drove President Nixon to resign, by forcing an admission that his office had been implicated in the “cover-up” of the Watergate affair”).

Congress consists of the Senate (100 members) and the House of Representatives (435 members).

The Constitution says that a Senator must be at least 30 years old, a citizen of the US for 9 years and a resident of the state from which he/she is elected. The individual seats in the Senate are numbered. The Democrats sit in the western part of the chamber – on Vice-President’s right; the Republicans sit on his left. The Vice-President presides over the Senate and conducts debates.

A Representative must be at least 25 years of age, a US citizen for 7 years and live in the state from which he/she is elected. They do not have individual seats; by tradition the Democrats sit on the Speaker’s right, the Republicans – on his left. The Speaker presides over the House and conducts debates.

Both the Vice-President and the Speaker may vote, but usually do not do it, except in case of a tie-vote.

For elections of senators, each for a six-year term, the same general conditions apply, except that although some states are nearly safe for one party, the others never fail to run a candidate. To run a campaign, first for a primary, then for the main election, demands almost a whole year of electioneering activity, and most probably the expenditure of several million dollars; and the same is true of elections for state governorships.

The position of a congressman is never safe: in order to be elected, candidates must first win their party’s primary and then defeat the other party; and there is no guarantee that their party will choose them again.

Congress commences January 3 of each odd-numbered year, and continues for two years, regardless of the number of regular or special sessions held. There must be one regular session each year. A Congressman is a member of either the Senate or the House of Representatives. However, a member of the Senate is usually referred to as a Senator and a member of the House as a Congressman. The official title of a member of the House is “Representative in Congress”.

The 100 senators and the Vice-President are provided with offices in a building about 150 yards northeast of the Senate wing of the Capitol. The 435 members of the House, except the Speaker and party leaders (who have offices in the Capitol building) have offices in two buildings about 150 yards south of the Capitol. The representatives face an election within two years.

The Senate (the upper House) represents the states, the House of Representatives represents the people. Budget proposals originate in the lower House, but the Senate has an equal role in the final decisions on them. The Senate has the power to confirm or reject the President’s proposals for individual appointments.

Every bill must pass both Houses before it goes to the President for his signature which converts it into an act. Any non-financial bill may originate in either House, and sometimes parallel bills go through the two Houses simultaneously. Many important bills are inspired by the President, many originate with members of Congress, and are usually described by the names of the people who proposed them. When the two Houses disagree over the contents of a bill, they are represented equally on the conference committee which tries to produce a compromise text.

The Houses work through committees of their own members. The House has about 29 permanent committees, the Senate has about 16. Each senator is a member of one or two committees. All committees give seats to the parties in proportion to their strength in the House or Senate, as the case may be. The main function of the committees is to enquire into each bill that is proposed and to recommend whether the bill be accepted or not, and also to decide whether to recommend changes in its text before it goes to the main House for discussion. Nowadays they also undertake inquiries into all sorts of matters and they also examine the working of the administrative machinery under the President.

The chairman of each committee has enormous influence over the way the committee works. The powerful chairmen are often old, that is called the “Seniority Rule”.

During a two-year term of Congress, as many as 20,000 bills may be introduced. Generally Congress goes along with the decisions of its committees. The President has the right veto. To overcome it the bill must get a two-thirds majority in each chamber.

Procedure

When the House meets, the Speaker calls the members to order and the Sergeant-at-Arms places the mace (the system of authority) on the pedestal near the Speaker’s platform. Then the Chaplain reads prayers. When any member wants to speak he is to stand up and to address himself to the Speaker.

Votes are taken in American Congress in four different ways. Usually the Speaker or Vice-President says “As many as are in favor say “Aye”!” and then, “As many as are opposed say “No”!”; in most cases it is enough. But if there is doubt those in favor are asked to stand up and they are counted. The Speaker or Vice-President does the counting in his chamber and announces the result. If there is still doubt, two tellers are appointed. They take their place at the head of the central aisle. All Congressmen in favor of the proposition walk between them and are counted, then those opposed do the same. The fourth way is the roll-call, where the names of all Congressmen are called out and they answer “Aye” or “No”.