Self-Assessment The government of the usa

Exercise 1. Read the text and find the examples of interaction between the three branches of power, permitting each to exert “checks and balances” against the others.

The government of the USA consists of three separate but equal branches: the Legislative branch ( the US Congress), the Executive branch (the President), and Judicial branch (the Supreme Court). Thus the principle of separation of powers was applied.

The US Congress makes the laws. There are two 'houses' of Congress: the Senate and the House of Representatives. There are a hundred people in the Senate (two from each state) and they are elected for six years, one-third of the total membership of the Senate is re-elected every two years. It`s true that two senators from the same state never finish their terms at the same time, one of them is called "Senior Senator" and the other - "Junior Senator". According to the Constitution a Senator must be at least 30 years of age, have been a citizen of the United States for 9 years, and, when elected, be a resident of the State for which the Senator is chosen.

The presiding officer of the Senate is the Vice-President of the United States. The Vice-President is not a member of the chamber over which he presides and he sometimes is not a member of the party in power. The work of the US Congress is done mostly in different committees. The most important of them are Rules, Appropriation Foreign Relations, Finance, Armed Services.

There are 435 people in the House of Representatives, and they are elected for two years only. A Member of the House of Representatives must be at least 25 years old when entering office, must have been a U.S. citizen for at least 7 years, and must be a resident of the State in which the election occurred. Each state is guaranteed at least one representative in the House, but States with more people have more Representatives. The most important committees in the House of Representatives are Rules, Appropriation, Ways and Means, Judiciary, Agriculture.

The executive branch is headed by the President, who must be a natural-born citizen of the USA, at least 35 years old, and a resident of the country for at least 14 years. The President is head of the departments of government which carry out the laws. He is the leader of the country and head of the army. Pursuant to the Constitution the President has the power to appoint the judges for the Supreme Court as well as many other public officials, to make treaties, to receive ambassadors and ministers, to grant reprieves and pardons, and to enforce the laws. He is elected for four years, and can only be elected twice. He can say 'no' to laws passed by Congress (but the Congress can overcome the President’s veto by 2/3 of votes), and he is also subject to impeachment, to senatorial approval of his treaties and appointments. The President lives and works in the White House in Washington DC.

The Supreme Court is the most important court in the country and has nine judges(one Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices); their job is to decide what the laws mean. They can also say that the Congress has made a law which is legally void because it contradicts the Constitution, or make the judicial review of the President’s actions.

The USA is a union of fifty states, and as well as the national government in Washington, each state has its own government. Laws can be very different from one state to the next. They say very different things about, for example, how old you must be to vote, get married, leave school or drive a car. Different states punish criminals differently too; in some states, you can be killed for murdering someone, in others you only go to prison.

Exercise 2. Decide whether the following statements are true or false.