3. The congress at work

1. A new Congress session begins on the 3rd of January each odd-numbered year and continues for two years. Many people think that nearly all the 435 Representatives are in the House chamber and the 100 Senators are in the Senate chamber most of the day. They imagine that heated arguments about bills are constantly going on.

2. In committee meetings bills are studied, experts are consulted, and recommendations are made to the whole House or Senate. During a two-year term of Congress, as many as 20,000 bills may be introduced.

3. Each Committee sits and sorts the bills it is responsible for. Because the Congressmen on a committee are ex-parts in that field, they accept and improve some bills, but reject of most them.

4. Generally Congress goes along with the decisions of its committees. For a bill to become a law it must be passed by both the House and the Senate and signed by President.

5. If President disapproves, he vetoes the bill by refusing to sign it and sends it back to Congress. President’s objections are read and debated, then the bill is put to vote. To overcome President’s veto the bill must get a two-thirds majority in each chamber.

6. A Committee chairman is the member of the majority party who has served longest on the committee. His job makes him a real power in Congress. Among the standing committees are a Committee of Finance, of Foreign Relations, of Agriculture, of Armed Services, etc.

7. President Woodrow Wilson summed up the importance of the committees when he said, “Congress in its committee rooms is Congress at work”.

Choose one paragraph from the following reading that best suits each statement.

4. The political system of the usa

1. Under the Constitution, the states delegated by many of their sovereign powers to the central government in Washington. But they kept many important powers for themselves.

2. Each of the states, for example, retains the right to run its own public school system, to decide on the qualifications of its voters, to license its doctors and other professionals, to provide police protection for its citizens and to maintain its roads.

3. Under the Constitution, the federal government is divided into three branches, each chosen in a different manner, each able to check and balance the others.

4. The Executive Branch is headed by the President, who, together with the Vice-President, is chosen in nation-wide elections every four years.

5. Americans vote for the states of professional electors equal to the number of Senators and Representatives each state has in Congress (a total of 535 persons). The candidate with the highest number of votes in each state wins all the electoral votes of that state.

6. The presidential candidate needs 270 electoral votes. Any natural-born American who is 35 years old or older may be elected to this office.

7. The President proposes bills to Congress, enforces federal laws, serves as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and, with the approval of the Senate, makes treaties and appoints federal judges, ambassadors and other members of the Executive Departments.

Choose one paragraph from the following reading that best suits each statement.