House of Representatives

7 Key excerpts on "House of Representatives"

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  eBook - ePub

  Congress For Dummies

  • David Silverberg(Author)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • For Dummies

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 2

  Running Your House: The House of Representatives

  In This Chapter:

  Comparing your house to The House

  Tracking down your representative

  Discovering what your representative’s job is

  Realizing the responsibilities of the House of Representatives

  Creating House districts

  O f all federal government institutions, the House of Representatives is the one that’s closest to you. It’s the body designed to most closely reflect your cares and concerns and the one that’s easiest for you to contact. The House is the starting point when you want to register an opinion or get a law passed.

  “Such will be the relation between the House of Representatives and their constituents. Duty, gratitude, interest, ambition itself, are the chords by which they will be bound to fidelity and sympathy with the great mass of the people.”

  — Alexander Hamilton or James Madison writing as “Publius” in “The Federalist No. 57”

  Knowing your congressional representative and the district he represents is important, because regardless of other identities you may have, you’re definitely a constituent of that representative. Although you may not know him personally, or agree with his politics, or even like him, he is your advocate in Washington and representing your interests is his job. If you don’t like the way he’s doing the job, you have the chance to have him fired (by voting for someone else) every two years.

  Describing the House

  The House of Representatives consists of 435 representatives, each one representing a congressional district in one of the 50 United States. In addition, four delegates represent the U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia. The territory of Puerto Rico is represented by a resident commissioner

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  Constitutional Government in the United States

  • Woodrow Wilson(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Columbia University Press

    (Publisher)

  The House of Representatives, being the more numerous body and in the nature of the case harder to organize as an originative and independent assembly, has effected the more thorough organization, and devotes itself to business with a precision and ease of method which the Senate has not attempted. The House and Senate are naturally unlike. They are different both in constitution and character. They do not represent the same things. The House of Representa-tives is by intention the popular chamber, meant to repre-sent the people by direct election through an extensive suffrage, while the Senate was designed to represent the states as political units, as the constituent members of the Union. The terms of membership in the two houses, moreover, are different. The two chambers were unques-tionably intended to derive their authority from different sources and to speak with different voices in affairs; and however much they may have departed from their original characters in the changeful processes of our politics, they still present many sharp contrasts to one another, and 8 8 CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT IN UNITED STATES must be described as playing, not the same, but very dis-tinct and dissimilar rôles in affairs. Perhaps the contrast between them is in certain respects even sharper and clearer now than in the earlier days of our history, when the House was smaller and its functions simpler. The House once debated ; now it does not debate. It has not the time. There would be too many debaters, and there are too many subjects of debate. It is a busi-ness body, and it must get its business done. When the late Mr. Reed once, upon a well-known occasion, thanked God that the House was not a deliberate assembly, there was no doubt a dash of half-cynical humor in the remark, such as so often gave spice and biting force to what he said, but there was the sober earnest of a serious man of affairs, too.

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  The American Congress

  • Steven S. Smith, Jason M. Roberts, Ryan J. Vander Wielen(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  The House also participates in foreign policy decisions that require congressional appropriations or changing in American domestic law, such as trade agreements. Just as the president is an integral part of legislating, the Congress is cen- tral to implementing laws. The Constitution obligates the president to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed” and grants to the president the au- thority to appoint “officers” of the United States. The Constitution, however, requires that the president’s appointees be confirmed by the Senate, allows Congress to establish executive departments by law and the means for ap- pointing “inferior” officers of the executive branch, and grants Congress the authority to remove the president or other officers for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” Perhaps most importantly, the Consti- tution requires that Congress approve funding for all government activities, a power that gives Congress the ability to limit the activities to which public funds may be dedicated. Therefore, interdependence, not exclusivity, characterizes the powers of the House, Senate, and president. Representation and Lawmaking in Congress 46 DIRECT AND INDIRECT REPRESENTATION. The framers of the Constitution wanted the government to be responsive to popular opinion, but they also want- ed to limit the possibility that some faction could gain simultaneous control of the House, Senate, and presidency and then legislate to violate the rights of oth- ers. Only members of the House of Representatives were to be directly elected by the people. Senators were to be chosen by state legislatures, and the president was to be chosen by an electoral college composed of individuals chosen by the states. Furthermore, House, Senate, and presidential elections were put on different timetables.

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  The American Congress

  • Steven S. Smith, Jason M. Roberts, Ryan J. Vander Wielen(Authors)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  Members of the House and Senate serve individual districts or states, yet they must act collectively to make laws for the nation as a whole. Collective action on divisive issues entails bargaining and compromise – among the members of each chamber, between the House and the Senate, 29 30 THE AMERICAN CONGRESS and between Congress and the president. For compromise to be possible, members sometimes must retreat from their commitments to their individual states and districts. Determining who must compromise – and how to get them to do so – is the essence of legislative politics. The process can be messy, even distasteful, but, if it is to serve the nation, it is unavoidable. Congress can be properly evaluated only by understanding our own con- flicting expectations about the institution and about the politicians who work within it. To sort out the issues, we begin with a brief introduction explaining how representation and lawmaking occur in practice on Capitol Hill. As we shall see, achieving both perfect representation and perfect lawmaking, in the ways we desire each of them, is impossible. Representation REPRESENTATION BY INDIVIDUAL LAWMAKERS. Members of the House and Senate are expected to be representatives of their constituents back home. That is not a very precise job description. We might think that a represen- tative’s job is to faithfully present the views of his or her district or state in Congress – that is, to serve as a delegate for his or her constituents. But a delegate-legislator would not have an easy job because constituents often have conflicting or ambiguous views (or none at all) about the issues before Congress. Alternatively, a member of Congress might be considered a trustee – representing his or her constituents by exercising independent judgment about the interests of district, state, or nation. It is impossible to be a both a faithful delegate and a true trustee.

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  The Challenge of Democracy

  American Government in Global Politics

  • Kenneth Janda, Jeffrey Berry, Jerry Goldman, Deborah Deborah(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  Since recent population growth has been centered in the Sunbelt, Texas and Florida have gained seats, while the Northeast and Midwest states like New York and Illinois have lost them. Each representative is elected from a particular congressional district within his or her state, and each district elects only one representative. The districts within a state must be roughly equal in population. Duties of the House and Senate Although the Great Compromise provided for considerably different schemes of rep -resentation for the House and Senate, the Constitution gives them similar legislative reapportionment Redistribution of representa-tives among the states, based on population change. The House is reapportioned after each census. Copyright 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-202 287 The Origin and Powers of Congress tasks. They share many powers, among them the powers to declare war, raise an army and navy, borrow and coin money, regulate interstate commerce, create federal courts, establish rules for the naturalization of immigrants, and “make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers.” Yet the constitutional duties of the two chambers are different in some ways. As noted in Chapter 3, the House alone has the right to originate revenue bills. In practice, this power is of limited consequence because both the House and Senate must approve all bills. The House of Representatives has the power of impeachment : the power formally to charge the president, vice president, and other “civil officers” of the national govern -ment with serious crimes. The Senate is empowered to act as a court to try impeach -ments, with the chief justice of the Supreme Court presiding. A two-thirds majority vote of the senators present is necessary for conviction. Only two presidents have been impeached: Bill Clinton in 1998 and Andrew Johnson in 1868.

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  Constitutional Government in the United States

  • Woodrow Wilson(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  The House and Senate are naturally unlike. They are different both in constitution and character. They do not represent the same things. The House of Representatives is by intention the popular chamber, meant to represent the people by direct election through an extensive suffrage, while the Senate was designed to represent the states as political units, as the constituent members of the Union. The terms of membership in the two houses, moreover, are different. The two chambers were unquestionably intended to derive their authority from different sources and to speak with different voices in affairs; and however much they may have departed from their original characters in the changeful processes of our politics, they still present many sharp contrasts to one another, and must be described as playing, not the same, but very distinct and dissimilar rôles in affairs.

  Perhaps the contrast between them is in certain respects even sharper and clearer now than in the earlier days of our history, when the House was smaller and its functions simpler. The House once debated; now it does not debate. It has not the time. There would be too many debaters, and there are too many subjects of debate. It is a business body, and it must get its business done. When the late Mr. Reed once, upon a well-known occasion, thanked God that the House was not a deliberate assembly, there was no doubt a dash of half-cynical humor in the remark, such as so often gave spice and biting force to what he said, but there was the sober earnest of a serious man of affairs, too. He knew the vast mass of business the House undertook to transact; that it had made itself a great organ of direction, and that it would be impossible for it to get through its calendars if it were to attempt to discuss in open house, instead of in its committee rooms, the measures it acted upon. The Senate has retained its early rules of procedure without material alteration. It is still a place of free and prolonged debate. It will not curtail the privilege of its members to say what they please, at whatever length. But the senators are comparatively few in number; they can afford the indulgence. The House cannot. The Senate may remain individualistic, atomistic, but the House must be organic, — an efficient instrument, not a talkative assembly.

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  The Public Side of Representation

  A Study of Citizens' Views about Representatives and the Representative Process

  • Christopher J. Grill(Author)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • SUNY Press

    (Publisher)

  Representa- tives give the people they serve a say, however limited and indirect, in the councils of government, and in this sense may confer a measure of pub- lic legitimacy on its actions. In any event, this role clearly remains an essential part of these citizens’ conceptions of representatives’ duties. The Representative Relationship 79 Additional insight into the participants’ expectations for members of Congress can be gained by examining which representational roles they deemed to be the most important. Table 5.2 below portrays the number and percentage of respondents who gave a 1 or a 6 ranking to each func- tion. The table thus sheds greater light on the representational responsibil- ities that are most (and least) critical to people—those that are regarded, in essence, as defining obligations of congressional representatives. On the whole, this table mirrors the results from the overall rank- ings. No one or even two roles stand out as overriding preferences. Each category, including district service, received support as the most impor- tant obligation, and no function was chosen in this regard by more than a quarter of the participants. The polarization in beliefs is equally appar- ent. While nearly 25 percent of the respondents basically dismissed con- stituent service, for example, four ranked it as a member’s foremost obligation. Deliberation and communication again emerged as favored roles, although lawmaking received more top rankings than either of these categories. The upshot of all this? The citizens interviewed for this study do not concur on a representative’s most important jobs. The rank scales, like the interviews, hint at substantial variance in people’s expec- tations for members of Congress. They also bolster some of the previous research conducted in this area. In particular, my rankings are quite similar to the results from the representational role series in the 1978 NES.

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