HOW CONGRESS WORKS Congress 2 Congressional Rules Developed

HOW CONGRESS WORKS (Congress #2)

Congressional Rules ■ -Developed to help Congress operate: • 535 people making laws for over 300 million… • There must be rules! ■ -House has more rules than Senate: why? ■ -Parliamentary Procedures ■ both Houses of Congress use a formal system of debate which keeps the debate orderly ■ Imagine if we had 535 class members and no rules!!!

Congressional Leadership -Majority Leader • Each person in the Ho. R & Senate -each House chooses a leader of the majority party to be floor leader is either: 1. a republican 2. a democrat 3. an independent -Minority Leader • More democrats, then the majority will be Democrat and vice versa • Each will have a leader to help -each House picks a minority party member to be its floor leader -Party Whip -each party in each House has a Party Whip to keep track of voting for important issues

House Leaders -Speaker of the House Senate Leaders -Vice President -basically runs the House of Representatives -official leader but only votes in a tie and is rarely present -sets up the calendar and schedules bills for debate -President Pro-Tempore • 2 nd in Presidential succession! -mostly symbolic position given to the longest serving Senator from the majority party • 3 rd in line to the presidency!

Committees: Little Legislatures • The detailed work of lawmaking is done in committees. • Each house has permanent standing committees that continue their work from session to session. • Most are divided into smaller subcommittees that deal with specialized issues.

Committees (cont. ) • Both houses also have select committees that are created to do a special job for a limited period. • They disband after completing their task. • Joint committees include members of both houses. • Temporary conference committees help the House and Senate agree on the details of a proposed law.