Legislative Branch Quiz

The legislative branch’s main responsibility is to propose, debate, and pass bills, which are then sent to the president for approval.

The New Jersey Plan addressed the concerns of the less populated states that without equal representation, larger states like Virginia would have a disproportionate influence over the federal government.

“The Great Compromise” created a bicameral (two-chamber) legislature — a hybrid of the New Jersey and Virginia Plans. New Jersey’s plan was adopted for the Senate, and Virginia’s plan to make membership proportionate to each state’s population was adopted for the House of Representatives. New legislation must be passed by both houses of Congress to become law.

Each of the fifty states is allotted two senators.

Senators are elected to office for six years. One-third of the Senate seats are up for election every two years.

The population figures gathered by the United States Census are used to allocate the seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

In addition to the 435 voting members of the U.S. House of Representatives, there are also six non-voting members from U.S.-controlled territories, namely Washington D.C., Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

There are no term limits on either U.S. Senators or Representatives. The 1995 Supreme Court decision U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton ruled that states could not impose term limits on their federal legislators.

The Speaker of the House is one of the most powerful members of the U. S. legislature. The speaker not only has the same voting power as other representatives, but also oversees procedure to manage floor debates. Should both the President and Vice President of the United die or be otherwise unable to serve, the Speaker of the House assumes the role of chief executive.

Pork-barrel projects are often tacked onto larger pieces of legislation to make a particular bill more appealing to a Member of Congress and his or her constituents.

Members of Congress are elected to represent the people of their home states and districts. The separation of powers laid out in the United States Constitution means that U.S. Senators and Representatives, while subject to laws as U.S. citizens, do not answer to either the executive or judicial branches.

After bills are introduced to the floor of the House or Senate, they are sent to committee. The Committee Chair can "pigeonhole" the bill, in other words, he or she can choose not to assign or debate the bill which never returns to the floor to become law.

Prospective Senators must have been U.S. citizens for at least nine years and be at least 30. Prospective members of the House of Representatives must be at least 25 and have been U.S. citizens for at least seven years. All congressional candidates must live in the state they would represent.

The Founding Fathers were very deliberate in how they limited legislative power. Congress cannot pass laws that infringe upon citizens’ rights, including suspending the writ of habeas corpus, stifling freedom of speech, taxing trade between states, banning religions, meddling in states’-rights issues, and passing ex post facto laws.

As stated in Article I, Section 8, Congress has the power to pass whatever laws are “necessary and proper” to carry out its Constitutional duties. This broad, “elastic clause” has been used to regulate inter-state transportation, establish the U.S. Air Force, define kidnapping as a felony offense, and even create a national bank.

Education is not mentioned in the United States Constitution and is typically regarded as a states’ rights issue. Congress has applied the “general welfare clause” of Article I, Section 8 (which states that Congress can use tax revenue “to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States”) to fund education initiatives.

Congress has a variety of responsibilities that check the power of the President of the United States and the executive branch. The Founders wanted to prevent a tyranny of the executive comparable to British rule.

While the President routinely offers suggestions or even a full budget plan to Congress, all budgetary decisions are formally written and approved by the legislature.

The CBO plays an important, bipartisan role in lawmaking by estimating the financial impact of a bill or program to Members of Congress before they vote. This process not only allows the Members of Congress to better deliberate on the pros and cons of a given bill, but also prevents budgetary surprises once a new law or program goes into effect.

Committees play a crucial role in streamlining the process of lawmaking from the many bills that come before Congress in each session. Committees are organized according to subject matter; new bills are directed to the committee that is the best fit. These committees debate, edit, and “pigeonhole” bills before they reach the full membership of the Senate or House for approval.

Both Houses of Congress must approve a bill for it to move on to the executive branch for the President’s signature. If one house votes it down, the bill can go back into committee to be revised, but without bicameral approval, the bill is dead.

The Constitution describes the Vice President as the “President of the Senate.” The only time the Vice President votes, however, is in the case of a tie. Indeed, one quarter of U.S. Vice Presidents never cast a tie-breaking vote.

Because the Senate has no rule requiring proposed amendments be relevant to the content of the bills they are attached to, it is more susceptible to pork-barrel riders and partisan tactics than the House of Representatives.

The filibuster is a procedural tactic that is used to stall a vote in the Senate. If any Senators want to prevent a bill from being brought to a vote they can extend the debate indefinitely by speaking for as long as they wish, and on any topic they choose. The filibuster continues until the speaker either cedes the floor or the bill is withdrawn. In the modern era, the threat a filibuster is generally sufficient to keep a bill from being put forward for debate until its supporters believe they already have enough votes for cloture (cloture can be invoked by a vote of three-fifths of the Senators).

Gerrymandering is the practice of manipulating district boundaries to create a political advantage for a particular party or group. Strangely shaped boundaries that do not reflect demographic or geographic landscapes can affect elections by putting as many voters for the opposing party into a single district. By conceding this one district, the other party gains an advantage in all of the surrounding districts.