1. When a nation has a bicameral legislature it means that it has two legislative chambers. The two houses of congress in the United States are the House of Representatives and the Senate. There is one state representative in the Senate regardless of the size of the state while the House of Representatives has one or more state representatives depending on the size of the state. States with larger populations have more representatives compared to those with small populations. A member of the House of Representatives must be 25 years of age, a citizen for seven years or more and resident of the state at the time of elections. He or she serves for a two-year term and can vie again every even year. A member of Senate must be 30 years of age, resident of the state and US citizen for at least 9 years. He or she serves for a six-year term.
2. Incumbency is the period in which a particular leader is holding office. The current leader in that position is called the incumbent. A constituency is a regional division where the citizens elect a representative to a legislative body. Pork barrel legislation is the legislature’s assumptions for projects that are not important but are pursued because they ensure that money and resources are directed into the local districts of the legislators. The advantage of incumbency to a legislator is that he or she is well known more than new aspirants and has the potential of raising more money for campaigns while in office compared to aspirants who work outside the system. The drawback however is that voters are likely to blame the incumbent for wrongs done and he or she might gather enemies due to certain decisions made.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
3. The practice of determining the number of seats a state should have after its population changes is called r eapportionment . Redistricting entails making decisions on the way regions can be divided depending on the number of seats a state has. Redistricting and reapportionment is done by a committee after United States Census following relevant state and federal law.
Gerrymandering is the intentional manipulative action of altering district boundaries to the advantage of particular individuals or parties. Racial gerrymandering is used to strengthen or weaken the voting power of a minority race. This practice can also be used to shield an incumbent from some undesired stiff competition. The common techniques used by these legislators are ‘packing’ and ‘cracking’. ‘Packing’ entails having a concrete voting block by having opposition voters in one district while ‘cracking’ means weakening the voting power of opposition supporters by distributing them across several districts.
4. The leadership positions in Senate include that of the president of the senate, the president pro tem of the senate, speaker of the house, speaker pro tem, majority leader, majority caucus chair, majority whip, minority leader, minority caucus chair, and minority whip. The House of Representatives on the other hand has the speaker of the house, minority and majority leaders, minority and majority whip, party leaders, and party caucus chairpersons. Party conference refers to the meeting that parties hold to discuss party concerns and policies. The caucus are also used to nominate candidates for particular office positions.
5. Members of the congress are elected by their respective constituencies as representatives at the federal governments. The role of these members include making laws, representing the people, carrying out oversight, assisting constituents, and enlightening the public. They vote on legislation and hold governments and other agencies accountable pertaining the needs of their electorates. As representatives, the electorates trust that they will vote for their concerns and perspectives. In law-making, the representatives need to see that which is applicable and relevant to their own people from their own lenses because they share similar circumstances in the respective constituencies.
6. The roles of congregational committees include monitoring on-going governmental tasks, detecting matters appropriate for legislative examination, collecting and evaluating information, and endorsing courses of action to the Senate.To effectively manage the tasks in a timely manner, the senate committees are further subdivided and each sub-committee performs a specific allocated task. The sub-committees relate and assess legislative options, ascertain policy teething troubles and recommend resolutions, choose, decide, and present procedures for total chamber deliberation, examine executive branch performance, and scrutinize accusations of misconduct ( Waldo, 2017 ). Members of these committees are selected on basis of a person’s professional qualifications and personal interest to develop vast knowledge in a particular field. This ensures that decisions arrived at are from experts hence the chances of them being viable are high.
7. The process of law-making is lengthy. First, a representative presents the bill which is then given to a particular committee in the House of Representative for study and evaluation. Next, the responsible committee conveys their recommendations to the House of Representatives. The bill is consequently debated and amended before being moved to budgeting. If the bill here is passed by a majority of 218 members out of the 435 in the house, it progresses to the Senate. Just like in the House of Representatives, a senate committee studies and reviews the bill as well as presenting their recommendation. Debate on the bill and possible amendments are made at the senate chambers. A majority vote of 51 out of 100 members enables the bill to be passed at this stage. The bill then is registered for final endorsement.
Many times a few differences in thoughts arise between the House of Representatives and the Senate. In such a case, a conference committee comprising of members from both houses is presented with the bill so that they work out the differences amicably. The revised bill is then presented to both houses for final approval after which enrolling is done. Enrolling is the process where the Government Printing Office prints the final bill. The bill then moves from the legislature to the executive arm of government for the president’s signature ( Goodnow, 2017 ). The president has up to 10 days to sign or veto the revised bill. When the president fails to sign the bill into law, then it is taken back for voting at the congress. If two-thirds of the congress members vote in favor of the bill then it becomes law. The bill dies when enough numbers do not vote to overrule the president.
The advantage of taking a considerably long time in legislation is that the members will adequately weigh all options and listen to opinions before arriving at a fixed decision. This ensures accuracy, passing of relevant and effective bills, and not interfering with other existing laws of the nation. Parties also have the opportunity to align the bill to their agenda and the needs of the people before voting for it. Rushing in establishing laws may result in passing of bad laws and disregarding the good ones. The disadvantage however is that urgent and crucial laws may be delayed in a case where it needed to be done fast for the benefit of the electorates.
References
Goodnow, F. J. (2017). Politics and administration: A study in government . Routledge.
Waldo, D. (2017). The administrative state: A study of the political theory of American public administration . Routledge.
