Introduction
Members of Congress perform various duties, but the major function that they perform is representing the electorate in the House. The U.S constitution is clear on the qualifications of the Representatives and Senators, but it doesn’t specify their roles. It is due to this fact that their roles can be classified into the following categories. They include: representing the people, legislation, educating the public, helping constituents and performing oversight functions.
Regarding legislation, it’s the responsibility of the Congress member to pass laws in a process known as law making process. It is here where all matters that are affecting the state as a whole are discussed. Bills always originate from the executive council, but it is the role of the Congress to vote for the laws. They handle various legislations that range from social media regulation to the budget allocation among other issues that the electorates need most (Gronke 131). They are always influenced by the constituents in the manner to protect their interests. A majority of the laws passed by the houses are public laws since they represent the needs the people. The law making process ensures that the Congress is involved so that approval of the bill is obtained. The role of the Congress in the economic sphere is to allocate and approve funds for various agencies. The Congress must pass the amount of funds that should be used on different projects and follow through to ensure that the proposed funds were utilized at the end of the fiscal period.
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In addition to that Congress men and women represent their constituents in the various houses. America is ruled by a two-party system namely: Republicans and Democrats. The district, therefore, elects one member through the main political party to represent them in the legislature where various public bills will be discussed. The constituency where the congressperson is elected from expects much from the congressperson. When laws are passed, congress is entitled to ensure that the constituent’s issues are represented before it is ascended to the President to be signed into law. This role is intertwined with the oversight role of the Representative or Senate.
Representation is also carried out when a congressperson conducts oversight duties to ensure laws are passed the way the constituents expect. The delivery of services to the constituents by solving their problems and satisfying their demands as stipulated by the constitution are duties of the Congress (Dodd and Oppenheimer 98). The members also carry out investigative roles when an issue has been raised by the members he or she represents. By formulating committees, the Congress person can review and assess the effectiveness of that policy and the actions of the various agencies involved. For example, if a policy about the house ownership and provisions in their constituents is not satisfactorily, the committees will review the issue raised and address them properly through legislation.
Congress is expected to offer various services to their constituents. The category is referred to as constituency service. Representatives and Senators act as facilitators and ombudsman when their members need services from the federal government. They serve as mediators or advocates to ensure that the federal government perform its duties in a lawful manner. In addition to that, they also carry out several services to the constituents such as researching and delivering information on the services provided by the federal government; they provide nominations to the U.S service academies such as youth services programs and they educate the constituents about the services that they should expect from the federal government. This role also offers a wider view by the Member to carry out the supervisory role of ensuring that grants and scholarships of the constituents are working (Gronke 156).
The role of the members of Congress to the party and the electorates also plays a significant influence on the performance of their duties. The Congressperson as earlier discussed is elected through a given political party. The political party, therefore, holds important positions in both the executive and the local representation. The political party, therefore, ensures that the policies that are advocated by the ruling party are delivered to the people at the district levels. The Congressperson should, therefore, balance these duties. The main ways through which they put the interests of the constituents ahead is dedicating most of their time to understand and support bills that influence the electorates. The voters hold the powers to “hire and fire” the congressperson. It is, therefore, a right to ensure that their concerns are solved in the house for the better of the entire society (Dodd and Oppenheimer 67).
The Congress should therefore always prioritize the issues affecting the party members by supporting public bills that support the needs of its members. Various committees should be established that are aligned towards discussing and analyzing pressing issues of the districts. Balancing between the needs of the party and the lawmaking processes is also a major aspect that the Congress should portray. To balance the roles of lawmakers and the duties to the party, the members of Congress should prioritize the needs of representing their constituents and acting according to their wishes (Gronke 187). Their issues should be solved through voting for the bills that are directing impacting their lives. A bill for example that will improve the level of employment in the states should be highly advocated and voted for to ensure that job opportunities increase.
References
Dodd, Lawrence and Bruce Oppenheimer. Congress Reconsidered . Los Angeles: SAGE, 2012.
Gronke, Paul. The Electorate, the Campaign, and the Office: A Unified Approach to Senate and House Elections . Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 2010.
