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United States Senate | |
---|---|
Minority Whip | John Thune (R) since January 20, 2021 |
Structure | |
Seats | 100 51 (or 50 plus the Vice President) for a majority |
Political groups | Majority (50) Democratic (48) Independent (2) Minority (50) Republican (50) |
United States Senate | |
---|---|
Minority Whip | John Thune (R) since January 20, 2021 |
Structure | |
Seats | 100 51 (or 50 plus the Vice President) for a majority |
Political groups | Majority (50) Democratic (48) Independent (2) Minority (50) Republican (50) |
There are a total of 535 Members of Congress. 100 serve in the U.S. Senate and 435 serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.
In the United States, divided government describes a situation in which one party controls the executive branch while another party controls one or both houses of the legislative branch.
How often do senators up for reelection? A Senate term is six years long, so senators may choose to run for reelection every six years unless they are appointed or elected in a special election to serve the remainder of a term.
Senate: 50 Republicans, 48 Democrats, and 2 Independents, who both caucus with the Democrats. assumes that no seat is temporarily vacant. As of August 5, 2021, there were three House vacancies.
Every U.S. state elects two people to represent them in the US Senate. These people are called senators. Since there are 50 US states, there are 100 senators. Senators only serve six years at a time, and one-third of them are picked every two years.
For this reason, and in order to distinguish who is a member of which house, a member of the Senate is typically referred to as Senator (followed by “name” from “state”), and a member of the House of Representatives is usually referred to as Congressman or Congresswoman (followed by “name” from the “number” district of …
In addition to structuring the federal judiciary, the political branches hold other controls over the composition of the federal bench. Article II of the Constitution grants the President the power to appoint federal judges, including Supreme Court Justices, with the “Advice and Consent” of the Senate.
Power | Definition |
---|---|
Issuing signing statements | Giving the president’s intended interpretation of bills passed by Congress |
The majority leader serves as the chief representative of their party in the Senate, and is considered the most powerful member of the Senate.
The 2022 United States Senate election in New York will be held on November 8, 2022, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of New York. Incumbent four-term Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, who has served as Senate Majority Leader since 2021, is running for a fifth term.
A senator’s term of office is six years and approximately one-third of the total membership of the Senate is elected every two years. Look up brief biographies of Senators from 1774 to the present in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Position | Salary |
---|---|
Senators and House Representatives | $174,000 |
Resident Commissioner from Puerto Rico | $174,000 |
President pro tempore of the Senate | $193,400 |
Majority leader and minority leader of the Senate | $193,400 |
To ensure a separation of powers, the U.S. Federal Government is made up of three branches: legislative, executive and judicial.
A PRESIDENT CANNOT . . .
declare war. decide how federal money will be spent. interpret laws. choose Cabinet members or Supreme Court Justices without Senate approval.
Federal laws apply to people living in the United States and its territories. Congress creates and passes bills. The president then may sign those bills into law. Federal courts may review the laws to see if they agree with the Constitution.
Of all the generals to become president, only three — George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant and Dwight D. Eisenhower — were professional soldiers who spent their entire lives in the military before becoming president.
The Constitution explicitly assigns the president the power to sign or veto legislation, command the armed forces, ask for the written opinion of their Cabinet, convene or adjourn Congress, grant reprieves and pardons, and receive ambassadors.
Current rank | Historical rank | Senator |
---|---|---|
1 | 1692 | Patrick Leahy |
2 | 1743 | Chuck Grassley |
3 | 1766 | Mitch McConnell |
4 | 1775 | Richard Shelby |
As presiding officer of the House of Representatives, the speaker holds a variety of powers over the House and is ceremonially the highest-ranking legislative official in the US government.
Under the Constitution, the vice president serves as the president of the Senate and presides over the Senate’s daily proceedings. In the absence of the vice president, the Senate’s president pro tempore (and others designated by them) presides.
American
To guarantee senators’ independence from short-term political pressures, the framers designed a six-year Senate term, three times as long as that of popularly elected members of the House of Representatives. Madison reasoned that longer terms would provide stability.
Connecticut Delegate Roger Sherman spoke of the necessity of regular elections during the Convention: “Representatives ought to return home and mix with the people. … The Convention settled on two-year terms for Members of the House as a true compromise between the one- and three-year factions.
The Speaker is elected at the beginning of a new Congress by a majority of the Representatives-elect from candidates separately chosen by the majority- and minority-party caucuses. These candidates are elected by their party members at the organizing caucuses held soon after the new Congress is elected.
The Twenty-Seventh Amendment has one of the most unusual histories of any amendment ever made to the U.S. Constitution. … The Amendment provides that: “No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of representatives shall have intervened.”