Is the Senate or House of Representatives More Important
When the Business firm and the Senate Are Controlled past Dissimilar Parties, Who Wins?
As the prospect of a divided Congress looms, many people have turned to Google in a frantic search for answers well-nigh what, exactly, the midterm election results will mean.
Who has more ability: the House of Representatives or the Senate? What does the Business firm command? What is the difference between the House and Senate?
So here is our attempt at a quick civics lesson. (Information technology'due south belatedly, though, and we're tired, so catchy "Schoolhouse Stone" jingles are non included.)
The House of Representatives
The Business firm consists of 435 representatives who are each elected to a two-year term. The number of representatives per state is proportionate to the land's population, and each representative serves his or her district.
Like the Senate, the House is responsible for introducing bills and amendments, and members of both bodies serve on committees — such as those for the budget and the judiciary.
The House has the ability to initiate impeachment proceedings for government officials, and it is the bedroom that introduces spending bills, giving it greater sway over the power of the purse.
With a Democratic majority, the House will have the opportunity to innovate bills that could force senators to make a decision that could hurt their favor with voters.
"It'due south a very alluring prospect for Democrats now to be able to put together bills which bask a lot of public back up," said Ross Baker, a professor of American politics at Rutgers Academy. "And then ship it to the Senate to reject them."
The Senate
The Senate is oftentimes considered a more prestigious body, in function because there are far fewer senators than representatives, merely also because the Constitution gives the group unique powers.
In that location are 100 senators in total, two per state. Each is elected to a 6-year term.
George Washington is said to have explained the purpose of the Senate as to be more deliberative than the House: "We pour legislation into the Senate saucer to cool information technology."
The Constitution gives the Senate the power to corroborate presidential nominations, including Supreme Courtroom justices. Senators are also tasked with approval treaties with foreign countries.
The Senate has a long history of closely watched investigative hearings. A Senate commission investigated the Watergate scandal in the 1970s, for example, also equally allegations of sexual harassment against Justice Clarence Thomas in the 1990s.
Though impeachment proceedings begin in the House, the matter is then sent to the Senate, whose chambers act as a courtroom for the trial. The Senate has the sole power to conduct impeachment trials, essentially serving as the jury, as it did when information technology acquitted President Bill Clinton in 1999.
At least 2-thirds of senators accept to find the president guilty to remove him from office.
Which body has more than ability?
Although the Senate and the House have similar responsibilities to provide government oversight, the founding fathers gave them sure specialties, said Mr. Baker, the Rutgers professor.
"They have very distinct and split functions to play," he said. "In the Senate, it's nominations and treaties, and in the House, it'southward taxes and spending."
Leading up to the midterm elections, House Democrats were preparing for an onslaught of hearings, subpoenas and investigations into nearly every corner of the Trump administration. The Democrat in line to be chairman of the Judiciary Committee also promised to open an investigation into accusations of sexual misconduct and perjury against Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh if the Democrats won a Firm majority.
President Trump has leveraged the Republican majority in the Senate to remake the courts. Mr. Trump came into office with more than 100 judicial vacancies; relaxed Senate rules on confirmations have immune him to fill them quickly. So far, he has filled at least 60 seats on the federal district courts, appeals courts and the Supreme Court. With the Senate at present even more solidly under Republican command, additional appointments are likely to come.
In terms of presidential succession, the speaker of the House is second in line, after the vice president. The president pro tempore of the Senate follows subsequently the speaker.
Only on perhaps the biggest consequence — that of impeachment — the outlook remains largely unchanged.
With a Republican majority in the Senate, it is unlikely that the Business firm Democrats would effort to impeach Mr. Trump, barring big developments in the special counsel'southward investigation or elsewhere. They'd never win the case in the Senate.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/us/politics/house-senate-difference-control.html
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