House of Representatives How Many Democrats and Republicans

The United states of america Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government and consists of two houses: the lower house known as the House of Representatives and the upper firm known as the Senate. The words "Congress" and "House" are sometimes used colloquially to refer to the House of Representatives. There are 535 members of Congress: 100 senators and 435 representatives in the Business firm.

Republicans currently command the Senate (54 to 44 Democrats) and the House (246 to 188).

Comparing chart

House of Representatives versus Senate comparison nautical chart

	House of Representatives	Senate
Introduction	The U.s. Firm of Representatives is ane of the 2 houses of the United States Congress. It is frequently referred to as the Firm.	The United States Senate is the upper business firm of the bicameral legislature of the United States Congress.
Type	Lower house. Responds to the needs of the people faster since representatives merely have a two yr term. Laws dealing with revenue must start in the House.	Upper business firm. The half-dozen year term means the Senate can be slower and consider the long-term effects of laws.
Seats	435 voting members, 6 not-voting members: five delegates, one resident commissioner	100
Seats apportioned	Based on the population of each country	Two for each country
Length of term	2 years. All 435 seats are up for reelection every two years.	6 years. Here there is a continuous body idea. Only i/three of the senate seats are elected every two years. And then only 34 or 33 senators are up for election at one time.
Term limits	None	None
Leadership	Nancy Pelosi (D) (Speaker); elected by the Firm of Representatives.	The President of the Senate [currently Kamala Harris (D) only votes in case of a tie. When he or she is non available, the President pro tempore, a senator elected by the Senate [currently Patrick Leahy (D)] takes over on his behalf.
Majority Leader	Steny Hoyer (D)	Chuck Schumer (D)
Minority Leader	Kevin McCarthy (R)	Mitch McConnell (R)
Majority Whip	James Clyburn (D)	John Thune (R)
Minority Whip	Steve Scalise (R)	Dick Durbin (D)
Political groups	Autonomous (219), Republican (211), v vacant seats	Republican (48), Democratic (48), Contained (ii)
Voting system	First-past-the-post	Get-go-past-the-post
History	Based on Virginia Plan	Based on New Jersey Plan

Size of Senate vs. House

While in that location are 100 seats in the Senate (ii senators from each land), at that place are 435 seats in the Firm of Representatives (ane representative from each of the various congressional districts, with the number of congressional districts in each country adamant by the population).

The Reapportionment Act of 1929 set the final number of the House at the current 435, with district sizes adapted according to population growth. However, equally district borders were never divers definitively, they can and often do stretch into peculiar shapes due to a exercise known as gerrymandering.

Gerrymandering is used at the state legislature level to create districts that overwhelmingly favor 1 party. Federal and Supreme Court rulings have overturned gerrymandering efforts that have been perceived to exist based on race, simply otherwise some districts accept been reconfigured to give one or another party an farthermost political advantage, thus allowing that party to secure more power in the state and in the House of Representatives.

A line graph showing which political parties take controlled the U.Southward. House of Representatives and Senate over the years. Click to enlarge.

Roles of Representatives and Senators

The House plays a major function in government, mainly that of initiating all revenue-based legislation. Whatever proposal to enhance taxes must come from the House, with Senate review and approval. The Senate, on the other hand, has sole power of blessing on foreign treaties and cabinet and judicial nominations, including appointments to the Supreme Courtroom.

In cases of impeachment (due east.one thousand., Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998), the House determines if charges can be brought against the official, and a simple majority vote approves or rejects the filing of charges (the impeachment process). If approved, the Senate then serves every bit the investigative/judicial body to make up one's mind if the charges merit removing the defendant official from his or her part. However, the vote in the Senate has to stand for "a significant majority," unremarkably taken to mean 67 of the 100 votes.

Members of Congress are deemed to be "beyond the power of arrest" while in office, except in cases of treason, murder, or fraud. This stipulation has been used by representatives and senators to avoid subpoenas and other judicial procedures. A senator can waive the privilege at any fourth dimension, but a member of the House has to submit his or her petition to a full general vote. If a simple majority approves, the privilege tin be waived.

Congress has the power to subpoena any denizen. Noncompliance with a congressional subpoena can carry up to a 1-year jail sentence. The case is heard in a judicial forum, and punishment (a sentence) for those plant guilty of "contempt of Congress" is handled strictly by the judicial system.

The succession order in the federal government is president, vice president and and then Speaker of the Firm, the leader of the representatives. The vice president is considered the "president" of the Senate, though he or she is not required or even expected to nourish about Senate sessions. The Senate elects a "President Pro Tempore," often the senior, or longest-serving, senator of the majority party, who is responsible for managing twenty-four hour period-to-mean solar day business.

Length of Terms

Senators are elected for a half-dozen-year term, but Firm representatives only accept ii-year terms before they need to seek reelection. Every member of the Firm is up for election or reelection every two years, but the Senate has a staggered system wherein only one-third of the Senators are upwardly for election or reelection every 2 years. It is possible for the House to change to a large extent (in terms of political party control) every two years, but changes are slower in the Senate. In both chambers, incumbents accept a cracking advantage over challengers, winning more than than 90% of all contested races.

Qualifications

To be eligible as a representative, a person needs to exist at least 25 years old at the time of the election and have lived continuously in the U.South. for at least seven years. To go a senator, i must be at least thirty years one-time at the time of the election and accept lived continuously in the U.Southward. for at least 9 years. It is not a requirement to be a natural-built-in citizen in club to go a member of Congress.

Committees

Nigh of Congress' piece of work takes place in committees. Both the House and Senate have standing, special, briefing, and joint committees.

Continuing committees are permanent and provide longer-serving members with power bases. In the Firm, cardinal committees include Budget, Ways and Ways, and Military machine, while the Senate has Appropriations, Foreign Relations, and Judiciary committees. (Some committees exist in both chambers, such every bit Upkeep, Military, and Veterans Affairs.) Special committees are temporary, formed to investigate, analyze, and/or evaluate specific issues. Briefing committees are formed when legislation is canonical in both the House and Senate; they finalize the language in legislation. Joint committees characteristic members of the House and Senate, with leadership of each commission alternating between members of each chamber.

Committees as well have subcommittees, which are formed to focus more than closely on certain issues. Some accept become permanent, simply nearly are formed for express fourth dimension frames. Although useful for zeroing in on key issues, the proliferation of committees, and especially subcommittees, has decentralized the legislative process and significantly slowed it, making Congress less responsive to changing trends and needs.

Debating legislation has stricter rules in the House than in the Senate, applicative at both the committee and whole-torso levels. In the Firm, debate fourth dimension is restricted and topics are ready beforehand, with discussions limited to the agenda. In the Senate, the tactic called filibustering is allowed. Once the floor is ceded to a senator, he or she can speak for equally long every bit the senator chooses, on whatever topic; no other business organisation can be transacted while the person speaks. A delay is used to cake potential legislation or Senate decisions until a favorable vote can be called. This has resulted in sometimes comically cool efforts on the part of senators. For case, during a 2013 delay over the Affordable Care Act, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) read from Dark-green Eggs and Ham.

Origins of Business firm and Senate

In general, the Business firm represents the population, while the Senate represents a "landed/large property" populace. In colonial times, the proposed "legislative torso" had 2 models. The Virginia Plan, endorsed by Thomas Jefferson, created a group of representatives based on population sizes, and so that more populous states would have a greater voice in legislative bug. Opposing it was the New Jersey Programme that limited each state to the same number of representatives; the plan suggested that there be something between two to 5 representatives per country. The New Jersey Plan was criticized for property larger states "hostage" to smaller states, as each would have the same power base of operations. This article in The New Yorker dissects it well:

James Madison and Alexander Hamilton absolutely hated the idea that each land should exist entitled to the same number of senators regardless of size. Hamilton was withering on the topic. "As states are a collection of private men," he harangued his boyfriend-delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, "which ought nosotros to respect most, the rights of the people composing them, or of the artificial beings resulting from the limerick? Zero could exist more preposterous or cool than to sacrifice the former to the latter."

Per the Connecticut Compromise at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, the Us adopted the bicameral arrangement of the English language Parliament (i.east., Firm of Lords and House of Commons). The compromise was betwixt the Virginia program (small state) and the New Jersey proposal (large country), 2 competing ideas on whether each state should get equal representation in the federal government or whether representation should be based on population. The compromise established that representatives in the lower house (Business firm of Representatives) volition exist based on a population number (called a "district") while the upper house (Senate) would contain ii representative from each state. It was also decided that all classes would be eligible to get senators, bailiwick to age and residency restrictions.

References

• Congress.gov
• The Organization of Congress - Cliff Notes
• Wikipedia: U.s.a. Business firm of Representatives
• Wikipedia: The states Senate
• Wikipedia: Structure of the United States Congress

Share this comparison:

If you read this far, you should follow us:

"Firm of Representatives vs Senate." Diffen.com. Diffen LLC, north.d. Web. 20 Feb 2022. < >

rutterthansin1968.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.diffen.com/difference/House_of_Representatives_vs_Senate

Share this post