Congressional Flow Chart

The executive Branch is intertwined with every aspect of the United States government. The executive Branch is related through Congress.

As Chairman, Patrick Leahy can call, hold, and lead Senate meetings.

Senate Committee Chairs

A Joint Committee for the United States Senate. Joint Committees are related to Select and Special Committees, Joint Committees have the most power.

Senate

Majority/Minority Whip

The Senate Committee Chair is the head of a committee in the Senate. The Chair sets the committee’s agenda and decides whether or when a bill is considered. They also have other responsibilities in this position such as maintaining order during meetings, call and hold meetings, supervising the staff of the committee, and sending all papers referred to the committee to the chamber clerk whenever necessary.

The majority and minority parties both have a whip, or assistant floor leader. The job of the minority whip is to assist the minority leader with whatever they may need, and confirm attendance of their party’s members. The majority whip has similar duties of overseeing the proceedings and attendance of members of their party, as well as generally asserting the agenda, wants, and needs of members of their party. Both the majority and minority whips are responsible for advancing their party’s goals and objectives, and communication between the congress members and their party’s leader. Currently, the Senate majority whip is Republican John Cornyn, and the Senate minority whip is Democrat Dick Durbin.

Executive Bureaucracy

Joint Committees

The executive branch holds daily authority and responsibility for the state. The executive branch executes, or enforces, the law. The Executive bureaucracy is also responsible for determining budgets and working with citizens.

Conference Committees

Senate

Majority/Minority Leader

Standing Committees

Senate Majority/ Minority Whip helps to regulate the responsibilities of the Senate leaders and Senate Committee Chairs.

Joint committees are:

• composed of membership from both houses of Congress.
• conducted with narrow jurisdictions and normally lack authority to decide on legislation.
• Chairmanship alternates between the House and Senate members from Congress to Congress.

The Joint committees are a part of the larger Senate organization that is composed of Standing, Special, Select and Joint Committees. The Senate divides the Joint committees into four individual entities on printing, on tax, on library, and on Economic committee. The Economic Committee for example, may hold hearings on policy issues and on specific bill proposals. They consider and further develop bill proposals through a markup process. The committee will then report any recommended changes to legislation to the full chamber.

Conference committees are temporary committees formed by the House of Representatives and the Senate conferees whose purpose is to reconcile disagreements on a bill that has passed both chambers.

Conference committees are usually convened to resolve bicameral differences on major and controversial legislation.

The Senate Majority Leader and Senate Minority Leader are both representatives and spokesman of their respective parties in the Senate, who are elected by the members of their respective parties. They also schedule and manage businesses on the Senate floor by calling in bills and informing the members of their respective party of their daily agenda. Majority leaders have to meet and balance the needs of the Senate members. The Majority Leader also meets with the Minority Leader in order for them to reach an agreement when speaking on the floor. Both leaders meet often with the president and the House Majority Leaders and House Minority Leaders.

Senator

The House and Senate both have standing committees, which are permanent legislative panels that meet periodically to discuss specific issues and problems and form potential laws. There are a few committees that overlap between the house and senate, such as budget, armed forces, and small businesses. Other standing committees are unique to the house, such as transportation and infrastructure, while others are unique to the senate, including banking, housing, and urban affairs. Standing committees carry over from one Congress to the next and are responsible for the formation and shaping of all proposed laws in Congress.

A senator belongs to the legislative branch of the government and their main job is to represent the people of his or her state in the senate. They put forward and vote and pass bills into laws. The senators are also known for talking and working with the people of the state they represent to find what they can do to help and make the state a better place. Senators also help citizens when they deal with the federal government such as when they need a passport or a new birth certificate.

In a Select Committee, representatives shake hands with Hillary Clinton. Select committees can direct legislation to the Senate.

Bill

House Majority/Minority Whip

The draft employed by lawmakers for introducing their proposals (enacting or repealing laws, for example) in the Senate. They address either matters of general interest ("public bills") or narrow interest ("private bills"), such as immigration cases and individual claims against the Federal government.

Select Committees

In regards to Seniority Systems, this System regulates how members are placed into the Senate and Senate Committees.

House Rules Committee

A congressperson is any member of congress they have the ability to vote on Legislation approved in the House and Senate.

What is a Congressperson?

Whips are assistants to the floor leaders who are also elected by their party conferences. The majority and minority whips are responsible for mobilizing votes within their parties on major issues. Accordingly, they are disciplinarians that ensure that party members in the legislature vote according to their party's platforms. The whip often serves as acting floor leader in the absence of a party floor leader. The current majority whip in the House is Steven Scalise and the current minority whip is Steny Hoyer.

Speaker of the House

Also known as special committees, select committees are established by the Senate for a limited time period. The are enacted to decide on the specific direction a study or investigation should take. These committees might be given or denied authority to report legislation to the Senate. The cases indian affairs , select committee on ethics, select committee on intelligence, and special committee on Aging.Select Committees are only formed when issues arise in the aforementioned topics. The committees are intrusted with the responsibility advise the Senate on what course the issue should take.

The House Rules Committee, or more commonly referred to as the Rules Committee, is a committee for the house of representatives that is responsible for creating the order in which bills are voted upon based on immediate significance or topic matter at hand. They can also be ruled by their need in a certain place at a point in time. They are very important in government because they govern the urgency of the bill, when the bill will be debated, and when it will be voted on. It is one of the oldest standing committees in the House, originally founded on April 2, 1789, and is the most important committee in the House of Representatives.

The Speaker of the House is the presiding officer and leader of the House, who is elected by a caucus of the majority party. The Speaker has some influential responsibilities such as running and maintaining order in the House meetings and votings (where the Speaker usually does not participate in), appointing committee members, and having a final say for the bill approval process. The Speaker has much influential power in the federal government given that the Speaker is next, after the vice president, in the presidential line of succession.

A congressperson is any member of the house of Congress.

First and foremost, a congressperson is responsible for representing their constituents accurately. They must consider what the people who elected them want from their local governments, and do their best to accomplish what the public wants them to in terms of what legislation will be passed. Congresspeople are responsible for passing laws and regulations, as well as making sure that the laws they pass are implemented on whatever level they are relevant- local, state, or national. The duties of a congressperson change based on what the people need at that any given time, and their job is adaptive and multifaceted in order to cover all aspects of passing laws and satisfying the needs of the people in their party.

House Majority/Minority Leader

The GAO, regulates Congress and the activities of the Senate.

Speaker of the House is the leading member of the House.

For both the majority and minority parties in the House, a House leader is selected. Having a single main leader for each party helps to make House operations more efficient, and helps to keep the House of Representatives unified and cohesive. The House Majority Leader plans the issues that will be discussed and schedules House floor proceedings, and can work to advance the agenda for whichever party they are affiliated. Meanwhile, the House Minority Leader is a member of whichever party is not the more prominent one during any given Congress. They are responsible for advancing their party’s agenda and plans, and making sure that their needs and desires are not ignored despite not being the party currently in power. Currently, the House Majority Leader is Republican member Kevin McCarthy, and the House Minority Leader is Democratic member Nancy Pelosi.

Many interest groups hire lobbyists in order to sway politicians in their favor.

Lobbyists

Staff Agencies

(GAO, CBO, CRS)

House Committee Chairs

Activists who seeks to persuade members of the government (like members of Congress) to enact legislation that would benefit their group. Anyone who petitions the government or contacts their member of Congress to voice an opinion is functioning as a lobbyist. Lobbying is a regulated industry and a protected activity under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution that guarantees rights to free speech, assembly, and petition. They educate government officials and corporate officers on important issues. Lobbyists also work to change public opinion through advertising campaigns or by influencing 'opinion leaders'.

The House Committee Chairs oversee agencies and activities under their control as well as bills created by congress and divisions of government. The House of Representatives has 21 congressional committees in total and their main jobs are to oversee the operations and running a of the different groups in government. They are also responsible for the implementation for and has responsibility of the panels agenda and recourses, meetings, and acting on the committee's behalf.

Staff Agencies (GAO, CBO, CRS) are branches of congress that work to monitor, inform, and budget congress.

The Congressional Research Service is a branch of the Library of Congress. The CRS conducts research and analysis for Congress. The research covers a broad range of national policy issues. Any member of congress can call upon this service however all research is confidential. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is a federal agency within the legislative branch of the United States government. The CBO provides budget and economic information to Congress. The CBO is a nonpartisan agency created by the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974.The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congress. GAO investigates the way the federal government spends taxpayer dollars. The GAO is controlled by the “Comptroller General of the United States”. Who is appointed to a 15-year term by the President the candidates are proposed by congress.

House Majority/Minority Leader Regulate the proceedings of the House Committee chairs.

Seniority System

Seniority in politics is the status given to Congressmen according to their length of service, which entitles a them with greater seniority to preferential treatment in matters such as committee assignments.

Seniority is usually, but not always, considered when each party awards committee chairmanships, the most powerful position on a committee. Senators naturally have greater seniority as a result of their long term durations as compared to members in the House.

Personal Staff

Congressional Flow Chart

By Josh, Tyler, Steven, Jennifer, and Andrew

A Personal Staff is a small team that works directly with a state legislator, who supervises and guides the staff to produce the desired work product. They usually work at the Capitol or district office.

Nancy Pelosi, a California representative in the House for 20 years, would have seniority over less experienced members in Congress.