Legislative Branch Infographic

Qualifications to run for Senator

Qualifications

• Must be at least 30 years old
• Be a citizen of the United States for at least 9 years
• Must live in the state they are wanting to represent.

Members of the Senate

• The Senate is made up of 100 members
• Each state is represented by 2 Senators
• Senators serve 6 year terms
• Senator elections are staggered so no more than 1/3 of Senators are up for reelection at one time
• North Carolina's Senator are:
• Richard Burr
• Thom Tillis

Senators

Richard Burr

Thom Tillis

Senator Power v. Representative Power

Senate Power and Leadership

Senators have more power than members from the House of Representatives because they represent entire states while members of the House represent districts of a state. There are also less Senators then Representatives so, they have more responsibilities to account for.

What is a filibuster?

Filibuster

A filibuster is a long speech used to prevent a vote on a bill. This is important because this only occurs in the senate. Usually when a filibuster happens a bill ends up dying. A filibuster comes to the end with cloture which is a formal way of ending a filibuster.

What are expressed powers of Congress?

Expressed Powers

Expressed powers are specifically written in the Constitution. These powers are specifically given to the Federal government. The framers visoned Congress having a little more power than the other two branches. A couple examples of expressed power is the ability to declare war, coin money, regulate commerce, and to establish a post office.

What are implied powers?

These are powers that aren't specifically in the Constitution. These powers are checked to make sure they are constitutional . One example of this is when congress passes legislation on national health care.

Implied Powers

What is the Elastic Clause?

The Elastic Clause gives Congress the power to pass whatever laws they consider "necessary and proper". This helps Congress carry out written powers. They have the power to create any law as long as the law is constitutional and needed to properly do their job. The Elastic Clause was first used in 1819 in the case of McCulloch vs. Maryland. The state of Maryland tried to put an unconstitutional tax on bank notes.

Elastic Clause

How does the Legislative Branch check and balance the Judicial and Executive branch?

Checks and Balances

The Legislative branch checks the Judical branch by passing laws that control the courts jurisdiction to hear cases.

There are many ways the Legislative branch can check the Executive branch for example the Legislative branch can reject the Presidents veto by overriding it. A 2/3 vote is needed from both chambers to override a veto.

Committee Action

Committees

• A bill goes to a committee to be examined and to see if the bill should be accepted or rejected.
• Changes can be made to a bill here.
• Bills usually die off at this point.

House of Representatives

• The bill gets put on a calendar.
• Representatives get a limited amount of time to debate on a bill.
• The bill is voted on here through a simple majority vote.

House

Senate

Senate

• A bill gets assigned to another committee to be debated on in the Senate.
• The bill is voted on through simple majority.
• Senators get almost unlimited time to debate on a bill.
• Only cloture can stop a Senator from continuing with a filibuster.
• Before a bill can reach the president, both chambers of Congress need to come together and vote on the bill through simple majority.

Presidential Action

President

Action

• A President can veto, pass or do nothing to a bill.
• If the President takes no action for ten days while congress is in session, the bill becomes a law.
• If no action is taken while congress isn't in session, the legislation dies.
• Both chambers of Congress can override the president's veto through a two-thirds majority vote.

Members of the HoR

Representatives

• There are 432 members
• NC has 13 representatives.
• The representative for CTLA is David Rouzer.
• The number of representatives for each state changes with the census.
• Each district represents about 747,00 people.
• The term limit for a Representative is 2 years.

Speaker of the House

• There are more Democrats in the HoR currently.
• The Speaker of the House is the leader of the House of Representatives. Currently Nancy Pelosi is the Speaker of the House.

Leading Roles

Majority and Minority Party Roles

Parties

• There are Majority and Minority leaders that represent the different parties in the House.
• The Majority Leader is Steny Hoyer.
• The Minority Leader is Kevin McCarthy.
• Each party also has Whips that make sure everyone in the party is voting by what the party wants.
• The Majority Whip is James Clyburn.
• The Minority Whip is Steve Scalise.

Law Currently Going Through

A law that is currently going through the House of Representatives is The Administration's Religious Assault on LGBTQ rights.

Current Law