United States Congress
Legislative Branch
House of Representatives
 Sole Powers
 Impeachment
 Origination of Revenue-Raising Bills
 Organization
 Leadership roles are held by the political party with the
majority
 Committees
 Subcommittees
 Representation
 435 seats (set by law in the early 1900s)
 Based on population
Leadership in the House of
Representatives
Speaker of the House
John Boehner (R)
Majority (Floor) Leader
Kevin McCarthy (R)
Minority (Floor) Leader
Nancy Pelosi (D)
Georgia’s 11th District
Representative
Barry Loudermilk (R)
Speaker of the House
I am the most
powerful person in
the House.
I preside over all
sessions,
keep order,
Send bills to
committees, and…
I don’t like talking to
President Obama
Floor Leaders
We…
Maintain Party Organization
Keep order in the Party
We are assisted by the Whips
What a Representative Does…
I am in my first term as a…
Legislator who makes laws…
(“Today, I proudly supported the passage of
H.R. 7 – the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion
and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of
2015.” ) house.gov
Representative for the interests of my
constituents –YOU…
Servant who helps you…
(If your grandparents need help getting their
Social Security checks started, I might be able
to help),
Committee member who serves on
committees,
(I am currently serving on Homeland Security
and Science, Space, and Technology).
Finally, I am a…
Politician who tries to please everyone!
Senate
 Sole Powers
 Try impeachment cases
 Approve Presidential Appointments
 Approve Treaties
 Organization
 Leadership roles are held by the political party with the
majority
 Committees
 Subcommittees
 Representation
 100 total
 2 senators per state
Leadership in the Senate
President of the
Senate
Joe Biden (D)
President Pro
Tempore
Orrin Hatch (R)
Majority (Floor)
Leader
Mitch McConnell (R)
Georgia’s Senior
Senator
Johnny Isakson (R)
Minority (Floor)
Leader
Harry Reid (D)
Georgia’s Junior
Senator
David Perdue (R)
President of the Senate
My main job is being the Vice
President of the United
States but,
When I am in the Senate, it’s
my job to
Recognize members (when
they want to speak) and
Put questions to a vote
But, I only get to vote to
break a tie
President Pro Tempore
I get to take over when
Joe’s out working on VP
business.
I
Preside over sessions,
Keep order, and
Send bills to committees
Floor Leaders
I am the MOST POWERFUL PERSON IN THE
SENATE!!!
I decide which bills will be debated once they get
out of committee,
Maintain party organization,
Keep order in the party, and I’m assisted by the
Whip
I used to be the Majority Leader,
but my party lost control of the
Senate in 2014!!
Now, I only get to
Maintain party organization,
Keep order in the party, and
I’m assisted by the Whip too
I am currently in my second term as a Senator from
Georgia Senators
Georgia.
I am a …
Legislator who makes laws
(Biennial Budgeting and Appropriations Act and
Medicare Home Infusion Site of Care Act of 2015)
I represent my constituents –YOU!
I am your servant
(assist constituents who run into difficulties when
dealing with federal agencies),
I am also a Committee Member, currently,
I am the only Republican senator to chair two
committees in the 114th Congress:
the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and
the Senate Select Committee on Ethics.
I am also on the
Senate Committee on Finance,
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor
and Pensions, and
Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
I am a Politician, trying to make everyone happy!
I am in my first term as a Georgia Senator. I
am a
Legislator who makes laws
(A resolution welcoming the Prime Minister
of Israel to the United States for his address
to a joint session of Congress.),
I represent my constituents –YOU,
I am your Servant,
I am a committee member serving on
Special Committee on Aging
Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, &
Forestry
Committee on the Budget
Committee on Foreign Relations, and
Committee on the Judiciary, and
I am a politician trying to make everyone
happy!
Congressional Committees
 House of Representatives
 There are three types of House Committees
 1) standing committees elected by members of the House (21)
 2) select committees appointed by the Speaker of the House (1)
 3) joint committees whose members are chosen according to the
statute or resolution that created that committee (4)
 How Committee Members and Chairmen are chosen
 The Democratic Caucus and the Republican Conference
recommend members from their parties to serve on Committees
 The majority party recommends a Chairman
 The Minority Party recommends a Ranking Member
 The full House approves the recommendation of the Party
Caucuses
wikipedia
 Senate
 There are three types of committees in the Senate
 Standing Committees (16)
 Standing committees are permanent bodies with specific
responsibilities spelled out in the Senate's official rules
 Special and Select Committees (4)
 Select and special committees are created for clearly
specified purposes
 Joint Committees (4)
 they either perform housekeeping functions or conduct
studies
 How Committee Members and Chairmen are Chosen
 Party conferences convene before the start of each new
Congress to elect leaders and determine committee
assignments.
 Each party conference appoints a "committee on
committees" to prepare a roster of members it wishes named
to the party's specifically allotted committee seats.
 Traditionally, the majority party member with the greatest
seniority on a particular committee serves as its chairman.
 Today, a vote may be taken if someone else from the majority
party might be better suited for the job
senate.gov
Committee Chairmen – both houses of
Congress
 Chairmen in both houses have the same jobs
 Decide when their committee will meet
 Decide which bills they will consider
 Decide whether to hold public hearings
 Decide what witnesses to call
Congressional Committee Actions
 When a bill goes to a committee, it is referred to a
subcommittee that will
Committee:
Agriculture
 Investigate it
Subcommittee:
 Debate it
Nutrition
 Recommend it’s fate
 The Subcommittee will then send their recommendation to the
rest of the committee, who will then do one of the following:
 Report the bill Favorably
 Report the bill unfavorably
 Report an amended version
 Report brand new bill
 Refuse to report the bill – pigeon hole it.
 If they pigeon hole the bill, the rest of the house it’s in can issue a discharge
petition to get the bill out of committee
How a bill becomes a law (example)
 We need to get the nation out of debt so they are
going to have to raise taxes. The bill HAS to begin in
the House of Representatives….
 “Those who make over $150,000/year will now pay
15% taxes on their adjusted gross income.”
 It’s given a Number – H. Res. 150
 It’s given a title – “Wealthy Bailout”
 Entered into the House Journal and the Congressional
Record for the day
 Speaker Boehner then sends it to the Appropriations
Committee
 Once in the Appropriations Committee, Committee
Chairman, Hal Rogers, sends it to the subcommittee:
Financial Services and General Government.
 The Subcommittee
 Investigates
 Debates it
 Mark-up (making changes) can occur during this time
 Recommends its fate
 Chairman Rogers receives it out of the subcommittee.
 The Appropriations Committee
 Debates it
 Discusses it
 Mark-up (making changes) can occur during this time
 Recommends the House pass the bill
 H. Res. 150 – Wealthy Bailout goes back to the House
Rules Committee
 Before going to the House floor, a bill must be put on
the calendar
 Before it can be debated, it must receive a rule
 Bill on the Floor of the House
 Most important are considered in the Committee of the
Whole
 In the House, debate time is limited
 H. Res. 150 – Wealthy Bailout, passes!!!!
 Final Steps
 An approved bill is engrossed, read a 3rd time, voted on
again, and signed by the Speaker of the House
 A signed bill then goes to the Senate President
Now the Senate gets the bill
 Since Joe Biden is off on VP business, President Pro
Tempore, Orrin Hatch, gets the bill…
 A bill is introduced
 Given a number, S. Res. 500 – Wealthy Bailout
 Read twice
 Then, Senator Hatch referred it to the Senate
Appropriations Committee
 Once in the Appropriations Committee, Chairman, Thad
Cochran referred it to the subcommittee…
 Financial Services and General Government
 The subcommittee, Financial Services and General
Government
 Investigates it
 Debates it
 Mark-up (making changes) can occur during this time
 Recommends its fate
 Then, they send it back to the Appropriations
Committee
 The Appropriations Committee
 Mark-up (making changes) can occur during this time
 Reported it favorably and sent it back to the whole
Senate
 Back in the Senate
 The bill is only called to the floor if Majority Leader, Mitch
McConnell wants to call it to the floor
 He does!!!!
 The Senate
 Discusses the bill
 Debates the bill – this takes a while because debate time is
unlimited in the Senate!
 It looks like the bill will pass!
 Uh oh…Senators Durbin and Fein stein decide they don’t want the
bill to pass so they conduct a filibuster
 A filibuster is where they will talk a bill to death.
o One of them will try to get recognized to speak
o Then they will take turns holding the floor of the Senate,
talking about anything at all, until everyone gets tired and
there aren’t enough senators left to vote on the bill.

Senator Isakson gets wind of the plan to filibuster so he tries
to get enough votes to invoke a Cloture – a limit to debate
time. He needs 60 votes to block it.
o He’s a Republican and there are only 54 of them in the
Senate, so he will have to convince at least 6 Democrats to
vote with them.
o His attempt fails
o But so does the filibuster!
 The bill passes the Senate too
 Uh-oh, the Senators made some changes to the bill so now both
houses have to send member to a Conference Committee.
 Conference Committee
 These involve members from both houses who meet to
iron out the differences when a bill passes each house in
different versions
 Conference Committee members are usually the senior,
most powerful members and are acceptable to both
houses.
 The Conference Committee comes up with an
acceptable compromise
 The compromised version goes back through both
houses
 They CANNOT make any changes to the compromised version
 This version passes both houses!
 Now it goes to President Obama
 OH NO!!! He vetoed the bill!!!
 To override his veto, the Republicans need 2/3rds vote
in BOTH houses…
 Do they have the numbers to override????
 In the House, there are 247 Republicans out of 435
total….
 In the Senate, there are 54 Republicans out of 100
total…
 NO…they don’t have the numbers…the bill is DEAD!!!