Chapter 10: Congress
Section 1:
Section 2:
Section 3:
Section 4:
Section 5:
Congressional Membership
The House of Representatives
The Senate
Congressional Committees
Staff and Support Agencies
Section 1: Congressional
Membership
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I. When does Congress
meet?
Congressional ________
versus congressional
_____. How long is a
session?_____
How long is a
term?_____
The current Congress is
the ______th Congress.
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How many sessions
will someone elected
to the House
serve?____
How about in the
Senate? _____
II: Membership of the House
To qualify to run for election
as a member of the
House of
Representatives, you
must:
1.
Be at least _____ years
old.
2.
Have been a citizen for
at least ______ years
3.
Meet the residency
requirements for the
district they want to
represent.
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Members serve ______
year terms.
The number of
representatives from
each _____ is
determined by the
_________ of that state.
That’s one reason why
we have a ________
every _____ years.
State __________ set up
the congressional
_________ in their
states.
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II. continued
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If a state has ______ or
______ population, the
number of representatives
they get will change. This
means the state needs to
draw a new _____ to divide
up the _______ to include
the new districts or take out
the old ones.
This process of redrawing
the districts is called
_______________.
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If a state has gained or lost
seats in the House, the
process of changing the
number of representatives
they have is called
____________.
See p. 274. How many
districts does Alabama
have?______ Is that the
same number that we had in
2000? _____
How has Alabama’s
population changed in the ten
years between the 2000 and
2010 census? ______
What pattern do we see
across the country?
_____________________
Is the redistricting always fair?
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Who controls drawing the
new state district map?
Can we trust them to
draw the map in a fair
way?
Historically, state
legislatures have abused
the redistricting power in
two ways. . .
Packing & Cracking
See p. 276
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Dividing up the district so
that the population was
very uneven. (urban v.
rural)
Drawing the districts in a
way that gives more
power to the political party
in control.
(Gerrymandering)
What does Alabama’s
district map look like?
What district is Helena in?
Who is our
representative?
What has been done to prevent
abuse of redistricting?

Gomillion v. Lightfoot
(1960) An Alabama
case in which all but 4 of
the 400 eligible voters in
Tuskegee had been
drawn out of the district.
The new district had 28
sides to it! What would
have been the purpose
of excluding voters from
this district?
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Famous Supreme Court
Cases:
Baker v. Carr establishes
that ______ and _____
districts should be about
the same.
Wesberry v. Sanders
establishes the principle of
“____ person, one _____”,
which means that districts
should have populations
that are roughly equal.
See Article I, Section 2
III: Membership of the Senate
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To run for Senate,
you must:
. Be at least ____
years old.
Be a citizen for at
least ____ years
Be a resident of the
state you want to
represent.

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Senators serve ____
year terms. There is no
limit to the number of
terms they can serve.
There are ____
Senators. (each state
has two) 1/3 of them are
up for re-election every
two years because the
house is a continuous
body. Why is this a good
idea?____________
Membership Has its Privileges
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Can’t be arrested while in
Congress or in transit to
& from
Can’t be sued for what
they say while on the
House floor. (slander)
Can be censured for bad
behavior.
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Salary of $________
(2002)
Pension of
$150,000/year for life
Franking privilege
(what’s
this?)_______________
Free medical care & gym
access
Money to pay for office
space & staff in
Washington, D.C.
Tax deductions to pay for
two residencies
The Privileges of membership
continued. . .
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Both Senators and House Members make
$______ a year and voted in 2006 to give
themselves a pay raise effective January 2007
of 2%.
Is this fair compensation? Why? Why not?
________________________________
The President makes $400,000 a year (2001)
and the VP makes $208,100 (2004)
Who is in Congress?
Why don’t our
representatives represent
See p. 286
what the country looks like?
Almost 50% are lawyers The main reason why the
(why?)
makeup of Congress
changes slowly is because
Most Congresspersons
are still _______, middle- of the advantage
incumbents have.
aged ________.
Main advantages:
Does Congress look like
Name _____________
the rest of the
_________ & credit ________
country?__________
Can use staff and franking
privilege
Have had media exposure
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How Congress Works: the House
of Representatives (Section 2)
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I. Each chamber of
Congress makes its own
___________________
Most of the work done in
Congress happens in
___________. This is
especially true in the
______ since it is larger
than the _________
Party membership helps
organize Congress in
several ways:
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The ___________ (party
in power) chooses who
chairs each committee
__________ (every 2
years)
Organizes the
_________
Controls which _____ go
to which ____________
Keeps the ___________
Who’s in charge in the House?

A.
B.
C.
House Leadership
The __________________
is leader of the majority
party and has great power &
influence over other
members
The ______________ is the
Speaker’s top assistant
The _______________:
main job is to round up
votes.
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The
_______________ is
in charge of the
minority party
members in the
House.
The minority party
also has a
________________
What do these leaders do?
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Organize and unify
party members
Schedule the work of
the House by
controlling the
calendar (majority
party only)
Make sure House
members show up to
vote
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Distribute and collect
information
Keep the House in
touch with the
President
Influence lawmakers
to support the
policies of their
parties.
How a bill passes through the
House
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A member can introduce
a bill in either house but
the bill can originate
elsewhere, often in the
executive branch.
Bills are referred to
__________ committees,
where most _________.
Surviving bills are
studied in
____________, and bills
reported out of
committee are placed on
a calendar. (reported
favorably)

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The ________
Committee must
approve bills before
they can reach the
floor for a vote.
Measures that do win
House approval are
then sent to the
__________.
So, to summarize. . .
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All laws begin as bills by
being introduced, then go to 
committee.
If approved, they are put on
the calendar, listing the
order in which they will be
considered on the House
floor.

The House Rules
Committee receives all bills
approved by the various
committees of the House.
The Rules Committee
determines which bills will
be considered by the full
House and places them on
the House Calendar.
The _________ Committee also
settles disputes among other
committees and delays or blocks
bills that representatives and
House leaders don’t want to
come to a vote.
When the Rules Committee
sends bills to the floor, the
House may sit as a Committee
of the ______, in which _____
members (not 218) constitutes a
quorum, in order to speed up
consideration of an important
bill, so that the full House can
then vote on it.
Section 3: The Senate
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I. The Senate at Work
A Has fewer rules than the
House. Senators have
more freedom and face
less pressure from party
leadership
The Senate is more
_________ in general
The _____________ acts
as President of the Senate,
casting a tie-breaking vote
if necessary. The VP
doesn’t usually participate
in day-to-day Senate
matters

The Senate elects a
_____________Pro
Tempore “for the time
being”, but this
position is not nearly
as powerful in that
position as a leader
as the Senate
Majority Leader.
Senate Leadership
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VP as President of
the Senate
President Pro
Tempore
Senate Majority
Leader
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Senate Minority
Leader
Majority Whip
Minority Whip
What do the Senate Leaders
do?
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The Senate majority
______________ is
responsible for guiding
bills through the Senate
The __________ floor
leader develops
criticisms of majority
party bills and tries to
keep the opposition party
members working
together
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Majority and minority
______ make sure their
party members show up
to vote and report the
status of votes to the
majority and minority
leaders
All Senate leaders
control the flow of bills to
committees and to the
floor for debate; there is
no Senate committee
comparable to the House
Rules Committee.
The Senate at Work continued
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There are only 2
calendars in the
Senate:
Calendar of General
Orders (bills for
consideration go
here)
Executive Calendar
(treaties and
nominations)
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The majority party
controls the flow of
legislative work in the
Senate. (why?)
The filibuster is a tool
either party can use as a
tactic to stall or prevent a
vote on a bill. It takes a
vote of 3/5ths of
Congress to reach
cloture (to end a filibuster
and put the bill to a vote)
To help us remember the
process. . .
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“
See p. 339 for how a
bill goes through the
House
See p. 351 for how a
bill goes through the
Senate
See p. 354 for a chart
of the whole process
Section 4: Congressional
Committees
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What do committees do?
Ease the __________ by
dividing up the work into
_______________.
This allows members to
____________ on
certain issues.
If you were in Congress,
which committees would
you want to be on?
House committees
Senate committees
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Committees allow
members to discuss and
selecting the most
important bills Congress
will consider.
Committees perform
Congress’ __________
function by holding public
hearings on key
problems and issues as
a way of investigating
and keeping the public
informed.
Types of committees
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____________ committees are
_____________ from one
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congress to the next
The __________ party controls
membership on the standing
committees, so membership can
change with each round of
elections.
___________ look at issues more 
closely and in more detail. Also
continue from one Congress to the
next. Examples: the subcommittee
on economic security (Committee
on Homeland Security) or the
Subcommittee on Livestock in the
Agriculture Committee)
__________committees
study a specific issue
and issue a report on it.
They are formed in both
houses and usually only
last one term. (The 9/11
Commission)
__________ committees
include members from
both houses.
___________
committees are
temporarily set up to
work out difference in
House and Senate
versions of a bill.
Choosing Committee Members
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Which committee you’re
on is a big deal because:
It helps members build
their __________ in their
home districts, which
helps _____________
Gives members a
chance to __________
important national
legislation
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Enables members to
influence ___________
__________ assign
members to the standing
committees
The _____________ of
the standing committees
are powerful members of
Congress because
they’re regarded as
_________ on a
particular issue
Membership used to be
based on seniority, but
not since the 1970s.
Section 5: Staff & Support
 The number of staff
Agencies
members has grown to
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I. Congressional Staff
Role
A. Lawmakers rely on
their staffs to help with
many of their duties
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more than 11,000 in 1990
from 2,000 in 1947. Why
do you think this growth
has happened?
Two types of staff
Personal staff
Handle communication
 Administrative assistants
with constituents
 Legislative assistants
Run committee meetings
 caseworkers
Draft new bills
 Committee staff
Write reports
 Some say committee
Attend meetings
staffers have too much
Write newsletters &
power; that they do work
speeches
the legislators should do
themselves.
Congressional Support
Agencies
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The Library of Congress
Contains over 100 million
items
Administers the copyright
law
Tracks what goes on in
Congress both in
quarterly journals and
online
(www.loc.thomas.gov)
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Congressional Budget
Office (CBO)
Streamlines the budgetmaking process
Studies budget proposals
submitted by the
president’s Office of
Management & the
Budget (OMB)
Puts together cost
estimates
Study and track
economic trends