Chapter 5: The Organization
of 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 sessions
versus congressional
terms. How long is a
session? How long is a
term?
The current Congress is
the 111th 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 25 years
old.
2.
Have been a citizen for
at least seven years
3.
Meet the residency
requirements for the
district they want to
represent.
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Members serve two year
terms.
The number of
representatives from
each state is determined
by the population of that
state.
That’s one reason why
we have a census every
ten years.
State legislatures set up
the congressional
districts in their states.
II. continued
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If a state has gained or lost
population, the number of
representatives they get will
change. This means the
state needs to draw a new
map to divide up the
districts to include the new
districts or take out the old
ones.
This process of redrawing
the districts is called
redistricting.

If a state has gained or lost
seats in the House, the
process of changing the
number of representatives
they have is called
reapportionment.
See p. 125. How many
districts does Alabama have?
Is that the same number that
we had in 1990? How has
Alabama’s population
changed in the ten years
between the 1990 and 2000
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. . .
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Dividing up the district so
that the population was
very uneven.
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 Alabaster
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 urban and rural
districts should be about
the same.
Wesberry v. Sanders
establishes the principle of
“one person, one vote”,
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 30 years
old.
Be a citizen for at
least 9 years
Be a resident of the
state you want to
represent.

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Senators serve 6 year
terms. There is no limit
to the number of terms
they can serve.
There are 100 Senators.
(each state has two) 1/3
of them are up for reelection every two years.
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 $150,000
(2002)
Pension of
$150,000/year for life
Franking privilege
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
$165,200 a year and voted in 2006 to give
themselves a pay raise effective January 2007
of 2% to $168,500.
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. 129
what the country looks like?
Almost 50% are lawyers The main reason why the
(why?)
makeup of Congress
changes slowly is because
Most Congresspersons
of the advantage
are still white, middleincumbents have.
aged men.
Main advantages:
Does Congress look like
Name recognition
the rest of the country?
Casework & credit claiming
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
rules and procedures
Most of the work done in
Congress happens in
committees. This is
especially true in the
House since it is larger
than the Senate
Party membership helps
organize Congress in
several ways:
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The majority party (party
in power) chooses who
chairs each committee
Makes the rules (every 2
years)
Organizes the
committees
Controls which bills go to
which committees
Keeps the calendar
Who’s in charge in the House?

A.
B.
C.
House Leadership
The Speaker of the House is
leader of the majority party
and has great power &
influence over other
members (Nancy Pelosi, D8th-CA)
The majority leader is the
Speaker’s top assistant
(Steny Hoyer, D-5th MD)
The majority whip’s main job
is to round up votes. (James
Clyburn D-6th-SC)
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The minority leader is
in charge of the
minority party
members in the
House. (John
Boehner R-8th-OH)
The minority party
also has minority
whip (Roy Blunt R7th-MO).
What do these leaders do?
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Organize and unify
party members
Schedule the work of
the House (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
standing committees,
where most die.
Surviving bills are
studied in
subcommittees, and bills
reported out of
committee are placed on
a calendar.
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The Rules Committee
must approve bills
before they can reach
the floor for a vote.
Measures that do win
House approval are
then sent to the
Senate.
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.
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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 Rules 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 Whole, in which 100
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
informal in general
The Vice President 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
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The Senate elects a
President 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 (Robert
Byrd, D-WV)
Senate Majority
Leader (Harry Reid,
D-NV)
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Senate Minority
Leader (Mitch
McConnell, R-KY)
Majority Whip
(Richard Durbin, DIL)
Minority Whip (Trent
Lott, R-MS)
What do the Senate Leaders
do?
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The Senate majority floor
leader is responsible for
guiding bills through the
Senate
The minority 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
whips 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. . .

“I’m Just A Bill’
Section 4: Congressional
Committees
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What do committees do?
Ease the workload by
dividing up the work into
smaller groups.
This allows members to
specialize 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’ oversight
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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Standing committees are
permanent from one congress to 
the next
The majority party controls
membership on the standing
committees, so membership can
change with each round of
elections.

Subcommittees 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)
Select 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)
Joint committees include
members from both
houses.
Conference 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 reputations in their
home districts, which
helps win re-election
Gives members a
chance to influence
important national
legislation
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Enables members to
influence each other
Parties assign members
to the standing
committees
The chairpersons of the
standing committees are
powerful members of
Congress because
they’re regarded as
experts 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