Section 4.5- Foundations of Government and Citizenship by Samia Bennett

House of Representatives Vs. Senate

156305159 — 2025-02-18 03:51:36 UTC

This is a nice and short, simple explanation video of the differences of Senate, Congress, and the House of Representatives. Some similarities are that they are both elected by US citizens, passing legislation requires both the Senate and the House, both to get large chamber rooms in the capital to discuss matters. The speaker describes the basic requirements for running for these roles (age, background, etc.) and describes the differences of each section's running lengths/rules. The House follows procedures and limits debate, but in the Senate, debate is unlimited and all members can influence legislation. The House elects a Speaker of the House and they give great influence/leadership, the Senate has Majority and Minority leaders, they are dependent in who has power and who has a higher number of Senators in office. Generally, they work together to make decisions.

Congressional Committees

156305159 — 2025-02-18 04:04:27 UTC

Congress is one of the most important roles in government, House have 19 standing committees and Senate having 16. Each committee has a chairman and Congress can make special/select committees for certain important issues, some temporary and some permanent. Congress has this many committees for some reasons, one being that its more efficient to write legislation in a smaller group rather than large. Republicans impose term limits on committee chairs, offering chair membership to loyal party members gives a speaker more influence over committees themselves. Congressional reforms after 1994 increased the number of individual staff and reduced staff agencies, this means that more legislation comes out of offices of individual Congress people . Caucuses in Congress are not official, used to gather and discuss ideas and provide leadership opportunities. All of these work together to make the process of lawmaking efficient.

President of the Senate

156305159 — 2025-02-18 04:15:39 UTC

This is a video of Kamala Harris Breaking the tie in Senate 3 years ago on President Joe Biden's COVID-19 stimulus package. The Vice President of the U.S is also the President of the Senate. Although this is true, the President might have a much lesser role than the Speaker of the House because 1)unlike the House, the Senate does not chose its own Presiding officer and 2) unlike the Speaker, the the Senate's Presiding officer is not in fact a member of that body. The President of the Senate does not have the usual powers of the Presiding officer: to recognize members, put questions to a vote, etc. The President cannot take the floor to speak or devote and may only vote to break a tie. Any influence the President may have is solely based on relationships, only some presidents were able to build up this power.

Political Parties

156305159 — 2025-02-18 04:25:33 UTC

A team of politicians/activists/voters whose goal is to win control of the government. These parties exist to win elections, but they don't mainly focus on influencing policies. Political parties and interest groups are not the same thing. Political parties are made to facilitate collective action in the electoral process, this means that they make it easier for voters to form groups that will vote in certain ways. These parties have 5 main functions in the U.S: 1) Recruit candidates, 2) nominate, 3) get the vote out, 4) facilitate electoral choice, 5) influence national government. Parties have a process of finding candidates and getting out votes via mail, letter, text, etc. Knowing if these parties are Republican or Democrat can help with getting to know what a party may stand for overall.

State of Union

156305159 — 2025-02-18 04:36:27 UTC

When the Senate is notified about the House of Representatives being organized, a joint committee of 2 chambers is appointed and instructed "to wait upon the President and inform him that a quorum of each House is assembled and that Congress is ready to receive communication he may be pleased to make." With this, "The state of our union depends on the state of the world." This address is delivered annually by the President to Congress to inform them on the state of the nation. This address is mandated in the Constitution and was known as the "annual message". Usually, the President addresses issues and various topics within the nation (foreign policy or economics). Members of Congress, President's cabinet, joint chief of staff and justices, etc. all invited. The shortest ever address was delivered by George Washington and the longest ever was delivered by Bill Clinton.